Confidentiality Should Be a Non-Starter in Any Immigration Bill
A 'statute of frauds'
By Andrew R. Arthur on February 13, 2018
As Congress takes up a bill that regularizes the status of aliens who were granted (or were eligible for) benefits under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, one component that the bill should not include is a confidentiality provision for any potential applicants.
Immigration law appears to be the one area where secrecy is considered a virtue. For example, the asylum regulations contain a provision that more or less safeguards from disclosure information contained in an asylum application, or even the fact that an alien has applied for asylum. There is some logic in such a regulation, because it is reasonable to believe that an application for asylum is an unfriendly act to a country from which an alien seeks asylum, that could subject an applicant to greater harm.
https://cis.org/Arthur/Confidentiality-Should-Be-NonStarter-Any-Immigration-Bill
