Immigration agents demand tenant information from landlords, stirring questions and confusion

San Francisco Chronicle​

3 days ago

ATLANTA (AP) — Immigration authorities are demanding that landlords turn over leases, rental applications, forwarding addresses, identification cards and other information on their tenants, a sign that the Trump administration is targeting them to assist in its drive for mass deportations.
Eric Teusink, an Atlanta-area real estate attorney, said several 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 lived with the tenant. One, dated May 1, is signed by an officer for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services ' anti-fraud unit. However, it is not signed by a judge.
It is unclear how widely the subpoenas were issued, but they could signal a new front in the administration's efforts to locate people who are in the country illegally, many of whom were required to give authorities their U.S. addresses as a condition for initially entering the country without a visa. President Donald Trump largely ended temporary status for people who were allowed in the country under his predecessor, Joe Biden.
Experts question whether landlords need to comply
Some legal experts and property managers say the demands pose serious legal questions because they are not signed by a judge and that, if landlords comply, they might risk violating the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin.
Critics also say landlords are likely to feel intimidated into complying with something that a judge hasn't ordered, all while the person whose information is being requested may never know that their private records are in the hands of immigration authorities.
'The danger here is overcompliance," said Stacy Seicshnaydre, a Tulane University law professor who studies housing law. "Just because a landlord gets a subpoena, doesn't mean it's a legitimate request.'
ICE officers have long used subpoenas signed by an agency supervisor to try to enter homes. Advocacy groups have mounted 'Know Your Rights' campaign urging people to refuse entry if they are not signed by a judge.
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 if 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.'
These requests are new to many landlords
Teusink said 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, he said, those requests are signed by a judge.
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.
Boston real estate attorney Jordana Roubicek Greenman said a landlord client of his 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?'
ICE subpoenas preceded Trump's first term in office, though they saw a significant uptick under him, according to Lindsay Nash, a law professor at Yeshiva University's Cardozo School of Law in New York who has spent years tracking them. Landlords rarely got them, though. State and local police were the most common recipients.
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.