Vexatious Requestors / Vexsome Filers / Litigious FOIA Requestors / Frequent Flyers List (Department of Homeland Security, Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties)
| Tracking # |
2024-CRFO-00151 |
| Multi Request | Vexatious Requestors / Vexsome Filers / Litigious FOIA Requestors / Frequent Flyers List |
| Submitted | Feb. 7, 2024 |
| Est. Completion | None |
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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:
Any list of Freedom of Information Act requestors identified as vexatious, vexsome, litigious, burdensome or otherwise designated for specialized processing, supervisory-level or legal-counsel-level review, or tracking by your agency's FOIA office.
By way of example, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has maintained a "Vexsome Filer" list for years, according to records released by expert FOIA requestor and journalist John Greenwald: https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/fbi-issues-redacted-vexsome-filer-list-marking-departure-from-past-transparency-practices/.
Please task a search beginning on January 1, 2023, and continuing until the day on which your FOIA office initiates the search.
Please search your FOIA office first, but, in accordance with Iturralde, follow up on any obvious leads.
I am willing to this request if the volume of documents returned exceeds 500 pages.
I hereby request expedited processing of this request, and pursuant to 6 CFR 5.5(e), I make the following statements under penalty of perjury pursuant to 28 USC 1746:
1. I am a member of the media primarily engaged in information dissemination.
2. I have submitted more than 200 FOA requests to DHS agency FOIA offices since May 2019.
3. The vast majority of these requests remain in extended backlogs, often with processing times that far exceed the median and average times reported by the agency.
4. DHS Agency FOIA offices have repeatedly excepted my requests from a first-in, first-out processing by providing responses to FOIA requests that contain the same information I sought, despite their filing the request after I did.
5. DHS has not promulgated any regulation or published any subregulatory rule, policy, procedure, guidance, manual, or other instruction to staff regarding the targeting or use of a vexsome filer or similar designation.
6. Consequently, any application of such internal designation to requests I have submitted would appear violate 5 USC 552(a)(2)(E)(i) & (ii).
7. DHS FOIA offices have repeatedly been held to engage in a pattern and practice of FOIA violations by federal courts. See, e.g., Owen v. ICE (CD Cal), Nightengale v. USCIS (ND Cal).
8. There is an urgency to inform the public about actual or alleged government misconduct - namely, the use/misuse of a vexsome FOIA filer list to deny, slow, or meter requestors' FOIA productions based on the frequency with which we exercise our statutory rights to demand information from our (nominally) democratically accountable institutions.
9. Placing this request in the regular track for processing will doom it to multi-month, if not multi-year purgatory at your agency's current processing rate, effectively covering up the potentially unlawful practice of discriminatory treatment based on the frequency with which a particular requestor exercises their statutory right to seek information about what our government is up to.
Thank you for your timely consideration of this expedited processing 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: Department of Homeland Security, Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
02/12/2024
Andrew Free
MuckRock News, DEPT MR158472
263 Huntington Ave
Boston, Massachusetts 02115
Re: 2024-CRFO-00151
Dear Andrew Free:
This acknowledges receipt of your 2/12/2024, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL), seeking, "any list of Freedom of Information Act requestors identified as vexatious, vexsome, litigious, burdensome or otherwise designated for specialized processing, supervisory-level or legal-counsel-level review, or tracking by your agency's FOIA office. By way of example, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has maintained a "Vexsome Filer" list for years, according to records released by expert FOIA requestor and journalist John Greenwald: https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/fbi-issues-redacted-vexsome-filer-list-marking-departure-from-past-transparency-practices/. Please task a search beginning on January 1, 2023, and continuing until the day on which your FOIA office initiates the search. Please search your FOIA office first, but, in accordance with Iturralde, follow up on any obvious leads."
Your request has been assigned reference number 2024-CRFO-00151. No additional information is needed at this time. However, if any additional information is needed in order to complete our search for documents we will contact you. If you have any questions pertaining to this request, please feel free to contact this office at crclfoia@hq.dhs.gov.
Sincerely,
CRCL FOIA Office
From: Department of Homeland Security, Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
02/13/2024
Via electronic mail
Andrew Free
MuckRock News, DEPT MR158472
263 Huntington Ave
Boston, Massachusetts 02115
requests@muckrock.com
Re: 2024-CRFO-00151
Dear Andrew Free:
This letter responds to your Freedom of Information Act request (FOIA) request dated 2/12/2024, addressed to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL), seeking, "any list of Freedom of Information Act requestors identified as vexatious, vexsome, litigious, burdensome or otherwise designated for specialized processing, supervisory-level or legal-counsel-level review, or tracking by your agency's FOIA office. By way of example, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has maintained a "Vexsome Filer" list for years, according to records released by expert FOIA requestor and journalist John Greenwald: https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/fbi-issues-redacted-vexsome-filer-list-marking-departure-from-past-transparency-practices/. Please task a search beginning on January 1, 2023, and continuing until the day on which your FOIA office initiates the search. Please search your FOIA office first, but, in accordance with Iturralde, follow up on any obvious leads." Your request has been processed under the FOIA, 5 U.S.C. § 552. A search was conducted within CRCL and no records responsive to your request were located.
Fees
There are no fees associated with processing this request because the fees incurred do not exceed the minimum threshold necessary for charge.
CRCL Administrative Appeal
You have a 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, to: Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, Attn: FOIA Appeals, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2707 Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue, SE, Mail Stop 0190, Washington, D.C. 20528-0190, following the procedures outlined in the DHS FOIA regulations at 6 C.F.R. Part 5 § 5.8. Your envelope and letter should be marked "FOIA Appeal." Copies of the FOIA and DHS FOIA regulations are available at www.dhs.gov/foia.
Additionally, you have the 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 202-741-5796.
If you have any questions pertaining to your request, please feel free to contact our office at crclfoia@hq.dhs.gov.
Sincerely,
Rosemary Law
CRCL FOIA Officer
From: Andrew Free
Thank you!
Files
There are no files associated with this request.