The Trump administration said Tuesday it paid a $3,500 fine for being in contempt of court after a federal judge ruled Homeland Security didn’t turn over documents being sought in a case about immigration enforcement in Los Angeles.
Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, a Biden appointee, issued the contempt ruling in secret last week, charging the government $500 per day until it produced the information. She unsealed the order Tuesday.
The documents at issue are personal phone records from government officials describing how immigration officers chose enforcement targets during last year’s deportation surge in Los Angeles.
The government was required to try to collect those personal phone records during legal discovery, in accordance with a magistrate judge’s order. But they “did not properly search for this material,” Judge Frimpong concluded.
“Congress has given this court the power to impose a fine on any party who does not comply with a clear order of this court. This court uses that power now and finds the government in contempt,” Judge Frimpong wrote.
The government’s payment covered a week’s delay. Judge Frimpong said the fines will accumulate until the government certifies it has turned over the material to the plaintiffs in the case.
She also said the administration will have to pay the lawyers’ fees for plaintiffs to reimburse them for the time they spent working on compliance with the discovery order.
The government had first told the court last December that no U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Customs and Border Protection officers used personal phones to text about their operations.
But during depositions, some officers and agents said that wasn’t true.
In May, CBP said it checked with nearly 1,500 agents who were part of the Los Angeles surge, and 885 said they used personal phones for work. Of those, 88 consented to forensic imaging of their phones.
As of late June, none had been imaged, the judge said.
Government lawyers had told the court that the process was time-consuming.
Judge Frimpong said that doesn’t explain why the effort hadn’t even started, nor why the government can’t estimate how long it will take to complete all the imaging.
She said the noncompliance “is intentional and not in good faith.”
