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 recently announced appeal is the latest development in an ongoing court battle that could potentially make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Delaware will appeal a recent federal court ruling that compelled its labor department to turn over employment data subpoenaed by federal immigration officials, Gov. Matt Meyer announced in a press release Tuesday.
The court ruling, handed down by Delaware’s top federal judge on April 13, requires the state to provide the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement with employment information from 15 Delaware businesses.
The data in question — which details wage records that include names, addresses, and Social Security numbers — is sought in relation to federal investigations into alleged employment of undocumented workers.
In announcing the state’s appeal, Meyer said he would “go as far as the law allows” to defend Delawareans against what he called unlawful immigration enforcement.
“This is not a time to stand down but to step up for the most vulnerable in our community and to protect businesses and workers in our state,” Meyer said in the release. “This is not about public safety. It is about turning worker information into a data pipeline for ICE … In Delaware, we protect workers. We don’t set traps.”
A spokesperson for Meyer’s office declined to comment further Tuesday evening. A spokesperson for the Delaware Department of Justice, which is representing the state in its appeal, also declined to comment.
According to the release, the state also will seek a delay in the enforcement of the federal court ruling while it pursues an appeal.
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.
Delaware’s ongoing fight against ICE will proceed to an appeals court in Philadelphia. Then, if it is appealed further, the case could head to the U.S. Supreme Court.
A blistering court ruling
The state’s appeal comes after Delaware District Court Chief Judge Colm Connolly issued a blistering 27-page ruling last week compelling the state to turn over the subpoenaed employment data. That ruling picked apart the state Department of Labor’s arguments, which he said were political, not legal.
“This court is not the proper forum in which to air [the Delaware Department of Labor’s] generalized grievances about the conduct of government,” wrote Connolly, a former U.S. attorney who was appointed to the bench in 2018 during President Donald Trump’s first term. “It would be wholly inappropriate for me to consider this line of argument, and I decline to do so.”
Connolly’s ruling was largely expected, however, after a hearing earlier this month where the judge grilled the Delaware Department of Labor’s attorney Jennifer-Kate Aaronson, saying it was not her “best day” when she wrote the legal brief presenting her case.
During that court hearing on April 2, Connolly publicly dissected the regulations that Aaronson cited by projecting his computer tab onto a large screen at the head of the courtroom. He asked Aaronson where the law shows the state Department of Labor has “full discretion” to decide not to comply with a federal subpoena as he highlighted law text.
Aaronson was not able to point to a specific subsection of the regulations in response, but she maintained that disclosure of sensitive information to ICE has never been mandated by federal law.
How did we get here?
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.
Jacob Owens and Jose Ignacio Castaneda Perez contributed to this report.
