Property managers who voluntarily comply with ICE requests risk invasion of privacy and fair-housing discrimination lawsuits. Providing tenant information may constitute illegal profiling based on country of origin or race. Demand a valid warrant or subpoena before disclosing anything, and provide only what's specifically requested.
The problem, Peter, with just going ahead and saying, oh sure, come in, ICE, is that you are really putting yourself at risk as a property manager for invasion of privacy claims, but also dreaded fair housing claims. Because obviously if you are not 100% sure as the property manager about, you know, the tenant or who else is in this, this, this residence, and you in essence profile them, you're potentially discriminating based on country of origin, right? Or race, right? And those are obviously protected classes. So the advice The advice I've been giving is just look very carefully, take a breath, do not be intimidated, and feel empowered to say, "No, I'm sorry, I'm not obligated to give you this," because the flip side, the liability that's there is quite high. If for some reason you are faced with a legitimate warrant or subpoena, only give what's requested in there. Don't feel that you have to open the floodgates and deliver tons of extra information, right? Just be very narrowly focused.
