US DOJ, DHS Sued over Misleading Report on Muslims, Immigrants

Two watchdog groups have sued the US Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security over a report the agencies jointly issued earlier this year.

Two watchdog groups have sued the US Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security over a report the agencies jointly issued earlier this year.

The report, which was trumpeted by US President Donald Trump, states that three of four people convicted of international terrorism and terrorism-related offenses were foreign-born.  

Muslim Advocates and Democracy Forward filed the lawsuit on Monday after the departments failed to meet their demands to retract and correct information in the report, which was disseminated in January.

“The report presents information on immigrants and foreign nationals in a manner that misleadingly inflates the threat they pose to the United States,” the lawsuit states. “Its presentation of this information also focuses exclusively and inaccurately on Muslims.”

According to a Department of Homeland Security analysis, about 73 percent of at least 549 individuals the report revealed were convicted of international terrorism-related charges in US federal courts from September 11, 2001 through the end of 2016 were foreign-born.