Diaphanous Immigration Practices At USCIS

Transparency in government is the new mantra. The President commands it. The Attorney General (AG) implements it, through a new policy requiring government agencies to provide easy access to information and documents under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). At U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), however, the practice is more diaphanous than transparent. Diaphanous is one of those tricky words known as contranyms, whose meanings are opposites of themselves. On one hand, diaphanous means transparent, i.e., "characterized by such fineness of texture as to permit seeing through." An opposite meaning of diaphanous, however, is vague or obscure.

As shown in the published Q & A of a March 19, 2009 meeting with the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), the transparency policy of USCIS, in Kafkaeque style, adopts the latter meaning of diaphanous. Deflecting multiple requests for important immigration documents by insisting on the submission of