Border Patrol keeps secrets

PORT CLINTON — What the Border Patrol does from its headquarters in this lakefront city has been a secret for years. And, if the federal government has its way, it's going to stay that way. Despite a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed four months ago, the local office of the Border Patrol has yet to release a single document shedding light on the federal agency's operations on the shores of Lake Erie. The Sandusky Bay Station for the U.S. Border Patrol The Register's newspaper group and the Ohio Center for Investigative Journalism, also known as Eye on Ohio, filed a Freedom of Information Act request June 9 to to learn more about the operations of the Sandusky Bay Station of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, at 709 NE Catawba Road near Port Clinton in Ottawa County. The request asked the station to release documents on incident reports and arrests in 2019, its last fiscal year budget, records on any suspects arrested in 2019 and many other details of its work. The station had close to 100 federal agents when it opened in June 2012. Responsible for law enforcement from Toledo to Cleveland, it's been active in the area. In June 2018, Border Patrol agents arrested 114 people working at two Corso's Garden Center establishments in Erie County. Police agencies in Ohio are governed by the Ohio Revised Code, which requires crimefighters to document their work and make records of it available to the public. For local and state police agencies, there are no secret arrests. For the Border Patrol, however, secret arrests are routine and the agency, which operates under the umbrella of the federal Homeland Security office. The Border Patrol is not required to follow state law as it relates to openness, disclosure or transparency. Freedom not free Members of the public and reporters from newspapers and other media companies routinely ask for records from police agencies and they routinely receive records. It's the law. The Ohio Public Records Act has few exceptions for withholding public records. But the federal government — despite the federal Freedom of Information Act — routinely blocks records from being disclosed. After the most recent request from the newspaper group and Eye on Ohio in April, the Border Patrol replied on Aug. 19 that the document request was "too broad" and asking for a more specific request to be submitted. The letter from U.S. Customs and Border Protection claimed not to understand the FOIA request. "Do you wish to receive only records for the Border Patrol Sandusky Bay Station?" it asked. Lucia Wallinchus, the executive director of the Ohio Center for Investigative Journalism, submitted the original FOIA on behalf of the two news organizations. Wallinchus submitted a revised request Thursday, spelling out that the request is for the Sandusky Bay Station and answering other questions, some of which seemed disingenuous or purposely designed to deny or delay the release of records. "I don't agree with the CBP that the request was too broad, as we specifically detailed several documents and wrote the name and address of the station requested. But I am happy to tailor the request to keep pressing for documents," Wallinchus told the Register. "These are crucial public records paid for by taxpayer funds, and readers deserve to know how their tax dollars are spent." The Freedom of Information Act is supposed to allow U.S. citizens to learn about the operations of their government. By law, agencies are supposed to respond to requests within 20 days, although in practice it often takes much longer to obtain records. The government offered no explanation why it took for months to determine the original request was "too broad," a common reply that is often baffling. When the FOIA request was made in June, Matt Westerhold, the Sandusky Register's executive editor, explained the newspaper has struggled for years to obtain basic information about the Border Patrol that is routinely released by local law enforcement agencies. "Border Patrol agents have removed people from our community, jailed them or processed them without any accountability," Westerhold. "We believe the Border Patrol should not be allowed to operate in secret, make arrests in secret or jail or deport people in secret. The federal police should be held to the same standards as other law enforcement agencies in Ohio."