Five Benefits of Having a Copy of Your "A File" from USCIS or the Immigration Court through a FOIA Request

Obtaining a copy of your "Administrative" or "A" file from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) or the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) has many benefits.  As most of our readers know, USCIS is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and it is responsible for the administration of immigration and naturalization adjudication functions and establishing immigration services policies and priorities.  The Immigration Courts are a component of EOIR under the U.S. Department of Justice.

The request for a copy of the A-file is done through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The "A file" is basically a person's record maintained by USCIS (and legacy INS) since at least 1955. Generally speaking each individual should have only one A-file.  The A-file is created when action is required for a particular individual. This "action" can include for example petitioning for an immigrant visa, requesting an immigration benefit, the initiation of removal proceedings, or submitting an adjustment of status petition.  The A-file can also be created at "any other time a case file is needed". Once created, it contains all immigration records  for that particular non-citizen applicant.

I'm not very fond of the word "alien" so I use "non-citizen applicant" instead.  In all fairness to our friends at USCIS, the term "alien" is actually a statutory term defined in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).  INA section 101(a)(3) defines an "alien" as any person not a citizen or national of the United States.

Although there are many reasons why an applicant should have a copy of his or her A file, here are some:   

• It helps you determine whether or how to proceed with an application. In some cases the A file will reveal facts that may have not been disclosed previously or were simply forgotten.  Some of the information contained in the A file may affect eligibility for the benefit desired, or may affect where and how the application has to be submitted.
• It will help you see what the immigration officer is seeing.  The A file will have the documents you submitted and those that others have submitted on your behalf.  The interviewing officer will be making his or her decision in part by what's in the record. It's important that the applicant also know what's in the file.
• It helps you prepare.  By knowing what you have in the file, you can prepare adequately for an interview and anticipate issues that may be addressed.  In some cases many years have passed since the original A file was created and it's important to review the file. 
• It helps you determine eligibility. In some cases obtaining a copy of the A file will help determine eligibility for the relief sought such as a Motion to Reopen or assist in documenting an application for relief.
• It's free (for the most part). Most requests have no fees associated with them (unless the records are voluminous or take several hours to research).

Keep in mind that each agency has different procedures on how they handle FOIA requests.  Because every agency has different FOIA procedures, Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement should be contacted separately.  Below is some information on how to submit a FOIA request with USCIS and EOIR. 

• USCIS.  Utilize Form G-639.  USCIS' website has a lot of useful information that will assist you in preparing and submitting the application. 
• EOIR (Immigration Court).   The request should be made in writing to EOIR. The request should have some information such as a description of the records sought, the applicant's name, "A number", and the date and court location of the proceedings.  A Certification of Identity (Form DOJ-361) may also be required.   For more information please review EOIR's Fact Sheet on FOIA requests. 

Done with time, the results of a FOIA request can be a very useful tool.  Keep in mind that FOIA requests take several months to process. Submitting the request as early as possible is the way to go.

El Salvador and the Persecutor Bar. Guilty by Association?

Every month our law firm features a new country on our website. This month we’re featuring El Salvador, and as you can see from the pictures, it is a beautiful country in many ways.

As many of our readers may remember, El Salvador was engulfed in a bloody civil war from 1980 through 1992 that claimed the lives of an estimated 80,000 people. The civil war, between the military-led government of El Salvador and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), led to a huge population upheaval where many atrocities were committed from all sides involved.

On January 1992 the Chapultepec Peace Accords were signed in Chapultepec, Mexico – bringing an end to yet another bloody chapter in El Salvador’s history. A new Constitution was promulgated, the Armed Forces regulated, a civilian police force established, the FMLN became a political party instead of a guerrilla army, and an amnesty law was legislated in 1993.

In the years during and after the civil war, close to 20 percent of the entire population left El Salvador to other countries. Many of those fleeing El Salvador arrived in the United States seeking refuge and applied for asylum. Years later, in 1997, the United States passed into law the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act (NACARA). NACARA provided various forms of immigration benefits and relief from deportation to nationals of certain countries, including El Salvador.

A legitimate concern of U.S. immigration authorities then, and very much still today, is the awarding of immigration benefits to individuals who participated in the persecution of others during the civil war. This is referred to as the “persecutor bar”. Section 240A(c)(5) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) bars persons who ordered, incited, assisted, or otherwise participated in the persecution of others on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion, from obtaining certain types of immigration benefits.

Every year the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) initiates removal proceedings against individuals accused of participating in the persecution of others. Just today, as I was writing this entry, I came across a news release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) describing the arrest of a former Guatemalan special forces soldier in Palm Beach County, Florida, for lying on his naturalization application about his participation in a 1982 massacre at a Guatemalan village known as Las Dos Erres.

A concern that I have, from a legal perspective, having successfully represented several clients facing deportation based on the persecutor bar, is the government’s position in many cases that mere membership in an organization, standing alone and without any other evidence of personal involvement or culpability, is sufficient for the persecutor bar to apply. By doing so, I believe the government is adopting an impermissible and overly broad definition of the term “persecution” which is contrary to controlling U.S. Supreme Court decisions of Negusie v. Holder, Fedorenko v. U.S., and several Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) decisions including Matter of Rodriguez-Majano, Matter of A-H-, Matter of Acosta, and Matter of Fuentes.

In preparing to represent clients being charged under the persecutor bar, I’ve had to immerse myself in the bloody history of the civil war in El Salvador.  I’ve also heard firsthand testimonies of people that lived in El Salvador during those years. In hearing their life stories I’ve been filled with immense sadness at the senseless loss of human life, reminded of the perverse potential of the human spirit, and overcome with a sense that those responsible should face justice for the sake of those victimized and the families they left behind.

I wonder though if in our pursuit to bring those responsible to justice, our judicial system might be too broadly placing culpability where none lies. Are all men, that were unfortunate enough to live in El Salvador during the years of the civil war, equally culpable? Some people have strong evidence presented against them. Other people, who served in any capacity during the civil war in El Salvador, regardless of their role or their personal involvement, are charged as “persecutors” by association only.

The first case I successfully represented involved a NACARA applicant who during the civil war served once a week in a “patrulla cantonal” or community patrol. He was a peasant farmer who guarded his hamlet with no shoes after work for 6 hours each week. When the other men in his community approached him to participate to protect themselves from possible guerilla attacks, he had no option but to agree.  Not agreeing would have ended up with him being labeled as a guerilla sympathizer, which would have put his life at real risk by death squads operating in the area. My client, who never shot a rifle, or a gun, and who was fortunate enough to serve in a hamlet with no strategic significance to either the guerilla forces or the government of El Salvador, was labeled as a persecutor and placed in removal proceedings. After a long and exhausting process, he was finally awarded his lawful permanent resident status in immigration court.

As the gray areas of the persecutor bar are more clearly defined by cases moving through our judicial system, what constitutes “persecution” (and what doesn’t) is being parsed out - but at the backs of those of whose cases we read about.

Why You Shouldn't Withhold Important Information From Your Immigration Attorney

There are many important reasons why clients should not withhold important information from their attorneys. In my years working as an immigration attorney I have encountered people that, for one reason or another, have decided to hide important information that would have avoided problems in the future. Most people that fit this category are actually well-intentioned people that are extremely embarrassed by their past. Of course, there are some that think (or hope) that by not disclosing an arrest, that somehow no one will realize it. Hopefully the client feels comfortable enough with their attorney to confide in them very personal details about their past, especially when they have had any contact with the criminal justice system. The attorney also plays an important role in extracting some of this information and bringing the issue to the floor so an open and honest conversation can follow. It’s important that the applicant understand that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will require fingerprints to be taken as part of the application. At our office, not only do we ask every client whether they have ever been arrested or convicted whether in the United States or any part of the world, but we also have them complete a questionnaire that has several questions geared towards eliciting this type of information.

When in doubt, we have clients complete an FBI Identification Record, often referred to as a Criminal History Record or Rap Sheet. The FBI Rap Sheet is a listing of certain information taken from fingerprint submissions retained by the FBI in connection with arrests and, in some instances, federal employment, naturalization, or military service. Once submitted, the results normally arrive within 30-60 days. We recently had a case where the client mentioned that he “might have had” an arrest for being drunk in public many years ago. When the FBI Rap Sheet came back, it turns out that the arrest was for defrauding a taxi driver of his fare (while he was drunk). He was convicted of this offense which had greater immigration implications than a simple drunk in public offense since it had elements of “fraud” and “theft”.

No one wants to hear for the first time, coming from an immigration officer, “tell me about this arrest in ….”. I’ve had that happen to me a couple of times and it is not a good experience. In the best of cases the newly discovered conviction does not present any major problems (apart from the credibility issue) because it is not a ground of inadmissibility or deportability. In the worst of cases, the client never should have applied for an immigration benefit to begin with and the person now finds himself in deportation proceedings.

In all, the client’s interests are better served by having an open and honest conversation about these topics. Although momentarily uncomfortable for the client, being straightforward about their past can not only save them thousands of dollars in legal fees, but a lot of heartache for them and their family in the future.