Judge Rejects Border Patrol's FOIA Arguments

By Mike Heuer, Courthouse News Service, Sept. 21, 2015

A federal judge refused to dismiss a class action accusing U.S. Customs and Border Protection of a pattern and practice of delaying response to Freedom of Information Act requests.

Immigration attorneys and their clients sued U.S. Customs and Border Protection in March for missing the deadline to respond to FOIA requests - 38,000 of them. 

The government claimed that its failure to respond was not actionable.

The "main thrust" of the government's motion to dismiss "is that violation of the FOIA response deadline is not a cognizable claim," U.S. District Judge James Dosanto wrote on Sept. 17.

Dosanto didn't buy it.

Read more here.  Copy of decision is available in Court Opinions (Sept. 17, 2015).