Whistleblower: US Officials Sidestep Court Order, Close Immigrants' Requests For Files

A whistleblower alleges that a federal immigration agency has prematurely closed numerous Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for records in order to fake that it is complying with a court order. 

On December 19, 2025, the Government Accountability Project (GAP) submitted a whistleblower disclosure from a “disabled Marine Corps infantry combat veteran,” who has served over a decade at the United Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) National Records Center (NRC). 

The disclosure was submitted to U.S. senators that chair the Judiciary and Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committees. It refers to the whistleblower as “Frank Armstrong."

After raising concerns, Armstrong has allegedly faced a “gag order and retaliation,” including a request from his supervisor to no longer engage with the Office of the Chief Counsel (OCC). (The OCC is a legal program of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of the General Counsel.) 

“Mr. Armstrong has put himself at risk internally by raising his concerns repeatedly to supervisors and NRC leadership. He brings these concerns to Congress seeking justice and accountability,” GAP adds.

In 2020, Judge William Orrick III of the Northern District of California issued an order as part of the Nightingale v. USCIS case. The order required the USCIS to meet certain deadlines for requests of “Alien Files,” or A-Files.

The files consist of “immigration history, applications, supporting documents, and enforcement records” maintained by DHS, and immigrants rely upon them during asylum, deportation, or detention hearings.

Orrick recognized that the failure to process FOIA requests undermined “the fairness of immigration proceedings, particularly for the vast number of noncitizens who navigate [the U.S.] immigration system without assistance of counsel.” He also ordered the government to eliminate USCIS and ICE backlogs within 60 days. 

USCIS issued a compliance report on December 15, 2025, that claimed to have reduced the “A-File FOIA backlog by 99.96%, from thousands of pending requests to just two,” according to GAP. 

However, Armstrong claims that he saw an email sent by a “supervisor” on May 27, 2025, which allegedly stated, “Here's a way to close 99% of FOIA requests as failure to comply.” The supervisor explained that a “2022 regulatory change” could be used to deny requesters records if they do not “specify their country of citizenship and residency.” 

Agency employees were further encouraged to close FOIA requests for “reasons including listing an attorney's address, inverting month and day in a birthdate, or minor spelling variations in a parent's name, even when the requester's A-Number matches agency records.”

“Closing cases prematurely based on minor discrepancies is extremely prejudicial to requesters because of their immense informational disadvantage compared to the agency,” GAP states.

“The information the agency has could me many years old, so requesters may no longer be familiar with what the documentation the agency possesses says," GAP additionally contends. "Furthermore, they may never have had a meaningful opportunity to review the information the government possesses about them; for instance, to determine whether a border agent incorrectly listed their data.”

For what it’s worth, Armstrong utilized the proper channels. In September, he challenged the new policy and how it violates the law. He exchanged emails with the “supervisory attorney” at the OCC, who was unaware of the changes to fulfilling FOIA requests. Armstrong later reported the policy change to the DHS Office of the Inspector General as well.

Armstrong emailed his supervisor in November to object to the policy of closing FOIA requests. On December 9, he received a low performance rating for the previous fiscal year in alleged retaliation. 

The policy adopted in May allegedly allows USCIS to invoke privacy and law enforcement exemptions to prevent immigrants from obtaining copies of “marriage certificates, joint bank statements, tax forms, portions of immigration court hearing transcripts and enforcement documents.”

It also allegedly permits USCIS to hide correspondence that USCIS may send to immigrant attorneys, or receive from such attorneys.

“Withholding attorney correspondence prejudices noncitizens who may no longer have communication with previous attorneys and need to know what information was provided to the government on their behalf,” GAP argues. 

Furthermore, USCIS may label documents provided by noncitizens in “the language of their country of origin and not translated into English” as “out of scope” so that they do not have to share those records. 

There is a substantial risk that Armstrong will be fired, especially since his allegations against the Trump administration are now public. But as militarized federal agents continue to abduct thousands upon thousands of people from their communities, it is crucial that immigrants are able to defend themselves in court. 

“In practice, the lack of access to A-Files makes it harder for noncitizens to apply for immigration benefits or defend themselves from removal,” wrote Raul Pinto of the American Immigration Council. “It can also lead to delays in adjudications in immigration courts, as immigration attorneys must request continuances of court hearings due to their inability to review their clients’ immigration history.”

“Denying timely access to A-Files, and the information contained in them, erodes due process, a right guaranteed under our Constitution and a cornerstone of our democracy," Pinto concluded.