AILA Quicktake #258: USCIS Delays Reach Crisis Level
AILA’s Policy Counsel Jason Boyd discusses his analysis of recent USCIS data, which reveals a steep increase in the agency’s case processing times.
Video Transcript
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AILA’s analysis of recent USCIS data reveals case processing delays at crisis levels.
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As measured in our report, over the last two fiscal years the agency’s overall average
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processing time surged by 46 percent. Over the last five 91 percent.
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This is more than a problem. It’s a systemic failure.
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Longer waits mean families struggle to make ends meet;
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survivors of violence and torture face danger; U.S companies fall behind.
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Yet rather than relieve the logjam, USCIS compounds it. It defies its own mandate by
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imposing policies that prioritize enforcement over adjudication, that drive down efficiency
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and ratchet up delays. This isn’t the USCIS Congress intended.
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And it’s not the one the public deserves.
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When a business’s viability is on the line; when a family’s livelihood is at stake
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when a child’s safety hangs in the balance; we need a USCIS that delivers.
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So AILA calls on the agency to rescind these misguided measures.
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To make transparent the depth of, and reasons for, its backlog.
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And we urge Congress, through aggressive oversight, to hold USCIS to account.
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Millions of individuals and employers need, and need now,
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an efficient, fair service-oriented agency exemplifying
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what is, and has always been, our nation of immigrants.