Press Releases
about National Security

The ACLU has more than 100 years’ experience holding power accountable. As President-elect Donald Trump rolls out his cabinet picks, we analyze how his nominee for secretary of defense will impact civil liberties.

Our client, Nizar Trabelsi, is in the United States against his will. The federal government brought him here from Belgium more than a decade ago and charged him with terrorism-related crimes. At trial, the government’s case failed: a federal jury found Mr. Trabelsi not guilty. But instead of allowing Mr. Trabelsi to return to Belgium after his acquittal, the United States placed him in highly restrictive immigration detention and began an ongoing effort to force him to Tunisia, where he was born and where he will very likely be tortured.   Mr. Trabelsi’s detention violates the Constitution, immigration law, and the extradition treaty between the United States and Belgium. Through this lawsuit, he seeks to return to Belgium, and he demands an immediate improvement of his detention conditions.

AI surveillance of public places risks subjecting everyday spaces to airport-level security that heightens the risk of discrimination.

Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTFs) and fusion centers are joint federal-state law enforcement intelligence hubs with a long history of investigating, collecting, and disseminating information on protesters and communities of color, but the public has little information about how these entities work and their impact on our rights. In May 2024, the ACLU filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act seeking the release of records on the use of JTTFs and fusion centers to target protesters and communities of color and the adequacy of the privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties policies that apply to them. When the government failed to release records, we filed suit in July 2024 to compel public disclosure of these documents.