American Immigration Council v. United States Citizenship and Immigration…
American Immigration Council v. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services
- Donna Ryu
- 4:20-cv-03266
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 4
In American Immigration Council v. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, Judge Ryu vacated the March 30 conference and reset it for August 3, 2022.
The plaintiffs and federal defendants in the FOIA action were affected: their case-management conference was moved from March 30 to August 3, 2022, and they were required to file an updated joint statement by July 27, 2022.
What happened
American Immigration Council v. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services concerns four Freedom of Information Act requests about the Migrant Protection Protocols, a federal immigration program. The plaintiffs are American Immigration Council, American Immigration Lawyers Association, and Human Rights Watch; the defendants are three federal immigration agencies.
The parties asked to postpone the case-management conference because ongoing litigation about the program could affect how they evaluate the requests and whether the case should proceed. They said a decision from the Supreme Court was expected during its 2022 term and that they did not need the court’s intervention at that point.
Judge Ryu ordered the March 30, 2022 conference vacated and continued to August 3, 2022, at 1:30 p.m., by videoconference only. She also required the parties to file an updated joint case-management statement by July 27, 2022.
The detailed version
- American Immigration Council v. United States Citizenship and Immigration… · No. 4:20-cv-03266
- Donna Ryu
- Mar. 22, 2022
Background
This action was filed under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). American Immigration Council, American Immigration Lawyers Association, and Human Rights Watch sought records from United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, United States Customs and Border Protection, and United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement concerning the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP).
The parties explained that the Department of Homeland Security had suspended new MPP enrollments in January 2021, announced a plan in February 2021 to process certain people who had been returned to Mexico, and determined in June 2021 that MPP should be terminated. A federal district court later ordered MPP reinstated nationwide, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld that order. The Supreme Court granted review on February 28, 2022, and set the matter for argument during its 2022 term. The government was required to implement MPP in good faith while the Supreme Court case was pending.
Parties’ Request
The parties jointly requested that the further case-management conference scheduled for March 30, 2022, be vacated and continued until August 3, 2022, or the soonest available date afterward. They said they were continuing to evaluate the FOIA requests in light of the ongoing MPP litigation and expected the Supreme Court’s decision to help them determine whether and how to proceed. They also stated that judicial intervention was not then necessary.
Ruling
Judge Donna Ryu ordered, as modified, that the March 30, 2022, further case-management conference be vacated and continued to August 3, 2022, at 1:30 p.m. The conference was set to occur in Oakland by videoconference only. The parties were ordered to file an updated joint case-management conference statement by July 27, 2022. The order did not decide the FOIA claims or the parties’ underlying dispute.
Read the full 4-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.