American Immigration Council v. United States Department of Homeland Security

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American Immigration Council v. United States Department of Homeland Security, No. 16-cv-01050-RJL (D.C. District Court, Filed June 6, 2016)

The American Immigration Council filed a FOIA request with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in October, 2015 seeking information about complaints filed against the U.S. Border Patrol since January, 2012. This request followed-up on an earlier FOIA request by the Council in response to which CBP produced data concerning 809 complaints of abuse lodged against U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) agents between January 2009 and January 2012. The Council analyzed this earlier data in a May 2014 report entitled, No Action Taken: Lack of CBP Accountability in Responding to Complaints of Abuse, revealing that the recorded outcome in 97 percent of the cases CBP claimed to have resolved was “no action.” The data further showed that “physical abuse” by USBP agents was the most prevalent reason given for filing a complaint (cited in 40 percent of the complaints), with “excessive use of force” referenced in 38 percent of the cases. The October 2015 FOIA was filed in order for the Council to determine whether CBP and USBP had made any improvements to the complaint system, and in particular whether the response to complaints filed against agents had changed.

Over 8 months later, CBP had not responded to the October 2015 FOIA. The Council, represented by Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, filed a lawsuit on June 6, 2016, to compel the release of documents related to the complaints process. CBP subsequently produced a multiple-page spreadsheet listing abbreviated information about thousands of complaints. The case was referred for mediation in May of 2019.

The parties settled and dismissed the case in December 2019. Pursuant to the settlement, CBP produced a second spreadsheet identifying all complaints made against Border Patrol officers by noncitizens or on behalf of noncitizens for the period from the last spreadsheet through August 2019.

Counsel: The American Immigration Council, Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP

Contact: Mary Kenney | American Immigration Council | 202.507.7512 | mkenney@immcouncil.org