Ghosted on my FOIA

My immigration attorney just told me something pretty disturbing about how USCIS is handling FOIA requests.

They’ve had no response at all from the USCIS liaison office and suspect the position may have been quietly eliminated. On top of that, they reviewed a recent whistleblower complaint showing USCIS is denying FOIA requests over extremely minor name discrepancies, even when the agency knows the records exist. Essentially, they are using technicalities to avoid producing files.

The recommendation now is not even to pursue the appeal, because it would likely take much longer and go nowhere. Instead, the strategy is to re-file the FOIA request with certain identifying details omitted, because that may actually force the system to process it.

Has anyone else experienced this kind of procedural stonewalling or “silent denial” with USCIS FOIA? It’s frustrating to try to follow the rules and still feel like the process is being manipulated to avoid transparency.