Sabra v. U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 590 F. Supp. 3d 351

Plaintiff Sabra filed a FOIA request on May 5, 2017 seeking CBP records (video, emails, reports, etc.) concerning a September 2015 encounter at the Otay Mesa or San Ysidro ports of entry and CBP’s subsequent investigation. CBP denied expedited processing.
CBP’s search identified 14,170 pages plus audio and video “potentially responsive”; it deemed 430 pages and all audio/video responsive, released much of that material with redactions under FOIA exemptions, and withheld 11 pages under Exemption 5.
CBP submitted two declarations by Patrick Howard (CBP FOIA Branch Chief) and a Vaughn index describing the searches and redactions.
Plaintiff challenged the adequacy of CBP’s search, arguing CBP overlooked obvious leads (e.g., multiple recipients on an email produced) and failed to search additional email custodians.
The court held that CBP’s declarations failed to aver that it searched “all files likely to contain responsive materials,” creating substantial doubt about search adequacy, and therefore denied Defendant’s motion for summary judgment without prejudice.
The court ordered CBP to file a status report by March 31, 2022 stating whether it will conduct additional searches (and a completion date) or supplement its declarations and renew its summary judgment motion; the court did not resolve exemption claims at this stage.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Adequacy of CBP's FOIA search	Sabra argues CBP failed to search all locations and obvious email custodians, creating positive indications of overlooked materials.	CBP argues it identified and instructed offices likely to have records and searched five email accounts identified in its investigation.	Court: CBP failed to aver it searched "all files likely to contain responsive materials," so summary judgment denied without prejudice; additional searching or fuller affidavits required.
Personal-knowledge requirement for FOIA affidavits (Fed. R. Civ. P. 56)	Sabra contends Howard lacks personal knowledge of the specific records/offices and thus his declaration is insufficient.	CBP contends Howard supervises FOIA compliance, has direct involvement, and bases statements on official information and review.	Court: Howard’s declarations satisfy Rule 56’s personal-knowledge requirement as applied in FOIA context.
Compliance with Local Civil Rule 7(h)(1)	Sabra contends CBP’s statement of undisputed facts is too vague and fails to tie Howard’s facts to the statement.	CBP contends its statement and citation to Howard’s affidavit satisfy the rule.	Court: CBP’s compliance sufficient; the Rule 7(h) challenge did not drive the decision.

Dep’t of the Air Force v. Rose, 425 U.S. 352 (1976) (FOIA’s disclosure purpose and narrow construction of exemptions)
Milner v. Dep’t of Navy, 562 U.S. 562 (2011) (FOIA exemptions are exclusive and to be narrowly construed)
Valencia-Lucena v. U.S. Coast Guard, 180 F.3d 321 (D.C. Cir. 1999) (agency must provide reasonably detailed affidavit describing search terms, methods, and that all likely files were searched)
Oglesby v. U.S. Dep’t of Army, 920 F.2d 57 (D.C. Cir. 1990) (affidavit must aver that all files likely to contain responsive materials were searched)
DiBacco v. U.S. Army, 795 F.3d 178 (D.C. Cir. 2015) (summary judgment requires no substantial doubt about adequacy of search)
New Orleans Workers’ Ctr. for Racial Justice v. USCIS, 373 F. Supp. 3d 16 (D.D.C. 2019) (agency affidavit inadequate where it only stated certain offices were "likely" to have records without asserting all likely locations were searched)
Huntington v. U.S. Dep’t of Commerce, 234 F. Supp. 3d 94 (D.D.C. 2017) (denial of summary judgment where affidavit failed to assert all locations likely to contain responsive records were searched)
Ancient Coin Collectors Guild v. Dep’t of State, 641 F.3d 504 (D.C. Cir. 2011) (uncontradicted, plausible affidavits with reasonable specificity often suffice for summary judgment in FOIA cases)