Long v. ICE (2023)

The Transactional Records Clearinghouse Reports, Inc. (TRAC) submitted Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), seeking records related to the agencies’ enforcement activities. Among other things, the requests asked the agencies to provide the “linkage” fields that the agencies use to connect records that are associated with a particular individual, agency action, or series of events. In the event that the agencies claimed that the linkage fields could be lawfully withheld pursuant to a FOIA exemption, the requests asked the agencies to provide a substitute method for linking associated records. When several months later neither agency had responded, Public Citizen filed suit against ICE and CBP on behalf of TRAC and its co-directors, seeking disclosure of the requested records.

ICE and CBP each moved for summary judgment, and we cross-moved for summary judgment. ICE argued that complying with the FOIA request would be unduly burdensome and that the records sought are exempt from FOIA. CBP also argued that the records were ICE records, not CBP records. In our brief, we explained that neither agency had justified its wholesale refusal to produce any records in response to the FOIA request. In March 2026, the district court denied ICE and CBP’s motions and granted our cross-motion as to both agencies, agreeing with our arguments on every point.