CBP FOIA Requests Taking 10-12 Months

In minutes from a March 6, 2014 meeting between U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials and representatives of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), CBP has indicated that Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests filed to obtain records from CBP are taking 10-12 months to complete. The CBP FOIA unit indicated that the ability to submit a FOIA request online to CBP has cut down on the amount of work required to process requests. CBP also stated that it would like to cut processing times down further.