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#37 How to FOIA Bomb a Fascist - Resistance Kitty
Want to make a bureaucrat sweat without leaving your couch? Learn to weaponize the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). It’s legal, it’s powerful, and it’s annoying as hell—for them A well-timed FOIA re...
![One morning, Kafka's Josef K. awakens to encounter two strange men outside his room.
As he gets his bearings, he realizes that he is under arrest. When he asks the strangers why, he
receives no answer.
"We weren't sent to tell you that," one says. "Proceedings are under way
and you'll learn everything in due course." Franz Kafka, The Trial 5 (Breon Mitchell trans., Schocken Books Inc. 1998). Bewildered by these men and distressed by their message, K. tries to comfort himself that he lives in "a state governed by law," one where "all statutes [are] in force." Id. at 6. He therefore demands again, "How can I be under arrest? And in this manner?"
"Now there you go again," the guard replies. "We don't answer such questions." Undeterred, K. offers his "papers" and demands their arrest warrant. "Good heavens!" the man scolds. "There's been no mistake." "[O]ur department," he assures K., is only "attracted by guilt"; it "doesn't seek [it] out…. That's the Law." Id. at 8-9. "I don't know that law," K. responds.
"You'll feel
it eventually," the guard says. Id. at 9.
1
Case 1:25-cv-00766-JEB Document 148 Filed 06/04/25 Page 2 of 69
Such was the situation into which Frengel Reyes Mota, Andry Jose Hernandez Romero,
and scores of other Venezuelan noncitizens say they were plunged on March 15, 2025. In the
early morning hours, Venezuelans held by the Department of Homeland Security at El Valle
Detention Facility in Texas were awakened from their cells, taken to a separate room, shackled,
and informed that they were being transferred. See I.G.G. v. Trump, 2025 WL 1119481, at *2
(D.D.C. Apr. 16, 2025); ECF Nos. 44-9 (Karyn Ann Shealy Second Decl.), 11 7-8; 44-10
(Stephanie Quintero Decl.), 1 3; 44-11 (Grace Carney First Decl.), 1 11; 44-12 (Melissa Smyth
Decl.), 1 13. To where? That they were not told. See ECF No. 101 (Am. Compl.), 1 69; Smyth](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:t4x2ruk2qmob2b2cx55h4v7r/bafkreich6mqrktywoxt6p24qwiazdxo3nbfczy7ekhgyeik62gwux4kve4)
