This is one of a pair of lawsuits filed by state affiliates of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), each relating to two separate Freedom of Information Act requests seeking agency records on immigration enforcement practices in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. (The other case is IM-ME-0002, American Civil Liberties Union of Maine Foundation v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security.) Both cases were brought in U.S. District Court for the District of Maine; the ACLU sought declaratory and injunctive relief—specifically, the release of documents responsive to each request—as well as attorneys' fees and costs. This particular action was filed on May 1, 2018 against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its component agency U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). (The other was filed seven days later and also included another DHS sub-agency as a defendant.) Both cases were partially coordinated and assigned to District Judge John D. Levy.

The FOIA request at issue in this case, submitted on January 18, 2018, sought for information relating to CBP's citizenship checkpoints, bus searches, and coordination within local, state, and federal law enforcement within the state of Maine only. (The request in the other case sought information involving two more states and was aimed at more agencies.) It came after Border Patrol agents stopped a Concord Coach bus four days earlier allegedly in order to ask each passenger about their citizenship status. According to the ACLU, after 20 business days, CBP had still not issued any notification about whether it would comply with the request, in breach of FOIA-mandated deadlines.

CBP filed its answer on June 18, 2018. It admitted that it had not communicated with the ACLU regarding its request, but otherwise denied most of the complaint's remaining allegations.

On July 5, 2018, Magistrate Judge John H. Rich III granted the parties' joint motion allowing for CBP to review and produce documents responsive to the ACLU's request, subject to a joint status report to be filed on August 17. In that status report, the parties notified the court that CBP had provided the ACLU with four partially redacted documents totaling 34 pages; however, the parties still differed as to whether these documents covered all those potentially responsive to the request. CBP agreed to provide any additional responsive documents by September 28.

A second joint status report is scheduled to be filed with the court by October 12, 2018. As of August 22, the case is ongoing.

Jake Parker - 06/19/2018
Alexander Walling - 08/22/2018


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