On June 25, 2018, Buzzfeed brought this Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) suit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its component agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The plaintiff sought to shed light on ICE’s use and review of solitary confinement for individuals in its custody, citing ICE policy which requires additional oversight of decisions to hold detainees in segregation for over 14 days. Earlier, in October 2017, ICE approved the plaintiff’s expedited processing for its FOIA request filed in September 2017. Over the next several months, ICE failed to produce any documents or provide a future date for their production as required by law. In March 2018, Buzzfeed filed an administrative appeal to DHS regarding ICE’s failure to produce documents within a reasonable time frame. In April 2018, DHS responded that the request was pending but declined to provide an estimated document production date. This suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and assigned to Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.

The plaintiffs sought written notices sent to ICE field office directors documenting instances when an ICE detainee was held continuously in segregation for over 14 days, as well as reviews of those notices which were to be completed every 14 days per ICE policy. The complaint noted that, according to UN experts, holding individuals in solitary confinement for over 15 days may constitute torture and lead to irreversible psychological damage.

On August 2, 2018, the defendants filed an answer to the plaintiff’s complaint admitting that it had not produced any documents in response to the FOIA request. On September 19, 2018, the defendants informed the court that it had identified over 8,100 documents responsive to the request and proposed a processing and production schedule of 400 pages per month to be completed in May 2020. The plaintiff objected to ICE's proposed completion date as it was 3 years past the date the request was made and proposed a 90 day schedule to the court.

On October 4, 2018, Judge Jackson ordered ICE to file a supplemental declaration with the court explaining its FOIA-processing capacity and the reason for delay in this case.

The case is ongoing.

Veronica Portillo Heap - 10/04/2018


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