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TRAC – Poor ICE FOIA Management Hinders Public Access to Immigration Records

Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse: “Poor management of FOIA requests at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is evidenced by older requests being forgotten while the agency focuses on the newer ones, according to the latest ICE records compiled and analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University. For example, as of the end of June 2013, one of four (27%) FOIA requests ICE received during March remained unanswered, while half (50%) of all requests received two months earlier during January still had not been answered. In addition, backlog and waiting times both continue to grow. The backlog of unanswered requests has climbed to 6,699, up from only 2,903 at the end of September 2012. And these unanswered requests have been waiting a median of 116 calendar days or longer, nearly double the median wait time of 64 days at the end of March. The latest FOIA Project report with more details of ICE’s FOIA request management is here.”

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