Why Should Delaware Care?
Delaware labor officials and the Trump administration are at odds over whether immigration enforcement officials should have access to residents’ sensitive data. A recent ruling could open new avenues for immigration enforcement in Delaware.
Delaware’s top federal judge rejected on Tuesday the state government’s attempt to withhold employment records from a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation of more than a dozen businesses, ordering officials to hand over the data.
In a 27-page ruling that smacks of incredulity in recounting the Delaware Department of Labor’s reasons for not complying with a federal subpoena, Delaware District Court Chief Judge Colm Connolly wrote that “these are not close calls.”
The ruling was largely expected after a hearing earlier this month, when a skeptical Connolly picked apart the state’s arguments and told the defending counsel that her legal brief was not written on her “best day.”
After asserting that complying with the subpoena was in the federal government’s legitimate interests and denying that doing so would endanger Delaware’s unemployment trust fund, Connolly surmised that the non-compliance was simply “a political argument; not a legal one.”
“This court is not the proper forum in which to air [DDOL’s] generalized grievances about the conduct of government. It would be wholly inappropriate for me to consider this line of argument, and I decline to do so,” wrote Connolly, a former U.S. attorney who was appointed to the bench in 2018 during President Donald Trump’s first term.
On Tuesday, it was unclear whether the Department of Labor would appeal the ruling to the Third Circuit. The Delaware Department of Justice, which represented the state during the court hearings, declined to comment and a spokesperson for Gov. Matt Meyer’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
If the department does not appeal the ruling, it’s equally unclear when the department may turn over the records to ICE.
Following Delaware’s passage of a statewide ban on local police cooperation agreements with ICE under the 287(g) program, the successful acquisition of labor data could open a new front in the Trump’s administration’s immigration crackdown in the First State.
Where did this case begin?
The case stems from a subpoena ICE issued to the Delaware Department of Labor in April 2025, seeking wage records for 15 Delaware businesses for the final two quarters of 2024, which the agency suspected of employing undocumented immigrants.
The subpoena, which originated from “hotline tips” that ICE received, sought employees’ names, addresses, wages and Social Security numbers from 15 Delaware businesses, according to court records. ICE’s subpoena efforts align with the Trump administration’s broader strategy of using federal and state agency data to bolster its promised immigration enforcement push.
Attorneys with the U.S. Attorney’s Office argued in court documents that wage records would help ICE further its focus on “worksite enforcement” and may help determine whether employees are using fake Social Security numbers or if employers are paying workers “under the table,” or using cash and without reporting it to the IRS, court records show.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Claudia Pare asked Connolly to seal the April subpoena when the case was first filed, arguing that ICE did not want to have the 15 business names become public and “prematurely alert” the targets of the agency’s worksite investigations.
Conversely, Deputy State Attorney Jennifer-Kate Aaronson filed a motion to unseal the subpoena in August. The 15 businesses suspected of hiring undocumented immigrants should have the opportunity to come to court and argue against their information being transmitted to ICE, she said during a previous court hearing.
Connolly initially declined to rule on those motions, although he said it remained a good decision to keep the subpoena under seal. If suspected businesses are made public and associated with potentially hiring undocumented employees, it could harm their reputation if they’re ultimately found to be innocent, he said.
On Tuesday, the judge likewise denied the state’s motion to unseal the subpoena at the heart of the case.
DOL officials have received at least four subpoenas from ICE since February 2025, Aaronson said during an August court hearing. Department officials complied with one ICE subpoena that sought information about a single individual, Aaronson said.
According to other subpoenas obtained by the News Journal, ICE has also reportedly investigated the potential employment of undocumented workers at a Perdue plant in Seaford along with a fencing company and a northern Delaware restaurant.
Connolly noted in his ruling that prior to 2025, the Department of Labor routinely complied with subpoena requests from ICE and other federal agencies.
