ACLU Sues Federal Agencies for Information on Intelligence Hubs Used to Surveil Protestors and Communities of Color

WASHINGTON — The American Civil Liberties Union today filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Department of Homeland Security. The suit follows federal agencies’ failure to respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking records on the use of Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTFs) and fusion centers to monitor and disseminate information on protestors and communities of color.

“JTTFs and fusion centers have a shocking history of targeting activists and communities of color for unwarranted surveillance under the false guise of national security,” said Aamra Ahmad, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s National Security Project. “As politicians across the country attempt to criminalize dissent and limit democratic participation, it’s crucial that we know how these surveillance hubs are being used.”

JTTFs and fusion centers are core components of the U.S. government’s massive post-9/11 intelligence apparatus, serving as nexus points for information-sharing among federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. Both entities operate with minimal oversight and scant accountability, and have long histories of wrongly targeting activists and communities of color, often associating protest with “terrorism,” without any evidence of wrongdoing. For example, in the early 2000s, the FBI used JTTFs to conduct widespread “voluntary” interviews in Muslim communities, and, in 2020, then-Attorney General Barr deployed JTTFs to surveil racial justice activists protesting the police killings of George Floyd and other Black people.

Around the country, fusion centers have similarly targeted political, religious, and social justice activists, disseminating intelligence reports that warn law enforcement to surveil and report on protestors and protest activity. In 2019, the Virginia Fusion Center sensationalized the activity of environmental activists protesting the construction of a gas pipeline by issuing an intelligence assessment equating tactics such as ignoring police commands and threatening a boycott with bombings and violence committed by designated foreign terrorist organizations.

The ACLU's FOIA request seeks records from 2017 to the present in order to shed light on JTTF and fusion center surveillance during both the Trump and Biden administrations and assess their impact on privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties, particularly in light of new DOJ non-discrimination guidance.