U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Washington, DC 20528

Homeland
Security
Privacy Office, Mail Stop 0655

July 2, 2019
SENT BY ELECTRONIC MAIL TO: foia@americanoversight.org
Austin R. Evers
Executive Director
1030 15th Street, NW
Suite B255
Washington, DC 20005
Re: 2019-HQFO-00274
Dear Mr. Evers,
This is the final response to your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Department
of Homeland Security (DHS), dated January 10, 2019, and received by this office on January 11,
2019. You are seeking all email communications of the DHS officials specified below related to
the number of known and suspected terrorists (KST) and special interest aliens (SIAs)
apprehended at the southern border of the United States, including, but not limited to, any email
communications with White House officials (including anyone with an email address ending in
eop.gov) and any communications with Congressional members or staff (including anyone with
an email address ending in mail.house.gov or senate.gov). In addition, the DHS search the files
of the following DHS officials for records responsive to this request: Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen,
Acting Deputy Secretary Claire Grady, Chief of Staff Chad Wolf, anyone serving in the capacity
of White House Liaison or Deputy White House Liaison, Assistant Secretary for Legislative
Affairs, Christine Ciccone, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs David
Wonnenberg, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs Uyen Dinh, and anyone serving
on the behalf of any of those listed above such as a special or administrative assistant (Date
Range for Record Search: From 1/1/2019 To 1/11/2019).
A search of the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) for documents responsive to
your request produced a total of 35 pages. Of those pages, I have determined that two pages of
the records are releasable in their entirety, four pages are partially releasable, and 29 pages are
withheld in their entirety pursuant to Title 5 U.S.C. § 552 (b)(5)(b)(6), FOIA Exemptions 5 and
6.
Enclosed are six pages with certain information withheld as described below.
FOIA Exemption 5 protects from disclosure those inter- or intra-agency documents that are
normally privileged in the civil discovery context. The three most frequently invoked privileges

 are the deliberative process privilege, the attorney work-product privilege, and the attorney-client
privilege. After carefully reviewing the responsive documents, I determined that portions of the
responsive documents qualify for protection under the Deliberative Process Privilege. The
deliberative process privilege protects the integrity of the deliberative or decision-making
processes within the agency by exempting from mandatory disclosure opinions, conclusions, and
recommendations included within inter-agency or intra-agency memoranda or letters. The
release of this internal information would discourage the expression of candid opinions and
inhibit the free and frank exchange of information among agency personnel.
FOIA Exemption 6 exempts from disclosure personnel or medical files and similar files the
release of which would cause a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. This requires a
balancing of the public’s right to disclosure against the individual’s right to privacy. The types of
documents and/or information that we have withheld may consist names and contact
information. The privacy interests of the individuals in the records you have requested outweigh
any minimal public interest in disclosure of the information. Any private interest you may have
in that information does not factor into the aforementioned balancing test.
Twenty-nine pages are withheld in full as described below.
FOIA Exemption 5 protects from disclosure those inter- or intra-agency documents that are
normally privileged in the civil discovery context. The three most frequently invoked privileges
are the deliberative process privilege, the attorney work-product privilege, and the attorney-client
privilege. After carefully reviewing the responsive documents, I determined that portions of the
responsive documents qualify for protection under the


Deliberative Process Privilege. The deliberative process privilege protects the integrity
of the deliberative or decision-making processes within the agency by exempting from
mandatory disclosure opinions, conclusions, and recommendations included within interagency or intra-agency memoranda or letters. The release of this internal information
would discourage the expression of candid opinions and inhibit the free and frank
exchange of information among agency personnel.

You have a right to appeal the above withholding determination. Should you wish to do so, you
must send your appeal and a copy of this letter, within 90 days of the date of this letter, to:
Privacy Office, Attn: FOIA Appeals, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 245 Murray Lane,
SW, Mail Stop 0655, Washington, D.C. 20528-0655, following the procedures outlined in the
DHS FOIA regulations at 6 C.F.R. Part 5 § 5.8. Your envelope and letter should be marked
“FOIA Appeal.” Copies of the FOIA and DHS FOIA regulations are available at
www.dhs.gov/foia.
Additionally, you have a right to seek dispute resolution services from the Office of Government
Information Services (OGIS) which mediates disputes between FOIA requesters and Federal
agencies as a non-exclusive alternative to litigation. If you are requesting access to your own
records (which is considered a Privacy Act request), you should know that OGIS does not have
the authority to handle requests made under the Privacy Act of 1974. You may contact OGIS as
follows: Office of Government Information Services, National Archives and Records

 Administration, 8601 Adelphi Road-OGIS, College Park, Maryland 20740-6001, e-mail at
ogis@nara.gov; telephone at 202-741-5770; toll free at 1-877-684-6448; or facsimile at 202-7415769.
Provisions of FOIA allow DHS to charge for processing fees, up to $25, unless you seek a
waiver of fees. In this instance, because the cost is below the $25 minimum, there is no charge.
If you need any further assistance or would like to discuss any aspect of your request, please
contact our office and refer to 2019-HQFO-00274. You may send an e-mail to foia@hq.dhs.gov,
call 202-343-1743 or toll free 1-866-431-0486, or you may contact our FOIA Public Liaison in
the same manner.
Sincerely,

James Holzer
Deputy Chief FOIA Officer
Enclosure(s): [6] pages

 From :

Sent:
To :
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Cc:

Subject :
Attachments:

LADOWICZ, JOHN P
2 Jan 2019 09:50:23 -0500
Taylor, Miles;Bobb, Christina;Dinh, Uyen;l(b)(G)
~~ Kovacic, Raymond;ESEC-BBIC
~----~

!Blank,

Ciccone , Christine;Foltz, Jon
RE: SIA Report
SIA Paper, CBP to OHS, j m and tp cmmts.docx

Good Morning,

C BP edits attache d.

Best, Pete

Pete Ladowicz
Assistant Commissioner
Office of Congressional Affairs
U.S. Customs and Border Protection

l(b)(6)

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Sent: Wednesday , January 2, 2019 8:30 AM
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Subject: Re: SIA Report----------~
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Thanks all. We need this done by 12 noon . Absolutely no later. That is because the committee is going to
release the report today one way or the other so we need to make sure they have our edits and /or redactions
if there are any.

Miles Tay lor
Deputy Chief of Staff

DHS-19-0019-A-000001

 U.S. Department of Homeland Security

I

From: Bobb, Christina fb)(6)
Sent: Wednesday, January 2, 2019 /:53 AM
To: Dinh, Uyen; ~b)(6)
Blank, Thomasfb)( 6)
LADOWICZ , JOHN P
,..______
Cc: Taylor, Miles; Ciccone, Christine; Foltz, Jon
Subject: Re: SIA Report

I

IKovacic, Raymond; ESEC -BBIC;

_.

Thanks, Uyen,
I am exempt. Please run the component clearance (ICE). Once I get your thumbs up that it?s clear d from
a component stand point, I will clear it through the FO. Thanks .

Christina Bobb
DHS Executive Secretary
(b)(6)

From: Dinh, Uyen
Sent: Wednesday, January 2, 2019 7:50:16 AM
Tofbl(6)
!Blank, Thomas; ~b)(6)
LADOWICZ, JOHN P
,_______
Cc: Taylor , Miles; Ciccone, Christine; Foltz, Jon
Subject: Re: SIA Report

IKovacic, Raymond; ESEC-BBIC; Bobb, Christi na;

_.

+ ESEC for coordination.

IfESEC is furloughed, OLA can make changes/edits.

Pis copy me & we?ll take care of it.

Cheers,

DHS-19-0019-A-000002

 Uyen

~ )(6)
From: l(b)(6)
Sent: Tuesday, January 1, 2019 7:36 PM
To: Blank, Thomasjb)/6)
I
Cc: Taylor, Miles; Ciccone, Christine; Dinh, Uyen
Subject: Fwd: SIA Report

Good evening Tom and Joe,

Attached is a Congressional report discussing SIAs. While the report says they ran it by interested parties,
there are quite a few ICE equities in the mix so would the ICE team please review and notify Christine and
Uyen ifthere is any heartburn with any of the information contained therein? OLA needs any comments
first thing in the morning so they can provide them to the committee by noon.

Thanks and Happy New Year!

I

From: Taylor, Mile s j(b)(6)
Sent: Tuesday, January I, 2019 6:5 7 PM
To: LADOWICZ, JOHN P; FLANAGAN, PATRICK S; Fedor, Mark J CAPT; fb)(S)
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ccone, Christine; Lim, Evelyn¥b)(6)

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Subject: Fwd: SIA Report

CBP and USCG teams (and Counselors),

Given the shutdown, have folks been able to review this Congressional ?task force? report that?s slated for
release late tomorrow? l(b)(5)
~b)(5)

Please review ASAP and ensure our comments and any requested omissions /redactions/etc. reach the
Committee by 12 noon tomorrow. OLA shou ld lead coordination.

DHS-19-0019-A-000003

 Miles

Miles Taylor
Deputy Chief of Staff
U.S. Department of Homelan d Security

l(b)(6)
From: ..,!
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Sent: Monday, December 31, 2018 8: 15 PM
To: Tay lor, Miles
Subject: SIA Report

Miles,
Happy New Years Eve,
Sent a very similar document to Pete Ladowitz at CBP last week for co mment. We are getti ng prepared to
release and wanted to make sure you had a chance to see before we publish.
Thanks!

kb
)(6)

I

Sent from my iPhone

DHS-19-0019-A-000004

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 APPENDIX
Previou s Task Force Bills that Became Public Law:
H.R. 158
(P.L.114-113)

Visa Waiver Program Improv ement and Terrorist
Trav el Preve ntion Act of2015 (as part of H.R.
2029 - the Consolidated Appropriations Act of
2016)

H.R. 4402
(P.L. 114-328)

Foreign Fighter Review Act of 2016 (as part of
S. 2943 - National Defense Authorization Act
for Fiscal Year 2017)

H.R. 4408
(P.L. 114-328)

National Strategy to Combat Terrorist Travel
Act of2016 (as part ofS. 2943 -National

30

Candice Miller
(R-MI)

Will Hurd

(R-TX)
John Katko
(R-NY)

DHS-19-0019-A-000034

 Defense Authorization Act for Fisca l Year 2017)

Previous Task Force Bills that Passed the House in the 114th Congress:
H.R. 4314

Counterterrorism Screening and Ass istance Act
of2016

Lee Ze ldin
(R-NY)

H.R. 4401

ALERT Act of2016

Barry Louderm ilk
(R-GA)

H.R. 4403

Enhancing Overseas Traveler Vetting Act

Will Hurd
(R-TX )

H.R. 4404

Terrorist and Foreign Fighter Travel Exerc ise
Act of2 016

Martha McSally
(R-AZ)

H.R. 4407

Co unterterrorism Advisory Board Act of20 16

John Katko
(R-NY)

H.R. 4820

Combating Terrorist Recruitment Act of 20 16

Chuck Fleischmann
(R-TN)

H.R. 5471

Counter ing Terror ist Radicalizat ion Act

Michael McCaul
(R- TX)

Previous Tas k Force Bills that Passed the House in the 115th Congress :
H.R. 4555

DHS lnteragency Cou nte1te rrori sm Task Force
Act of201 7

John Rutherford
(R-FL)

H.R. 4564

Post-Caliphate Threat Assessment Act of 2017

Clay Higgins
(R-LA )

H.R.4569

Counterterrorism Information Shar ing
Improvement Act of 2017

Mike Gallagher (R-WI)

H.R. 4581

Screening and Vett ing Passenger Excha nge
Act of2017

Brian Fitzpatrick
(R-PA)

31

DHS-19-0019-A-000035