Law 360: Rights Groups Comment On New DHS Immigrant Data Rule

IRLI In The News

October 20, 2017

By Kelly Knaub

Law360, New York (October 19, 2017, 10:11 PM EDT) — Rights groups have urged the U.S. Department of Homeland Security not to store social media information in immigration files in comments submitted to the agency this week, while the Immigration Reform Law Institute said the proposed changes are “common-sense updates.”

The American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Human Rights Watch and several dozen more rights groups told the DHS in comments submitted Wednesday that storing social media information in an individual’s immigration file, or “Alien File,” and sharing it with other government agencies as well as employers and private parties is an invasion of privacy that would chill freedom of speech.

Furthermore, they said that social media communication is idiosyncratic and that users’ comments could easily be misinterpreted, resulting in potential abuse for little security benefit, and that retaining the social media information of naturalized citizens would reduce them to second-class citizenship. … Read the full story by Kelly Knaub.

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