On Feb. 2, in a stakeholder meeting to mark the first anniversary of executive orders aimed at restoring faith in our immigration system, USCIS Director Ur Jaddou addressed the agency’s application backlog and processing delays.
Jaddou affirmed that foreign citizens who apply for immigration benefits should receive a timely decision, whether positive or negative. “Let me be very clear. Our processing times are too long. There are no if’s, and’s or but’s about it.” In response, she pledged to increase staffing, including the hiring of nearly 200 new employees in the agency’s asylum division.
USCIS reports having welcomed more than 855,000 new Americans and hosted more than 40,000 naturalization ceremonies in FY2021. USCIS also reports having decreased the pending naturalization case queue by approximately 20% in calendar year 2021 and having returned to pre-pandemic processing times for naturalization.
On Feb. 7, USCIS updated its policy manual to revise requirements for foreign citizens who have been admitted as refugees or granted asylum. Rather than having to renew their work permits annually, refugees and those granted asylum, may now renew them every two years. The change will also benefit those who have self-filed for green cards under a domestic abuse survivors’ program, as well as certain migrants who fled persecution and have since been granted deportation relief, known as withholding of removal.
The change will not affect work permits issued before the announcement.
This week, USCIS published a new mission statement, which reads: “USCIS upholds America’s promise as a nation of welcome and possibility with fairness, integrity, and respect for all we serve.” Director Jaddou stated that the United States is and will remain a welcoming nation that embraces people from across the world who seek family reunification, employment or professional opportunities, and humanitarian protection.
Jaddou is the first woman, first Mexican-American, and first Chaldean-American to serve as USCIS Director.
A day without immigrants
23-year-old immigration activist Carlos Eduardo Espina has asked immigrants this year to disrupt Valentine’s Day by not going to work, school, or stores.
On Feb. 14, immigrants in the U.S. will be encouraged to suspend their production and consumption activities to mark the occasion. While that day is often associated with love and romance, it will have a different meaning for immigrants who participate in the campaign.
In the United States, 14% of the population is foreign-born. More than 31 million immigrants are documented, while nearly 12 million are undocumented. There are close to 500,000 Black immigrants without authorization to stay in the US who work with no benefits or healthcare.
It will be interesting to see how much attention the campaign receives in the media and from the Biden Administration and Congress.
