What internal DHS or ICE memos (if any) formally define arrest targets and can they be obtained through FOIA?
Executive summary
DHS has issued formal enforcement-priority memoranda (notably January 20 and February 18, 2021) that set categories of immigration enforcement “priorities,” and ICE has circulated additional internal memoranda and operational directives (including at least one internal memo around May 20, 2025 and documents tied to programs like “Operation Palladium”) that guide who agents may arrest [1] [2] [3] [4]. Such documents are routinely sought through the Freedom of Information Act, and civil-rights groups and news outlets have both won partial productions and been forced into litigation because ICE and DHS often delay, redact, or withhold records [5] [6] [7].
1. What memos formally set “targets” for arrests — the public ones
The clearest public examples are the DHS memoranda issued in January and February 2021 that declared which classes of noncitizens the Department prioritized for enforcement—public safety, national security, and border-related categories—and that required ICE to produce oversight reports about enforcement actions taken under those priorities [1] [2].
2. What internal or operational memos exist behind the scenes
Beyond the public priority memos, reporting and FOIA productions have revealed internal ICE and DHS memoranda, briefings, and legal guidance that operationalize those priorities and provide officers criteria and tools for locating “targets” (for example, an internal memo circulated around May 20, 2025 and agency guidance about using databases and social-media analytics to locate targeted individuals) [3] [5].
3. How those memos define or constrain who can be arrested
The published DHS priority memos created presumptive categories and a paperwork/approval mechanism: when officers sought to arrest someone outside the listed priorities they were often required to document justification and obtain supervisory approval—procedures that show the memos do more than rhetorical signaling and in theory constrain discretion [1] [2].
4. Can those memos be obtained through FOIA in practice?
Yes—FOIA is the established route: plaintiffs and advocates have filed FOIAs to obtain policy guidance, memos, training slides, reports, and case-by-case enforcement data, and some organizations have obtained responsive records through litigation and FOIA production [4] [8] [5]. DHS and ICE maintain FOIA portals and reading rooms for requests and releases, and component guidance explains how to submit requests [9] [10] [11] [12].
5. Why requesters often need lawyers and judges to get full access
ICE has a documented pattern of slow or incomplete FOIA compliance that has forced newsrooms, nonprofits, and law firms into lawsuits; judges and settlements have produced documents but often only after litigation, and even then released files can be heavily redacted or delayed [7] [6] [5]. Organizations like the American Immigration Council and Immigrant Legal Resource Center have sued to compel the production of the very weekly enforcement reports DHS required ICE to keep under the 2021 memos [6] [1] [2].
6. What kinds of documents have FOIA fights produced already
FOIA litigation has yielded a range of materials: internal memos about social-media monitoring and database use, training materials, spreadsheets of arrests and removals, and the “other” priority case-level data that advocates used to show enforcement actions against non-priority individuals—demonstrating FOIA can and has produced operational directives and case data [5] [2] [13].
7. Practical limits and caveats for seekers
Even when memos exist and are responsive, exemptions (privacy, law enforcement, deliberative process), redactions, classification of operational details, and agency procedural changes (e.g., shifting FOIA submission portals and stricter formats) can impede access; the record shows both successful productions and persistent stonewalling that routinely requires appeals or litigation [7] [9] [10].
8. Bottom line
There are formal DHS memoranda that define enforcement priorities and internal ICE memoranda and operational guidance that translate those priorities into arrest targets; those documents are obtainable in principle via FOIA, but obtaining them often requires persistent, litigated FOIA requests and can yield redacted or partial records—advocates and reporters have both succeeded and been blocked in different cases [1] [3] [5] [7] [6].