From this:

By law, illegal aliens convicted of heinous crimes - rape, murder, child molestation - are to be deported once they've served their jail terms. But lately, thousands of them have simply been let go. And Justice Department officials have refused to release a government database that could help journalists and private citizens find these aliens...

The Justice Department refused to provide any of the data sought by [Cox Newspapers Washington Bureau journalists Eliot Jaspin and Julia Malone]. Why? For three reasons, according to Rachal Madan, Office of Justice Programs' general counsel: (1) the grants data are exempt from disclosure under the FOIA because it concerns matters "of internal significance in which the public has no substantial interest," (2) processing the data "would place an unjustifiable administrative burden" on the Office of Justice Programs, and (3) releasing the data would "constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of (the convicted illegal aliens') personal privacy."

In other words, the government refused to make the data available because the public - that's you and me, our families and neighbors - wouldn't benefit, the agency can't be bothered and it would be wrong to violate the criminals' privacy!

Such "reasoning" defies understanding. It is the most outrageous violation of the concept underlying the FOIA - taxpayers have a right to know what their government is doing with their tax dollars - I've seen in my two-decades-plus as a journalist in our nation's capitol...