Long v. ICE, No. 17-01097, 2018 WL 4680278 (D.D.C. Sept. 28, 2018) (Mehta, J.)

Long v. ICE, No. 17-01097, 2018 WL 4680278 (D.D.C. Sept. 28, 2018) (Mehta, J.)

Re:  Request for certain data within ICE's Enforcement Integrated Database and defendant's withholding of many fields that it previously provided in response to Plaintiffs' requests

Disposition:  Denying defendant's motion for summary judgment; denying plaintiffs' cross-motion for summary judgment

• Procedural Requirements, Proper FOIA Requests:  The court holds that "while ICE is correct that its decision to make certain discretionary disclosures in the past does not undermine its claim that such disclosures are not required under FOIA, the court is not persuaded that the 'disappearing fields' fit that bill here, at least based on the present record."  "Stated differently, while an agency can change its mind, the court is not convinced that the reasons offered by ICE in this case justify its change of heart."  "As discussed above, most of the reasons offered by ICE are neither request nor data-point specific."  "And, even to the extent ICE's declarant addresses a particular request or data point in her declarations, she relies upon generic explanations and hyper-technical rhetoric to describe the 'additional analysis' purportedly demanded by Plaintiffs' requests."  "This makes it difficult for the court to discern whether producing the 'disappearing fields' in response to Plaintiffs' August 2016 Request truly requires ICE to create new agency records."