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Nightingale v. U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services

507 F. Supp. 3d 1193 (2020)

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Nightingale v. U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services

United States District Court for the Northern District of California
507 F. Supp. 3d 1193 (2020)

Facts

Alien Registration Files (A-Files) contained information needed by noncitizens and their attorneys to defend against removal, obtain immigration benefits, or acquire citizenship. A-Files were held by the United States Department of Homeland Security and its component agencies, US Citizenship and Immigration Services and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (collectively, USCIS) (defendants). To obtain copies of A-Files, noncitizens or their attorneys had to file a request with USCIS. However, for over eight years, USCIS had a backlog of A-File requests that delayed the response time. In June of 2019, the average processing time was between 55 and 90 days. Zachary Nightingale and other noncitizens and their attorneys (collectively, the immigrants) (plaintiffs) sued USCIS, alleging that the agency’s delay in processing A-File requests violated the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). USCIS did not deny that its response times failed to meet the deadlines required under FOIA. However, it pointed to the incredibly high volume of requests it received and claimed that it was already making a good-faith effort to decrease delays. The district court considered the immigrants’ motion for summary judgment.

Rule of Law

Issue

Holding and Reasoning (Orrick, J.)

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