On July 27, 2010, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) affiliates in more than two dozen states filed a request to view documents that would show what racial data the FBI collects, and how it is used. Concerns about unconstitutional racial profiling authorized by the FBI’s 2008 Domestic Intelligence and Operations Guide (DIOG) prompted the nationally coordinated Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests by 32 ACLU affiliates.
According to the FOIA request submitted by Maine’s branch of the ACLU, the DIOG contains “troubling revelations about the FBI’s authorized use of race and ethnicity information in conducting assessments and investigations.” DIOG grants FBI agents the authority to “identify locations of concentrated ethnic communities” and collect information that will “reasonably aid the analysis of potential threats and vulnerabilities.” This information includes “demographics, behaviors, cultural traditions, and life-style characteristics” of Americans who are not under investigation or facing criminal charges.
Farhana Khera, executive director of the nonprofit group Muslim Advocates (MA), said in an interview on July 26, the DIOG is “quite an invasive data collection system.”
“It’s based on generalized suspicion and fear on the part of law enforcement, not on individualized evidence of criminal activity,” said Khera. Khera said the FBI has lowered the bar for sending undercover agents or informants into mosques and has enabled the gathering of data about Muslims’ charitable giving practices, financial transactions and jobs.
FOIA requests have been previously used to learn more about the FBI’s information collecting activities. Documents released by the Department of Defense in Feb. 2010 in response to a FOIA request filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation in July 2009 revealed the FBI “improperly collected and disseminated intelligence on Planned Parenthood” and other activist groups across the country.
In a press release, ACLU policy counsel Michael German said, “Creating a profile of a neighborhood for criminal law enforcement or domestic intelligence purposes based on the ethnic makeup of the people who live there or the types of businesses they run is unfair, un-American and will certainly not help stop crime.”
The FBI has not responded to multiple requests for comment.
The DIOG has been on the radar of civil liberty and privacy advocates since they viewed a complete draft version in a meeting with FBI in Nov. 2008. In the months that followed, a Freedom of Information Act request was filed by MA to view the DIOG, but was rebuffed by the FBI. Since its implementation in Dec. 2008, a heavily edited version of the Guidelines was made public in Sept. 2009 and a less redacted copy was made available in Jan. 2010 in response to a lawsuit filed by MA.
The FOIA requests were filed by the ACLU affiliates in Alabama, Arkansas, California (Northern, Southern and San Diego), Colorado, Connecticut, Washington, D.C., Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Virginia.