Brown, et al. v. CBP and DHS, 15-cv-01181-JD (N.D. Cal.)

On March 12, 2015, fourteen plaintiffs, including three immigration attorneys and eleven noncitizens filed a complaint with class allegations in federal district court in the Northern District of California against Defendant U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), seeking redress for CBP’s failure to comply with the statutory timelines under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Plaintiffs challenge a pattern or practice that has resulted in the agency having a backlog of over thirty thousand unanswered requests under FOIA. On April 22, 2015, Plaintiffs filed an amended complaint against both CBP and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, as well as a motion to certify a nationwide class.

On May 18, 2015, Defendants filed a motion to dismiss, arguing that Plaintiffs failed to allege any actionable claim under the FOIA, lacked standing, and did not identify a discrete CBP policy or practice. Plaintiffs filed an opposition on June 1, 2015. On September 17, 2015, the court denied CBP’s motion to dismiss in its entirety.

The court held a hearing on the pending motion for class certification on October 7, 2015, but did not rule on the motion. Instead, the court requested that the parties engage in discovery and file amended briefs on class certification following this discovery.

During the course of the lawsuit, CBP implemented new procedures for handling FOIA requests and added staff. In light of this, the parties reached a settlement and, On October 5, 2016, the district court dismissed the case pursuant to this settlement.  At the time of the settlement, CBP’s backlog had been reduced to approximately 3,000 FOIA requests, most of which were complex, and CBP generally was responding to new requests within 20 days. In the settlement, CBP committed to continuing its efforts to timely process FOIA requests.  Additionally, the agency committed to increased transparency about its performance; CBP will now post monthly FOIA statistics to its website, including the total number of FOIA requests pending, how long they have been pending, how many new requests are received each month, and how many are processed.

•  Complaint
• Amended Complaint
• Class Certification
• Motion to Dismiss
• Plaintiffs’ Opposition to Motion to Dismiss
• Minute Order
• Order Denying Motion to Dismiss
• Brown v. CBP Settlement

Contact: Stacy Tolchin | stacy@tolchinimmigration.com