On Apr. 12, 2017, the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties filed this lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). This was one of over a dozen such suits; each aimed to shed light on how U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) implemented President Trump's Jan. 27 and Mar. 6 Executive Orders that banned admission to the U.S. of nationals of Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Specifically, plaintiffs sought information "concerning CBP’s local implementation of President Trump's January 27, 2017 Executive Order...as well as any other judicial order or executive directive issued regarding Executive Order No. 1, including President Trump's March 6, 2017 Executive Order." Attorney from Davis Wright Tremaine LLP worked with the ACLU on the case.
The request concerned implementation at international airports within the purview of CBP's San Diego Field Office, including San Diego International Airport and the San Diego port of entry. The request also concerned the number of individuals who were detained or subjected to secondary screening, extended questioning, enforcement examination, or consideration for a waiver at the aforementioned airports pursuant to the Executive Orders.
In the complaint, plaintiffs argued that the requested records "would facilitate the public's understanding of how Defendants implemented and enforced the Executive Orders here in the San Francisco Field Office" and that "[s]uch information is critical to the public's ability to hold the government accountable."
On May 8, the government filed a motion to treat all of these FOIA cases as "multi-district litigation," effectively seeking to consolidate them before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. For the transfer motion, see
this case.
On Aug. 2, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation denied defendants' transfer motion (notice of the denial was filed on Aug. 15). On Aug. 3, Judge M. James Lorenz denied defendants' May 10 motion to stay.
The parties met for a series of case management conferences in the fall of 2017. The case did not settle, so the parties continued with discovery.
On October 15, 2018, the parties filed notice of settlement and subsequently jointly moved to dismiss the case. The documents released by the government in all the ACLU cases are available through
this case page.
Litigation about attorneys' fees dragged on for several years. The parties ultimately agreed on a fee award and notified the court the case was closed on July 11, 2019. The Clearinghouse does not know the amount of the fee award.
Julie Aust - 11/11/2017
Ava Morgenstern - 05/05/2018
Virginia Weeks - 10/21/2018
compress summary
