In December 2017, the ACLU of Northern California submitted a request to the the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, seeking documents related to the agency's use of a private contractor known as G4S Secure Solutions to restrain, process, and transport immigration detainees. G4S had reportedly been involved in instances of assault and neglect against detainees in their custody, including a 2014 incident during which a detainee died. The ACLU specifically sought records regarding the policies and procedures used by G4S and the manner in which the company was awarded its contracts with the government, totaling in excess of $200 million. The agency did not provide the records to the ACLU.

On July 10, 2018, the ACLU filed this suit against Immigrations and Customs Enforcement under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The ACLU, represented by private counsel and in-house attorneys, sought declaratory and injunctive relief, specifically an order directing the defendant to release the requested records; a declaration that the defendant's refusal to provide the records was illegal; and attorneys' fees. The case was assigned to Magistrate Judge Laura Beeler.

The parties began filing case management updates shortly after filing the suit. Magistrate Judge Beeler put a minute entry into the record on March 8, 2019 asking the plaintiffs to provide a narrowed version of their FOIA request within a week. Subsequent case management statements showed that the plaintiffs submitted a narrower request within the deadline, though a June 13, 2019 case management statement from the ACLU indicated that the plaintiffs were concerned that the defendants would not process the revised requests in a timely manner.

On June 26, 2019, the court received notice of a possibly related case from G4S, 19-cv-02757 in N.D. Cal. This new case was filed by a private citizen represented by the ACLU alleging assault, battery, negligence, and negligent infliction of emotional distress in ICE custody via G4S. The defendants resisted relating the two cases, but Magistrate Judge Beeler filed an order relating the two cases on July 8, 2019.

Document production continued after the cases were combined. In a September 26, 2019 case management conference, Magistrate Judge Beeler ordered the defendant to increase production of documents from 500 a month to 750 a month. COVID-19 moved document production and further case management conferences online in late March. A May 7, 2020 case management report shows difficulty in getting monthly document productions over to the plaintiffs in March and April, but the defendants promised to work with the plaintiffs to figure out the cause of the issue. Production is ongoing.

Nathaniel Flack - 10/04/2018
Ellen Aldin - 06/24/2020


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