Justification for Government Cost (Hours)

Supporting Statement Q.14 Justification for Government Cost

The entire time it takes to process a Form I-352 can take up to six hours, depending on workload and where the detainee being bonded out is located.

An obligor comes to a DRO office and wants to post a bond for an alien detained by another field office.  A deportation clerk must first establish the obligor’s identity and determine if in fact the obligor is eligible to post a bond.  The clerk processing the I-352 must gather basic information from the obligor to ensure they bond out the correct detainee.  If the obligor only has the detainee’s name, the clerk must search the detention and/or removal module in ENFORCE to ascertain the detainee’s correct name, date of birth, alien registration number, detention location, bond amount, etc.

Once that information is gathered, the clerk must place the information on a bond questionnaire and fax it to the field office where the detainee is located.  Depending on the workload at the receiving field office, the questionnaire may be worked immediately or sit on the fax machine for an hour or more.  The receiving field office is processing walk-ins of their own as well as fielding faxes from other field offices. 

The receiving office takes the questionnaire and verifies the information is correct by retrieving the alien’s file (A-file) and checking it against the original paperwork.  The A-files are normally in the chief counsel’s office, so depending on where they are located it may take some time to retrieve the A-file.  Once the information is verified, the clerk will send the questionnaire back to the original office notifying them that the alien is indeed bondable.  At this point the clerk will establish a bond receipt number taken from the Cash Bond Log.

The clerk will sit down with the obligor and obtain the obligor’s information on the questionnaire.  If the obligor is paying the bond with cash, the clerk must count the money, breaking it down by denomination. This interview can take up to 30 minutes or more depending on the amount of cash, language barriers and whether or not the obligor has the requested information available.  For instance, the obligor must provide an address where the bonded alien will reside.  Many times the obligor does not know and will have to make numerous phones calls to obtain the answer.  This slows down the process tremendously.

Once the clerk has the detainee’s and obligor’s information on the questionnaire, the clerk prepares the I-352, I-305 and the rest of the bond paperwork.  This takes approximately 20-30 minutes.  After completion of the paperwork, the clerk takes it to the obligor to check for errors.  If the paperwork is correct, it is then given to a deportation officer for review and signatures.  The deportation officer must then count the cash again to ensure accuracy and compare the denominational breakdown to the paperwork.  Once the deportation officer certifies the information is correct, the officer signs the I-352 and I-305.  After the deportation officer signs the documents it is given to a supervisory deportation officer for final review and initialing.  Once the paperwork is signed the clerk will make the requisite number of copies.

The clerk provides the obligor with their copies of the paperwork.  Then the clerk enters the information into the Cash Bond Log.  The clerk faxes a copy of the bond paperwork to the field office where the alien is detained.  It is incumbent upon that office to place the copies in the A-file and release the alien from custody.