A view of inside CBP detention facility shows detainees inside fenced areas at Rio Grande Valley Centralized Processing Center in Texas.

Customs & Border Protection Agency/Reuters

The National Archives and Records Administration approved ICE's request to destroy years of detention records late last year.

The records included in the trove contain information related to deaths of detainees and allegations of sexual assault and abuse of detainees in December.

On Tuesday, the ACLU filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to retrieve the documents before they are erased.

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Over the years, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has drawn ire for its alleged treatment of immigrant detainees. Reports of the "horrifying" conditions within its detention centers, allegations of ICE employees sexually assaulting detainees, and cases of inadequate medical care that lead to the deaths of some detainees have shocked the public. In 2019 DHS Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Office admitted that ICE "systematically provided inadequate medical and mental health care and oversight to immigration detainees in facilities throughout the US."

Now, ICE has received approval to destroy years of records that would effectively erase a paper trail of the agency's wrongdoing, advocacy groups say.

"These documents are often the only record left of the suffering faced by people in detention," Eunice Cho, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU, told Insider. "Destroying these records will further allow these abuses to be erased from public view."

In this Thursday Aug. 9, 2012, file photo, persons are detained for being in the country illegally and are transferred out of the holding area after being processed at the Tucson Sector of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection headquarters in Tucson, Ariz.

Associated Press/Ross D. Franklin

In December 2019, the National Archives and Record Administration (NARA) approved a schedule to destroy ICE records related to its immigration detention efforts, including years of records related to detainee deaths, sexual assaults, and abuses.

ICE first proposed the schedule for destruction to NARA on October 26, 2015, under the Obama administration. NARA received a record number of public comments on the proposed schedule and made a few revisions with ICE based on those comments.

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"The schedule was approved after NARA took into account more than 23,000 public comments over more than two years," a spokesperson from NARA told Insider. "The end result of this extensive review process is that ICE's detainee death review files are now designated as records of permanent historical value. The new schedule also increases the period of time, from three years to 25 years, that ICE must retain records involving allegations of sexual assault and abuse."

On Tuesday, the ACLU filed sweeping Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to save this critical trove of ICE documents before they are erased forever. Because of their FOIA request, ICE will not be able to dispose of the records requested even if its erasure has been approved by NARA.

"These records are critical to bring light to what happens behind closed doors in immigration detention, to bring justice, and to educate the public about the clear tragedy of detention," Cho said.

An immigrant receives dental care at the Adelanto Detention Facility on November 15, 2013 in Adelanto, California.

Getty Images/John Moore

Although national archivists designated detainee death review files as permanent records and extended records involving allegations of sexual assault, complaints related to poor living conditions, medical care, and others could still be erased.

Documents including ICE's detention monitoring reports, complaints about medical care in detention, and civil rights abuses were approved to be destroyed after three years, including some from early 2017 — the start of the Trump administration. NARA maintains that records of these other complaints could be captured elsewhere, but it is not clear where they would be retained.

After seven years, ICE can purge records on its use of solitary confinement and calls made to the Department of Homeland Security's detainee complaint hotline, which captures a range of complaints on the conditions of immigration detention and allegations of sexual assault, according to Cho.

Cho said the trove of information provides some of the "only documentary proof" of decisions made by government officials regarding their treatment of people in detention, and the government's awareness of continuing abuses.

The American Immigration Council, National Immigrant Justice Center, and the National Immigration Law Center filed nearly identical FOIA requests in hopes of preserving this critical information which they believe is key to holding ICE accountable for its treatment of immigrant detainees.

A guard escorts an immigrant detainee from his 'segregation cell' back into the general population at the Adelanto Detention Facility on November 15, 2013 in Adelanto, California.

Getty Images/John Moore

For some detainees, the records may be critical to pursuing litigation for the abuses they faced inimmigration detention. The statute of limitations for some legal claims by victims of abuse are longer than the three-year retention period, meaning critical evidence could be erased before they can even pursue litigation.

"In many cases, these documents may be the only evidence available to victims of abuse who seek to exercise their rights for abuses suffered in detention," Cho explained.

The ACLU says the destruction of ICE records is one of many efforts to shield the agency from accountability. According to the ACLU, ICE announced new facility standards in December that "lowered its oversight requirements and weakened what paltry protections exist for people held in detention."

ICE did not comment on ACLU's allegations that destroying these records after such a short retention period could be an effort to hide some of the agency's wrongdoing. ICE referred to NARA as the "legal authority for the retention and disposition of federal records."

"NARA identifies and designates records that have permanent retention and historical value. Any records designated as temporary by NARA are eligible for disposition after a period of time specified on the records schedule," a spokesperson from ICE told Insider.

"When federal records meet the required retention period specified on the NARA approved records schedule, they are destroyed upon authorization from the ICE Records Officer."

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