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Have any lawsuits, FOIA requests, or congressional inquiries in 2025 revealed Muslim-specific deportation data?
Executive summary
Available reporting shows several 2025 FOIA requests and lawsuits produced more detailed ICE and DHS enforcement records — including datasets obtained via FOIA and posted by the Deportation Data Project — but none of the provided sources explicitly say a court, FOIA release, or congressional inquiry published “Muslim‑specific” deportation counts (e.g., deportations by religion) in 2025 [1] [2]. Advocacy groups and press outlets have raised estimates and flagged Muslim‑targeted enforcement (e.g., Arab/Muslim communities at risk), but those are estimates or country‑of‑origin analyses rather than government‑released religion‑by‑religion tallies [3] [1].
1. What the FOIAs and lawsuits actually released: granular ICE encounter datasets, not religion tags
Multiple FOIA efforts and litigation in 2025 yielded granular ICE and DHS enforcement records and helped researchers produce detailed datasets of arrests, removals, and detention movements; the Deportation Data Project notes recent releases “produced in response to several FOIA requests” and posts ICE enforcement data through late July 2025 that researchers analyze [1]. Forward Pathway reported that a dataset secured via a FOIA lawsuit by CILP covered “every ICE encounter, arrest, detainer request, and booking‑to‑detention from September 2023 to June 10, 2025” [2]. Those releases improve transparency about enforcement actions but the published descriptions emphasize encounters and case metadata, not deportations broken down by religious affiliation [1] [2].
2. Estimates and reporting about impacts on Arab and Muslim communities — not an official religion count
Advocacy groups, community organizers and outlets have estimated that tens of thousands of Arab and Muslim immigrants face heightened deportation risk in 2025; Rakwa’s analysis cites estimates of “between 30,000 and 50,000” Arab and Muslim immigrants at risk, and other outlets have reported mass actions affecting Muslim populations [3]. Those figures come from advocacy and journalistic analysis, not from an ICE release that explicitly enumerates deportations by religion [3].
3. Why government data typically lacks a “Muslim” field
Available dataset descriptions and the reporting around FOIA releases indicate government deportation and removal datasets are typically organized by nationality, case outcome, detention facility, or enforcement action — not by religion; mapping and deportation‑tracking projects stress the complexity and categorical choices in official data, which use country or regional categories rather than religious identity [4] [1]. Therefore researchers can infer impacts by country of origin or religion‑majority countries, but an explicit, government‑released “Muslim deportation” count is not described in the sources [4] [1].
4. Congressional and oversight probes asking for detention/removal records, including citizen impacts
Congressional oversight in 2025 has probed CBP and ICE conduct — for example, a bicameral inquiry led by Senator Blumenthal and Rep. Robert Garcia sought records on detention of U.S. citizens and use of force, asking for documents to inform committees [5]. Those inquiries request broad records that could illuminate targeting patterns, but the publicized demands focus on conduct, detention of citizens, and internal communications rather than a demand for deportation counts by religious identity as reported in the provided sources [5].
5. Conflicting interpretations and political context
Legal and policy commentators frame FOIA victories as transparency wins: the Deportation Data Project recommends citing ICE’s FOIA‑provided data when analyzing enforcement [1]. At the same time, advocacy groups and analysts warn that recent executive policy moves (revived travel bans, expanded enforcement priorities) target nationals from Muslim‑majority countries, and note the potential for religiously disparate impacts — yet the sources show these are policy critiques and inferred effects rather than definitive religion‑coded government statistics [6] [7] [8].
6. What is not found in current reporting and next steps for readers seeking a “Muslim‑specific” number
Available sources do not mention any 2025 FOIA response, lawsuit decision, or congressional report that released an official count of deportations explicitly categorized by religion (not found in current reporting). Researchers seeking religion‑level analysis have two options: analyze FOIA‑released case records by country of origin or name/ethnicity proxies (with methodological caveats), or press agencies/committees to request religion as a demographic field when legally and ethically permissible in oversight requests — but the current public releases described in these sources stopped short of publishing religion‑tagged deportation totals [1] [2] [4].
Conclusion: FOIA lawsuits and oversight in 2025 made enforcement data far more accessible and exposed possible targeting of Arab and Muslim communities through nationality‑based measures and reporting, but the sources provided do not document a government or court release that supplies deportation counts explicitly organized by the religious category “Muslim” [1] [2] [3].