DENVER — On Thursday, July 31, 2025, ACLU of Colorado filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request demanding information on policies, both formal and informal, that forbid legal observers from taking notes or photographs of court docket details. This request comes after receiving verified reports regarding security staff threatening members of the public for taking notes about the docket.
Specifically, the request seeks records from June 1, 2025, to the present that contain:
- Formal and informal policies governing public access to the Denver Immigration Court.
- Communications regarding adoption or enforcement of policies governing public access to the Denver Immigration Court.
- Communications including the keywords “court watch,” “court watchers,” “court observers,” and “legal observers.”
“The public deserves to know what is happening inside our immigration system. However, the recent actions of Denver Immigration Court, including baseless arrests and censorship, betray fundamental principles of fairness, transparency, and free speech,” said Tim Macdonald, ACLU of Colorado legal director. “The courts must not become a black box where the Trump administration’s extreme anti-immigrant agenda goes unchecked and unseen.”
ACLU of Colorado previously sent a letter to Denver Immigration Court urging Assistant Chief Immigration Judge Matthew W. Kaufman to keep immigration court proceedings open to the public. It alleged that recent immigration court practices — including handcuffing legal observers, denying entry to members of the public, and preventing attorneys from advising litigants in the courthouse — contravene the First Amendment, federal law, and Executive Office for Immigration Review’s own policies.