CBP Privacy Officers Reportedly Reassigned for Questioning DHS FOIA Directives as Illegal

Since January 2026, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has reportedly reassigned multiple career Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officials from their positions after they objected to a new policy regarding the release of certain documents. As reported by Wired, a new policy in December 2025 from the DHS Privacy Office required that all Privacy Threshold Analyses carry a label saying they were pre-decisional drafts for internal use only. When career leadership in DHS's Privacy Office objected that the policy did not comply with law, they were reassigned. Those removed from their positions reportedly include CBP's top privacy officer, one of the agency's two privacy branch chiefs, and the director of CBP's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) office.