FOIA correspondence related to detainee deaths

Robin Urevich filed this request with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement of the United States of America.
Tracking #

2018-ICFO-07321
Submitted Oct. 6, 2017
Status
Rejected

Communications

From: Robin Urevich

Subject: Freedom of Information Request: FOIA correspondence related to detainee deaths

Email

To Whom It May Concern:

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act. I hereby request the following records:

Any correspondence between the below listed parties in written or electronic form, consisting of emails, letters, text messages or notes regarding the medical care, treatment, death and death review in the cases of:

Osmar Epifanio Gonzalez Gadba of Nicaragua who died 3-28-17 while detained at the Adelanto Detention Facility in California. His birth date is 4-10-84
Sergio Alonso Lopez of Mexico who died 4-13-17 while detained at the Adelanto Detention Facility. His birth date is 1-9-62
Vicente Cáceres Maradiaga of Honduras who died 5-31-17 while detained at the Adelanto Detention Facility. His date of birth is 10-27-70

Please provide correspondence via text message, instant message, email or in non-electronic written form regarding the above-mentioned cases by and between the ICE Detention Services Manager (DSM) at the Adelanto Detention Facility and any ICE Health Service Corps (IHSC) employee, the ICE Field Office Director, the ICE Assistant Field Office Director, any Correct Care Solutions employee, contractor or contract worker, any GEO Group employee, official or contract employee, and any other ICE employee or official.

Please provide correspondence via text message, instant message, email or in non-electronic written form regarding the above-mentioned cases by and between any ICE employee, including but not limited to the DSM at the Adelanto Detention Facility, the ICE Los Angeles Field Office Director, the ICE Assistant Field Office Director, any member of the IHSC, any GEO Group employee or contract employee and any Correct Care Solutions employee or contract employee and any employee of American Medical Response, Victor Valley Global Medical center, any Adelanto security staff personnel, or the San Bernardino County Coroner's office.

Please provide correspondence via text message, instant message, email or in non-electronic written form regarding the above-mentioned cases by and between any ICE employee or official, including employees of the IHSC and any employee or contract employee or the GEO Group or any employee or contract employee of Correct Care Solutions.

Please provide this information on a rolling basis by sending requested documents as soon as they become available.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

I am requesting a waiver of all fees under 5 U.S.C. Section 552(a)(4)(A)(iii). The information I seek is in the public interest because it will contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations or activities of the government and is not primarily in my commercial interest. This request is not a commercial request -- it is being made by an award-winning media organization.
I believe I meet the criteria for a fee waiver recognized by the U.S. Justice Department - and by the federal courts, See Project on Military Procurement v. Department of the Navy, 710 F. Supp. 362 363, 365 (D.C.D. 1989).
My request concerns the operations or activities of government because the records relate to US immigration policy at a time when the interest in these issues is great.

Also, the information sought has informative value, or potential for contribution to public understanding. Please note the decision in Elizabeth Eudey v. Central Intelligence Agency, 478 F. Supp. 1175 1176 (D.C.D. 1979) (even a single document has the potential for contributing to public understanding). As a contributing writer to Capital & Main, I plan to disseminate this information to the public at large through publication at capitalandmain.com and through Capital & Main's various co-publishing arrangements.

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,

Robin Urevich

From: Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Subject: ICE FOIA Request 2018-ICFO-07321

Email

November 17, 2017 ROBIN UREVICH MUCK ROCK 411A Highland Ave DEPT MR 44346 SOMERVILLE, MA 02144-2516 RE:     ICE FOIA Case Number 2018-ICFO-07321 Dear UREVICH: This acknowledges receipt of your October 06, 2017, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), for correspondence between the below listed parties in written or electronic form, consisting of emails, letters, text messages or notes regarding the medical care, treatment, death and death review in the cases of:Osmar Epifanio Gonzalez Gadba of Nicaragua who died 3-28-17 while detained at the Adelanto Detention Facility in California. His birth date is 4-10-84Sergio Alonso Lopez of Mexico who died 4-13-17 while detained at the Adelanto Detention Facility. His birth date is 1-9-62Vicente Cáceres Maradiaga of Honduras who died 5-31-17 while detained at the Adelanto Detention Facility. His date of birth is 10-27-70. See request for further details.  Your request was received in this office on October 06, 2017. In view of the fact that you have stated that the subject of your request is deceased, we require some type of affirmation of his/her death, such as a copy of a death certificate or an obituary column.  This is required in order to protect the privacy rights of third parties who are the subject of such requests.  Without the above affirmation of death, we are unable to initiate a search for responsive records. Please provide the requested documentation within 30 days from the date of this letter, or we will assume you are no longer interested in this FOIA/PA request, and the case will be administratively closed. This is not a denial of your request.  Upon receipt of a perfected request, you will be advised as to the status of your request. Your request has been assigned reference number 2018-ICFO-07321. 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 2017-ICFO-XXXXX or 2018-ICFO-XXXXX 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

From: Robin Urevich

Subject: RE: Freedom of Information Request: FOIA correspondence related to detainee deaths

Email

Hello,

Regarding FOIA request 2018-ICFO-07321, please find attached, a document created by Immigration and Customs Enforcement that lists detainees who have died.

Vicente Caceres Maradiaga is first on the list
Sergio Alonso Lopez is fourth.
Osmar Epifanio Gonzalez Gadba is fifth.

This is should constitute proof that the above individuals are deceased.
If you have any further questions, please email me at robinurevich@gmail.com or call at 323-363-7813.

Thanks in advance --Robin Urevich

From: Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Subject: ICE FOIA Request 2018-ICFO-07321

Email

November 20, 2017 ROBIN UREVICH MUCK ROCK 411A Highland Ave DEPT MR 44346 SOMERVILLE, MA 02144-2516 RE:     ICE FOIA Case Number 2018-ICFO-07321 Dear UREVICH: This acknowledges receipt of your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), dated October 06, 2017, and to your request for a waiver of all assessable FOIA fees. Your request was received in this office on November 20, 2017. Specifically, you requested correspondence between the below listed parties in written or electronic form, consisting of emails, letters, text messages or notes regarding the medical care, treatment, death and death review in the cases of:Osmar Epifanio Gonzalez Gadba of Nicaragua who died 3-28-17 while detained at the Adelanto Detention Facility in California. His birth date is 4-10-84Sergio Alonso Lopez of Mexico who died 4-13-17 while detained at the Adelanto Detention Facility. His birth date is 1-9-62Vicente Cáceres Maradiaga of Honduras who died 5-31-17 while detained at the Adelanto Detention Facility. His date of birth is 10-27-70. See request for further details. 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. You have requested a fee waiver.  The DHS FOIA Regulations at 6 CFR § 5.11(k)(2) set forth six factors ICE must evaluate to determine whether the applicable legal standard for a fee waiver has been met:  (1) Whether the subject of the requested records concerns “the operations or activities of the government,” (2) Whether the disclosure is “likely to contribute” to an understanding of government operations or activities, (3) Whether disclosure of the requested information will contribute to the understanding of the public at large, as opposed to the individual understanding of the requester or a narrow segment of interested persons, (4) Whether the contribution to public understanding of government operations or activities will be “significant,” (5) Whether the requester has a commercial interest that would be furthered by the requested disclosure, and (6) Whether the magnitude of any identified commercial interest to the requester is sufficiently large in comparison with the public interest in disclosure, that disclosure is primarily in the commercial interest of the requester. Upon review of the subject matter of your request, and an evaluation of the six factors identified above, ICE has determined that it will conditionally grant your request for a fee waiver.  The fee waiver determination will be based upon a sampling of the responsive documents received from the various ICE program offices as a result of the searches conducted in response to your FOIA request.  ICE will, pursuant to DHS regulations applicable to media requesters, process the first 100 pages.  If upon review of these documents, ICE determines that the disclosure of the information contained in those documents does not meet the factors permitting ICE to waive the fees, then ICE will at that time either deny your request for a fee waiver entirely, or will allow for a percentage reduction in the amount of the fees corresponding to the amount of relevant material found that meets the factors allowing for a fee waiver.  In either case, ICE will promptly notify you of its final decision regarding your request for a fee waiver and provide you with the responsive records as required by applicable law. In the event that your fee waiver is denied, and you determine that you still want the records, 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 requestors.  As a media requester you will be charged 10 cents per page for duplication; the first 100 pages are free.  In the event that your fee waiver is denied, we will construe the submission of your request as an agreement to pay up to $25.00.  This office will contact you before accruing any additional fees. 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.
Your request has been assigned reference number 2018-ICFO-07321. 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 2017-ICFO-XXXXX or 2018-ICFO-XXXXX tracking number. If you have any questions or wish to discuss reformulation or an alternative time frame for the processing of your request, please contact FOIA office. You may send an e-mail to ice-foia@ice.dhs.gov, call free (866) 633-1182, or you may contact our FOIA Public Liaison, Fernando Pineiro, in the same manner. 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; 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

From: Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Subject: ICE FOIA Response for 2018-ICFO-07321

Email

UREVICH,
ICE's final response to your FOIA request, 2018-ICFO-07321, for correspondence between the below listed parties in written or electronic form, consisting of emails, letters, text messages or notes regarding the medical care, treatment, death and death review in the cases of:Osmar Epifanio Gonzalez Gadba of Nicaragua who died 3-28-17 while detained at the Adelanto Detention Facility in California. His birth date is 4-10-84Sergio Alonso Lopez of Mexico who died 4-13-17 while detained at the Adelanto Detention Facility. His birth date is 1-9-62Vicente Cáceres Maradiaga of Honduras who died 5-31-17 while detained at the Adelanto Detention Facility. His date of birth is 10-27-70. See request for further details is attached.
Please note that the attachment may be password protected. If you are prompted to enter a password when opening the attachment and you did not receive a password it may be in your junk/spam folder.
Sincerely,
ICE FOIA

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