Immigration authorities have issued subpoenas demanding that landlords turn over leases, rental applications, forwarding addresses, identification cards and other information on their tenants, according to the Associated Press.
Eric Teusink, an Atlanta-area real estate attorney, told the Associated Press that several of his clients recently received subpoenas asking for entire files on tenants. A rental application can include work history, marital status and family relationships.
The two-page “information enforcement subpoena,” which Teusink shared exclusively with The Associated Press, also asks for information on other people who live with a tenant. One of these documents, dated May 1, is signed by an officer with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services anti-fraud unit. However, it is not signed by a judge.
Teusink told the AP many of his clients oversee multifamily properties and are used to getting subpoenas for other reasons, such as requests to hand over surveillance footage or give local police access to a property as part of an investigation. But those requests are each signed by a judge, he said.
Teusink said his clients were confused by the latest subpoenas. After consulting with immigration attorneys, he concluded that compliance is optional. Unless signed by a judge, the letters are essentially just an officer making a request.
“It seemed like they were on a fishing expedition,” Teusink said, according to wabe.org.
ICE officers have long used subpoenas signed by an agency supervisor to try to enter homes. Advocacy groups have mounted a “Know Your Rights” campaign urging people to refuse entry if the documents are not signed by a judge.
Landlords: Know the difference between administrative and court ordered subpoenas
Denise Holliday, an Arizona attorney, noted that ICE commonly issues administrative subpoenas that can feel a bit intimidating but she encourages all business owners to learn the difference between a court ordered subpoena and an administrative subpoena and create a policy under which you will response to ICE subpoenas and related communications.
“It is legal to safely ignore administrative subpoena absent a court order but you may prefer to provide a written response that explains your grounds for objecting to what is requested in the subpoena. ICE may seek a court order for your company to comply with their request to produce information and if you fail to comply with that court order there may be serious legal consequences,” Holliday said.
The subpoena reviewed by the AP is from USCIS’ fraud detection and national security directorate, which, like ICE, is part of The Department of Homeland Security. Although it isn’t signed by a judge, it threatens that a judge may hold a landlord in contempt of court for failure to comply.
Tricia McLaughlin, a Homeland Security spokeswoman, defended the use of subpoenas against landlords without confirming whether they are being issued.
“We are not going to comment on law enforcement’s tactics surrounding ongoing investigations,” McLaughlin said. “However, it is false to say that subpoenas from ICE can simply be ignored. ICE is authorized to obtain records or testimony through specific administrative subpoena authorities. Failure to comply with an ICE-issued administrative subpoena may result in serious legal penalties. The media needs to stop spreading these lies.”
ICE Subpoenas New to Many Landlords
Boston real estate attorney Jordana Roubicek Greenman said a landlord client of hers received a vague voicemail from an ICE official last month requesting information about a tenant. Other local attorneys told her that their clients had received similar messages. She told her client not to call back.
Anthony Luna, the CEO of Coastline Equity, a commercial and multifamily property management company that oversees about 1,000 units in the Los Angeles area, said property managers started contacting him a few weeks ago about concerns from tenants who heard rumors about the ICE subpoenas. Most do not plan to comply if they receive them.
“If they’re going after criminals, why aren’t they going through court documents?” Luna said. “Why do they need housing-provider files?”
Lindsay Nash, a law professor at Yeshiva University’s Cardozo School of Law in New York, said ICE can enforce the subpoenas, but it would first have to file a lawsuit in federal court and get a judge to sign off on its enforcement — a step that would allow the subpoena’s recipient to push back, Nash said. She said recipients often comply without telling the person whose records are being divulged.
“Many people see these subpoenas, think that they look official, think that some of the language in them sounds threatening, and therefore respond, even when, from what I can tell, it looks like some of these subpoenas have been overbroad,” she said.
