US immigration courts struggle amid understaffing and backlog of cases (edited title)

[JeanneAdil 6,398]

5 hours ago, randy32 said:

Old news.

US immigration has always been in a bad shape.

The past administration worked very had to make a bad problem worse.

Adding interviews, investigations, cutting staffing, closing offices, proclamations/bans and more administrative steps that will take more laws, action by congress and lawsuits to unwind.

 

And then the pandemic struck.

Like it or not, I believe it will take decades to get back to where we were before the Trump got into office

if Congress would at least start to work on the problems / been waiting over 20 years for them to act

[JeanneAdil 6,398]

4 minutes ago, Mike E said:

 

USCIS went cold for months.  By the time it re-started operations some files were with NARA/FRC. NARA/FRC is deliberately  operating at 25 percent capacity. Thus new cases from 2021 and 2022 are being processed ahead of cases from 2020.  
 

 

this just is not fair 

[Rocio0010 5,579]

47 minutes ago, millefleur said:

Why it goes at such a snail's pace is beyond me.

I guess it is because no matter what political party is in office, nobody gives a dime about immigration. 

[Mike E 11,732]

1 minute ago, Rocio0010 said:

I guess it is because no matter what political party is in office, nobody gives a dime about immigration. 

s/immigration/legal immigration/

[Rocio0010 5,579]

Just now, Mike E said:

s/immigration/legal immigration/

Oh yeah. 

If you want to do things the right way, you have to sort out bureaucracy for sure.

[Ellie_7 103]

Many Americans know little, and care even less, about the immigration processes, which means less constituent pressure on the lawmakers to create solutions. (One such person told me a couple of years ago she was glad Trump made it harder to immigrate because it had been too easy for too long!) 

[JeanneAdil 6,398]

1 hour ago, Ellie_7 said:

Many Americans know little, and care even less, about the immigration processes, which means less constituent pressure on the lawmakers to create solutions. (One such person told me a couple of years ago she was glad Trump made it harder to immigrate because it had been too easy for too long!) 

definitely she didn't know the process 

our fees also pay for ICE and illegals pay no fees to come to the USCIS to come here

 

USCIS has requested a $1.2 billion bailout from Congress to keep the agency afloat. Without this funding, USCIS claimed that it would not have sufficient funds to maintain its operations through the end of the fiscal year or to fund its operations during the first quarter of FY2021.Jan 11, 2022

 

 

Get the popcorn out

[mam521 1,964]

54 minutes ago, JeanneAdil said:

definitely she didn't know the process 

our fees also pay for ICE and illegals pay no fees to come to the USCIS to come here

 

USCIS has requested a $1.2 billion bailout from Congress to keep the agency afloat. Without this funding, USCIS claimed that it would not have sufficient funds to maintain its operations through the end of the fiscal year or to fund its operations during the first quarter of FY2021.Jan 11, 2022

 

 

Get the popcorn out

Clearly didn't know the process.  

 

It's all fun and games until the negative natural (ie. birth rate) population decline leaves the US in a sorry state of affairs like Japan with an aged population and no one paying taxes, but pulling from that ole pension fund.  

 

You'd think making the process more straight forward so less resources HAD to be focused on ICE would make sense but I humour myself...what part about immigration and all that's associated makes sense as it stands and I expect some semblance of intelligent decision making to come from that?! 😂😭

[millefleur 5,043]

1 hour ago, mam521 said:

It's all fun and games until the negative natural (ie. birth rate) population decline leaves the US in a sorry state of affairs like Japan with an aged population and no one paying taxes, but pulling from that ole pension fund.  

It's a great point. The only reason Japan remains afloat is because of their insane work ethic and less gap between rich and poor, which means that younger people don't mind picking up the burden and working to the bone as long as they feel they're getting paid well for it, they also get generous time off and have a very robust healthcare system. That's why they seem to be weathering the storm fairly well despite the abysmal outlook. They've also slowly been opening up more to immigration (it's easier to get a work visa in Japan now than ever before) and their bureaucracy is rapid fast, it's actually crazy how efficient they are. They put all the other paper pushers around the world to shame.

 

I have a feeling that the US wants to do something similar eventually with easing restrictions to fill in the gaps, but they'll have to make the process way faster and more efficient otherwise it'll just stagnate and anger people like it's doing now. Unfortunately instead of being proactive about things like Japan has been, it seems the US prefers to kick the can down the road and procrastinate until the problem snowballs beyond control entirely. 😵

[Demise 1,214]

19 hours ago, Mr Genuis said:

Hello everyone. While this is not an excitement News I just felt like this will explain reason for the long wait. I read from some news website that the Uscis have over 1.6 million backlog cases  they are fighting to tackle. This is because of the former president's policy and more so because they are currently under staffed. Now I understand why even my application fee is still sitting in my account since I submitted  the N400 online application. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/21/us-immigration-courts-cases-backlog-understaffing

Immigration courts don't handle N-400s even if you are in removal proceedings. They're a completely different agency from USCIS, EOIR which is under DOJ. 

 

Immigration courts handle very specific set of applications in course of removal proceedings: I-485, I-751 (de novo review after denial), I-191, I-601, I-602, I-881, EOIR-40, EOIR-42A, and EOIR-42B. BIA also handles denials of I-130s and widow(er) I-360s. Every single other application is USCIS.

[Bob in Boston 656]

8 hours ago, Rocio0010 said:

I guess it is because no matter what political party is in office, nobody gives a dime about immigration. 

You hit the nail on the head. As much as they want to blame Trump, USCIS has been broken for decades..... Can they fix it? Sure. Do they want to? No. 

[LTPLTP 5]

On 2/22/2022 at 9:42 AM, millefleur said:

Apparently new N-400 applications are getting processed at more or less normal speeds, it's the people who applied in 2020 (especially the spring 2020 filers) who are stuck, with many waiting almost 2 years now. It doesn't make any sense but this is what we're seeing here on VJ.

Me. I am on month 24. Applied March 2020. Apparently my files are in this locked cave no one has access to. 🙄

[millefleur 5,043]

4 minutes ago, LTPLTP said:

Me. I am on month 24. Applied March 2020. Apparently my files are in this locked cave no one has access to. 🙄

I'm not sure if no one has access or if it's a staff shortage. Either reason at this point doesn't many any sense.

[Mike E 11,732]

On 2/22/2022 at 10:13 AM, Rocio0010 said:

Oh yeah. 

If you want to do things the right way, you have to sort out bureaucracy for sure.

My point is one party wants more illegal immigration. The other other party wants less illegal immigration.  Both parties agree that they don’t want to increase legal immigration 

Edited March 3, 2022 by Mike E

[Rocio0010 5,579]

5 minutes ago, Mike E said:

My point is one party wants more illegal immigration. The other other party wants less illegal immigration.  Both parties agree that they don’t want to increase legal immigration 

Yep. Absolutely none of them care about immigration per se. It's all a commodity to them. Sad, really sad.