Pallone Leads Nearly 50 Member of Congress in Asking USCIS to delay Changes in Privacy Release Requirements

Washington, DC – Today, Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06) led a letter from nearly 50 Members of Congress to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) asking that it delay all planned updates to the privacy release requirements for Congressional casework inquiries. On December 18, USCIS Office of Legislative Affairs (OLA) released guidelines for new privacy release requirements for Congressional casework inquiries to be implemented on February 15. The members raised concerns that proposed changes could potentially erect barriers to assisting constituents and creating undue hardship for those in need of assistance.

January 24, 2018

L. Francis Cissna

Director

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

Dear Director Cissna:

We write to request that you delay all planned updates to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) privacy release requirements for Congressional casework inquiries. Along with this immediate halting of the planned procedural changes, we request that USCIS begin further consultations with Members of Congress and their staff to determine better practices for the outreach and inquiry process before implementing policy changes.

On December 18, USCIS Office of Legislative Affairs (OLA) released guidelines for new privacy release requirements for Congressional casework inquiries to be implemented on February 15. In the release, OLA said that it had been working for the last three years to determine new procedures that would “provide better and more consistent guidance on privacy release requirements and the congressional inquiry process in general,” including with congressional staff. However, we have not found any evidence that shows congressional staff were consulted in any substantive way during this process.

In a phone call with Congressional staff members on January 9, OLA indicated that these updated procedures will increase efficiency and streamline the congressional casework inquiry process. OLA further indicated that congressional liaisons would have discretion on the new 30-day privacy release requirements. However, we remain concerned that these changes could potentially erect barriers to helping our constituents and creating undue hardship for those in need of assistance. For this reason, we have several questions that we would like addressed in a detailed manner:

·          Was there any congressional input used in the creation of these updated procedures? Specifically, was there any congressional input that led to the creation of the “30-day Rule” and the “Third-Party Rule” found in these updated procedures?

·         If these congressional consultations did not occur, please provide a detailed explanation of the process USCIS used to create these updates.

·         What privacy concerns does USCIS believe will be addressed by requiring a newly signed and dated privacy release for a follow-up question or status update request once an initial/previous inquiry has received a “meaningful and accurate” response?

·         What definition is USCIS using to determine whether or not a response is “meaningful and accurate?”

·         How does the agency intend to ensure consistency when providing congressional liaisons discretion on 30-day privacy release requirements?

We request that USCIS immediately halt all efforts to implement these procedural updates until these questions are answered in an expeditious manner, and that the agency fully engages with Congress on proposed changes before they are determined.

Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,