The Department of Homeland Security rebuffed a request for public records related to the National Guard deployment in Los Angeles this summer, saying that the agency had not maintained text message data among top officials since early April, according to its communications with a nonprofit watchdog group.
A July 23 letter from the Homeland Security Department’s public records office, in denying the request from the nonprofit American Oversight, said that “text message data generated after April 9” was “no longer maintained.” The group had requested all messages received and sent by top department officials related to the deployment of the National Guard in the Southern California city, which President Trump authorized in response to protests over immigration raids.
The agency gave a similar response on Thursday to a request for communications about the migrant detention camp in the Everglades called “Alligator Alcatraz,” telling American Oversight that it was “unable to locate or identify any response records” since the agency “no longer has the capability to conduct a search of text messages.”
The Homeland Security Department did not initially respond to requests for comment. On Sunday, after publication of this article, a senior department official said that the agency maintained records of text messages and would continue to do so, but did not explain why the department had said otherwise in denying the records request.
Under the Federal Records Act, government agencies are required to preserve all documentation that officials and federal workers produce while executing their duties, and they have to make federal records available to the public under the Freedom of Information Act unless they fall under certain exemptions.
The responses from the department indicate that officials there are failing to preserve internal communications, which would violate federal law, said Chioma Chukwu, the executive director of American Oversight.
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The post Homeland Security Tells Watchdog It Hasn’t Kept Text Message Data Since April appeared first on New York Times.
