5 USC 552(a)(2)(D)(ii)(II), or Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! Meetings (United States Customs and Border Protection)

Dear Andrew Free <requests@muckrock.com>,
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This message is to confirm your request submission to the FOIAonline application: View Request. Request information is as follows: (https://foiaonline.gov/foiaonline/action/public/submissionDetails?trackingNumber=CBP-2022-083887&type=request)

* Tracking Number: CBP-2022-083887
* Requester Name:
Andrew Free
* Date Submitted: 05/25/2022
* Request Status: Submitted
* Description:
To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:

This is a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request aimed at understanding your agency’s compliance with the E-FOIA Amendments of 2006, and how the information contained, and omitted from, your agency’s FOIA Reading Room may come short of compliance with your obligations under the law.

Ensuring agencies proactively disclose frequently requested records helps everyone. The agency’s FOIA backlog — a longstanding, widely acknowledge concern for Congress — will be reduced by affirmative identification of frequently requested records. The agency will get fewer requests by making more of the frequently requested materials more easily accessible. Agency FOIA reviewers will not have to reinvent the wheel in processing redactions and determine which exemptions apply. And the public will get more complete and timely access to information because the agency will have posted it.

This is not an aspirational goal; it is the law.

5 U.S.C. 552(a)(2)(D)(ii)(II) requires agencies to post records that have been requested 3 or more times. The “Beetlejuice Provision”, if you will.

Our review of your agency’s public FOIA reading room, and a comparison of the publicly available FOIA logs your agency publishes, reveals that a number of thrice-requested materials appear to be missing. Consequently, we file this request to understand the process by which your agency determines what to include under the Beetlejuice Provision.

1. Please provide all calendar entries, meeting minutes, attendee lists, working papers (or similar documents), slide decks or presentations, and follow-up calendar items for any meeting your agency’s FOIA Officer or designee held to consider the agency’s affirmative releases and proactive disclosures under the Beetlejuice Provision.

2. Please provide any record reflecting your agency’s FOIA Officers’ identification of a record that may be eligible for release based upon the Beetlejuice Provision because it has been requested three times under paragraph 3. If the records requested are kept in an electronic system of records, like eFOIAExpress, we would accept a printout of requests designated as potential subject to proactive release under the Beetlejuice Provision in lieu of records responsive to this Item.

3. Any guidance your agency issued for FOIA professionals regarding identification of requests that are potentially subject to proactive release under the Beetlejuice Provision.

Please task a search period beginning on January 1, 2022, and ending May 18, 2022.

Thank you,

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

Upload documents directly: https://www.muckrock.com/

Andrew Free
MuckRock News DEPT MR 129089
263 Huntington Ave
Boston, MA, 02115
05/26/2022
CBP-2022-083887
Dear Andrew Free:
This notice acknowledges receipt of your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) received on 05/25/2022.     Please use the following unique FOIA tracking number CBP-2022-083887 to track the status of your request.  If you have not already done so, you must create a FOIAonline account at https://foiaonline.gov.  This is the only method available to check the status of your pending FOIA request. (https://foiaonline.regulations.gov/)
Provisions of the Act allow us to recover part of the cost of complying with your request.  We shall charge you for records in accordance with the DHS FOIA regulations outlined on the DHS website, https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/11/22/2016-28095/freedom-of-information-act-regulations. By submitting your request, you have agreed to pay up to $25.00 in applicable processing fees, if any fees associated with your request exceed this amount, CBP shall contact you; however, the first 100 pages are free. (https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/11/22/2016-28095/freedom-of-information-act-regulations)
Due to the increasing number of FOIA requests received by this office, we may encounter some delay in processing your request.  Consistent with 6 C.F.R. Part 5 § 5.5(a) of the DHS FOIA regulations, CBP processes FOIA requests according to their order of receipt.  Although CBP’s goal is to respond within 20 business days of receipt of your request, FOIA does permit a 10-day extension of this time period in certain circumstances pursuant to 6 C.F.R. Part 5 § 5.5(c).  [As your request seeks documents that will require a thorough and wide-ranging search, CBP will invoke a 10-day extension for your request pursuant to 6 C.F.R. Part 5 § 5.5(c). If you would like 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.] OR [As your request seeks a voluminous amount of separate and distinct records, CBP will invoke a 10-day extension for your request pursuant to  6 C.F.R. Part 5 § 5.5(c).  If you would like 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.] OR [As the subject matter of your request is of substantial interest to two or more components of CBP or of substantial interest to another agency, we will need to consult with those entities before we issue a final response.  Due to these unusual circumstances, CBP will invoke a 10-day extension for your request pursuant to 6 C.F.R. Part 5 § 5.5(c). If you would like 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.]
CBP’s FOIA Division is working hard to reduce the amount of time necessary to respond to FOIA requests.  We truly appreciate your continued patience.
For additional information please consult CBP FOIA website please click on FOIA Act Resources or visit (http://www.cbp.gov/site-policy-notices/foia) http://www.cbp.gov/site-policy-notices/foia. (http://www.cbp.gov/site-policy-notices/foia)
Sincerely,
U.S. Customs and Border Protection

CBP-2022-083887 has been processed with the following final disposition: Partial Grant/Partial Denial.