The Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) is suing President Joe Biden’s United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for withholding emails with an “Abolish ICE” activist who helped keep an illegal alien felon from being deported.
As Breitbart News reported in August 2021, Tucker Carlson revealed that Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Tae Johnson allowed illegal alien Marvin Jerezano Pena, a convicted felon, to remain in the United States after a request from Abolish ICE activist Tania Mattos with the open borders group Freedom for Immigrants.
Pena had been a recipient of former President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and had a criminal record that included robbery, simple assault, and drug charges. In July 2020, Pena was ordered deported by a federal immigration judge.
In emails obtained by Carlson, Mattos emailed top ICE officials requesting that Pena be allowed to remain in the United States. Officials confirmed to Carlson at the time that Pena had still not been deported.
On Monday, IRLI officials told Breitbart News they were suing USCIS for failing to hand over emails with Pena in regards to the case and possibly other cases where illegal aliens — at the activist’s request — were not deported .
ICE and USCIS are both agencies within the Department of Homeland Security, which is overseen by Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
“This administration has proven to be extremely reluctant to allow any sunshine on the relationship between its agencies and the radical illegal immigration advocates who appear to have great influence over agency decisions,” IRLI Executive Director Dale Wilcox said. “The American people have a right to know who is running their government, especially if it is members of shadowy groups with radical agendas for the country.” [Emphasis added]
According to IRLI officials, the watchdog group filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to USCIS for all email communications between the agency and Mattos. Federal law asks agencies to provide responses to FOIA requests within 20 business days.
A year and a half after IRLI officials sent the request, USCIS had yet to respond.
“When DHS fails to provide government records this basic, one can’t help but wonder whether it is trying to cover up a clear conflict of interest or something worse,” IRLI’s Matt O’Brien said. “Is this a case of Biden administration senior executives at DHS improperly and unlawfully allowing anti-borders radicals to set immigration enforcement policies?”
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at
