On Oct. 17, 2017, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the District of Columbia, and the States of California, Hawai'i, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, New York, Oregon, and Washington filed this lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its components U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). All plaintiffs were represented by their respective Attorneys General.

The plaintiffs sought disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) of agency records that would shed light on federal immigration enforcement activities within their respective States. Due to a significant increase in such enforcement in 2017, the plaintiffs asserted that they had an urgent need for this information.

The complaint alleged that on June 29, 2017, the plaintiffs submitted a FOIA request to ICE, USCIS, and CBP seeking copies of records relating to:
1. the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA);
2. arrests and/or detentions of individuals at certain locations; and
3. ICE or CBP detainer requests and databases.

The complaint further alleged that, to date, the plaintiffs had not received a substantive response from ICE. The plaintiffs sought an expedited disclosure order under FOIA and sought legal fees.

The case was assigned to Judge F. Dennis Saylor, IV.

On Feb. 15, 2018, the parties filed a joint statement. The plaintiffs sought production of all responsive documents by Aug. 1, whereas the defendants anticipated production by Sept. 30 for CBP and USCIS and Nov. 30 for ICE.

The defendants completed their productions at the end of November 2018, with the exception of a subset of records that were referred to other agencies for review and production.

On Sept. 10, 2019, the plaintiffs requested that the district court set a deadline for the defendants' completion of remaining document production; the court set the date of Oct. 7, 2019.

On Oct. 1, 2019, the parties filed a joint stipulation of dismissal. The parties explained that the defendants had made a final production of records responsive to their FOIA requests on Sept. 12, and thus they had agreed to dismiss this case, with each party to bear its own costs, attorneys fees, and expenses.

This case is closed.

Ava Morgenstern - 04/21/2018
Sam Kulhanek - 03/29/2020


compress summary