An insurer wants no part of a deadly truck-crash claim. Now a court says immigration records could get in its way.
The fight goes back to a November 17, 2023 collision in Bernalillo County, New Mexico. In the underlying lawsuit, a box truck rear-ended a pickup truck, and the pickup's driver was catastrophically injured and died. Tao Express, a trucking company insured by Canal Insurance, and Amazon controlled the box truck.
The driver's estate and others sued Tao Express, Amazon, the box truck driver and other parties in New Mexico state court for wrongful death and related damages. Canal went to federal court seeking a declaratory judgment that it owed no duty to defend or indemnify. Its position: Tao Express "failed to cooperate with the investigation," and Tao Express and its driver "failed to report the accident, claim, and loss."
That is where immigration comes in. The estate's representative says there was a reason the insured went silent. Her attorney went looking for the trucking company's sole owner. His own lawyers said they believed he "had been deported, possibly to his country of origin, Cuba." Someone at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) information hotline later confirmed the deportation by phone, according to the estate.
To use that as evidence, the estate subpoenaed ICE for records showing when the owner was detained, when he was deported, and where he was sent. It argued the records would explain why the owner could not notify Canal or cooperate - something, it said, insurers can't brush aside when an insured is incapacitated. ICE refused, pointing to its internal rules and the federal Privacy Act.
On July 31, 2026, a magistrate judge recommended granting the motion to compel. She found the records relevant and said ICE never showed that turning over an estimated two to three records would be a real burden. A court order requiring production, she noted, fits the Privacy Act's exception for disclosures made "pursuant to the order of a court of competent jurisdiction."
One caveat: this is a recommendation, not a final order. The parties have 14 days to object, and the district court still has to sign off before ICE produces anything.
