LCCRSF v. Department of Homeland Security (FOIA Lawsuit Regarding ICE Raid)
Status: Open
Description
The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area (LCCRSF) has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for failing to comply with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests regarding a violent April 2024 incident at the Golden State Annex, a privately run immigration detention facility.
The FOIA requests seek records related to a violent early-morning raid in which dozens of officers in SWAT-like gear stormed a dormitory of sleeping detainees, pepper-sprayed and assaulted them, and forcibly stripped them down to their underwear during contraband searches. The facility is operated by the GEO Group under contract with ICE.
DHS and ICE were legally required to respond to LCCRSF’s requests by August 2024 but have failed to produce the records or justify withholding them. With no response from the agencies, LCCRSF—alongside co-counsel Nixon Peabody—filed a lawsuit on 23rd December 2024.