FOIA/PRA

PRAs and FOIAs are much more than mere sources of information, and can open opportunities for further organizing and other innovative forms of pressure on management. Ingrid Eagly of the UCLA Law School and Andrés Dae Keun Kwon of the ACLU of Southern California will walk you through the PRA and FOIA processes, with practical examples of how these might inform strategic campaigning.

Ingrid Eagly is a Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law and the Faculty Director of the Criminal Justice Program. Her teaching and research interests include immigration law, criminal law, evidence, and public interest lawyering. In 2017 she received UCLA’s Distinguished Teaching Award, and previously served as Faculty Director of the David J. Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy.

Andrés Dae Keun Kwon is Senior Policy Counsel and Organizer at the ACLU of Southern California.  He joined ACLU SoCal in 2016 and was previously Equal Justice Works Emerson Fellow. Andrés is a 2016 graduate of the Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law

Since 2019, Andrés has coordinated the Check the Sheriff coalition (CTS), which has become a powerful intersectional alliance among organizations in the immigrants’ rights, criminal legal system reform and abolition movements, labor unions, and individuals and families directly impacted by the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department (LASD).  CTS’s Zero ICE Transfers campaign in 2020 ended warrantless Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) transfers in Los Angeles County—the nation’s largest county that was among the first to embrace the federal government’s deportation programs, at one point transferring more people to ICE for deportation than any state except for Texas.  This policy has ensured families remain together and has saved lives: compared to about 1,500 individuals LASD transferred to ICE in 2018-19, there were zero ICE transfers in 2021-22.  In addition, CTS developed the first sheriff-related Los Angeles County charter amendment in 20 years, which became Measure A and passed in a landslide in 2022, establishing meaningful civilian checks and balances of the paramilitary office of the sheriff.

Andrés’s cases include Inland Empire – Immigrant Youth Collective v. Duke, which protected DACA recipients who had their DACA status unlawfully revoked by the Trump administration. The court certified a nationwide class and issued a nationwide injunction blocking the Trump administration from terminating class members’ DACA grants and work permits without notice, an explanation, and an opportunity to respond.  The court also reinstated the DACA grants and work permits of class members who had already had them unlawfully revoked.  Andrés has also successfully represented noncitizen U.S. veterans, preventing their deportation during the Trump administration and ensuring the return of several deported veterans back home to the United States.