Gahagan v. USCIS, No. 15-31029, 2016 WL 3878183 (5th Cir. July 15, 2016) (per curiam)

Gahagan v. USCIS, No. 15-31029, 2016 WL 3878183 (5th Cir. July 15, 2016) (per curiam)

Re: Request for immigration records concerning requester's client

Disposition: Vacating district court's grant of government's motion for summary judgment and denial of requester's motions for summary judgment; remanding for further consideration of results of new search

• Litigation Considerations, Considerations on Appeal: The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit holds "that remand is appropriate." The court explains that "USCIS filed a motion to remand, explaining that it had recently discovered that . . . a USCIS employee in the New Orleans Field Office, 'could not confirm he had conducted an electronic search using the A-file number of the individual referenced in [the requester's] 2014 FOIA request[.]'" "USCIS decided to conduct an additional 'electronic search' . . . which 'produced a limited amount of material that USCIS is now processing for any applicable FOIA exemptions.'" The court finds that "[a]lthough the results of USCIS's latest search may not render the controversy moot, it could affect the disposition of [the requester's] claims." The court finds that "because [it] 'will not generally consider evidence or arguments that were not presented to the district court,' . . . [it] leave[s] to the district court the task of determining the impact of USCIS's latest search in the first instance."