The Intercept filed a public records lawsuit on Monday for documents about a financial surveillance program run by the Arizona attorney general’s office for more than a decade. For the past year, the attorney general’s office has denied multiple requests for records about its relationship with the Transaction Record Analysis Center, or TRAC, a nonprofit organization that runs a massive database containing details about millions of wire transfers sent through Western Union and other companies.

The database, which is fueled by administrative subpoenas issued by the Arizona attorney general’s office, offers an intimate glimpse into the financial lives of millions of immigrants and U.S. citizens alike. Over the years, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has played an outsized role in TRAC, not just as a top user of the wire transfer data but also as another data pipeline, via subpoenas that alarmed civil liberties watchdogs.

“The public has the right to know about mass government surveillance of its citizens,” said Heather........

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