Firm partner Johnny Sinodis is co-counsel on a prospective class action lawsuit filed today in federal district court in San Francisco, along with the National Immigration Law Alliance (NILA) and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP), representing individuals and attorneys who are challenging the nationwide practice by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), of failing to timely respond to requests for immigration records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The case, Sanchez Mora v. U.S. Customs and Border Protection, alleges that CBP’s delays violate the law and harm requestors. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in San Francisco, more than seven years after CBP settled a similar case, Brown v. U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Plaintiffs in the newly filed Sanchez Mora case allege that CBP, after previously taking steps to timely process FOIA requests in compliance with the law, has since moved backward, permitting a backlog of thousands of delayed FOIA requests.

“CBP must be held to account for its inexplicable delays in processing straightforward FOIA requests filed by individuals who have a right to their own information—information that is critical to their and their family members’ ability to obtain immigration status in the United States,” said Johnny Sinodis, a partner at Van Der Hout LLP.

A copy of the complaint is here.