Moshannon Valley Video

"12/30/2023

Andrew Free
MuckRock News, DEPT MR156035
Boston, Massachusetts 02115

RE: ICE FOIA Case Number 2024-ICFO-10820

Dear Requester:

This acknowledges receipt of your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), dated 12/18/2023, and to your request for expedited treatment. Your request was received in this office on 12/18/2023. Specifically, you requested video (surveillance, handheld, or cellphone-gathered) or still images from the GEO Group’s Moshannon Valley ICE Processing Center showing the recently deceased Frankline Okpu during his time in detention there.

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 failed to demonstrate a particular urgency to inform the public about the government activity involved in the request beyond the public’s right to know about government activity generally. Your letter was conclusory in nature and did not present any facts to justify a grant of expedited processing under the applicable standards.

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.

If you deem the decision to deny expedited treatment of 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 the FOIA office or Daniel Edgington, FOIA Public Liaison at 500 12th St. SW Stop 5009 Washington, DC 20536-5009 or (866) 633-1182. 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 tracking number 2024-ICFO-10820. 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"

01/04/2024

Andrew Free
MuckRock News, DEPT MR156035
Boston, Massachusetts 02115

RE: ICE FOIA Case Number 2024-ICFO-10820

Dear Requester:

This acknowledges receipt of your 12/18/2023, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), for video (surveillance, handheld, or cellphone-gathered) or still images from the GEO Group’s Moshannon Valley ICE Processing Center showing the recently deceased Frankline Okpu during his time in detention there. Your request was received in this office on 12/18/2023.

After careful review of your FOIA request, we determined that your request is 1) too broad in scope, 2) did not specifically identify the records which you are seeking, or 3) only posed questions to the agency. Records must be described in reasonably sufficient detail to enable government employees who are familiar with the subject area to locate records without placing an unreasonable burden upon the agency. For this reason, §5.3(b) of the DHS regulations, 6 C.F.R. Part 5, require that you describe the records you are seeking with as much information as possible to ensure that our search can locate them with a reasonable amount of effort. Whenever possible, a request should include specific information about each record sought, such as the date, title or name, author, recipients, and subject matter of the records, if known, or the ICE program office you believe created and/or controls the record. The FOIA does not require an agency to create new records, answer questions posed by requesters, or attempt to interpret a request that does not identify specific records.

Producing all video of the subject's time in detention would be overly burdensome due to the length of the detention. Please consider narrowing the timeframe for your request.

Please resubmit your request containing a reasonable description of the records you are seeking. Upon receipt of a perfected request, you will be advised as to the status of your request.

If we do not hear from you within 30 days from the date of this letter, we will assume you are no longer interested in this FOIA request, and the case will be administratively closed. Please be advised that this action is not a denial of your request and will not preclude you from filing other requests in the future. If you have any questions please contact FOIA Public Liaison Daniel Edgington at (866) 633-1182 or the address above.

Your request has been assigned reference number 2024-ICFO-10820.

Sincerely,

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

04/30/2024

Andrew Free
MuckRock News, DEPT MR156035
Boston, Massachusetts 02115

RE: ICE FOIA Case Number 2024-ICFO-10820

Dear Requester:

This e-mail is in regards to your 12/18/2023 ICE FOIA request for records related to video (surveillance, handheld, or cellphone-gathered) or still images from the GEO Group’s Moshannon Valley ICE Processing Center showing the recently deceased Frankline Okpu during his time in detention there.

There was no response received regarding the email sent to you on 1/4/2024 requesting you provide clarification and/or narrowing of the scope of your request, therefore your request was administratively closed on 2/5/2024.

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