Brennan Center Urges Congress to Hold Hearings on Fusion Centers

The Brennan Center joined the ACLU, the Arab American Institute, the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project, and National Immigrant Justice Center in urging the House and Senate to hold hearings on fusion centers, which have a long history of inappropriate tracking of First Amendment-protected activity and have been ineffective in fulfilling their counterterrorism mission. 

Newly released documents expose how these centers are part of the administration’s tracking of protestors. The documents show that Department of Homeland Security disseminated information about more than 600 protests in opposition to the government’s family separation policy to law enforcement agencies participating in fusion centers.

In letters to the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committees and the House Judiciary, Homeland Security, and Oversight and Reform committees, the coalition called for Congress to critically examine fusion centers’ extensive data sharing and surveillance of First Amendment-protected expression.

Read the letter to the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committees here.

Read the letter to the House Judiciary, Homeland Security, and Oversight and Reform committees here.

Letter to Senate Requesting Hearing on Fusion Centers by The Brennan Center for Justice on Scribd