El Badrawi v. Department of Homeland Sec.
| Decision Date | 30 September 2008 |
| Docket Number | Civil Action No. 3:07-cv-372 (JCH). |
| Citation | 583 F.Supp.2d 285 |
| Parties | Rashad Ahmad Refaat EL BADRAWI, Plaintiff v. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Connecticut |
Michael J. Wishnie, Jerome N. Frank Legal Services, Hope R. Metcalf, Ramzi Kassem, Yale Law School, New Haven, CT, for Plaintiff.
Lisa E. Perkins, U.S: Attorney's Office, Hartford, CT, for Defendants.
RULING ON DEFENDANTS' MOTIONS FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT [Doc. Nos. 15, 20, 25, 39, 57]
This action is brought under the Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA"), 5 U.S.C. § 552. Plaintiff, Rashad Ahmad Refaat El Badrawi, seeks declaratory and injunctive relief to compel disclosure of records held by the defendants, the Department of Homeland Security ("DHS"), the Department of State ("DOS"), and the Department of Justice ("DOJ").
On October 19, 2006, El Badrawi submitted FOIA requests to three component agencies of DHS—Customs and Border Protection ("CBP"), Citizenship and Immigration Services ("CIS"), and Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE")—as well as DOS, the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI") (a component of DOJ), and the Employment and Training Administration ("ETA") (a component of the Department of Labor). Each agency responded to El Badrawi individually. On March 9, 2007, El Badrawi initiated the current action, alleging that the agencies had been largely unresponsive to his requests for records. In November 2007, El Badrawi dropped his claim against ETA.
The five remaining defendants, CBP, DOS, FBI, ICE, and CIS, have each filed a Motion for Summary Judgment. See Doc. Nos. 15, 20, 25, 39, and 57. Specifically, the defendants seek summary judgment with respect to: 1) the adequacy of the agencies' searches; 2) the reasonableness of the referral of documents to their originating agencies for direct review and response; 3) the propriety of the withholding of certain records and the propriety of the exemptions invoked to justify those withholdings; and 4) the reasonableness of the agencies' segregability determinations. For the reasons that follow, the Motions are GRANTED in part and DENIED in part.
The Freedom of Information Act is "broadly conceived to reflect a general philosophy of full agency disclosure." ACLU v. DOD, No. 06-3140-cv (2d Cir. Sept. 22, 2008) (internal quotations omitted). In other words, "[the Act] adopts as its most basic premise a policy strongly favoring public disclosure of information in the possession of federal agencies." Halpern v. FBI, 181 F.3d 279, 286 (2d Cir.1999). It "... was enacted to promote honest and open government and to assure the existence of an informed citizenry. . . ." Grand Cent. P'ship., Inc. v. Cuomo, 166 F.3d 473, 478 (2d Cir.1999). There are, however, limits to FOIA's reach. Specifically, "[i]n recognition of those interests that may at times conflict with [the] policy of full disclosure, FOIA also provides nine exemptions from its disclosure requirement...." Halpern, 181 F.3d at 287. Yet, "[i]n keeping with the policy of full disclosure, the exemptions are narrowly construed with doubts resolved in favor of disclosure." Id. (internal quotations omitted).
In a motion for summary judgment, the burden is on the moving party to establish that there are no genuine issues of material fact in dispute and that it is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 256, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986); White v. ABCO Engineering Corp., 221 F.3d 293, 300 (2d Cir.2000). "In order to prevail on a motion for summary judgment in a FOIA case, the defending agency has the burden of showing that its search was adequate and that any withheld documents fall within an exemption to FOIA." Carney v. United States Dep't of Justice, 19 F.3d 807, 812 (2d Cir.1994). "Affidavits ... supplying facts indicating that the agency has conducted a thorough search and giving reasonably detailed explanations why any withheld documents fall within an exemption are sufficient to sustain the agency's burden." Id.
"Affidavits submitted by an agency are accorded a presumption of good faith, . . . [and] accordingly, discovery relating to the agency's search and the exemptions it claims for withholding records generally is unnecessary if the agency's submissions are adequate on their face." Id. (internal quotations omitted). "When this is the case, the district court may forgo discovery and award summary judgment on the basis of affidavits." Id. (internal quotations omitted). As the Second Circuit has noted, however, ". . . the good faith presumption that attaches to agency affidavits only applies when accompanied by reasonably detailed explanations of why material was withheld." Halpern, 181 F.3d at 295.
Finally, FOIA instructs district courts to review de novo agency decisions to withhold records. 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(4)(B). The de novo standard of review for FOIA cases is well established in this circuit. See, e.g., Halpern, 181 F.3d at 288; Massey v. FBI, 3 F.3d 620, 622 (2d Cir.1993); Hopkins v. United States Dep't of Hous. & Urban Dev., 929 F.2d 81, 84 (2d Cir.1991).
El Badrawi is a foreign national who studied and worked lawfully in the United States for nearly eleven years. Declaration of Rashad Ahmad Refaat El Badrawi ("El Badrawi Decl.") at ¶¶ 1-2. He worked primarily in the biotechnology industry. Id. at ¶ 2. On May 26, 2003, DOS issued El Badrawi an H1-B non-immigrant visa authorizing him to enter the United States and accept employment at the University of Connecticut ("UCONN") Health Center in Hartford, Connecticut. From June 2003 to October 2004, El Badrawi was employed at the UCONN Health Center as a research associate in the Richard D. Berlin Center for Cell Analysis and Modeling. Unknown to El Badrawi or his employer, however, DOS had administratively revoked his visa on October 2, 2003. Id. at ¶ 7; Exhibit 12 to Plaintiff's Memorandum in Opposition to FBI's Motion for Summary Judgment ("Plaintiff's Mem. in Opp. to FBI"). By the terms of the certificate of revocation, the revocation was effective only upon El Badrawi's departure from the United States. Id. El Badrawi did not leave the United States between June 2003 and his eventual removal, and therefore he had no indication that his visa had been revoked. El Badrawi Decl. at ¶ 8.
On October 29, 2004, El Badrawi was arrested in the parking lot of his Hartford residence by officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE"), an investigative branch of DHS. Id. at ¶ 11. He was subsequently detained at the Hartford Correctional Center where he was placed in the general population of inmates. Id. at ¶ 12.
Due to harsh detention conditions2 and fearful that he had been falsely linked with national security concerns, El Badrawi felt he had no choice but to accept voluntary departure from the United States. Id. at ¶ 13. On November 10, 2004, he accepted voluntary departure. Rather than being released, however, El Badrawi was imprisoned at the Hartford Correctional Center for an additional 42 days. Id. at ¶¶ 14-15. On December 22, 2004, ICE officers finally took El Badrawi to John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York and placed him on a flight out of the United States. Id. at ¶ 16.
In January 2005, El Badrawi met with officials at the United States Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon to discuss his visa revocation. Id. at ¶ 17. Embassy officials did not provide El Badrawi with any specific information regarding his treatment. Id. at ¶ 17. To date, he has not received any specific information from any source regarding the reasons for his visa revocation, arrest, or removal. Id. at ¶ 18.
On October 19, 2006, El Badrawi filed a FOIA request with CBP seeking access to, and copies of, any records held by CBP mentioning or concerning himself. See Plaintiff's Mem. in Opp. to CBP at 3. El Badrawi noted in this initial FOIA request that there was at least one known alternative spelling of his name. Exhibit B to CBP's Local Rule 56(a)1 Statement of Material Facts Not in Dispute ("CBP 56(a)1 Stmt").
In responding to plaintiffs request, CBP located eight records mentioning El Badrawi in its Treasury Enforcement Communications System ("TECS") database, but determined that all eight records belonged to other agencies. Suzuki Decl. at ¶ 7. As a result, on December 9, 2006, CBP issued a response to El Badrawi, stating that it was "unable to locate any records in the [CBP] database within the releasing authority of CBP." Exhibit C to CBP 56(a)1 Stmt.
On December 20, 2006, El Badrawi appealed CBP's response. Exhibit D to CBP 56(a)1 Stmt. Due to administrative error, CBP misplaced the appeal. Suzuki Decl. at ¶ 8. CBP later located the appeal and began processing it on March 21, 2007. Id. at ¶ 8.
In response to El Badrawi's appeal, CBP reversed its initial decision and determined that one of the eight documents was a responsive CBP record. CBP provided that document to El Badrawi in redacted form on July 9, 2007. Exhibit E to CBP 56(a)1 Stmt. CBP confirmed that the other seven documents located during the initial search were not CBP records, and thus should be referred to the originating agencies for determinations as to their releasability. Suzuki Decl. at ¶ 9. Of these, two records were referred to DOS, and three were referred to ICE. Id. at ¶ 9. The remaining two documents were later determined to be CBP documents and released in part to El Badrawi on December 18, 2007. Id. at ¶ 11.
Subsequently, on January 4, 2008, CBP received from ICE six CBP records responsive to plaintiffs request containing variations in the spelling of...
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