UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA BUZZFEED, INC., Plaintiff, v. No. 19-cv-03062 (DLF) U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY et al., Defendants. MEMORANDUM OPINION In this action, Buzzfeed challenges the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) withholding of documents under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. § 552. Before the Court is the Department’s Motion for Summary Judgment, Dkt. 37, and the plaintiff’s Cross-Motion for Summary Judgment, Dkt. 39. For the reasons that follow, the Court will grant the Department’s motion in part and deny it in part, deny the plaintiff’s motion, and direct the Department to file a supplemental declaration addressing the issues highlighted in this opinion. I. BACKGROUND On July 2, 2019, the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued an alert on overcrowding and prolonged detention of adults and children in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV Alert). Def.’s Stmt. of Material Facts ¶ 1, Dkt. 37-1; Howard Decl. ¶ 13, Dkt. 37-3. The next day, Buzzfeed requested “any and all databases containing records on which the calculation in” the RGV Alert “are based” including “a full and up-to-date copy of the database(s) referenced in the above custody database.” Howard Decl. ¶¶ 5, 15. Buzzfeed’s request “also demanded all records from 2010 through the date of the search documenting the structure and use of databases relied upon, to specifically include user manuals, schemas, layout, relationships, and definitions of variables.” Id. ¶ 17. Buzzfeed filed the instant case on October 14, 2019. See generally Compl., Dkt. 1. CBP answered on December 29, 2019. See generally Answer, Dkt. 11. The agency determined that Border Patrol was the division most likely to have responsive information, and it was likely to be stored “within the Enforcement Integrated Database (EID).” Howard Decl. ¶¶ 19, 21. The EID is a shared DHS database “owned and operated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).” Id. ¶ 21. The database “captures and maintains information related to the investigation, arrest, booking, detention, and removal of persons encountered during immigration and criminal law enforcement investigations and operations conducted by DHS components.” Id. Over the following months, CBP worked with Buzzfeed to “narrow and clarify the scope of” the request. Id. ¶ 24. In November 2020, this resulted in “a spreadsheet file for each fiscal year from FY2010 to FY2020” with “over 4,423,000 unredacted rows of responsive data.” Id. ¶ 25. Each row contained the following data fields: Border Patrol sector, Date and Time of Apprehension, Citizenship, Gender, Age, Demographic, Time in the U.S., Data and Time of Initial Booking, Date and Time of Final Booking, Time in Custody. Id. ¶¶ 24–25. Buzzfeed sought additional data for each individual that CBP withheld: facility name, alien registration number (A-number) or “some other ‘unique identifier’ that would permit [p]laintiff to track individuals and aggregate their records across multiple data sets,” justification for missing data, and “technical documentation revealing the underlying structure, code, and maintenance of the Department of Homeland Security’s Enforcement Integrated Database.” Id. …
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