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. ICE argues that complying with the FOIA request would be unduly burdensome and that the records sought are exempt from FOIA. CBP argues that, because ICE owns the database in which the records are stored, the records are ICE records, not CBP records. In response, we explain that ICE has overstated both the burden of producing the records and the amount of FOIA-exempt information the records contain, and failed to consider redacting the exempt portions of the records. As to CBP, we explain that the records CBP creates and controls are CBP records, irrespective of whether they are housed in ICE’s database.