Reading Room Document

Admissibility of Alien Amnesty Application Information in Prosecutions of Third Parties

The confidentiality provisions of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 generally bar federal prosecutors from introducing information from a lien amnesty applications as evidence in criminal prosecutions of third parties, but the use of such information is not barred in prosecutions of third parties for crimes that facilitate, or are closely related to, the filing of a false amnesty application. Justice Department use of amnesty application information is also subject to regulations issued by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Those regulations limit such use against third parties to the prosecution of persons who have "created or supplied a false writing or document for use" in an amnesty application, which may include persons who take bribes to approve false amnesty applications. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at www.justice.gov/file/20416/download.

December 22, 1993