UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA _________________________________________ ) NATIONAL IMMIGRATION PROJECT ) OF THE NATIONAL LAWYERS ) GUILD et. al., 1 ) ) Plaintiffs, ) ) v. ) Case No. 17-cv-02448 (APM) ) IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ) ENFORCEMENT, ) ) Defendant. ) _________________________________________ ) MEMORANDUM OPINION Plaintiffs Mijente Support Committee and Detention Watch Network brought this action under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) to obtain documents relating to a mass immigration enforcement operation that was planned by Defendant Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”). After several rounds of production, the sole question remaining in this case is whether ICE has appropriately redacted portions of a draft document entitled “Criminal Street Gangs Investigations Handbook,” which ICE asserts are exempt from disclosure under FOIA Exemptions 5 and 7(E). For the reasons that follow, the court concludes that the redactions were appropriately applied under Exemption 5. The court therefore does not address the application of Exemption 7(E). Accordingly, the court grants Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment and denies Plaintiffs’ Cross-Motion for Summary Judgment. 1 Pursuant to a stipulation of voluntary dismissal filed on April 5, 2019, ECF No. 20, former plaintiff National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild is no longer a party. I. BACKGROUND Plaintiffs filed this FOIA action against ICE in November 2017 to compel the agency to produce records relating to a planned immigration enforcement action known as “Operation Mega” and any related immigration actions. See Compl. for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief, ECF No. 1. ICE produced records responsive to Plaintiffs’ FOIA request throughout 2018 and early 2019. See Def.’s Mot. for Summ. J., ECF No. 32 [hereinafter Def.’s Mot.], Decl. of Fernando Pineiro in Supp. of Def.’s Mot., ECF No. 32-2 [hereinafter First Pineiro Decl.], ¶ 6. One of the documents produced was a 12-page “gang membership identification training course.” Id. ¶ 7; see also Def.’s Combined Reply Mem. in Supp. of Def.’s Mot. & Opp’n to Pls.’ Cross-Mot., ECF No. 36 [hereinafter Def.’s Reply], Second Decl. of Fernando Pineiro in Supp. of Def.’s Mot., ECF No. 36-2 [hereinafter Second Pineiro Decl.], Ex. A. The “12-page training document” listed two “Sources” for the course, including the “Gangs Handbook (Draft),” see Second Pineiro Decl., Ex. A, at PDF 21—also known as the “Criminal Street Gangs Investigations Handbook,” the document which is the subject of the parties’ present dispute, see First Pineiro Decl., Ex. 1, Criminal Street Gangs Investigation Handbook [hereinafter Draft Handbook]. According to ICE’s Acting FOIA Officer, Fernando Pineiro, the Draft Handbook is a 48- page document dated April 10, 2017, which is “devoted to the investigations of criminal street gangs and reflects techniques, procedures and guidelines” regarding “the conduct, coordination, tracking, and funding of such investigations.” First Pineiro Decl. ¶¶ 9, 25. The Draft Handbook consists of a Foreword, a Table of Contents, and twelve main chapters which are further divided into sub-chapters, and includes four appendices. Id. ¶ 15. It has a “DRAFT” watermark on each page, and contains redline changes and edits ...
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