ICE Contracts with The GEO Group

May 24, 2019 Michael Glass 411A Highland Ave Somerville, MA 02144 RE:     ICE FOIA Case Number 2019-ICFO-39460 Dear Mr. Glass: This acknowledges receipt of your May 19, 2019, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), for all records relating to the following government contracts between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and The GEO Group (listed by Award ID). Specifically interested in the text of the contracts themselves. (please see request for list of contracts).  Your request was received in this office on May 19, 2019. 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 non-commercial requesters.  As a non-commercial requester, you will be charged 10 cents per page for duplication; the first 100 pages are free, as are the first two hours of search time, after which you will pay the per quarter-hour rate ($4.00 for clerical personnel, $7.00 for professional personnel, $10.25 for managerial personnel) of the searcher.  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 2019-ICFO-39460. 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 2019-ICFO-39460 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

May 28, 2019 Michael Glass 411A Highland Ave Somerville, MA 02144 RE:     ICE FOIA Case Number 2019-ICFO-39460
This e-mail is in regards to your May 19, 2019 ICE FOIA request for all records relating to the following government contracts between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and The GEO Group (listed by Award ID). Specifically interested in the text of the contracts themselves. (please see request for list of contracts).

In conducting a search for responsive records, the ICE FOIA office has determined that further clarification is needed regarding your request. Your request seems to us to be overly broad. Could you please narrow down your request to possibly see if it can be refined in some way that will still be relevant and meaningful. Please provide the ICE FOIA office with a response as soon as possible to avoid any further delay in the processing of your request. If a response is not received within 30 days, your request will be administratively closed.

Sincerely,

ICE FOIA

A copy of documents responsive to the request.