Transgender detainees in ICE custody

December 11, 2018 EMILY CROSE MUCKROCK DEPT MR 65123 411A HIGHLAND AVE SOMERVILLE, MA 02144 RE:     ICE FOIA Case Number 2019-ICFO-23914 Dear Ms. CROSE: This acknowledges receipt of your December 07, 2018, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), for any information ICE has in the form of memorandums, emails, official documentation or meeting notes about the detainment of transgender asylum seekers, and processes & procedures to handle transgender individuals crossing the border. I am making this request on behalf of the transgender community in the wake of the beating death of Roxsana Hernández Rodriguez (see attached article for reference). We would like to better understand the methodology enforcement officers are expected to follow when detaining transgender individuals.  Your request was received in this office on December 11, 2018. 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. 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-23914. 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-XXXXX 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

Good evening,

In regards to 2018-ICFO-23914, we have queried the appropriate component of DHS for responsive records. If any responsive records are located, they will be reviewed for determination of releasability. We will process your request as expeditiously as possible. Upon completion of the processing, all documents that can be released will be made available to you at the earliest possible date. We sincerely apologize for the delay you are experiencing and appreciate your continued patience.

Sincerely,
ICE FOIA

Good afternoon,
Your request is currently in the queue to be processed by an analyst. Requests are processed on a first in, first out basis and timing can vary greatly depending on the volume of responsive documents and the date the request was received.
Sincerely,
ICE/FOIA

Ms. CROSE,

ICE's final response to your FOIA request, 2019-ICFO-23914, for any information ICE has in the form of memorandums, emails, official documentation or meeting notes about the detainment of transgender asylum seekers, and processes & procedures to handle transgender individuals crossing the border. I am making this request on behalf of the transgender community in the wake of the beating death of Roxsana Hernández Rodriguez (see attached article for reference). We would like to better understand the methodology enforcement officers are expected to follow when detaining transgender individuals is attached.

Please note that the attachment may be password protected. If you are prompted to enter a password when opening the attachment and you did not receive a password it may be in your junk/spam folder.

Sincerely,
ICE FOIA