Castro Tum AG E-mails (Department of Justice, Executive Office for Immigration Review)

Matthew Hoppock filed this request with the Department of Justice, Executive Office for Immigration Review of the United States of America.

It is a clone of this request.

Tracking #

DOJ-2018-004612

2018-44585

Multi Request Castro Tum AG E-mails
Due Oct. 24, 2018
Est. Completion None
Status
Awaiting Response

Communications

From: Matthew Hoppock


To Whom It May Concern:

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

The documents related to the case of In Re CASTRO-TUM following the AG's remand dated May 17, 2018. Since the Attorney General published his decision on May 17, 2018, a number of bizarre developments have unfolded. The original Immigration Judge, Steven Morley, set a briefing schedule for the parties to address the issues. However, right after that hearing the DOJ, without explanation or advance notice, assigned a new Immigration Judge , ACIJ Deepali Nadkarni, apparently to ensure Mr. Castro-Tum would be deported for sure. In light of this development, I am requesting the documents in the possession of the agency that would explain what has occurred following remand and whether the Attorney General was involved in any way. That would include the following:

Any e-mail messages to or from employees of the Office of Attorney General mentioning the following key words from May 17, 2018 to the date this request is processed:

"Castro-Tum"
"Castro Tum"
"Nadkarni"
"Steven Morley"
"Steven A. Morley"
"Mary Cheng"

We are requesting that this matter be expedited, given that the case appears to be scheduled for a Master Calendar hearing in July, 2018. Also, because the change in IJ may in fact by unlawful or otherwise improper, it is important that the records be produced in an expedited manner because the issue is one of public interest. Further, given the widespread publicity about the Castro Tum matter, there is substantial interest in the developments following remand. I will likely be writing about this development as a member of the news media and need the documents requested to complete my writing. Because I am a member of the news media and have no commercial interest in these documents, I am also asking that any search and/or reproduction fees be waived.

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,

Matthew Hoppock

From: Department of Justice, Executive Office for Immigration Review

An acknowledgement letter, stating the request is being processed.

From: Department of Justice, Executive Office for Immigration Review

Matthew,

Upon search, documents responsive to 2018-44539 and 2018-44585 were collected. These include e-mail communications between Director McHenry and the Office of the Attorney General, and Director McHenry's calendar for the days requested. However, as all these documents contain equities belonging to the Office of the Attorney General and/or Office of the Deputy Attorney General, they have been referred to the Office of Information Policy (OIP) for direct response to you in accordance with Departmental policy. Note that there were no documents responsive to the request for records related to phone calls.

You should receive separate acknowledgment of the referral direct from OIP.

Wr/
Joseph R. Schaaf
Chief Counsel, Administrative Law
Executive Office for Immigration Review

From: Department of Justice, Executive Office for Immigration Review

Dear Mr. Hoppock:

Please see the attached correspondence.

Sara B. Tennant
Senior Government Information Specialist
Office of Information Policy
U.S. Department of Justice
1425 New York Avenue, NW
Suite 11050
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Ph: (202) 514-7868
Sara.Tennant@usdoj.gov<mailto:Sara.Tennant@usdoj.gov>

From: Department of Justice, Executive Office for Immigration Review

Please find attached correspondence concerning your pending Freedom of Information Act requests.

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