I feel empathy with Shay, but what the heck!? He doesn't know the name of the agency he is dealing with. He is also misinformed about USCIS's troubles in 2020. If two major facts are wrong in the first section, I read the rest with extreme caution. (It's U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, by the way.)
I feel empathy with Shay, but what the heck!? He doesn't know the name of the agency he is dealing with. He is also misinformed about USCIS's troubles in 2020. If two major facts are wrong in the first section, I read the rest with extreme caution. (It's U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, by the way.)
The asylum and refugee processes both are suboptimal. However, his problem is timing mostly. In 2020, because a lot of money suddenly wasn't where it was supposed to be, USCIS quit hiring people or doing employee transfers. Then because of the pandemic, all interviews we cancelled for much of the year. The immigration courts closed. Then came the furlough threat. That meant that lots of people fled to other agencies to protect themselves from that furlough. At the end of FY20, things were a little better. In 2021,new people opted to rehire those positions. But hiring new people takes time.
It sucks that the agency was mismanaged for couple of years. It sucks that all of DHS was mismanaged for most of the prior admin. But it hits everyone. Did anyone need a Social Security appointment in 2021?
I took it as a very human look at the broken parts of the immigration process and appreciate it as such. But, yes, would have been useful to run it by someone with expertise in the area to potentially make sure to clarify specific facts.
For one, Asylum is processed through two separate agencies, USCIS (for affirmative asylum applications, which it seems Shay is. This is the "asylum interview" agency) and through EOIR (which is the agency that operates the immigration courts). Backlogs in one agency rarely affect backlogs in the other and at least with EOIR, one can file a motion to expedite if there's compelling reasons to advance trial.
For another, one of the big reasons USCIS has such a massive backlog is because the Trump administration redirected money and personnel that should have been used to process USCIS business into working for ICE. That combined with a deliberate slowdown of USCIS (including, but not limited to a reduction in staffers there) is a major reason for its disfunction today.
That said, the human element is important to keep in mind. Shay isn't an immigration attorney and shouldn't be expected to know the ins and outs of the business. It's an article that's a testament to how our immigration system (legal immigration even! USCIS doesn't handle anything that has its proper jurisdiction before the Court) hurts even those who try to do things "the right way."
Thanks for this comment. Very helpful to understanding some of the issues.
I still don’t understand how he wants Biden to fix it though. Republicans want 0 asylum claims to be adjudicated in a positive outcome for the asylum candidate. Am I missing something much more basic?
The solution, if there is one, is to hire a ton of new USCIS asylum officers. The "problem" that creates though is if you're doing that, you've also got to hire new USCIS officers at the processing centers, which speeds up legal immigration processing. Which, y'know, the nativists in the Republican Party are against, too.
I'll go through the mechanisms of how this works practically, but more USCIS asylum denials creates more workload and headache for the Immigration Courts.
I found his article hard to follow. It was somewhat helpful to see a description of the problem but he doesn’t propose any solutions. The basic problem is simple: 1 party doesn’t want any immigrants, legal or otherwise. The other does. Hard to square that circle.
Also any reform to the system by congress (which won’t happen and the idea of Biden spending political capital on it, is at best, laughable), likely will so gut the asylum process that he likely won’t get in via that route.
Also, I don’t understand why someone walking across the southern border or flying into the US from Hungary has any better or worse claim to asylum. The only difference is one is wealthier.
On the last point, for the most part they're handled by different agencies. Someone who flies in on a B1/B2 visa and then affirmatively applies for asylum goes through USCIS. People crossing the border pretty much all get referred immediately to EOIR (the courts).
No worries! Most people don't know because it's confusing and a bit counterintuitive. Also, people almost never talk about affirmative asylum outside of maybe immigration attorney forums.
So, it's complicated. The process for affirmative asylum is:
1) Person arrives in U.S., either via visa, humanitarian parole, or by crossing the border and just wasn't caught by ICE (extremely rare nowadays). Mostly people enter on visas or are paroled in.
2) Person files an asylum application with USCIS. USCIS processes this and sends the case to a USCIS field office.
3) An interview is conducted. This is where it's different from an application in court - USCIS interviews are non-adversarial. There's no prosecutor/other side, no cross examination, etc. Just an asylum officer asking the applicant questions to get his or her story. In that sense, it may be theoretically "easier" to win with USCIS (though in my experience, your mileage may vary. Very dependent on individual officers who in my opinion are inclined to lean towards "not grant" because of step 4)
4) If asylum is granted, the person is designated an asylee. If not granted, the applicant is referred to the Immigration Court, where they have a second shot to try their case.
This was a long answer that basically is an "it depends." With USCIS you have two chances to win your case, the first in a non-adversarial environment (whereas those who cross the border and are caught and pass their credible fear interview are referred immediately to the Immigration Court).
Practically, there's a lot more transparency with the Immigration Court. People have set hearing and trial dates and if there's huge delays, a person can request that their trial date be advanced. Even if not advanced, a person can see specifically on paper when their hearing date is. With USCIS it's just a black box of "still processing."
I feel empathy with Shay, but what the heck!? He doesn't know the name of the agency he is dealing with. He is also misinformed about USCIS's troubles in 2020. If two major facts are wrong in the first section, I read the rest with extreme caution. (It's U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, by the way.)
The asylum and refugee processes both are suboptimal. However, his problem is timing mostly. In 2020, because a lot of money suddenly wasn't where it was supposed to be, USCIS quit hiring people or doing employee transfers. Then because of the pandemic, all interviews we cancelled for much of the year. The immigration courts closed. Then came the furlough threat. That meant that lots of people fled to other agencies to protect themselves from that furlough. At the end of FY20, things were a little better. In 2021,new people opted to rehire those positions. But hiring new people takes time.
It sucks that the agency was mismanaged for couple of years. It sucks that all of DHS was mismanaged for most of the prior admin. But it hits everyone. Did anyone need a Social Security appointment in 2021?
I took it as a very human look at the broken parts of the immigration process and appreciate it as such. But, yes, would have been useful to run it by someone with expertise in the area to potentially make sure to clarify specific facts.
For one, Asylum is processed through two separate agencies, USCIS (for affirmative asylum applications, which it seems Shay is. This is the "asylum interview" agency) and through EOIR (which is the agency that operates the immigration courts). Backlogs in one agency rarely affect backlogs in the other and at least with EOIR, one can file a motion to expedite if there's compelling reasons to advance trial.
For another, one of the big reasons USCIS has such a massive backlog is because the Trump administration redirected money and personnel that should have been used to process USCIS business into working for ICE. That combined with a deliberate slowdown of USCIS (including, but not limited to a reduction in staffers there) is a major reason for its disfunction today.
That said, the human element is important to keep in mind. Shay isn't an immigration attorney and shouldn't be expected to know the ins and outs of the business. It's an article that's a testament to how our immigration system (legal immigration even! USCIS doesn't handle anything that has its proper jurisdiction before the Court) hurts even those who try to do things "the right way."
Thanks for this comment. Very helpful to understanding some of the issues.
I still don’t understand how he wants Biden to fix it though. Republicans want 0 asylum claims to be adjudicated in a positive outcome for the asylum candidate. Am I missing something much more basic?
I honestly have no idea.
The solution, if there is one, is to hire a ton of new USCIS asylum officers. The "problem" that creates though is if you're doing that, you've also got to hire new USCIS officers at the processing centers, which speeds up legal immigration processing. Which, y'know, the nativists in the Republican Party are against, too.
I'll go through the mechanisms of how this works practically, but more USCIS asylum denials creates more workload and headache for the Immigration Courts.
I found his article hard to follow. It was somewhat helpful to see a description of the problem but he doesn’t propose any solutions. The basic problem is simple: 1 party doesn’t want any immigrants, legal or otherwise. The other does. Hard to square that circle.
Also any reform to the system by congress (which won’t happen and the idea of Biden spending political capital on it, is at best, laughable), likely will so gut the asylum process that he likely won’t get in via that route.
Also, I don’t understand why someone walking across the southern border or flying into the US from Hungary has any better or worse claim to asylum. The only difference is one is wealthier.
On the last point, for the most part they're handled by different agencies. Someone who flies in on a B1/B2 visa and then affirmatively applies for asylum goes through USCIS. People crossing the border pretty much all get referred immediately to EOIR (the courts).
Apologies for not knowing this but does that mean that one is more likely or less likely to have their asylum claim granted. Apologies for not knowing
No worries! Most people don't know because it's confusing and a bit counterintuitive. Also, people almost never talk about affirmative asylum outside of maybe immigration attorney forums.
So, it's complicated. The process for affirmative asylum is:
1) Person arrives in U.S., either via visa, humanitarian parole, or by crossing the border and just wasn't caught by ICE (extremely rare nowadays). Mostly people enter on visas or are paroled in.
2) Person files an asylum application with USCIS. USCIS processes this and sends the case to a USCIS field office.
3) An interview is conducted. This is where it's different from an application in court - USCIS interviews are non-adversarial. There's no prosecutor/other side, no cross examination, etc. Just an asylum officer asking the applicant questions to get his or her story. In that sense, it may be theoretically "easier" to win with USCIS (though in my experience, your mileage may vary. Very dependent on individual officers who in my opinion are inclined to lean towards "not grant" because of step 4)
4) If asylum is granted, the person is designated an asylee. If not granted, the applicant is referred to the Immigration Court, where they have a second shot to try their case.
This was a long answer that basically is an "it depends." With USCIS you have two chances to win your case, the first in a non-adversarial environment (whereas those who cross the border and are caught and pass their credible fear interview are referred immediately to the Immigration Court).
Practically, there's a lot more transparency with the Immigration Court. People have set hearing and trial dates and if there's huge delays, a person can request that their trial date be advanced. Even if not advanced, a person can see specifically on paper when their hearing date is. With USCIS it's just a black box of "still processing."