A federal judge in Delaware ruled this week the state’s Department of Labor must share requested employment records with ICE.
The US Department of Homeland Security subpoenaed the Delaware Labor Dept. for wage reports from fifteen Delaware businesses in 2025, which it said will be used to conduct worksite investigations.
Delaware did not share those records and asked U.S. District chief judge Colm Connolly to deny DHS’s request, arguing that sharing this information would have a chilling effect on employers’ filing quarterly wage reports and paying UC tax assessments.
But Connolly sided with DHS in his opinion, and said he was “neither willing nor able” to adopt the state’s position.
The day after Connolly's ruling, Gov. Matt Meyer stood by the state’s efforts to block access to those records. Meyer said state lawyers are reviewing Connolly’s decision and preparing for an appeal.
"Delaware will have no part in it," he said. Because the moment that workers fear their information will be used against them, our whole system of worker protection breaks down."
Connolly’s opinion said the court is not the proper forum for the state’s claim that DHS is pursuing an intense agenda of immigration enforcement.
But Meyer said these records are the property of the state.
"Demanding information, unemployment insurance records, to the employee level from about 15 Delaware employers, many of which had Spanish language names, only those businesses to turn over employer records."
Meyer said DHS’s request specifically for employment records indicates DHS’s investigation is not about public safety.
The federal government has also sued other states, like Colorado and Maryland, for Medicaid information and voter rolls in order to obtain information for immigration investigations.
