FOIA Litigation
NILA’s transparency litigation focuses on lawsuits under the Freedom of Information Act seeking records that federal agencies have failed to disclose and have been shrouded from public view. NILA’s transparency litigation seeking records on behalf of an individual clients are not posted below.
NILA’s Transparency Litigation Docket
NILA & Refugees International v. U.S Dep’t of State (D. Mass.) – Lawsuit seeking third country agreements between the United States and the governments of Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama and Costa Rica to accept individuals from other countries deported from the United States.
Co-counsel: Marzouk Law LLC
Status: The complaint was filed on June 10, 2025. Defendant produced highly redacted records, beginning on August 5, 2025.
Documents:
+ Complaint
+ DOS Production (Feb. 13, 2026)
+ DOS Production (Mar. 13, 2026)
+ DOS Production (Apr. 9, 2026)
ACLU of Pennsylvania v. ICE (E.D. Pa.) – Lawsuit seeking records related to investigation of sexual abuse, assault, and harassment at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center, an immigration detention center in Pennsylvania.
Co-counsel: ACLU of Pennsylvania
Status: The complaint was filed on January 24, 2025. ICE has produced records (see below).
Documents:
+ Complaint
+ ICE Production (May 1, 2025)
+ ICE Production (May 30, 2025)
+ ICE Production (June 24, 2025)
+ ICE Production (Sept. 26, 2025)
+ ICE Production (Dec. 22, 2025)
+ ICE Production (June 9, 2026)
Immigrant Legal Defense v. CBP (N.D. Cal.) – Lawsuit seeking records related to the preparation, processing, producing, and service of the certified administrative record for petitions for review litigated in the courts of appeals. An additional FOIA request, submitted on September 26, 2024, sought records from EOIR, and EOIR produced 589 pages of records on December 12, 2024, including internal staff guidance and standard operating procedures.
Co-counsel: Immigrant Legal Defense
Status: The complaint against CBP, ICE, and OIL was filed on March 21, 2025.
Documents:
+ EOIR Production – Dec. 12, 2024
+ DOJ Production – June 9, 2025
+ DOJ Production – June 27, 2025
+ ICE Production – Sept. 5, 2025
+ DOJ Production – Jan. 2026
NILA v. ICE (D. Mass.) – Lawsuit seeking a full and complete copy of the manual entitled “Reinstatement: Law and Procedure.”
Co-counsel: Marzouk Law LLC
Status: The complaint was filed on October 28, 2025. Defendant produced an ICE declaration attesting to the absence of an updated manual on March 23, 2026, and the parties stipulated to dismissal.
Documents:
+ Complaint
+ Stipulation of Dismissal and Clark Declaration
CLOSED CASES
NILA v. USCIS (D. Mass.) – Lawsuit seeking records relating to asylum processing data, including the implementation of USCIS’ two-track system for scheduling asylum interviews, statistics on the number of asylum applications filed, and USCIS’ recordkeeping methods relating to asylum application filing dates. USCIS produced records on January 13, 2025.
Co-Counsel: Central West Justice Center
Status: The complaint was filed on October 1, 2024.
Documents:
+ Complaint
+ USCIS Records (produced Jan. 13, 2025)
+ Interview Slots by City (produced Jan. 13, 2025)
+ Interview Numbers, Dates, and Tracks by Fiscal Year (produced Jan. 13, 2025)
NILA v. DHS (D. Mass.) – Lawsuit seeking records produced in response to a July 10, 2024 letter from the Chairmen of the Committees on Homeland Security and Oversight and Accountability to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas seeking information related to the Supreme Court’s decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, 144 S. Ct. 2244 (2024).
Status: The complaint was filed on December 17, 2024. DHS’ first production was released on March 14, 2025 and the second production on April 23, 2025. The parties settled the case and stipulated to dismissal in May 2025.
Documents:
+ Complaint
+ DHS Production – Mar. 14, 2025
+ DHS Production – Apr. 23, 2025
+ Settlement Agreement – May 15, 2025
Executive Office for Immigration Review Records Related to Subpoenas (EOIR) – The request sought records related to the issuance, compliance, and enforcement of subpoenas issued by immigration judges pursuant to § 240(b)(1) of the Immigration & Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1229a(b)(1).
Status: The request was submitted on May 2, 2024. On July 9, 2024, the agency produced a 3-page memorandum issued by EOIR Office of General Counsel (see below). An administrative appeal was filed and, on December 17, 2024, EOIR produced additional documents from, inter alia, the OCIJ Training Manual (July 2023).
Documents:
+ Immigration Judge-Issued Subpoenas (Memo dated December 2018, produced July 9, 2024)
+ EOIR Production Following Administrative Appeal (produced Dec. 17, 2024)
VECINA & NILA v. Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (D. Mass.) – Lawsuit seeking records the immediate release and proactive disclosure of a full and complete copy of the Unaccompanied Child Manual of Procedures (UC MAP).
Co-Counsel: Araujo & Fisher LLC
Status: The complaint was filed on November 1, 2023. On December 11, 2023, the Administration for Children and Families released an unredacted copy of all 6 sections of the UC MAP. The agency also has committed to proactively disclose updates to it going forward here: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/e-reading-room.
Documents:
+ Complaint
+ Section 1: Placement in ORR Care Provider Facilities
+ Section 2: Safe and Timely Release from ORR Care
+ Section 3: Services
+ Section 4: Preventing, Detecting, and Responding to Sexual Abuse and Harassment
+ Section 5: Program Management
+ Section 6: Resources and Services Available After Release from ORR Care
+ Settlement Agreement (October 2024)
Innovation Law Lab v. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (D. Or.) – Lawsuit seeking the Credible Fear and Reasonable Fear Procedures Manuals used by asylum officers to screen individuals facing deportation who fear persecution or torture.
Co-Counsel: Innovation Law Lab
Status: The complaint was filed on February 21, 2024. USCIS produced complete, unredacted versions of the manuals on April 5, 2024. It also posted them to its electronic reading room.
Documents:
+ Complaint
+ Credible Fear Procedures Manual (produced April 5, 2024)
+ Reasonable Fear Procedures Manual (produced April 5, 2024)
+ Settlement Agreement (July 2024)
NILA and Church World Services v. USCIS (D. Mass.) – Lawsuit seeking records related to USCIS’ policies related to the adjudication and processing of Form I-730 Refugee/Asylee Relative Petitions—petitions submitted by refugees and asylees to obtain permission for their immediate relatives to join them in the United States.
Co-Counsel: Marzouk Law LLC
Status: The complaint was filed on March 28, 2023.
Documents:
+ Complaint
+ USCIS Records – July 2023
+ USCIS Records – Sept. 2023
+ Settlement Agreement (May 2024)
NILA and Church World Services v. Dep’t of State (D. Mass.) – Lawsuit seeking records related to the State Department’s policies related to the adjudication and processing of Form I-730 Refugee/Asylee Relative Petitions—petitions submitted by refugees and asylees to obtain permission for their immediate relatives to join them in the United States.
Co-Counsel: Marzouk Law LLC
Status: The complaint was filed on October 13, 2022.
Documents:
+ Complaint
+ DOS Records – Jan. 2023
+ DOS Records – Feb. 2023
+ DOS Records – Mar. 2023
+ DOS Records – Apr. 2023
+ DOS Records – May 2023
+ DOS Records – June 2023
+ DOS Records – July 2023
+ DOS Records – Aug. 2023
+ DOS Records – Sept. 2023
+ DOS Records – Oct. 2023
+ DOS Records – Nov. 2023 – Jan. 2024
+ DOS Records – Mar. 2024
+ Settlement Agreement (July 2024)
NILA v. ICE (D. Mass.) – Lawsuit seeking records related to ICE’s policies and efforts to remove withholding or CAT grantees to non-designated countries, i.e., countries other than the country/ies of removal designated by an immigration judge.
Co-Counsel: Marzouk Law LLC
Status: The complaint was filed on August 17, 2022. ICE subsequently produced the requested records and a Vaughn index. The parties jointly stipulated to dismissal in September 2023.
Documents:
+ Complaint
+ ICE Records – Vaughn Index
+ ICE Records
+ Settlement Agreement (June 2023)
Records relating to Matter of Y-L-, A-G-, R-S-R-, 23 I. & N. Dec. 270 (A.G. 2002) (establishing effectively irrebuttable presumption that drug trafficking aggravated felony convictions are particularly serious crimes) – This request sought records from the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) regarding: (1) the number of cases in which the Y-L- “presumption” was/was not overcome; (2) copies of all decisions overcoming the “presumption,” and (3) all memos, correspondence, guidance, and training matters related to Y-L-.
Co-Requestors: Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program, Massachusetts Committee for Public Counsel Services.
Status: The request was submitted on March 24, 2023. On May 3, 2023, EOIR responded, indicating that it could not search for the first two categories of records sought “because EOIR does not track this data” but produced records related to the third category (see below). The records from pages 30-34 of the May 3, 2023 and the July 5, 2023 production are from a manual which, according to an EOIR Supervising Attorney, has no cover, but “the file name is Asylum Withholding and CAT.”
Documents:
+ FOIA Request
+ EOIR Production Email – May 3, 2023
+ EOIR Records – May 3, 2023
+ EOIR Records – July 5, 2023
Immigrant Advocates Response Collaborative v. DHS (N.D.N.Y) – Lawsuit seeking records related to the Criminal History Program (CHIP), Criminal History Information Sharing (CHIS), and the Biometric Identification Transnational Migration Alert Program (BITMAP).
Co-Counsel: Immigrant Advocates Response Collaborative
Status: The complaint was filed in November 2021. The FBI, ICE, and DOS subsequently produced records and Vaughn indices.
Documents:
+ Complaint
+ FBI Records
+ ICE Records
+ DOS Records
+ Settlement Agreement (Jan. 2023)
NILA v. CBP (D. Mass.) – Lawsuit seeking CBP records related to treatment and expulsions/deportations of pregnant women, mothers who recently gave birth in United States, and their children, including newborn U.S. citizen children.
Co-Counsel: Proskauer Rose LLP, Al Otro Lado, Haitian Bridge Alliance
Status: The complaint was filed on July 1, 2021. CBP produced records in August, October, and November 2021.
Documents:
+ Complaint
+ Select CBP Productions
+ Settlement Agreement (Mar. 2023)
Safe Passage Project v. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (S.D.N.Y.) – Lawsuit seeking records related to CBP Form 93 (Unaccompanied Child Screening Addendum), a primary tool that CBP and USCIS use to document experiences with human trafficking and fear of persecution and torture for unaccompanied immigrant children.
Co-Counsel: The Law Office of Derrick J. Hensley, PLLC and Kathryn O. Greenberg Immigration Justice Clinic
Status: The complaint was filed on April 15, 2021. USCIS produced relevant records in May 2021. CBP produced relevant records in June and July 2021.
Documents:
+ Complaint
+ CBP Form 93
+ USCIS Productions
+ Stipulation and Order of Dismissal (Nov. 2021)
Pangea Legal Services v. USCIS (N.D. Cal.) – Lawsuit seeking records related to adjudication of Refugee/Asylee Petitions (Form I-730).
Co-Counsel: Pangea Legal Services
Status: The complaint was filed on June 1, 2020 and USCIS produced the relevant records on January 19, 2021.
Documents:
+ Complaint
+ I-730 Guidance & Updates for the Regions
+ Stipulation of Settlement and Dismissal (Jan. 2021)
National Immigration Litigation Alliance, Inc.
Email: info@immigrationlitigation.org
Tel: (617) 819-4649