EOIR Staff emails

To Whom It May Concern:

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

All Email messages between robert.barry@eoir.usdoj.gov and vicki.butler@eoir.usdoj.gov between 9/13/19 and 10/30/19.

I am asking for all emails messages in the date range without a keyword search. I don’t expect there will be many. I would be happy to discuss the scope of this request or any other issues that may come up if you would like.

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

I do not wish to limit the search by keyword. What I am looking for occurred during that date range, but I cannot predict if a specific keyword is going to show up in each of the e-mail messages about this incident. Limiting the search by keyword will likely exclude certain responsive messages.

However, I don't expect there to be more than 20 or so e-mail messages between these two individual during that date range. If you run a search and it turns out there are hundreds, please let me know. I would be glad to work with you to limit the search if there are too many. Please let me know once the search has been run if that is an issue.

Thank you,

Matthew Hoppock

I can explain what I’m looking for. I am trying to understand how the agency handled the ninth circuit’s remand of MARIA TORRES VALDIVIA V. WILLIAM BARR, No. 15-73499 (9th Cir. 2019). I understand if the Ninth Circuit the department of justice moved to remand the case back to the agency. However I am aware that after the ninth’s decision was issued, there was a request for the file to be sent to the EOIR Director’s office from the LA immigration court. I am trying to obtain the email messages between the persons most likely involved to figure out why that happened and what the agency is doing to comply with the remand order. That’s why I am seeking the email messages between those two people in that date range. I can’t guarantee their correspondence will mention the person by name or there a number, so searching by keywords might not be sufficient. But, given how rarely those two individuals would normally correspond by email, I doubt there will be any messages in that date range that don’t relate to this specific case. Thank you.

Matthew Hoppock

Joseph,

Were there other email messages between the two during this time period other than what has been provided?

Also, I am confused by the layout. At the bottom of Page 1 there is the beginning of an email. Is Page 2 a continuation of that email? the text and font change on page 2 which makes it seem like that might be from a different set of emails.

Also, has EOIR withheld any email messages? The determination letter mentions withholdings under B6, but I can't tell if that's just in reference to the redactions or if there are additional records that were withheld.

Thank you.

Matthew Hoppock

Thanks for that. Were there other email messages between the two during this time period other than what has been provided?

Matthew Hoppock

The agency did not conduct an adequate search. The request was for all emails between two custodians in a limited time period. The request explicitly said a keyword search was not to be conducted because there should be so few emails and it was likely the custodians were speaking without use of specific key words.

The agency refused to produce them, saying it would only conduct a search if we provided them the "subject matter."

I responded that I did not wish to limit the search by keyword because of the already-limited search terms and the inability to predict if a specific keyword would show up in each of the e-mail messages. I noted limiting the search by keyword would likely exclude certain responsive messages.

The agency responded that it needed to know what "incident" I was asking about. I responded by describing one situation I believed would be illuminated by the emails but also that it was likely they had corresponded about that situation without using any specific keywords. Because the field of emails requested was necessarily small, I asked that it not be conducted using a keyword search.

The agency responded by only producing one string of emails mentioning the situation I had described.

When I asked afterward whether there were other responsive email messages between these two individuals in that time range that didn't include the keywords, the agency said it didn't search for them and instead only searched for keywords on the incident I had mentioned. That is inadequate.

It was unlawful for the agency to refuse to conduct a search until I identified what subject matter I wanted since my search terms were especially limited already. It was also unlawful after we said we didn't want the agency to limit the search to keywords to then use my obviously reluctant response on subject matter to limit the search.

Finally, the production here is inadequate because the first page of emails is so badly degraded it is unreadable. These are agency emails that were in electronic format when I requested them. There is no reason for these email messages to be altered in this way so that we can't read what they say.

I am asking that the processing of this appeal be expedited. Even from the limited, single string of emails we've received it's clear the Director EOIR is specifically interfering in cases that are supposedly before the neutral BIA on remand from a federal court. I am writing a news article on this subject and need the remaining responsive records to complete my reporting.

Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you.

Matthew Hoppock