Facts

On Feb. 7, 2008, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducted a raid at the Micro Solutions Enterprises manufacturing plant in Van Nuys, California. Due to the raid, government agents interrogated and detained over 130 employees, but had arrest warrants for only eight individuals.

The National Immigration Law Center (NILC), the ACLU of Southern California, and the National Lawyers Guild of Los Angeles submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the ICE and the Dept. Of Homeland Security (DHS), seeking documents related to potential discriminatory and unconstitutional conduct. The agencies did not release any documents in response to the request. Thus, the organizations sued the ICE and DHS for declaratory and injunctive relief based on the failure to release information.

PLAINTIFFS' CONTENTIONS:
Plaintiffs claimed defendants violated 5 U.S.C. Section 552(a)(3)(A) by failing to punctually release records, and violated Section 552(a)(1) and (a)(2) by failing to make records accessible to the public.

Result

Plaintiffs dismissed the suit after defendants released over 2500 pages of requested documents, which revealed that government agents planned on arresting up to 200 workers and performed the raid based on an anonymous tip.