Believe In America.com

butterbean · Joined: 21 Jun 2006 Posts: 2271

WASHINGTON — A federal court of appeals will hear arguments today in a case that has broad implications in the debate over illegal immigration and the public's right to know about illegal immigrant convicts who have not been deported, as required by law.

Cox Newspapers is asserting that the Justice Department should release the names, birth dates and identity numbers of illegal immigrants who have served prison time for serious crimes, including child molestation, manslaughter, drug dealing and drunken driving.

Cox, which publishes the Austin American-Statesman, hopes to use the data to show how many illegal immigrant convicts are slipping back into communities undetected rather than being deported to their native countries, as federal law requires. Cox revealed in a published report four years ago that hundreds of felons in Georgia were never picked up by immigration officials after serving their sentences.

The U.S. Justice Department says it has turned over some of the information requested by Cox under the Freedom of Information Act, which requires federal agencies to disclose government records to the public. The department gave Cox information about the convicts' native countries, dates they were taken into custody and dates of release, according to legal briefs filed in federal court.

But the release of personal information such as full names, dates of birth, immigrant registration numbers and FBI numbers would invade the privacy of convicted illegal immigrants and serve no public interest, Justice Department lawyers wrote in legal briefs.

The case is important because it raises the question of whether illegal immigrants should be granted the same privacy protections that citizens and legal residents have. Legal experts also say it illustrates how the federal government resists complying with disclosure requirements when it has embarrassing statistics to hide.

The lawsuit was filed by the Washington bureau of Cox Newspapers, which publishes 17 daily and 25 weekly newspapers.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon issued a summary judgment ruling Sept. 27, 2005, in favor of the Justice Department's decision to turn down Cox's request for personal information about the illegal immigrant convicts.

In that decision, Leon wrote that the privacy interest of the convicted illegal immigrants "far outweighs the public interest that might be served from disclosing this information."

Cox is appealing that decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, saying that the public has the right to know whether the government has been derelict in its duty to deport convicts who are in the country illegally. The public also has the right to know whether the convicts have repeated their crimes, according to Cox lawyers Jonathan Hart and Michael Kovaka.

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http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/nation/10/17/17immigfelon.html

I think this information should be public record. The courts just want to hide the data because of their shameful records of letting criminals out on the streets.