Salvador Vargas Stewart Death Records
| Tracking # |
2023-ICFO-25793 |
| Submitted | May 11, 2023 |
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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:
The ICE Detainee Death Report regarding Salvador Vargas, 61, who ICE says died April 7, 2023, after being imprisoned at CoreCivic’s Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, which has housed 10 people for ICE who have died in the past 6 years. https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/noncitizen-ice-custody-passes-away-georgia-hospital
We make this request as a demand for affirmative disclosure under 5 USC 552(a)(2)(D), as well as under 5 USC 552(a)(3) as a demand for prompt access to information.
Expedited Processing Request
We make this request for expedited processing pursuant to 6 CFR 5.5(e), and provide the following statements under penalty of perjury pursuant to 28 USC 1746 in support thereof:
ICE is under a mandatory obligation, set forth in congressional appropriations language, to post the Death Death Report within 30 days of Mr. Vargas’s death. Detainee deaths have been the subject of widespread media attention culminating in congressional action, including the mandatory reporting requirements ICE itself describes. https://www.ice.gov/detain/detainee-death-reporting. ICE is currently violating that law by allotting itself 90 days instead of 30. The purpose of the Death Report publication requirement is to ensure Congress and the public have information about deaths in custody. Access to timely, complete, and accurate information allows the public to take protective actions and advocate policies that could reduce these deaths. For instance, public outcry over in-custody deaths resulted in Congress ordering the DHS Office of Inspector General to conduct an annual review of ICE and CBP in-custody deaths to determine if any systemic issues contributed to those tragedies and make recommendations about how to address those issues. See https://www.oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/assets/2023-02/OIG-23-12-Feb23.pdf.
As of the date of this request - May 11, 2023 - ICE is in violation of the 30-day Death Report publication requirement. This means the ICE detention system is violating the Anti-Deficiency Act, and ICE leaders are potentially subject to civil and criminal penalties.
Please grant this request expedited processing and bring ICE into compliance by posting the detainee death report for Mr. Vargas on ICE’s FOIA reading room, or supplying it to the #DetentionKills Transparency Initiative so that we may post it publicly.
Thank you,
#DetentionKills Transparency Initiative
Al Otro Lado
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: Immigration and Customs Enforcement
05/16/2023Andrew FreeMuckRock News, DEPT MR145704Boston, Massachusetts 02115 RE: ICE FOIA Case Number 2023-ICFO-25793 Dear Requester:This acknowledges receipt of your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), dated 5/11/2023, and to your request for expedited treatment. Your request was received in this office on 5/11/2023. Specifically, you requested ICE Detainee Death Report regarding Salvador Vargas, 61, who ICE says died April 7, 2023, after being imprisoned at CoreCivic’s Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, which has housed 10 people for ICE who have died in the past 6 years. https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/noncitizen-ice-custody-passes-away-georgia-hospital.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). 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 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.If you deem the decision to deny expedited treatment of your request an adverse determination, you have the right to appeal. Should you wish to do so, you must send your appeal and a copy of this letter, within 90 days of the date of this letter following the procedures outlined in the DHS FOIA regulations at 6 C.F.R. Part 5 § 5.5(e)(2). You may submit your appeal electronically at GILDFOIAAppeals@ice.dhs.gov or via regular mail to: 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. 20536-5900Your 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, please contact the FOIA office or Fernando Pineiro Jr., FOIA Public Liaison at 500 12th St. SW Stop 5009 Washington, DC 20536-5009 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; or facsimile at 202-741-5769.Your request has been assigned tracking number 2023-ICFO-25793. Please use this number in future correspondence. Sincerely,ICE FOIA OfficeImmigration and Customs EnforcementFreedom of Information Act Office500 12th Street, S.W., Stop 5009Washington, D.C. 20536-5009
This message (including any attachments) contains confidential information intended for a specific individual and purpose, and is protected by law. If you are not the intended recipient, you should delete this message and any disclosure, copying, or distribution
of this message, or the taking of any action based on it, by you is strictly prohibited.
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From: Immigration and Customs Enforcement
RE: ICE FOIA Case Number 2023-ICFO-25793 Dear Requester:ICE has completed the processing of your request, 2023-ICFO-25793, for ICE Detainee Death Report regarding Salvador Vargas, 61, who ICE says died April 7, 2023, after being imprisoned at CoreCivic’s Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, which has housed 10 people for ICE who have died in the past 6 years. https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/noncitizen-ice-custody-passes-away-georgia-hospital. The final response letter is attached to this email. Please login to your account on the SecureRelease Portal (https://www.securerelease.us) to view the responsive documents.Sincerely,ICE FOIA OfficeImmigration and Customs EnforcementFreedom of Information Act Office500 12th Street, S.W., Stop 5009Washington, D.C. 20536-5009
This message (including any attachments) contains confidential information intended for a specific individual and purpose, and is protected by law. If you are not the intended recipient, you should delete this message and any disclosure, copying, or distribution
of this message, or the taking of any action based on it, by you is strictly prohibited.
Deloitte refers to a Deloitte member firm, one of its related entities, or Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited ("DTTL"). Each Deloitte member firm is a separate legal entity and a member of DTTL. DTTL does not provide services to clients. Please see www.deloitte.com/about
to learn more.
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2208287-20230718134755335
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