Thread: Judicial Watch Files Lawsuit Against DC Police Dept.

Judicial Watch Files Lawsuit Against Washington, D.C. Police Dept



Request Seeks Documents Pertaining to Policies Governing the Interaction
between Police Officers and Illegal Aliens

WASHINGTON, March 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Judicial Watch, the
public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government
corruption, announced today that it has filed an open records lawsuit
against the District of Columbia Police Department related to the
department's illegal immigration policies and procedures. Judicial Watch's
lawsuit, (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. District of Columbia Metropolitan Police
Department, #0001719-07), filed on March 8, 2007 in the Superior Court of
the District of Columbia, asks the court to compel the D.C. Police
Department to comply with Judicial Watch's August 10, 2006 Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) request. Judicial Watch is seeking documents
pertaining to policies and procedures governing the interaction between
D.C. police officers and known or suspected illegal aliens, along with the
enforcement of immigration laws.

Judicial Watch filed its open records request with the Washington, D.C.
Police Department as part of its ongoing investigation into so-called
"sanctuary policies" that protect illegal immigrants from federal law.
"All local police departments must comply with federal immigration law,
and the Washington, D.C. Police Department is no exception. The department
should release all relevant documents pertaining to their illegal
immigration policies, as required by law," said Judicial Watch President
Tom Fitton. "It should go without saying that police policies in our
nation's capital should not undermine federal immigration law."
On May 1, 2006 Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles
Police Department to end "Special Order 40," a policy that prohibits police
officers from inquiring about an individual's immigration status, and
reportedly restricts police officers from cooperating with federal
immigration officials. (ACLU lawyers intervened in the lawsuit to defend
the LAPD policy.) Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit against the Chicago Police
Department on December 22, 2006 to obtain documents concerning a proposed
ordinance that would make Chicago a "sanctuary city" where illegal
immigrants could live outside of federal law. Judicial Watch has also
investigated similar police policies in Houston, Texas and Westchester, New
York.

To review Judicial Watch's complaint against the District of Columbia
Police Department, and other information on Judicial Watch's fight against
illegal immigration, please visit JW's Internet site,
http://www.judicialwatch.org.

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stori ... 497&EDATE=

Only one FOIA request I have ever made was answered. The answer: It was a request for more time to answer the request. That was twelve years ago, and despite the fact that I granted a single extension to the statutory period, I have never received a follow-up on that one either.

FOAI requests have become a joke. Despite the fact that agencies are statutorily required to respond to them, they simply ignore the requests and quite often ignore directions from judges to honor the requests. The few items that are provided are generally redacted to the point of a couple of conjuctions and punctuation marks in a sea of black line-outs. About all they are good for is proving that the government does not have documents that it claims it will use against you in the event that you get into a legal battle with it. Items not produced upon issuance of a FOIA request (particularly as part of the discovery process) can generally not be used against you in a legal proceeding.