May 15, 2015 — Sent via email Mr. Anthony Endres @projectheureka.com
Re: Case No.: 201500010 NG: CM
Dear Mr. Endres: This responds to your October 3, 2014 request for assistance from the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS), which we received via email. Thank you for your interest in OGIS. Congress created OGIS to complement existing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) practice and procedure; we strive to work in conjunction with the existing request and appeal process. The goal is for OGIS to allow, whenever practical, the requester to exhaust his or her remedies within the agency, including the appeal process. OGIS has no investigatory or enforcement power, nor can we compel an agency to release documents. OGIS serves as the Federal FOIA Ombudsman and our jurisdiction is limited to assisting with the FOIA process. We carefully reviewed your submissions of information. You describe a number of challenges you have faced in the administration of your small business. Because OGIS’s mandate is limited to assisting with the Federal FOIA, we are unable to assist you with those aspects of your situation. However, we noted that your submission contained correspondence related to two records requests; we are happy to assist you with those. Your request to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) You made a request to ICE in November, 2013 for records related to Erika Endres (your wife), Projectheureka (your business) and yourself. We contacted ICE to discuss your request, and learned that the agency responded to request No. 2014FOIA3541 on April 26, 2014, informing you that the agency found no records responsive to your request. We have attached a copy of the agency’s response for your reference. Federal courts have long settled that in regard to a search for documents, the crucial issue is whether an agency conducted an adequate search for a document, not whether a document might exist. An adequate search is conducted when the search is reasonably calculated to uncover all relevant documents. Weisberg v. Dep’t of Justice, 705 F.2d 1344, 1351 (D.C. Cir. 1983).
Mr. Anthony Endres May 15, 2015 Page 2 of 2 Erika Endres’ request to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Your wife, Erika Endres, made a request to USCIS for records about you. I understand that in response to this request (No. 2014042119), USCIS released in full 143 pages, released in part 17 pages, and withheld in full 14 pages. USCIS invoked FOIA Exemptions 5, 7(C) and 7(E) for its withholdings. In your correspondence to OGIS, you explain that you appealed USCIS’s June 12, 2014 response to Ms. Endres by email on September 14, 2014. Please be aware that DHS’s FOIA regulations require that FOIA appeals be filed within 60 days of the date of the agency’s response letter. You may wish to file a new request for these records, and if you remain dissatisfied with the agency’s response, file a new appeal according to the directions in the agency’s response letter. In your correspondence to OGIS, you request the names of and information about FBI agents who you believe are involved with your case. Because OGIS does not process FOIA requests, nor do we have access to records of other agencies, we cannot respond to this part of your request. If you believe that the FBI has records about you, you may wish to submit a request directly to that agency. At this time, there is no further assistance OGIS can offer. Thank you for bringing this matter to OGIS. We will close your case. Sincerely,
Nikki Gramian, Acting Director Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) cc: Jill Eggleston, USCIS Fernando Piniero, ICE We appreciate your feedback. Please visit https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/OGIS to take a brief anonymous survey on the service you received from OGIS. Enclosure