The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) of Syracuse University recently received a fee request from USCIS for a whopping $111,930.00 for Freedom of Information Act expenses. 

TRAC is a “data gathering, data research and data distribution organization” whose mission is to “provide the American people — and institutions of oversight such as Congress, news organizations, public interest groups, businesses, scholars and lawyers — with comprehensive information about staffing, spending, and enforcement activities of the federal government.”  Indeed, TRAC’s website is the most comprehensive source for statistical data related to asylum cases and Immigration Judges. 

On July 17, 2006, TRAC requested information related to naturalizations.  Almost four years later, USCIS has responded, but not with any information. Instead, in a March 4, 2010 letter to TRAC, USCIS states that the FOIA request will require 861 man hours, billed at $130 per hour, for a total of $111,930.00.  The agency has required a “deposit” of $55,965.00 before it will begin work on the request.  The amount seems high give the Justice Department’s posted FOIA fees: “After the first 100 pages, a fee of $.10 per page is charged. Search fees are charged per quarter hour; $4.00 (clerical), $7.00 (professional/computer operator), and $10.25 (managerial).”  The directors of TRAC filed a protest with USCIS in which they wrote:

We wish to remind you that on December 8, 2009, the White House issued an historic Open Government Directive, instructing the Executive Departments to take concrete steps to provide improved public access to public information…. It is striking that given this sweeping government openness directive, USCIS has chosen to move in precisely the opposite direction — placing an outrageous price tag on public access to information even about the databases the agency holds.

On his first full day in office, President Obama called on all government agencies to adopt a “presumption of disclosure” when administering the FOIA.  A new report from the National Security Archive finds that the administration “has not conquered the challenge of communicating and enforcing that message throughout the Executive Branch.”  If FOIA requests take 4+ years and cost more than $100,000.00, it appears that the open government initiative still has a way to go.