Director Dashboard - June 2022
| Tracking # |
2023-ICAP-00154 2022-ICFO-23103 |
| Submitted | July 6, 2022 |
| Due | Aug. 3, 2022 |
| Est. Completion | None |
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Communications
From: Andrew Free
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:
ICE Director Dashboard materials for February 2022 - June 2022.
This request is for documents we have confirmed exist and are produced monthly for the Acting Director through HQ. They will likely be in spreadsheet/workbook and/or powerpoint format. They are likely stored on a SharePoint drive.
For your convenience, we have attached to this request examples from prior FOIA responses showing these documents exist and how they are handled.
We previously requested similar records on December 29, 2019, (see ICE FOIA 2020-ICFO-20841, acknowledged Feb. 4, 2020) and August 25, 2021 (see ICE FOIA 2022-ICFO-14880, acknowledged May 9, 2022). As part of its pattern and practice of violating the FOIA's timing requirements, ICE failed to acknowledge either request and assign an individualized tracking number within 10 working days. As part of its pattern and practice of violating the FOIA's promptly available requirement, ICE has never turned over a single document responsive to these requests.
If ICE wishes to bring itself into compliance with its legal obligations and end its pattern and practice of cutting off prompt public access to agency records, we expect the agency will provide a timely acknowledge and assignment of a tracking number and process this request in accordance with the law.
If not, we will be forced to avail ourselves of the remedies set forth in the U.S. Code.
Thank you in advance,
Andrew Free
#DetentionKills Transparency Initiative
Al Otro Lado
The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.
In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.
Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 20 business days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Andrew Free
From: Immigration and Customs Enforcement
July 13, 2022 Andrew Free MuckRock News DEPT MR 131195 263 Huntington Ave Boston, MA 02115 RE: ICE FOIA Case Number 2022-ICFO-23103 Dear Mr. Free: This acknowledges receipt of your July 07, 2022, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), for ICE Director Dashboard materials for February 2022 - June 2022. Your request was received in this office on July 07, 2022. PLEASENOTE: Requesters seekingresponsive records from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) areencouraged to create a DHS FOIA Public Access Link (PAL) accountat: . Creating a PALaccount will allow you to directly submit your FOIA request to ICE and trackthe status of your request. In PAL, you can view your prior PAL submissions,sent correspondences, and responsive records. Although PAL is preferred, ICEFOIA will continue to accept FOIA requests via email at (https://foiarequest.dhs.gov/) https://foiarequest.dhs.gov or via regularmail at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Freedom ofInformation Act Office, 500 12 ICE-FOIA@ice.dhs.gov th St. SW, STOP 5009, Washington,DC 20536-5009. 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 care to narrow the scope of your request, please contact our office. We will make every effort to comply with your request in a timely manner. 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 media requesters. As a media requester, you will be charged 10 cents per page for duplication; the first 100 pages are free. 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. We have 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.
Your request has been assigned reference number 2022-ICFO-23103. Please refer to this identifier in any future correspondence. To check the status of an ICE FOIA/PA request, please visit . Please note that to check the status of a request, you must enter the 2022-ICFO-23103 tracking number. If you need any further assistance or would like to discuss any aspect of your request, please contact the FOIA office. You may send an e-mail to ice-foia@ice.dhs.gov, call toll free (866) 633-1182, or you may contact our FOIA Public Liaison, Marcus Francis, in the same manner. Additionally, you have a right to 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; or facsimile at 202-741-5769. (http://www.dhs.gov/foia-status) http://www.dhs.gov/foia-status
Regards,
ICE FOIA Office
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Freedom of Information Act Office
500 12th Street, S.W., Stop 5009
Washington, D.C. 20536-5009
Telephone: 1-866-633-1182
Visit our FOIA website at www.ice.gov/foia
From: Andrew Free
We hereby appeal the agency's failure to comply with the timing provisions of the Act.
From: Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Dear Andrew Free,
The password to open the responsive records delivered in a separate email for 2022-ICFO-23103 is listed below. If you do not receive the email containing the responsive documents within a reasonable timeframe please contact our office at foia-obim@hq.dhs.gov. (mailto:foia-obim@hq.dhs.gov)
Document Password: U522bac8
Sincerely, OBIM FOIA Branch
From: Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Mr. Free,
ICE's final response to your FOIA request, 2022-ICFO-23103, for ICE Director Dashboard materials for February 2022 - June 2022 is attached.
Please note that the attachment may be password protected. If you are prompted to enter a password when opening the attachment and you did not receive a password it may be in your junk/spam folder.
Sincerely,
ICE FOIA
-
2022-ICFO-23103
From: Andrew Free
Good afternoon,
Thank you very much for this response!
We appeal the agency's response on the following, limited grounds:
1. Password Protection of PDFs Violates FOIA
Pursuant to its common practice, ICE FOIA has password-protected the public records it released. Putting a password on a public record diminishes the requestor's ability to ensure its fast and usable dissemination--a key purpose of FOIA. The process literally doubles the number of communications ICE FOIA must generate to respond to requests. It also creates an unnecessary step at the production level--one that increases delays in responses, and, correspondingly, ICE's backlog of pending requests. Because it is both not required by the text of FOIA or ICE's regulations AND contrary to the purpose and intent of Congress in authorizing requestors to seek public records, password-protecting represents a waste and abuse by ICE FOIA.
In sum, password-protecting these responses means spending time and money doing work FOIA doesn't require, which will then interfere with outcomes FOIA does--namely, broad public transparency of records. ICE should re-release these records without password protection.
2. Inadequacy of Search
The agency only searched and produced Director Dashboards from ICE Office of Professional Responsibility. They do not include any records from other agency components. It is believed ICE's Acting Director and staff receives Director Dashboards from other components. But no emails from those components, or the Acting Director, are present. For instance, ICE's Office of Detention Oversight, Office of Legislative Affairs, Office of Public Affairs ICE Health Services Corps, ICE Office of Acquisition Management, ICE Office of Principal Legal Advisor, and ICE Office of Custody Management, and the ICE FOIA Office itself may create and transmit Director Dashboards.
If these other agency component offices indeed submit director dashboards, the agency's search was inadequate. If they do not, we will treat an affirmance on this ground as an official confirmation from ICE OPLA that no other agency component generates Director Dashboards, and act accordingly.
3. Improper Withholdings.
First, we challenge withholding of meeting information under a "non-responsive" designation. There is no FOIA exemption for non-responsive information on an otherwise responsive document. Congress permits agencies to redact only exempt material from agency records, and requires agencies to reasonably segregate any non-exempt material. Accordingly, courts have previously instructed DHS agency components to cease this practice. Please re-release these records.
Second, the agency's invocation of Exemption 7A to withhold in full entire pages of records is improper, as is the agency's invocation of Exemption 7A for open investigations that do not carry the prospect of resulting in an administrative, civil, or criminal proceeding.
Third, the agency's application of Exemptions 6 and 7C to email domains is meritless and should be removed. See DOJ Concession on ICE's behalf during Oral Argument in Transgender Law Center v. ICE (CA9) that no court has ever held domain names enjoy privacy rights, and ICE has no justification for why they do. Please unredact domain names in a supplemental release.
Fourth, the agency improperly withheld reasonably segregable, non-exempt portions of records it withheld in full. Please review these withholdings in full and release any reasonably segregable, non-exempt portions.
Thank you,
#DetentionKills Transparency Initiative
Al Otro Lado
From: Immigration and Customs Enforcement
**Please Do Not Respond Directly -This email has been sent on behalf of ice-foia@dhs.gov**
We have received your Freedom of Information Act request for Appealing the inadequacy of the search and the withholdings of ICE Director Dashboard materials for February 2022 - June 2022 and have assigned it tracking number 2023-ICAP-00154. Please refer to the attached Acknowledgement Letter for more information.
ICE FOIA.
From: Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Mr. Free,
ICE's final response to your FOIA request, 2023-ICAP-00154, for Appealing the inadequacy of the search and the withholdings of ICE Director Dashboard materials for February 2022 - June 2022 is attached.
Please note that the attachment may be password protected. If you are prompted to enter a password when opening the attachment and you did not receive a password it may be in your junk/spam folder.
Sincerely,
ICE FOIA
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on July 7, 2022. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response. You had assigned it reference number #2023-ICAP-00154.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Good afternoon,
Thank you for reaching out regarding 2023-ICAP-00154. Your request for an appeal is still under review.
Thank you,
ICE FOIA
-
~WRD3451
From: Andrew Free
Good day,
That is incorrect, according to our records. ICE OPLA issued a final order sustaining the appeal as to search adequacy and remanding for supplemental searches. That letter is available here: https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23596652/final-foia-appeal-2023-icap-00154-2022-icfo-23103.pdf.
More than 20 working days have passed since the remand. Please conduct the supplemental search and advise us of the agency’s estimated date of production.
Many thanks,
Andrew Free
#DetentionKills Transparency Initiative
Al Otro Lado
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