Records of ICE/MCSO Op Netting 6 Arrests in Jackson, TN
Tracking # |
2019-ICFO-54586 |
Submitted | July 15, 2019 |
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Communications
From: Andrew Free
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:
All non-A-File agency records regarding an operation conducted in or around Madison County, Tennessee on or around July 12, 2019, involving encounters with suspected noncitizens and at least 6 arrests of suspected foreign nationals by ICE-ERO personnel following detention and questioning by the Madison County Sheriff's Office (MCSO), including, but not limited to:
1. Email, text, GOOD for Blackberry, SIPR, and other communications between ICE and any non-ICE law enforcement or government personnel regarding the activities on July 12, 2019.
2. All significant incident reports or significant event notifications
3. All fugitive operations worksheets, operations plans, and contact sheets created in advance of the enforcement activity
4. All communications between ICE ERO officials and any ICE HSI official regarding the July 12 enforcement activity
5. All other records indicating the non-discriminatory justification for ICE's use of MCSO personnel to stop and question individuals in connection with ERO enforcement activities.
Because the arrests in the manner report violate ICE's governing constitutional, statutory, regulatory, and policy obligations, there is an urgent need to gather reliable information and inform the public about this activity. Further, the records are necessary to protect these six men's substantial due process rights to be free from incarceration and initiation of removal proceedings based on egregious Fourth Amendment Violations and violations of the agency's own binding regulations. Accordingly, I respectfully seek expedited processing of this request.
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,
Andrew Free
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on July 15, 2019. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO)
August 22, 2019 Andrew Free Muckrock DEPT MR 77310 411A HIGHLAND AVE SOMERVILLE, MA 02144-2516 RE: ICE FOIA Case Number 2019-ICFO-54586 Dear Free: This acknowledges receipt of your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), dated August 12, 2019, and to your request for expedited treatment. Your request was received in this office on August 22, 2019. Specifically, you requested all non A-file agency records regarding an operation conducted in or around Madison County, Tennessee on or around 7/12/2019, involving encounters with suspected noncitizens and at least six arrests of suspected foreign nationals by ICE-ERO personnel following detention and question by the Madison County Sheriff's office (MCSO), including, but not limited to:1. Email, text, GOOD for Blackberry, SIPR, and other communications between ICE and any non-ICE law enforcement or government personnel regarding the activities on July 12, 2019.2. ALL significant incident reports or significant event notifications3. All fugitive operations worksheets, operations plans, and contact sheets created in advance of the enforcement activity.4. All communications between ICE-ERO officials and any ICE-HSI official regarding the July 12 enforcement activity.5. All other recordings indicating the non-discriminatory justification for ICE's use of MCSO personnel to stop and question individuals in connection with ERO enforcement activities.. Your request for expedited treatment is hereby denied. Under the DHS FOIA regulations, expedited processing of a FOIA request is warranted if the request involves “circumstances in which the lack of expedited treatment could reasonably be expected to pose an imminent threat to the life or physical safety of an individual,” 6 C.F.R. § 5.5(e)(1)(i), or “an urgency to inform the public about an actual or alleged federal government activity, if made by a person primarily engaged in disseminating information,” 6 C.F.R. § 5.5(e)(l)(ii). Requesters seeking expedited processing must submit a statement explaining in detail the basis for the request, and that statement must be certified by the requester to be true and correct. 6 C.F.R. § 5.5(e)(3). ADD ONE OF THE FOLLOWING REASONS Your request for expedited processing is denied because you do not qualify for either category under 6 C.F.R. § 5.5(e)(1). You failed to demonstrate a particular urgency to inform the public about the government activity involved in the request beyond the public’s right to know about government activity generally. Your letter was conclusory in nature and did not present any facts to justify a grant of expedited processing under the applicable standards. 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. If you deem the decision to deny expedited treatment of yourrequest an adverse determination, you have the right to appeal. Should you wish to do so, you must send yourappeal and a copy of this letter, within 90 days of the date of this letter followingthe procedures outlined in the DHS FOIA regulations at 6 C.F.R. Part 5 § 5.8. You may submit your appeal electronically at orvia regular mail to: GILDFOIAAppeals@ice.dhs.gov
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Office of the Principal Legal Advisor
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
500 12th Street, S.W., Mail Stop 5900
Washington, D.C. 20536-5900
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.
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. Your request has been assigned reference number 2019-ICFO-54586. 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-54586 (http://www.dhs.gov/foia-status) http://www.dhs.gov/foia-status tracking number.
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: Andrew Free
I hereby appeal the agency's denial of expedited processing.
From: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO)
Good afternoon,
Attached is our acknowledgment of your DHS FOIA request. If you need to contact this office again concerning your request, please provide the DHS reference number. This will enable us to quickly retrieve the information you are seeking and reduce our response time. This office can be reached at 866-431-0486.
Regards,
DHS Privacy Office
Disclosure & FOIA Program
STOP 0655
Department of Homeland Security
245 Murray Drive, SW
Washington, DC 20528-0655
Telephone: 1-866-431-0486 or 202-343-1743
Fax: 202-343-4011
Visit our FOIA website (http://www.dhs.gov/foia)
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on July 15, 2019. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO)
A copy of documents responsive to the request.
Files
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