911 FOIA: Response from CRCL

Full Response from DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties

Cover letter dated August 22, 2012 from Fernando Pineiro Jr., FOIA Officer, Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, to Melissa Crow, Director, Legal Action Center, indicating that 70 pages of records were releasable in full and 23 pages were releasable with redactions under 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(5) and (b)(6).

Pages 1-13:  DHS internal tracking records regarding incidents documented in OneAmerica report (see below).

Pages 14-22:  Partially redacted internal DHS e-mails about how the OneAmerica report came to CRCL’s attention.

Pages 23- 86:  OneAmerica, The Growing Human Rights Crisis Along Washington’s Northern Border (April 2012).

Pages 87-91:  Partially redacted internal e-mails dated July 2011 from Margo Schlanger, DHS Officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, to Ronald Vitiello, Deputy Chief, Border Patrol, forwarding June 2011 correspondence from Jorge Baron of NWIRP about specific law enforcement requests for Border Patrol interpretation assistance that apparently triggered enforcement activities, and requesting update on CBP’s written guidance.  Two e-mails, which were completely redacted, indicate that they were “Referred to CBP for Direct Reply to Requester.”

Pages 92-93:  First two pages of a memo dated July 29, 2011, from Policy Advisor, Immigration Section, Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties summarizing June 29, 2011 CRCL/CBP meeting.  Topics include Border Patrol provision of interpretation for other law enforcement agencies that triggers immigration enforcement activity, and Border Patrol dispatch center in Whatcom County, WA answering 911 calls.  Reports from nongovernmental organizations and the press indicate that interpretation/enforcement issues have arisen in Washington, Montana, California, and Louisiana.  “Some of the people placed in removal proceedings in these cases were domestic violence victims who had called the police for help, or people who were cooperating with the police in search for fugitives.”  Get backs include a commitment by CRCL to draft language describing Border Patrol’s limited involvement in Whatcom County 911, and a commitment by CBP to provide CRCL with “draft guidance or muster on the topic of avoiding harm to community policing/victims/witnesses when providing assistance with language interpretation.”