ICE HQ GEO Comms MoValley Nov-Dec

12/20/2023

Andrew Free
MuckRock News, DEPT MR156052
Boston, Massachusetts 02115

RE: ICE FOIA Case Number 2024-ICFO-10611

Dear Requester:

This acknowledges receipt of your 12/18/2023, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), for any records of communication between ICE and The GEO Group regarding the Moshannon Valley ICE Processing Center from November 15, 2023, through December 15, 2023. Your request was received in this office on 12/18/2023.

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’re able to narrow the scope of your request please contact our office. Narrowing the scope may speed up the search process. 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 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.

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.

If you have any questions, please contact FOIA Public Liaison, Daniel Edgington at 500 12th Street, SW, Washington DC 20536 or (866) 633-1182. 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.

Your request has been assigned reference number 2024-ICFO-10611. Please use this number in future correspondence.

Sincerely,

ICE FOIA Office
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Freedom of Information Act Office
500 12th Street, S.W., Stop 5009
Washington, D.C. 20536-5009

02/08/2024

Andrew Free
MuckRock News, DEPT MR156052
Boston, Massachusetts 02115

RE: ICE FOIA Case Number 2024-ICFO-10611

Dear Requester:

This acknowledges receipt of your 12/18/2023, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), for any records of communication between ICE and The GEO Group regarding the Moshannon Valley ICE Processing Center from November 15, 2023, through December 15, 2023. Your request was received in this office on 12/18/2023.

After careful review of your FOIA request, we determined that your request is did not specifically identify the records which you are seeking. Records must be described in reasonably sufficient detail to enable government employees who are familiar with the subject area to locate records without placing an unreasonable burden upon the agency. For this reason, §5.3(b) of the DHS regulations, 6 C.F.R. Part 5, require that you describe the records you are seeking with as much information as possible to ensure that our search can locate them with a reasonable amount of effort. Whenever possible, a request should include specific information about each record sought, such as the date, title or name, author, recipients, and subject matter of the records, if known, or the ICE program office you believe created and/or controls the record. The FOIA does not require an agency to create new records, answer questions posed by requesters, or attempt to interpret a request that does not identify specific records.

Please, provide a topic or subject matter for the communications you are seeking. Include the name or title/office of the ICE employees you are interested we search for records. This clarification is necessary to identify to the program office or custodian who may have the records you are seeking.

If we do not hear from you within 30 days from the date of this letter, we will assume you are no longer interested in this FOIA request, and the case will be administratively closed. Please be advised that this action is not a denial of your request and will not preclude you from filing other requests in the future. If you have any questions please contact FOIA Public Liaison Daniel Edgington at (866) 633-1182 or the address above.

Your request has been assigned reference number 2024-ICFO-10611.

Sincerely,

ICE FOIA Office
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Freedom of Information Act Office
500 12th Street, S.W., Stop 5009

Good morning Mr. Free,

This email is in regard to (2024-ICAP-00111, 2024-ICFO-10612) and (2024-ICAP-00162, 2024-ICFO-10611). As you well know, 2024-ICAP-00111 was remanded upon appeal, and your appeal for 2024-ICAP-00162 is currently pending adjudication.

ICE requires further specificity on your FOIA request seeking "any records of communication between ICE and The GEO Group regarding the Moshannon Valley ICE Processing Center." Moshannon and the GEO Group share correspondences encompassing a broad range, therefore additional details are required for the custodians at the Moshannon Field Office to locate the records you seek with a reasonable amount of effort. The request as written is too vague in scope. Please share with me any clarifications, so that I can pass it along to the ICEFOIA Office.

Please note that the ICEFOIA Office is going to consolidate FOIA request 2024-ICFO-10612 and 2024-ICFO-10611 into 2024-ICAP-00162. This will capture the combined time frame for records from April 1, 2021, through December 15, 2023.

Thank you.

Babak Alavi
Associate Legal Advisor
Government Information Law Division
Office of the Principal Legal Advisor
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Email: Babak.Alavi@ice.dhs.gov<mailto:Babak.Alavi@ice.dhs.gov>

***WARNING***ATTORNEY/CLIENT PRIVILEGE***ATTORNEY WORK PRODUCT***
This document may contain confidential and/or sensitive attorney/client privileged information or attorney work product and is not for release, review, retransmission, dissemination or use by anyone other than the intended recipient. Please notify the sender if this message has been misdirected and immediately destroy all originals and copies. Any disclosure of this document must be approved by the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement. This document is for INTERNAL GOVERNMENT USE ONLY and may be exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 USC § 552(b)(5), (b)(7).

Good morning Mr. Free,

You mentioned to "carve out PHL for now." However, one of the records custodians you listed, Mary Gibbs, is actually with the Philadelphia Field Office. Is there anyone else from that AOR? Thank you.

Babak Alavi
Associate Legal Advisor
Government Information Law Division
Office of the Principal Legal Advisor
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Email: Babak.Alavi@ice.dhs.gov<mailto:Babak.Alavi@ice.dhs.gov>

***WARNING***ATTORNEY/CLIENT PRIVILEGE***ATTORNEY WORK PRODUCT***
This document may contain confidential and/or sensitive attorney/client privileged information or attorney work product and is not for release, review, retransmission, dissemination or use by anyone other than the intended recipient. Please notify the sender if this message has been misdirected and immediately destroy all originals and copies. Any disclosure of this document must be approved by the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement. This document is for INTERNAL GOVERNMENT USE ONLY and may be exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 USC § 552(b)(5), (b)(7).

Thank you for the clarification Mr. Free. I have remanded 2024-ICAP-00162 for ERO and OAQ to conduct a search on the custodians you provided below. You should receive the appeal adjudication correspondence response shortly.

Babak Alavi
Associate Legal Advisor
Government Information Law Division
Office of the Principal Legal Advisor
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Email: Babak.Alavi@ice.dhs.gov<mailto:Babak.Alavi@ice.dhs.gov>
Mobile: 571-447-3855

***WARNING***ATTORNEY/CLIENT PRIVILEGE***ATTORNEY WORK PRODUCT***
This document may contain confidential and/or sensitive attorney/client privileged information or attorney work product and is not for release, review, retransmission, dissemination or use by anyone other than the intended recipient. Please notify the sender if this message has been misdirected and immediately destroy all originals and copies. Any disclosure of this document must be approved by the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement. This document is for INTERNAL GOVERNMENT USE ONLY and may be exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 USC § 552(b)(5), (b)(7).