The following press release was originally published by the Civil Liberties Defense Center on September 18, 2025. Republished here with attribution.
Civil Liberties Defense Center just filed an emergency motion to stop Meta from turning over activist information to ICE. The motion to quash was in response to an administrative subpoena issued by ICE seeking to reveal the identity of activists engaged in lawful reporting on ICE activity in California. ICE’s use of the administrative subpoena to conduct what ICE calls a “criminal investigation” is illegal because ICE is not a federal law enforcement agency. This is a patent, open attempt to chill free speech critical of the government. The fact that the agency responsible is acting wildly outside their authority should be a concern to all and is one of the reasons why we believe challenging governmental overreach and defending the Constitution are of critical importance in this moment.
The motion to quash and accompanying documents are below:
RTF Notice and Motion to Quash 2 - 20250918 RTF Dec of Doe & exhibit - FILED 3 - 20250918 RTF Proposed Order Mo. to Quash FILED
Declaration of John Doe & exhibit Proposed Order Mo. to Quash
