“ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight” Video and Related Policies

02/25/2025

Jordan Lassiter
MuckRock News, DEPT MR181754
Boston, Massachusetts 02115

RE: ICE FOIA Case Number 2025-ICFO-20880

Dear Requester:

This e-mail is in regards to your 2/19/2025 ICE FOIA request for records related to records relating to the "ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight" video posted on X (see request for details).

In conducting a search for responsive records, the ICE FOIA office has determined that further clarification is needed regarding your request.

Please provide a timeframe for the records sought.

Please provide the ICE FOIA office with a response as soon as possible to avoid any further delay in the processing of your request. If a response is not received within 30 days, your request will be administratively closed.

Sincerely,

ICE FOIA Office
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Freedom of Information Act Office
500 12th Street, S.W., Stop 5009
Washington, D.C. 20536-5009

03/21/2025

Jordan Lassiter
MuckRock News, DEPT MR181754
Boston, Massachusetts 02115

RE: ICE FOIA Case Number 2025-ICFO-20880

Dear Requester:

This acknowledges receipt of your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), dated 2/19/2025, your request for a waiver of all assessable FOIA fees, and your request for expedited treatment. Your request was received in this office on 2/19/2025. Specifically, you have requested records relating to the "ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight" video posted on X and other social media records (see request for details) from January 1, 2024 through February 16, 2025. .

Due to the increasing number of FOIA requests received by this office, we may encounter some delay in processing your request. Per Section 5.5(a) of the DHS FOIA regulations, 6 C.F.R. Part 5, ICE processes FOIA requests according to their order of receipt. Although ICE’s goal is to respond within 20 business days of receipt of your request, the FOIA does permit a 10-day extension of this time period. As your request seeks numerous documents that will necessitate a thorough and wide-ranging search, ICE will invoke a 10-day extension for your request, as allowed by Title 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(6)(B). If you’re able to narrow the scope of your request please contact our office. Narrowing the scope may speed up the search process. We will make every effort to comply with your request in a timely manner.

Your request for expedited treatment is hereby denied.

Under the DHS FOIA regulations, expedited processing of a FOIA request is warranted if the request involves “circumstances in which the lack of expedited treatment could reasonably be expected to pose an imminent threat to the life or physical safety of an individual,” 6 C.F.R. § 5.5(e)(1)(i), or “an urgency to inform the public about an actual or alleged federal government activity, if made by a person primarily engaged in disseminating information,” 6 C.F.R. § 5.5(e)(l)(ii). Requesters seeking expedited processing must submit a statement explaining in detail the basis for the request, and that statement must be certified by the requester to be true and correct. 6 C.F.R. § 5.5(e)(3).

Your request for expedited processing is denied because you do not qualify for either category under 6 C.F.R. § 5.5(e)(1). You have not established that lack of expedited treatment in this case will pose an imminent threat to the life or physical safety of an individual. While you may be primarily engaged in the dissemination of information, you have not detailed with specificity why you feel there is an urgency to inform the public about records relating to ICE's social media and/or this specific video. Qualifying urgency would need to exceed the public’s right to know about government activity generally. You also did not offer sufficient supporting evidence of an interest of the public that is greater than the public’s general interest in Your letter was conclusory in nature and did not present any facts to justify a grant of expedited processing under the applicable standards. ICE's social media and/or this specific video.

After thoroughly reviewing your letter and request for fee waiver, I have determined that you have not presented a convincing argument that you and/or your organization is entitled to a blanket waiver of applicable fees.

The DHS FOIA Regulations at 6 CFR § 5.11(k)(2) set forth six factors to examine in determining whether the applicable legal standard for a fee waiver has been met. We will consider these factors in our evaluation of your request for a fee waiver:

(1) Whether the subject of the requested records concerns “the operations or activities of the government”;
(2) Whether the disclosure is “likely to contribute” to an understanding of government operations or activities;
(3) Whether disclosure of the requested information will contribute to the understanding of the public at large, as opposed to the individual understanding of the requestor or a narrow segment of interested persons;
(4) Whether the contribution to public understanding of government operations or activities will be "significant";
(5) Whether the requester has a commercial interest that would be furthered by the requested disclosure; and
(6) Whether the magnitude of any identified commercial interest to the requestor is sufficiently large in comparison with the public interest in disclosure, that disclosure is primarily in the commercial interest of the requestor.

As a requester, you bear the burden under FOIA of showing that the fee waiver requirements have been met. Based on my review of your 2/19/2025 letter and for the reasons stated herein, I have determined that your fee waiver request is deficient because your request did not satisfy factors 1-6. Since your request for a fee waiver has failed to satisfy each of the required factors, I am denying your fee waiver request.

Provisions of the FOIA allow us to recover part of the cost of complying with your request. We shall charge you for records in accordance with the DHS Interim FOIA regulations as they apply to non-commercial requesters. As a non-commercial requester, you will be charged 10 cents per page for duplication; the first 100 pages are free, as are the first two hours of search time, after which you will pay the per quarter-hour rate ($4.00 for clerical personnel, $7.00 for professional personnel, $10.25 for managerial personnel) of the searcher. We will construe the submission of your request as an agreement to pay up to $25.00. You will be contacted before any further fees are accrued.
If you deem the decision to deny expedited treatment and fee waiver for your request an adverse determination, you have the right to appeal. Should you wish to do so, you must send your appeal and a copy of this letter, within 90 days of the date of this letter following the procedures outlined in the DHS FOIA regulations at 6 C.F.R. Part 5 § 5.5(e)(2). You may submit your appeal electronically at GILDFOIAAppeals@ice.dhs.gov or via regular mail to:

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Office of the Principal Legal Advisor
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
500 12th Street,, S.W., Mail Stop 5900
Washington, D.C. 20536-5900

Your envelope and letter should be marked “FOIA Appeal.” Copies of the FOIA and DHS regulations are available at www.dhs.gov/foia.

ICE has queried the appropriate program offices within ICE for responsive records. If any responsive records are located, they will be reviewed for determination of releasability. Please be assured that one of the processors in our office will respond to your request as expeditiously as possible. We appreciate your patience as we proceed with your request.

If you have any questions please contact FOIA Public Liaison Daniel Edgington, at (866) 633-1182 or 500 12th St, SW Stop 5009 Washington, DC 20536-5009. Additionally, you have a right to seek dispute resolution services from the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) which mediates disputes between FOIA requesters and Federal agencies as a non-exclusive alternative to litigation. If you are requesting access to your own records (which is considered a Privacy Act request), you should know that OGIS does not have the authority to handle requests made under the Privacy Act of 1974. You may contact OGIS as follows: Office of Government Information Services, National Archives and Records Administration, 8601 Adelphi Road-OGIS, College Park, Maryland 20740-6001, e-mail at ogis@nara.gov; telephone at 202-741-5770; toll free at 1-877-684-6448.

Your request has been assigned reference number 2025-ICFO-20880. Please use this number in future correspondence.

Sincerely,

ICE FOIA Office
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Freedom of Information Act Office
500 12th Street, S.W., Stop 5009
Washington, D.C. 20536-5009