[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 62 (Friday, March 31, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 16326-16328]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E6-4699]
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DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement
[DHS-2005-0050]
Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records
AGENCY: Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement; Department of
Homeland Security
ACTION: Notice of Privacy Act system of records.
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SUMMARY: The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the
Department of Homeland Security is creating a new system of records to
be used in the management of case and document information by attorneys
working for the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor in the
preparation and presentation of cases for a court or adjudicative body
before which the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement or the
Department of Homeland Security is authorized or required to appear.
DATES: The new system of records will be effective May 1, 2006, unless
comments are received that result in a contrary determination.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by docket number, by one
of the following methods:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov.
Follow the instructions for submitting comments.
Mail: William C. Birkett, Chief, Knowledge Management
Division, Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, Immigration and
Customs Enforcement, 425 I Street, NW., Washington, DC 20536; Chief
Privacy Officer, Department of Homeland Security, 601 South 12th
Street, Arlington, VA 22202-4220.
Fax: (202) 514-0455 (not toll-free).
Hand Delivery/Courier: Department of Homeland Security,
245 Murray Lane, SW., Building 410, Washington, DC 20528.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: William C. Birkett, Chief, Knowledge
Management Division, Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, Immigration
and Customs Enforcement, 425 I Street, NW., Washington, DC 20536, at
(202) 514-6761.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Interested persons are invited to
participate in this rulemaking by submitting written data, views, or
arguments on all aspects of this notice. Comments that will provide the
most assistance to the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in
developing these procedures will reference a specific portion of the
notice, explain the reason for any recommended change, and include
data, information, or authority that support such recommended change.
Instructions: All submissions received must include the agency name
and docket number for this rulemaking. All comments received will be
posted without change to http://www.regulations.gov, including any
personal information provided.
Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or
comments received, go to http://www.regulations.gov.
In accordance with the requirements of the Privacy Act of 1974, as
amended, 5 U.S.C. 552a, the Bureau of Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is
giving notice that it proposes to implement a new system of records
entitled ``the General Counsel Electronic Management System'' (GEMS).
This system will consist of information that is created and used by
attorneys working for ICE in the preparation and presentation of cases
for a court or adjudicative body before which ICE or DHS is authorized
or required to appear. The system will supplement and ultimately
replace the current attorney work product paper files that are
primarily stored and managed in the hardcopy alien file commonly known
as the ``A-file.''
The ICE Office of the Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA) is responsible
for the prosecution and/or management of cases before the federal
courts, immigration courts, and other tribunals where immigration case
matters are presented. Because of its significant caseload, OPLA is
presented with a tremendous data management problem. Recent changes to
the immigration laws and increasing numbers of cases require changes
and improved efficiency in the maintenance of case records and attorney
work product regarding immigration matters. The proposed system will
provide OPLA attorneys and other DHS and Department of Justice (DOJ)
attorneys, who have a need for this information in the performance of
their duties representing the agency real time, access to documents and
attorney notes concerning the status and processing of immigration
matters to multiple authorized users at their desktops and greatly
reduce their reliance on the need to access the paper A-file.
GEMS consists of customized off-the-shelf software that has been
developed to meet the growing needs for information management in the
attorney field operations and attorney management offices of ICE.
Although records will be maintained in GEMS by alien registration
number, GEMS will provide attorneys and their supervisors with the
ability to collect and locate case information without complete
reliance on the physical A-file. In addition to maintaining
investigative materials collected for the adjudication of immigration
cases, GEMS will allow attorneys to store their case notes, other
hearing related information, and briefs and memoranda related to cases.
This should not only facilitate the work of the ICE attorneys involved
in the case, but should also provide a legal resource for other
attorneys who may be working on similar matters. The system will also
provide management capabilities for tracking time and effort expended
in the preparation and presentation of cases for a court or
adjudicative body before which the ICE or DHS is authorized or required
to appear.
The Privacy Act embodies fair information principles in a statutory
framework governing the means by which the United States Government
collects, maintains, uses, and disseminates personally identifiable
information. The Privacy Act applies to information that is maintained
in a ``system of records.'' A ``system of records'' is a group of any
records under the control of an agency from which information is
retrieved by the name of the individual or by some identifying number,
symbol, or other identifying particular assigned to the individual.
The Privacy Act requires each agency to publish in the Federal
Register a description denoting the type and character of each system
of records that the agency maintains, and the routine uses that are
contained in each system
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to make agency recordkeeping practices transparent, to notify
individuals regarding the uses to which personally identifiable
information is put, and to assist the individual to more easily find
such files within the agency. Individuals may request their own records
that are maintained in a system of records in the possession or under
the control of DHS by complying with DHS Privacy Act regulations (6 CFR
5.21). ICE is hereby publishing the description of the GEMS system of
records. In accordance with 5 U.S.C. 552a(r), a report of this new
system of records has been provided to the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) and to the Congress.
DHS/ICE/OPLA-001
SYSTEM NAME:
General Counsel Electronic Management System (GEMS).
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION:
Unclassified and classified.
SYSTEM LOCATION:
This system of records is under the control of the Principal Legal
Advisor, Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Department of
Homeland Security, in Washington, DC and in the field offices for the
Office of Principal Legal Advisor located throughout the United States.
CATEGORIES OF INDIVIDUALS COVERED BY THE SYSTEM:
A. Individuals covered by provisions of the Immigration and
Nationality Act.
B. Individuals who are under investigation, or who were
investigated by ICE in the past, or who are suspected of violating the
criminal or civil provisions of statutes, treaties, Executive Orders,
and regulations administered by ICE, and witnesses and informants or
other third parties who may have knowledge of such violations.
C. ICE attorneys and other employees who have been assigned to
represent the agency in litigation relating to aliens and other
individuals whose files are contained in the system.
CATEGORIES OF RECORDS IN THE SYSTEM:
A. The system will contain attorney work product consisting of pre-
trial notes, trial notes, post-trial notes, memoranda stating positions
for litigation in draft or final form, notes to investigators, and
information from hardcopy and online research.
B. The system will contain personal identification data such as the
A-file number, date, and place of birth, date and port of entry, as
well as the location of each official hardcopy paper file known as the
``A-file.''
C. The system will contain subsets or complete sets of information
also contained in the hard copy A-file that may include the alien's
official record material, such as naturalization certificates; various
forms (and attachments such as photographs); applications and petitions
for benefits under the immigration and nationality laws; reports of
investigations; statements; arrest reports; correspondence; and
memoranda on each individual for whom ICE has created a record under
the Immigration and Nationality Act.
PURPOSE:
The system is for the benefit of ICE attorneys and attorney
management to be used for the tracking, processing, and reporting on
the preparation and presentation of cases for a court or adjudicative
body before which the ICE or the DHS is authorized to appear. The
system will enable ICE to carry out its assigned national security, law
enforcement, immigration control, and other mission related functions
and to provide associated management reporting, planning and analysis.
ROUTINE USES OF RECORDS MAINTAINED IN THE SYSTEM, INCLUDING CATEGORIES
OF USERS AND THE PURPOSES OF SUCH USES:
In addition to those disclosures generally permitted under 5 U.S.C.
552a(b) of the Privacy Act, all or a portion of the records or
information contained in this system may be disclosed outside DHS as a
routine use pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552a(b)(3) as follows:
A. To other federal, state, tribal, and local government law
enforcement and regulatory agencies and foreign governments,
individuals and organizations during the course of an investigation or
the processing of a matter, or during a proceeding within the purview
of the immigration and nationality laws, to elicit information required
by ICE to carry out its functions and statutory mandates.
B. To the Department of Justice or other federal agency conducting
litigation or in proceedings before any court, adjudicative or
administrative body, when: (a) DHS, or (b) any employee of DHS in his/
her official capacity, or (c) any employee of DHS in his/her individual
capacity where DOJ or DHS has agreed to represent the employee, or (d)
the United States or any agency thereof, is a party to the litigation
or has an interest in such litigation, and DHS determines that
disclosure is relevant and necessary to the litigation.
C. To a Federal, state, tribal, local or foreign government agency
in response to its request, in connection with the hiring or retention
of an employee, the issuance of a security clearance, the reporting of
an investigation of an employee, the letting of a contract, or the
issuance of a license, grant, or other benefit by the requesting
agency, to the extent that the information is relevant and necessary to
the requesting agency's decision on the matter.
D. To a Member of Congress or staff acting on the Member's behalf
when the Member or staff requests the information on behalf of and at
the request of the individual who is the subject of the record.
E. To the news media and the public when there exists a legitimate
public interest in the disclosure of the information or when disclosure
is necessary to preserve confidence in the integrity of the Department
or is necessary to demonstrate the accountability of the Department's
officers, employees, or individuals covered by the system, except to
the extent it is determined that release of the specific information in
the context of a particular case would constitute an unwarranted
invasion of personal privacy.
F. To the National Archives and Records Administration or other
federal government agencies in records management inspections conducted
under the authority of 44 U.S.C. 2904 and 2906.
G. To contractors, grantees, experts, consultants, students, and
others performing or working on a contract, service, grant, cooperative
agreement, or other assignment for the Federal Government, when
necessary to accomplish an agency function related to this system of
records.
H. To appropriate government agencies or organizations (regardless
of whether they are Federal, state, territorial, local, foreign,
international, or tribal), lawfully engaged in collecting law
enforcement (whether civil, criminal, or administrative) or
intelligence information and/or charged with investigating,
prosecuting, enforcing, or implementing civil and/or criminal laws,
related rules, regulations, or orders, to enable these entities to
carry out their law enforcement and intelligence responsibilities.
I. To a former employee of the Department for purposes of:
Responding to an official inquiry by a federal, state, or local
government entity or professional licensing authority, in accordance
with applicable Department regulations; or facilitating communications
with a former
[[Page 16328]]
employee that may be necessary for personnel-related or other official
purposes where the Department requires information and/or consultation
assistance from the former employee regarding a matter within that
person's former area of responsibility.
POLICIES AND PRACTICES FOR STORING, RETRIEVING, ACCESSING, RETAINING,
AND DISPOSING OF RECORDS IN THE SYSTEM STORAGE:
Records in the system will be stored in a central computer
database.
RETRIEVABILITY:
Records in the system are indexed and retrieved by an individual's
alien number, name, case information (such as hearing location and type
of hearing), and other criteria that can identify an individual in
proceedings in a court or adjudicative body before which ICE or the DHS
is authorized to appear.
SAFEGUARDS:
ICE offices are located in buildings under security guard, and
access to premises is by official identification. All electronic
records are stored in systems that are in offices that are locked
during non-duty office hours. Access to electronic records is
controlled by passwords and name identification and access to this
system is monitored. The system is protected through a multi-layer
security approach. The protective strategies are physical, technical,
administrative and environmental in nature and provide access control
to sensitive data, physical access control to DHS facilities,
confidentiality of communications, authentication of sending parties,
and personnel screening to ensure that all personnel with access to
data are screened through background investigations commensurate with
the level of access required to perform their duties.
RETENTION AND DISPOSAL:
The retention and disposal requirements for the GEMS database are
pending approval by the National Archives and Records Administration.
SYSTEM MANAGER(S) AND ADDRESS:
The System Manager is located in the Office of the Principal Legal
Advisor, Chief of the Knowledge Management Division, 425 I Street NW.,
Washington, DC 20536.
NOTIFICATION PROCEDURE:
Address all inquiries to the system manager identified above.
RECORD ACCESS PROCEDURE:
To determine whether this system contains records relating to you,
you may write to the Freedom of Information Act/Privacy Act (FOIA/PA)
officer at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Information
Disclosure Office, 425 I Street, NW., Washington, DC 20536. Requests
should conform to the requirements of 6 CFR part 5, subpart B, which
provides the rules for requesting access to Privacy Act records
maintained by DHS, including the following: The envelope and letter
should be clearly marked ``Privacy Act Access Request.'' The request
should include a general description of the records sought and must
include the requester's full name, current address, and date and place
of birth. The request must be signed and either notarized or submitted
under penalty of perjury. The envelope and letter shall be clearly
marked Privacy Access Request. The request must include a description
of the general subject matter, the related file number if known, and
any other identifying information that may be of assistance in locating
the record.
CONTESTING RECORDS PROCEDURES:
Same as ``Record Notification Procedures'' above.
RECORD SOURCE CATEGORIES:
The information in this system is supplied by attorneys and others
providing legal support to ICE for the adjudication of cases. Other
information in this system is derived from the alien file maintained on
individuals, and may include investigative material that provides the
basis for the legal proceedings.
EXEMPTIONS CLAIMED FOR THIS SYSTEM:
The Secretary has exempted this system from subsections (c)(3) and
(4), (d), (e)(1), (2), and (3), (e)(4)(G) and (H), (e)(5) and (8), and
(g) of the Privacy Act. These exemptions apply only to the extent that
records in the system are subject to exemption pursuant to 5 U.S.C.
Sections 552a (j)(2) and (k)(1) and (k)(2).
Dated: March 23, 2006.
Maureen Cooney,
Acting Chief Privacy Officer.
[FR Doc. E6-4699 Filed 3-30-06; 8:45 am]
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