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Washington, D.C. (July 16, 2019) – The issue of processing delays and policy changes at USCIS under President Trump was the subject of a recent Capitol Hill hearing. Jessica Vaughan, Director of Policy Studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, was among the witnesses before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary's Sub-committee on Immigration and Citizenship.
Jessica Vaughan began her testimony by explaining why increased processing times at the agency are not indicative of a plot to shut off legal immigration:
"Under Trump, USCIS has implemented changes that emphasize fidelity to the law, help maintain the integrity of our immigration system, and address problems of rampant fraud in certain categories. These changes have led to emotional and sometimes vicious and/or nonsensical allegations that the Trump administration is trying to shut off legal immigration, or build an 'invisible wall.'
"Critics have pointed to the increase in processing times as evidence of this alleged plot against immigrants. While it is true that some categories now have longer processing times than before, this has less to do with the policy changes, and more to do with the increased workload and lag in fee collection."
She further made note of some of the steps that USCIS under the Trump administration took to curb abuse after years of rubber-stamping certain benefits with high rates of fraud such as marriage-based and temporary workers. Specifically, the administration implemented mandatory interviews for certain applicants, rescinded deference to prior approvals, updated definitions for computer programmers to crack down on H-1B abuse, issued notices to appear (NTAs) in cases where applicants were deportable, and promptly denied frivolous applications.
Jessica noted that processing delays were due not to these new policies, but to an increase in workload among other factors:
"A number of other factors have been exacerbating processing delays: unexpectedly high increases in applications (especially naturalization applications, which is typical in a presidential election year); a very slow hiring and training process to get new adjudicators on the cases; a shortage of office space; the under-funded DACA processing mandate; new interview requirements and expanded security checks following numerous incidents of screening lapses (such as the San Bernardino terrorist attack); implementation of new technology; and dispensing with unreasonable production quotas for adjudicators as a way to empower officers to not feel pressured to rubber-stamp approvals."
She concluded by describing Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which created a benefit that brought in more than 2.4 million applications to be adjudicated, as the "elephant in the room":
"The DACA applications were a shock to the system. USCIS had to adjust, and had to make decisions on which categories of cases would be considered priorities for adjudication. According to internal documents later made public by the Senate Judiciary Committee, Obama administration officials chose to make the following categories priorities: Employers sponsoring temporary or permanent workers from abroad, travel document applicants, U.S. parents adopting children from overseas; all applicants for work permits (which covered all DACA applicants), and military naturalization applicants."
Jessica proposed the introduction of other funding options such as a higher renewal fee for DACA applications or a temporary surcharge on some applications to enable USCIS to conduct a hiring surge.
Read the full testimony: https://cis.org/Testimony/Policy-Changes-and-Processing-Delays-USCIS
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