The Frederick County sheriff's office is denying that it illegally withheld public information about its participation in a federal immigration enforcement program.
Sheriff Charles Jenkins says his office gave the advocacy group CASA de Maryland all the documents it could legally give after the group's initial public-information request last spring.
Jenkins says CASA has balked at paying thousands of dollars for processing a more recent request for what he called "a huge amount of records" detailing arrests of illegal immigrants.
The group filed a lawsuit in Montgomery County on Tuesday alleging Jenkins' office won't release statistics on a program that allows local law enforcement officers to check the immigration status of people they stop for other reasons.
