All Written Decisions of Immigration Judge Kathleen French Dated 01/01/2020 - 01/01/2021

Dear Brooke Bischoff: This response acknowledges receipt of your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) dated 06/30/2021 and received 06/30/2021.  Your request has been assigned control number 2021-41769. The FOIA requires an agency to respond within 20 working days after receipt of the request, and EOIR endeavors to meet this standard.  The FOIA permits a ten-day extension of this time period, pursuant to 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(6)(B), based on unusual circumstances.  Your request involves “unusual circumstances,” and EOIR is extending the time period to respond by an additional 10 working days because your request requires the collection of records from field offices, or involves a search, collection, and review of voluminous records, or requires consultation with another agency or two or more agency components. Please be advised that due to necessary operational changes as a result of the national emergency concerning the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, there may be significant delay in the processing of your request. EOIR FOIA requests are placed in one of three tracks. Track one is for those requests that seek and receive expedited processing pursuant to subsection (a)(6)(E) of the FOIA. Track two is for simple requests that do not involve voluminous records or lengthy consultations with other entities.  Track three is for complex requests that involve voluminous records and for which lengthy or numerous consultations are required, or those requests that may involve sensitive records.  Your request has been placed in track three for complex requests. If you have filed an application for a fee waiver, EOIR will address your request in a separate letter. Additionally, if you have requested expedited processing, EOIR will contact you in a separate letter. If you have any questions regarding unusual circumstances, you may contact the EOIR FOIA Service Center or FOIA Public Liaison at (703) 605-1297 to discuss reformulation or an alternative time frame to process your request, or for any further assistance regarding any aspect of your request. Alternatively, you may contact the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) at the National Archives and Records Administration to inquire about the FOIA mediation services they offer.  The contact information for OGIS is as follows: Office of Government Information Services, National Archives and Records Administration, Room 2510, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, Maryland 20740-6001; e-mail at ogis@nara.gov; telephone at (202) 741-5770; toll free at (877) 684-6448; or facsimile at (202) 741-5769. Sincerely, FOIA Intake

Dear Ms. Bischoff: This letter is in response to your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request dated 06/30/2021 to the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) in which you seek all written decisions of Immigration Judge (IJ) Kathleen French from 01/01/2020 through 01/01/2021. Your request category has been determined to be a commercial use request, or a “request that asks for information for a use or purpose that furthers a commercial trade, or profit interest, which can include furthering those interests through litigation.” See 28 C.F.R. 16.10(b)(1). In that regard, you are responsible for all direct costs associated with processing your request, including search (if document volume exceeds 5000 pages), review and duplication fees. See 28 C.F.R. 16.10(b)(2). The agency makes a “commercial use request” determination on a case-by-case basis based on the requester’s “intended use.” See 28 C.F.R. § 16.10(b)(1). Specifically, we note that you are an immigration law practitioner, specifically, a contract attorney at Las Americas specializing in asylum and appeals. We note that your request is limited to written decisions before a specific immigration judge before whom you regularly appear. In that regard, we determined that the intended use of the requested records is in the general representation of your organization’s clients, a commercial trade or profit interest. We identified approximately 14 written decisions from IJ French during the time period 01/01/2020 through 01/01/2021 likely responsive to your request; however, most of those decisions are only available in hard-copy Records of Proceedings (ROPs). In that regard, EOIR will have to individually order those hard-copy ROPs from an Immigration Court or Federal Records Centers to retrieve the requested records contained therein.  Currently, the FRCs are only partially open due to the pandemic and record requests are only be processed on an emergency basis. See https://www.archives.gov/frc/operating-status/. The cost to retrieve one ROP on an emergency basis is approximately $25 each. Your request is on hold until a fee agreement is reached. The cost estimate to process your request as-filed is approximately $500.00, which includes the direct costs to retrieve individual ROPs ($25 each), search and review time. 28 C.F.R. § 16.10(c)(3). If you agree to the cost estimate, please notify EOIR is writing that you agree to pay fees within 30 days of the original notice. 28 C.F.R. § 16.10(e)(2). If you do not agree, please contact EOIR to amend your request to reduce the necessary costs to process your request as-filed. If we do not hear from you within 30 days of this notice, we will assume that you are no longer interested and your request will be administratively closed. If you need any further assistance or would like to discuss any aspect of your request, please contact the EOIR FOIA Public Liaison at (703) 605-1297.  Alternatively, you may contact the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) at the National Archives and Records Administration to inquire about the FOIA mediation services they offer.  The contact information for OGIS is as follows: Office of Government Information Services, National Archives and Records Administration, Room 2510, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, Maryland 20740-6001; e-mail at ogis@nara.gov; telephone at (202) 741-5770; toll free at (877) 684-6448; or facsimile at (202) 741-5769. If you are not satisfied with the Executive Office for Immigration Review’s determination in response to this request, you may administratively appeal by writing to the Director, Office of Information Policy (OIP), United States Department of Justice, 441 G Street, NW, 6th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20530, or you may submit an appeal through OIP’s FOIA STAR portal by creating an account following the instructions on OIP’s website https://www.justice.gov/oip/submit-and-track-request-or-appeal.Your appeal must be postmarked or electronically transmitted within 90 days of the date of my response to your request.  If you submit your appeal by mail, both the letter and the envelope should be clearly marked “Freedom of Information Act Appeal.” Sincerely,
EOIR FOIA Program

Dear Ms. Bischoff: Please note that we will be unable to fulfill the portions of your request for any records located in hard copy in Records of Proceedings (ROPs) at this time. Due to the pandemic, EOIR has a significant backlog of record requests for ROPs requested by Respondents currently undergoing immigration proceedings and/or their attorneys. In view of the backlog and pandemic, First Party requests for ROPs take precedent over Third Party requests implicating ROPs. Therefore, at this time, EOIR is unable to accommodate your request for records that would require EOIR to order hard copy ROPs. We have, however, located four (4) of the fourteen (14) records electronically. These records are, therefore, accessible at this time. The cost to process the four (4) records is approximately $40 in review time. Please advise if you would like to move forward with your request as amended. If we do not hear from you within 30 days, we will assume that you are no longer interested and your request will be administratively closed. Sincerely, Shelley M. O’Hara Attorney Advisor (FOIA)

Ms. Bischoff:

Thank you for your message. Your request is off hold and is being processed.

We have over 30,000 ROPs backlogged at this time, which will be reported in our Fiscal Year Q3 quarterly report soon. For context, we have never had more than 15,000 ROPs backlogged; however, the current backlog is largely related to our inability to retrieve ROPs from the closed/partially opened Federal Record Centers and limited staffing of Immigration Courts due to the pandemic. I would not anticipate the backlogged to ease any sooner than one year.

Sincerely,

Shelley M. O’Hara
Attorney Advisor (FOIA)

Dear Ms. Bischoff: This correspondence is in response to your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request dated 06/30/2021 to the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) in which you seek certain written IJ decisions issued by IJ French. A search was conducted and one or more records responsive to your request were located. We are granting partial access to the responsive records. ortions of the enclosed records have been redacted in accordance with FOIA Exemption 6, 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(6), which concerns material the release of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of the personal privacy of third parties. In e-mailcorrespondence dated July 23, 2021, you agreed to pay fees of up to $40.00 and toprocess your request. Please remit a check or money order for $40.00 payable tothe “Treasury of the United States” and mail to U.S. Department of Justice,Executive Office for Immigration Review, Attn: FOIA Service Center, 5107Leesburg Pike, Suite 2150, Falls Church, Virginia 22041. Please note thatfailure to pay agreed to fees may prohibit a requester from filing requestsuntil the debt is satisfied. 28 C.F.R. §16.10(i)(3). For your information, Congress excluded three discrete categories of law enforcement and national security records from the requirements of the FOIA. See 5 U.S.C. § 552(c) (2006 & Supp. IV 2010).  This response is limited to those records that are subject to the requirements of the FOIA.  This is a standard notification that is given to all our requesters and should not be taken as an indication that excluded records do, or do not, exist. See http://www.justice.gov/oip/ foiapost/2012foiapost9.html. You may contact the EOIR FOIA Public Liaison by e-mail at EOIR.FOIARequests@USDOJ.GOV or by telephone number (703) 605-1297 for any further assistance and to discuss any aspect of your request.  Please reference the FOIA control number.  Additionally, you may contact the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) at the National Archives and Records Administration to inquire about the FOIA mediation services they offer.  The contact information for OGIS is as follows: Office of Government Information Services, National Archives and Records Administration, Room 2510, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, Maryland 20740-6001; e-mail at ogis@nara.gov; telephone at (202) 741-5770; toll free at (877) 684-6448; or facsimile at (202) 741-5769. If you are not satisfied with the Executive Office for Immigration Review’s determination in response to this request, you may administratively appeal by writing to the Director, Office of Information Policy (OIP), United States Department of Justice, 441 G Street, NW, 6th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20530, or you may submit an appeal through OIP’s FOIA STAR portal by creating an account following the instructions on OIP’s website: https://www.justice.gov/oip/submit-and-track-request-or-appeal. Your appeal must be postmarked or electronically transmitted within 90 days of the date of this response to your request. If you submit your appeal by mail, both the letter and the envelope should be clearly marked “Freedom of Information Act Appeal.”

Sincerely,

Shelley O'Hara
Attorney Advisor (FOIA)

Dear Ms. Bischoff –

Our system shows these records were successfully delivered to you on 7/27/2021. Please confirm and, if received, close out this request on MuckRock.

Sincerely,

Shelley M. O’Hara
Attorney Advisor (FOIA)