Asylum Officer Guidance

Matthew Hoppock filed this request with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services of the United States of America.

It is a clone of this request.

Tracking #

COW2018000732

Due July 16, 2018
Est. Completion None
Status
Awaiting Response

Communications

From: Matthew Hoppock


To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:

Any guidance memoranda or other policy guidance to asylum officers regarding asylum cases regarding "private actors" or "Matter of A-B," also spelled as "Matter of AB," from January 1, 2018 to the present.

We are requesting that this be expedited, given that the asylum officers are currently applying what appears to be a secret policy to adjudicate asylum cases for domestic violence when that guidance has not been released to the public or applicants. It is in the immediate public interest that this be released to the public.

We are also requesting a fee waiver.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 20 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Matthew Hoppock

From: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

Good Morning Matthew;

Please use the below link in future requests regarding the status of your FOIAs.
https://www.uscis.gov/about-us/freedom-information-and-privacy-act-foia/foia-request-status-check-average-processing-times/check-status-foia-request

Your case is currently 633 out of 834 pending cases in Tract 2.

We are unable to give you a turn-around time on when you might receive these records. FOIA operates on a first in, first out basis and it is impossible to predict the processing time of the cases that precede yours.

H.A.(Kelly) Garbus
Government Information Specialist
FOIA/PA Significant Interest Group (SIG)
DHS/USCIS
816-350-5586
Harriet.A.Garbus@uscis.dhs.gov<mailto:Harriet.A.Garbus@uscis.dhs.gov>

From: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

Please refer to the text further down in this email on how to check the status online of your FOIA request. There is a link you can click on. You will need the COW number of your case which will be on the Acknowledgement letter this office has sent to you.

H.A.(Kelly) Garbus
Government Information Specialist
FOIA/PA Significant Interest Group (SIG)
DHS/USCIS
816-350-5586
Harriet.A.Garbus@uscis.dhs.gov<mailto:Harriet.A.Garbus@uscis.dhs.gov>

From: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

Good Morning Matthew,
Please refer to the text further down in this email on how to check the status online of your FOIA request. There is a link you can click on. You will need the COW number of your case which will be on the Acknowledgement letter this office has sent to you.
Thank you,
Kelly

From: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

In order to check the status of your FOIA request please access the below hyperlink and type in your case number. Your case number is in the acknowledgement letter we mailed to you.

check-status-foia-request<https://www.uscis.gov/about-us/freedom-information-and-privacy-act-foia/foia-request-status-check-average-processing-times/check-status-foia-request>

Thank you,

FOIA staff

From: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

Your request is currently number 485 out of 1156 pending requests.

From: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

You may check the status of your request at time by going to the following website: https://first.uscis.gov/#/check-status.

Lennard A. Thomas, MHS
Government Information Specialist
Significant Interest Group (SIG)
National Records Center, FOIA Operations
DHS I USCIS I IRIS
Email: lennard.a.thomas@uscis.dhs.gov<mailto:lennard.a.thomas@uscis.dhs.gov>

[Description: Description: cid:image001.png@01CEB3AE.98AC6780][cid:image001.png@01D184F9.34AE3410]

WARNING: This document is FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY (FOUO). It contains information that may be exempt from public release under the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552). This document is to be controlled, handled, transmitted, distributed, and disposed of in accordance with DHS policy relating to Sensitive But Unclassified (SBU) information and is not to be released to the public or other personnel who do not have a valid "need-to-know" without prior approval from the originator.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
FOIA Office
P. O. Box 648010
Lee's Summit, MO 64064-8010

September 6, 2019

This is a follow up to request number COW2018000732:

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on June 17, 2018. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response. You had assigned it reference number #COW2018000732.

Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.

Filed via MuckRock.com
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For mailed responses, please address (see note):
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PLEASE NOTE: This request is not filed by a MuckRock staff member, but is being sent through MuckRock by the above in order to better track, share, and manage public records requests. Also note that improperly addressed (i.e., with the requester's name rather than "MuckRock News" and the department number) requests might be returned as undeliverable.

---

On July 8, 2019:
Subject: RE: Freedom of Information Act Request #COW2018000732
Your request is currently number 485 out of 1156 pending requests.

---

On June 4, 2019:
Subject: RE: Freedom of Information Act Request #COW2018000732
In order to check the status of your FOIA request please access the below hyperlink and type in your case number. Your case number is in the acknowledgement letter we mailed to you.

check-status-foia-request<https://www.uscis.gov/about-us/freedom-information-and-privacy-act-foia/foia-request-status-check-average-processing-times/check-status-foia-request>

Thank you,

FOIA staff

---

On May 2, 2019:
Subject: RE: Freedom of Information Act Request: Asylum Officer Guidance
Good Morning Matthew,
Please refer to the text further down in this email on how to check the status online of your FOIA request. There is a link you can click on. You will need the COW number of your case which will be on the Acknowledgement letter this office has sent to you.
Thank you,
Kelly
---

From: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

Good afternoon,

Here is the check-status link for future reference: https://first.uscis.gov/#/check-status

Your request is currently number 446 of 1292 pending requests in Track Two.

We are unable to give you a turn-around time on when you might receive these records. FOIA operates on a first in, first out basis and it is impossible to predict the processing time of the cases that precede yours.

Thank you.

Serena Richardson
Government Information Specialist
FOIA Significant Interest Group
USCIS - National Records Center

From: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

Good afternoon,

Here is the check-status link for future reference: https://first.uscis.gov/#/check-status

Your request is currently number 437 of 1345 pending requests in Track Two.

We are unable to give you a turn-around time on when you might receive these records. FOIA operates on a first in, first out basis and it is impossible to predict the processing time of the cases that precede yours.

Thank you.

Serena Richardson
Government Information Specialist
FOIA Significant Interest Group
USCIS - National Records Center

From: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

Hi,

I am providing you with a link to check your status online. You may check the status of your FOIA request at: https://first.uscis.gov/#/check-status

By checking your status online, this frees up our staff to process pending requests. We are currently processing cases from our backlog and are experiencing a high volume of incoming requests. FOIA operates on a first in, first out basis.
Thank you.

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