ICE contracts/MOUs re: California City Correctional Center

January 08, 2015 BERYL LIPTON MUCKROCK NEWS DEPT MR 15125 MUCKROCK NEWS PO BOX 55819 BOSTON, MA 02205-5891 RE:     ICE FOIA Case Number 2015-ICFO-16803 Dear Ms. LIPTON: This acknowledges receipt of your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), dated January 04, 2015, and to your request for a waiver of all assessable FOIA fees. Your request was received in this office on January 04, 2015. Specifically, you requested all contracts entered into by ICE for services and activities related to the California City Correctional Center. 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. After thoroughly reviewing your letter and request for fee waiver, I have determined that you have not presented a convincing argument that MUCKROCK NEWS DEPT MR 15125 is entitled to a blanket waiver of applicable fees. The DHS FOIA Regulations at 6 CFR § 5.11(k)(2) set forth six factors to examine in determining whether the applicable legal standard for a fee waiver has been met.  We will consider these factors in our evaluation of your request for a fee waiver: (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 requestor 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 requestor is sufficiently large in comparison with the public interest in disclosure, that disclosure is primarily in the commercial interest of the requestor. As a requester, you bear the burden under FOIA of showing that the fee waiver requirements have been met.  Based on my review of your January 04, 2015 letter and for the reasons stated herein, I have determined that your fee waiver request is deficient because your request did not satisfy factors 4, 5, and 6.  Since your request for a fee waiver has failed to satisfy each of the required factors, I am denying your fee waiver request. 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 commercial requesters.  As a commercial requester, you will be charged 10 cents per page for duplication, and for search and review time at the per quarter-hour rate ($4.00 for clerical personnel, $7.00 for professional personnel, $10.25 for managerial personnel) of the searcher and reviewer.  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.
You have the right to appeal the determination to deny your fee waiver request. Should you wish to do so, please send your appeal following the procedures outlined in the DHS regulations at 6 Code of Federal Regulations § 5.9 and a copy of this letter to: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office of Principal Legal Advisor U.S. Department of Homeland Security Freedom of Information Act Office 500 12th Street, S.W., Stop 5009 Washington, D.C. 20536-5009 Your appeal must be received within 60 days of the date of this letter.  Your envelope and letter should be marked “FOIA Appeal.”  Copies of the FOIA and DHS regulations are available at www.dhs.gov/foia . 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 2015-ICFO-16803. Please refer to this identifier in any future correspondence. You may contact this office at (866) 633-1182.
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

Good afternoon,

In researching your request, it has been tasked to the appropriate agency within ICE. We are currently awaiting the return of responsive, if any, records pertaining to your request. Cases are processed on a first in, first out basis.

Sincerely,

ICE/FOIA

Good afternoon,

Please be advised that you can now check the status of your FOIA requests online at: http://www.dhs.gov/foia-status. Ensure that you input the entire case number (2015-ICFO-XXXXX).

Sincerely,
ICE/FOIA

Good afternoon,

Please be advised that you can now check the status of your FOIA requests online at: http://www.dhs.gov/foia-status. Ensure that you input the entire case number (2015-ICFO-XXXXX).

Sincerely,
ICE/FOIA

The request has been forwarded from one agency to another agency or department for further review or follow up.

[USMS seal blue294 1in]

U.S. Department of Justice
United States Marshals Service

Office of General Counsel

CS-4, 10th Floor
Washington, DC 20530

April 20, 2015

Beryl C.D. Lipton
MuckRock News
DEPT MR 15378
PO Box 55819
Boston, MA 02205-5819

Re: Freedom of Information/Privacy Act Request No. 2015USMS28127
Subject of Request: California City IGA

Dear Requester:

The United States Marshals Service is responding to your request for records in this agency's files pertaining to the above subject.

Pursuant to your request, [] the Marshals Service conducted a search of its files and located documents which are responsive, or [X] the Marshals Service received documents referred from another agency for disclosure determination and direct response to you. The paragraphs checked below apply:

[] All documents located or [] all documents referred from another agency are being released to you without deletions.

[X] Documents are being released to you; however, certain documents or portions of documents are being withheld pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552, and/or the Privacy Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552a. Please refer to the list on page 2 of this letter for a description of information being withheld and the basis for withholding.

[] Our search located document(s) which originated with or contain(s) information which originated with (an)other component (s) of the Department of Justice or with (an)other government agency(ies).

[] Information contained in Marshals Service records which originated with (an)other agency(ies) and a copy of your request have been referred to the originator(s) for consultation in accordance with 28 C.F.R. § 16.4 and/or § 16.42. The Marshals Service will correspond with you again upon completion of this consultation.

[] Records which originated with (an)other agency(ies) and a copy of your request have been referred to the originator(s) for disclosure determination and direct response to you in accordance with 28 C.F.R. § 16.4 and/or § 16.42.

[] Your request is being denied pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act and/or Privacy Act exemption(s) identified by mark(s) on the following list.

[X] If you are dissatisfied with my action on this request, you may appeal by writing to the Director, Office of Information Policy, United States Department of Justice, Suite 11050, 1425 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20530-0001. Your appeal must be received within 60 days of the date of this letter. Both the letter and the envelope should be clearly marked "Freedom of Information/ Privacy Act Appeal." In the event you are dissatisfied with the results of any such appeal, judicial review will thereafter be available to you in the United States District Court for the judicial district in which you reside or have your principal place of business, or in the District of Columbia.

For your information, Congress excluded three discrete categories of law enforcement and national security records from the requirements of the FOIA. See 5 U.S.C. 552(c ) (2006 & Supp. IV (2010)). This response is limited to those records that are subject to the requirements of the FOIA. This is a standard notification that is given to all our requesters and should not be taken as an indication that excluded records do, or do not, exist.

[X] The enclosed material is provided for your further information.

Sincerely,

William E. Bordley
Associate General
Counsel/FOIPA Officer
Office of General Counsel

Enclosures

Number of Documents Located or referred from another agency: 34
Number of Documents Released: 34
Number of Documents Referred to another agency: _ 0
Number of Documents Withheld: _ 0

Freedom of Information Act Privacy Act
5 U.S.C. § 552 5 U.S.C. § 552a

Exemptions cited Description of Information
Withheld:

[] (b)(1) [] (b)(2) [] (b)(3) [] (d)(5) [] (j)(2) [X] Information which could risk
[] (b)(4) [] (b)(5) [] (b)(6) [] (k)(1) [] (k)(2) circumvention of the law
[] (b)(7)(A) [] (b)(7)(B) [] (k)(5) [] (k)(6) [] Names of and/or information on
[] (b)(7)(C) [] (b)(7)(D) government employees
[X] (b)(7)(E) [] (b)(7)(F) [] Names of and/or information
pertaining to third-party individual(s)
[] Confidential source information [] Other: _______________
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT
5 U.S.C. § 552

Disclosure mandates of the Freedom of Information Act do not apply to matters that are--

(b)(1) specifically authorized and properly classified pursuant to an Executive order to be kept secret in the interest of national defense or foreign policy;

(b)(2) related solely to the internal rules and practices of an agency;

(b)(3) specifically exempted from disclosure by another statute;

(b)(4) privileged or confidential trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a person;

(b)(5) predecisional information, including attorney work-product and attorney-client material, reflective of the deliberative process and contained in inter-agency or intra-agency correspondence which is not routinely available to a private party in litigation with an agency;

(b)(6) personnel, medical and similar files the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy;

(b)(7) records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes to the extent that the production of such records or information (A) could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings, (B) would deprive a person of a right to a fair trial or an impartial adjudication, (C) could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, (D) could reasonably be expected to disclose the identity of a confidential source, including a State, local, or foreign agency or authority or any private institution which furnished information on a confidential basis, and , in the case of a record or information compiled by a criminal law enforcement authority in the course of a criminal investigation or by an agency conducting a lawful national security intelligence investigation, information furnished by a confidential source, (E) would disclose techniques and procedures for law enforcement investigation or prosecutions, or would disclose guidelines for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions if such disclosure could reasonably be expected to risk circumvention of the law, or (F) could reasonably be expected to endanger the life or physical safety of any individual.
PRIVACY ACT
5 U.S.C. § 552a
(d)(5) Nothing in the Privacy Act shall allow an individual access to any information compiled in reasonable anticipation of civil action or proceeding.

Further, an agency may exempt from the access provisions and other provisions of the Privacy Act:
(j)(2) Material related to the enforcement of criminal laws including efforts to prevent, control or reduce crime or to apprehend criminals;

(k)(1) Material specifically authorized and properly classified pursuant to an Executive order to be kept secret in the interest of national defense or foreign policy;

(k)(2) Material compiled during civil investigations for law enforcement purposes;

(k)(5) Investigatory material compiled solely for the purpose of determining suitability, eligibility, or qualifications for Federal civilian employment, military service, Federal contracts, or access to classified information, the disclosure of which would reveal the identity of a source who furnished information to the Government under an express promise that the source's identity would be held in confidence, or pursuant to an implied promise of confidentiality if such information was furnished prior to September 27, 1975.

(k)(6) Testing or examination material used solely to determine individual qualifications for appointment or promotion in the Federal service.