Miami, FL – January 19, 2016 – Americans for AI Justice (AI Justice) announces an important settlement in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in March 2014. The federal suit sought to compel Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to produce comprehensive information and documents regarding detention conditions at all short-term holding stations located along the Rio Grande Valley Sector on the U.S./Mexican border in Texas.
Through this litigation AI Justice was successful in obtaining thousands of pages of substantive detention information for a period of several years. Additionally, AI Justice negotiated a payment of $8,750 to compensate it for attorney fees and costs incurred in this litigation. AI Justice Attorney Jennie Santos-Bourne, who litigated this matter, noted that “the data obtained from CBP will facilitate and inform AI Justice’s continued work advocating for reform in federal detention facilities as well as assist in educating the public and other non-profit organizations about such conditions.” The American Immigration Council has already published a report entitled “Hieleras (Iceboxes) in the Rio Grande Valley Sector: Lengthy Detention, Deplorable Conditions, and Abuse in CBP Holding Cells” which analyzes some of the quantitative data obtained through this litigation.