A Thursday email from a top immigration official warned others that they could be terminated for leaking information to the media.
Acting Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Mark Koumans wrote the email, which was leaked to Buzzfeed News, and tells employees to closely guard information about their work and details a policy on leaking that could end up in a potential leaker being fired.
“We have the responsibility to protect the information that the agency and the public have entrusted to us and it is imperative that we not betray that trust through the unauthorized disclosure (“leaking”) of any such information,” he said. “… recent unauthorized disclosures of sensitive, for official use only, and internal use only information by USCIS personnel to media outlets have brought this issue to the forefront.”
Koumans said that for the first offense, staff would be reprimanded with the possibility of a two-week suspension. The second offense would result in another two-week suspension, and the third offense would result in termination.
In the email, Koumans tells the staff that they can still disclose “wrongdoing” as part of the Whistleblower Protection Act.
The agency sent another email in January warning about leaking, though that email did not contain potential penalties.
