FOIA March Madness 2017 - III - Appeal logs, procedures, letters, opinions (Immigration and Customs Enforcement)

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

2017-ICFO-28025
Submitted March 14, 2017
Est. Completion None
Status
Fix Required

Communications

From: Beryl Lipton

Subject: Freedom of Information Request: FOIA March Madness 2017 - III - Appeal logs, procedures, letters, opinions (Immigration and Customs Enforcement)

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To Whom It May Concern:

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

1. Any available log of appeals submitted to this agency or the agency tasked with processing Freedom of Information Act appeals for this division. Please provide such logs for the period from January 1, 2015 through December 31, 2016. Please, if possible, include with the log the following items:
• the request number associated with the FOIA in question
• the appeal number assigned to the appeal
• the description of the subject matter addressed by the request
• the division or office of initial receipt
• the date on which the appeal was received
• the date on which the appeal was closed
• the determination or final disposition status of the appeal

2. All appeal letters and opinion letters associated with appeals for which the determination was to reverse, in whole or in part, the decision of the initial request agency. Please provide such letters for appeals closed during the period from January 1, 2015 through December 31, 2016.

3. All appeal letters and opinion letters associated with appeals for which the determination was to remand the request to the appropriate agency. Please provide such letters for appeals closed during the period from January 1, 2015 through December 31, 2016.

4. All appeal letters and opinion letters associated with appeals for which the determination was to affirm the decision of the initial agency. Please provide such letters for appeals closed during the period from January 1, 2015 through December 31, 2016.

5. Any instructive or guiding materials provided to and/or utilized by employees of this department’s Freedom of Information Act office. Please include any manuals, procedural materials, reference guides, checklists, training materials, flow charts, directives, memorandums, legal decisions, presentations, or similar material used in the process of an appeal by this office or the office tasked to process FOIA appeals for this office. Any guiding materials used for the preparation of an appeal package should be considered responsive to, though not the entirety of, this element of this request.

6. The name and contact information for the appropriate appeal authority to whom appeals for this agency should be directed. If such information exists as part of a template letter sent to requesters, provision of this document will be considered satisfactory.

Please provide responsive materials on a rolling basis.

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,

Beryl Lipton

From: ICE-FOIA

Subject: RE: Freedom of Information Request: FOIA March Madness 2017 - III - Appeal logs, procedures, letters, opinions (Immigration and Customs Enforcement)

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Good morning,

ICE FOIA is currently working through entering a backlog of new request into our system. When your request is entered you will receive an acknowledgment e-mail along with a tracking number associated with your request.

Sincerely,
ICE FOIA

From: US DHS Immigration and Customs Enforcement FOIA Office

Subject: ICE FOIA Request 2017-ICFO-28025

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May 15, 2017 Beryl Lipton MuckRock DEPT MR 34889 411A Highland Ave Somerville, MA 02144-2516 RE:     ICE FOIA Case Number 2017-ICFO-28025 Dear Lipton: This acknowledges receipt of your March 14, 2017, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), for logs of FOIA appeals, all appeal letters and opinion letters associated with appeals for which the determination was to reverse, in whole or in part, the decision of the initial request agency, all appeal letters and opinion letters associated with appeals for which the determination was to remand the request to the appropriate agency, all appeal letters and opinion letters associated with appeals for which the determination was to affirm the decision of the initial agency, any instructive or guiding materials provided to and/or utilized by employees of this department’s Freedom of Information Act Office, and the name and contact information for the appropriate appeal authority to whom appeals for this agency should be directed (Date Range for Record Search: From 1/1/2015 To 12/31/2016).  Your request was received in this office on May 15, 2017. 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 2017-ICFO-28025. 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 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 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: Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Subject: RE: Freedom of Information Act Request: FOIA March Madness 2017 - III - Appeal logs, procedures, letters, opinions (Immigration and Customs Enforcement)

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Good afternoon,

Please be advised that this request is currently assigned to an analyst for processing. Cases are processed on a first in, first out basis. You should be receiving your response within two weeks.

Sincerely,
ICE/FOIA

From: Beryl Lipton

Subject: RE: Freedom of Information Act Request: FOIA March Madness 2017 - III - Appeal logs, procedures, letters, opinions (Immigration and Customs Enforcement)

Email

Hi there,

Thanks so much for your note. I look forward to hearing from you again.

Best wishes,
Beryl

From: Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Subject: Request 2017-ICFO-28025

Email

Good afternoon Ms. Lipton,

Can you please give me a call to discuss your FOIA request 2017-ICFO-28025. Upon searching we have located over 20,000 documents that are responsive to your request. I would like to see if it's possible to refine your request. This will allow us to respond much faster to your request. If your request stand it will take, months if not years to process.

Thank you,

Charles Williams
202-819-2249

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