DHS Headquarters Post-order Detention Unit. Policies and interpretations not published in the Federal Register

June 22, 2021 Mark Barr MuckRock News DEPT MR 110177 411A Highland Ave Somerville, MA 02144 RE:     ICE FOIA Case Number 2021-ICFO-37005 Dear Mr. Barr: This acknowledges receipt of your March 25, 2021, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), for all statements of policy and interpretations which have been adopted by the agency since January 1, 2018 and were not published in the Federal Register.  Your request was received in this office on March 25, 2021. 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 2021-ICFO-37005. 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 2021-ICFO-37005 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, Fernando Pineiro, 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

August 23, 2021 Mark Barr MuckRock News DEPT MR 110177 411A Highland Ave Somerville, MA 02144 RE:     ICE FOIA Case Number 2021-ICFO-37005 Dear Mr. Barr: This acknowledges receipt of your March 25, 2021, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), for all statements of policy and interpretations which have been adopted by the agency since January 1, 2018 and were not published in the Federal Register.  Your request was received in this office on March 25, 2021. After careful review of your FOIA request, we determined that your request is too broad in scope, did not specifically identify the records which you are seeking, or 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. 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. Your request has been assigned reference number 2021-ICFO-37005. 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 2021-ICFO-37005 (http://www.dhs.gov/foia-status) http://www.dhs.gov/foia-status 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, Fernando Pineiro, 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.
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
Telephone: 1-866-633-1182
Visit our FOIA website at www.ice.gov/foia

Good day,

You have directed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), seeking either: (1) copies of an individual's alien file, or (2) copies of certain ICE records or other records maintained in an individual's alien file. Alien files are maintained by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

Accordingly, ICE has determined that you should redirect your request to USCIS. Upon receipt of your FOIA request, USCIS will provide you with a tracking number and respond to you directly.

Any ICE records maintained in the Alien file will be referred to ICE for processing, and you will be notified of the referral in USCIS' final response if one occurs.

For more information, or to submit a FOIA request to USCIS, please visit: https://www.uscis.gov/records/request-records-through-the-freedom-of-information-act-or-privacy-act.
Did you know... that some records, such as entry/exit records, apprehensions at the border or point of entry, and travel records, to include I-94 records, are only available from U.S. Customs and Border Protection<https://www.cbp.gov/site-policy-notices/foia/faq-foia> (CBP)? - please contact them directly. For A-file (Alien file) requests, or records regarding applications/petitions for relief, benefits, Asylees, credible fear, I-213 and removal orders, (these records are maintained in the A-file), please contact USCIS FOIA<https://www.uscis.gov/about-us/freedom-information-and-privacy-act-foia> for more information. For visa records, such as DS-2019's, go to U.S. Department of State<https://foia.state.gov/Request/Visa.aspx> and Travel.State.Gov<https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/family-immigration/family-based-immigrant-visas.html> for assistance.

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
Telephone: 1-866-633-1182

USCIS FOIA - Case status change (https://first.uscis.gov/favicon.ico)
Mark Barr,
Documents related to your USCIS FOIA/PA request COW2021005104 have been electronically delivered to the myUSCIS account you created.
Please log into your account at https://first.uscis.gov to retrieve, view, and download the records. (https://first.uscis.gov)

If you have troubles logging into your account, please call the USCIS Contact Center toll-free at 800-375-5283.
For people who are deaf, hard of hearing or have a speech disability: TTY 800-767-1833.

Thank you,

Cynthia Munita
Director, FOIA Operations

THIS RESPONSE HAS BEEN AUTO GENERATED. PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE.

USCIS FOIA - Case status change (https://first.uscis.gov/favicon.ico)
Mark Barr,
Your USCIS FOIA/PA request COW2021005104 has been completed. A Final Action Letter with important information regarding your request has been electronically delivered to the myUSCIS account you created.
Please log into your account at https://first.uscis.gov to retrieve, view, and download the results. (https://first.uscis.gov)

If you have troubles logging into your account, please call the USCIS Contact Center toll-free at 800-375-5283.
For people who are deaf, hard of hearing or have a speech disability: TTY 800-767-1833.

Thank you,

Cynthia Munita
Director, FOIA Operations

THIS RESPONSE HAS BEEN AUTO GENERATED. PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE.

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