Long v. ICE, No. 17-506, 2022 WL 705493 (N.D.N.Y. Mar. 9, 2022) (Sannes, J

Long v. ICE, No. 17-506, 2022 WL 705493 (N.D.N.Y. Mar. 9, 2022) (Sannes, J.)

Re:  Request for records related to Form I-247 requests including anonymized personal data such as demographics, immigration history, and criminal background

Disposition:  Granting defendant's motion for summary judgment; denying plaintiff's motion for summary judgment

• Litigation Considerations, Adequacy of Search:  "In [the court's prior] decision [], the Court ruled that ICE had not met its burden of explaining why its search was adequate in light of the lack of factual development regarding ICE's capability of (1) searching the Enforcement Integrated Database ("EID") directly and (2) searching the ICE Integrated Decision Support System ("IIDS") 'as a whole for responsive data at the outset,' rather than 'searching for data within specific, pre-generated populations.'"  "[Defendant] states that 'EARM [application] can only be used to query the EID one individual at a time,' that it is 'primarily used by ICE officers in the field,' and that it requires the 'manual entry of an identifier'—a process that would not be feasible for the requests sought here."  "[Defendant] further states:  It is not feasible for the agency to search the EID directly; the system was not designed to accommodate direct searches."  "While the assertions that it is not feasible for ICE to search the EID directly are somewhat conclusory, the Court finds that the feasibility of directly searching the EID is not determinative of the adequacy of ICE's search in this case."  "[Defendant] states that '[t]here is no data in the EID, not extracted or pulled into IIDS[,] that would be responsive to [P]laintiffs' requests.'"  The court finds that "[t]here is no record evidence before the Court contradicting the assertion that there is no data in the EID, which would be responsive to Plaintiffs' requests, that is not also in the IIDS." 
  
  "With regard to the IIDS, ICE has clarified that it is possible to search the IIDS directly."  "Plaintiffs argue that ICE must search the IIDS directly for responsive data, rather than using 'predefined' queries that result in 'populations.'"  "However, [defendant] states that, in preparing its responses to Plaintiffs' FOIA requests, ICE did in fact search the entire IIDS database."  "[Defendant] states that 'ICE has not limited its search in any way' and that '[a]ny data [P]laintiffs request that exists in the IIDS outside of the detainers population, in any form, including in other populations, has been provided to the extent that it does not require the creation of records.'"  "Accordingly, whether ICE must search the IIDS for and produce all of the information Plaintiffs request raises the issue of whether such a search requires the creation of records . . . ."
   
• Procedural Requirements, Searching for Responsive Records:  "ICE argues that 'Plaintiffs' FOIA requests are problematic inasmuch as they force [Enforcement Removal Operations ("ERO")] to search the IIDS in a person-centric view, when the database is not structured to perform searches in this manner.'"  "[Defendant] acknowledges that while 'detainer information, detention information[,] and apprehension information exist in various places in the EID and IIDS, ICE systems treat each of these types of events as distinct enforcement actions.'"  "There is not necessarily a 'direct relationship' between different enforcement actions, and for any individual 'there are a number of identifiers, none of which is required every time an enforcement action is taken.'"  "According to [defendant], ICE must conduct analysis to match the identifiers across different enforcement events that correspond to the same individual."  "More specifically, ICE must run 'multiple queries' to create a 'composite of certain identifiers for the individual,' establish relationships based on the composite identifiers, consolidate the results, and perform 'analyses and calculations' to create the information requested by Plaintiffs."  "The 'entire resulting data set' must then be 'validated by analysts and officers.'"  "Plaintiffs argue that the IIDS 'is an integrated database, the structure of which includes built-in connections that allow different events and fields to be linked.'"  "Plaintiffs [further] argue that the IIDS Database Schema shows that the data they seek are linked together in ICE's databases such that ICE could simply write a query 'using these built-in linkages' to compile the information."  "[Defendant] denies that the requested data is linked in a way that would allow ICE to retrieve the records at issue, because the 'databases are organized according to events,' not to follow an individual."  "Crediting [defendant's] testimony, the Court finds that the process of linking disparate data populations in the IIDS to produce the information Plaintiffs request constitutes the 'creation of a new record' within the meaning of FOIA."