A civil rights group is suing Bristol Sheriff Thomas M. Hodgson for access to public records regarding his involvement in a federal immigration enforcement program.

The suit filed in Suffolk Superior Court by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice seeks “to obtain public records regarding the Sheriff’s participation in a controversial U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) program that entangles local police in federal immigration enforcement,” the civil rights group says in a statement.

“Sheriff Hodgson has refused to release any documents to the civil rights group in response to the January 2017 demand, in clear violation of the State’s public records law.”

Days before President Trump’s inauguration in January, Hodgson and Plymouth County Sheriff Joseph McDonald signed deals with ICE to join a program called 287(g), which trains local law enforcement to interview inmates about their immigration status, search federal databases for a prisoner’s immigration history and initiate deportation proceedings to prevent illegal immigrants from being released before ICE agents can pick them up.

The Lawyers’ Committee says it filed a formal request for public documents related to Hodgson’s office’s participation in the ICE program four months ago seeking, among other things, to determine how much taxpayer money is being spent by Hodgson on the program, who is being investigated and detained as a result, and where enforcement activities are occurring.

They say Hodgson’s office acknowledged receiving the request, but has not turned over any documents.

Hodgson spokesman Jonathan Darling said Hodgson would respond once the office had an opportunity to review the suit and its allegations.

“The public has a right to know how this sheriff is attempting to enforce federal immigration law, how scarce taxpayer dollars are being squandered, and whether he is engaging in racial profiling of immigrant and minority communities,” Sophia Hall, the Lawyers’ Committee staff attorney, said.

David Kluft, a partner at Foley Hoag LLP, an international law firm that is co-counseling with the Lawyers’ Committee, stated that “the issue of local involvement in federal immigration enforcement is of intense public interest. Massachusetts’ public records law is clear that documents of the type that the Lawyers’ Committee has requested must be disclosed and cannot be shielded from public scrutiny.”

Hodgson, who has long garnered headlines for his anti-immigrant views, earlier this year volunteered his Bristol jail inmates to build Trump’s proposed wall on the Mexican border, and last month told the U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security that federal arrest warrants should be issued for the elected officials of sanctuary cities.

Trump has been a strong backer of the 287(g) alliances the two Republican sheriffs signed on to.