After Laurel PD, Meyer Must Ban Data-Sharing With ICE

Many Americans have been incensed at the images coming out of Minneapolis over the past several days. After the tragic killing of Renee Nicole Good, people have taken to the streets to protest the aggressive and dangerous tactics of federal agents across the country. And in Delaware, news broke recently that a local police department maintained a list of immigrants in their community and turned it over to the federal government.

While Delaware has taken some action to prohibit formal cooperation between local law enforcement and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, President Donald Trump's immigration enforcement regime is still impacting Delaware. Local law enforcement may still provide assistance to ICE, albeit informally. Whether it’s assisting with violent operations that terrorize our communities — like in Seaford — or carrying out detainer requests that facilitate the transfer of individuals into ICE custody, police departments continue to participate in federal immigration enforcement.

While much of this collaboration is visible on our streets, the rapid expansion of digital surveillance and the collection of sensitive personal information is facilitating a far more secretive form of collaboration: data-sharing.

Data-sharing between state agencies and ICE allows ICE to gain access to sensitive personal information that can be weaponized for immigration enforcement efforts. And Delaware is partaking in this dangerous, backdoor collaboration.

Recently, news broke that in January 2025 the Laurel Police Department sent the FBI a list it had voluntarily compiled of addresses where it encountered Haitian immigrants, including houses.

The FBI’s increased participation in immigration enforcement raises serious questions about what this list was used for. Laurel Police Chief Robert Kracyla admitted that he did not know why the FBI wanted the list. Furthermore, Laurel Police Department’s willingness to disclose this information with no warrant and no clear motive for the request jeopardizes the safety and security of all immigrant communities across our state.

It also demonstrates profoundly poor judgment on behalf of the Laurel Police Department. To create any list of names or addresses of people based on their national origin, race, or other factors is simply un-American and has no place in a state that values community policing and civil rights. Then to take that list and turn it over to federal authorities is a grave violation of the community’s trust.

Despite Gov. Matt Meyer’s continued vocal commitments to protecting our immigrant neighbors, he has yet to take firm action to ensure sensitive personal information related to nationality, citizenship, or immigration status is protected. With no clear guidance on our state’s data-sharing policies, preventing Laurel Police Department and state agencies from sharing sensitive personal information in the future is vastly more difficult.

And this is not the only way Delawareans’ sensitive personal information is at risk.

Delaware remains one of 41 states that have chosen to make drivers’ data available to ICE through the Nlets, a data sharing loophole that allows ICE to access sensitive personal information through state DMV databases. House Bill 182, which banned 287(g) agreements between ICE and local and state law enforcement, originally included a provision to ban sharing data with ICE. That provision was taken out before Governor Meyer signed the bill into law in July 2025, leaving the door open for ICE to access many Delawareans’ sensitive personal information.

Governor Meyer must make good on his previous commitments and issue an executive order that explicitly prohibits data sharing between ICE and the Delaware DMV, or any other state agency that retains personal data.

Data-sharing with federal agencies is simply dangerous right now, whether it’s done voluntarily, through formal agreements, or loopholes. With a federal government seeking to terrorize immigrant communities, punish its enemies, and squelch peaceful dissent, data-sharing practices undermine trust in law enforcement, weaken public accountability and transparency, and pose a grave threat to the individual privacy and civil liberties of all Delawareans.

We cannot and will not sit idly by while secretive, data-sharing practices force our state’s immigrant communities to live in fear and chip away at our civil liberties. Delawareans have been clear — we do not want our law enforcement, state agencies and personnel to serve the federal administration’s attempts to target our immigrant communities.

It’s past time for Meyer to take firm action that permanently closes backdoor channels for collaboration with ICE.