A nnual Report 2020 - United States Department of Homeland ...

[Pages:122]Annual Report 2020

Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman

June 30, 2020

Annual Report 2020

Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman June 30, 2020

CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION SERVICES OMBUDSMAN i

Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman U.S. Department of Homeland Security Mail Stop 0180 Washington, DC 20528-0180

June 30, 2020

The Honorable Lindsey Graham Chairman Committee on the Judiciary United States Senate Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Dianne Feinstein Ranking Member Committee on the Judiciary United States Senate Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Jerrold Nadler Chairman Committee on the Judiciary United States House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable Jim Jordan Ranking Member Committee on the Judiciary United States House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515

Dear Chairmen and Ranking Members:

The Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman is pleased to submit, pursuant to section 452(c) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, its 2020 Annual Report.

I am available to provide additional information upon request. Sincerely,

Michael T. Dougherty Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman

cisombudsman CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION SERVICES OMBUDSMAN iii

Message from the Ombudsman

I am pleased to present the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman's 2020 Annual Report to Congress.

The Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman was created in the Homeland Security Act in 2002. The Office was designed as a separate component, independent of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Our mission includes assisting individuals and employers in resolving difficulties they experience when seeking immigration benefits from USCIS and proposing changes to improve the delivery of those benefits. In performing these duties our office adheres to the principles of confidentiality, impartiality and independence. The Ombudsman's Office is expected to conduct full and substantive analysis of pervasive and serious problems and to include other information that the Ombudsman deems advisable. In addition, as a component of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), our office supports the Department's larger mission objectives, core values and guiding principles, which include contributing to the integrity of the immigration system while identifying systemic risks that threaten the security and prosperity of the United States.

As this Report is being finalized, USCIS is facing two significant challenges: the staggered reopening of its public-facing offices in the wake of the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and a budget shortfall that may result in furloughs. Stakeholders and the public have raised questions and concerns with the Ombudsman's

Office on how USCIS' processing of immigration benefits and services will be affected by the lingering effects of the pandemic and the potential furlough. The COVID-19 pandemic gave USCIS an opportunity to test out its continuity plan that made even more evident the importance of moving beyond the paper processing of immigration benefits applications to an environment in which filings and adjudications can be processed electronically. USCIS may want to intensify its efforts on implementing electronic filing and adjudication for all form types--a goal once set for the end of 2020.

Though USCIS has provided clarification and guidance on several issues of immediate concern, such as evidentiary response times and in-person interviews, as the COVID-19 pandemic has lengthened, important issues remain unresolved. The Office has supported USCIS by conveying stakeholder concerns and, where appropriate, by offering recommended action. Most of those impacted, from tourists to employers, wish to comply with U.S. immigration laws and need unambiguous guidance to do so. In this difficult period, our Office has encouraged (and will continue to encourage) USCIS to conduct frequent outreach to publicly set stakeholder expectations. We welcome the opportunity to collaborate with USCIS in such efforts. Regardless, the Ombudsman's Office will continue to fully satisfy its statutory obligations, in part through meetings with stakeholders and through outreach events such as webinars, in our belief that clear communications from DHS and USCIS are imperative to support the effective administration of U.S. immigration laws.

Perhaps the greatest immigration benefit that the United States can bestow on a foreign national is citizenship. Given its importance to individuals seeking to naturalize, it is not surprising we receive frequent queries from individuals seeking to understand the status of USCIS adjudications on their applications for citizenship among the thousands of requests for assistance we receive annually. In this Report, we study the increasing naturalization application backlog, and recommend ways to streamline more complicated cases and identify creative remote interview solutions. Given the significance of U.S. citizenship, we also study in this Report the challenges of denaturalizing those who, due to agency error or through

iv ANNUAL REPORT TO CONGRESS JUNE 2020

fraud, received the benefit despite being ineligible. While there is always pressure on USCIS to adjudicate applications, it is essential to maintain the integrity of the process, ensuring that appropriate vetting and screening of applicants is completed; once a benefit like citizenship is awarded to an unqualified individual, it is legally difficult and resource-intensive to later reverse it.

An important means of maintaining integrity in the immigration system is the promotion of data collection, data standards and reliable, objective data reporting as close to real time as possible. Accurate metrics-keeping promotes better situational awareness within DHS, but also provides leaders within the Executive and Legislative branches a clearer understanding of the status of the immigration system. In this Report, we cover the progress of the DHS Immigration Data Integration Initiative, which is enhancing technology and internal procedures to improve immigration metrics-keeping to ensure that relevant, accurate information is available to operational components and leadership at DHS.

The Report covers the rapid increase of the optional practical training (OPT) program, which enables approximately 200,000 foreign students to work annually in the United States in areas related to their course of study, including science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). While practical training affords numerous advantages to foreign students, schools and U.S. employers, the OPT and STEM OPT programs have remained a source of concern in recent years due to their vulnerability to fraud and indicators that they are being leveraged by foreign governments as a means of conducting espionage or illicit technology transfer in the STEM areas. The Ombudsman examines how foreign students obtain practical training and, using open-source data, applies an objective analytical framework to the programs to determine potential risks to the security and prosperity of the United States.

The Office has had numerous opportunities to comment upon the processing of asylum applications, and this Report is no exception. The number of pending affirmative asylum applications now stands at approximately 350,000, despite USCIS' near tripling of its asylum staff. As always, the pressure on USCIS to complete applications in a secure and timely manner must be viewed in the context of its workload and business model: in FY 2019, it received 8.1 million applications and petitions, and it operates as a fee-funded agency. USCIS, like most other federal agencies, lacks the agility to rapidly staff and train personnel to meet dynamic surges in workloads like those experienced with asylum, naturalization, and employment authorization applications.

I wish to share my appreciation for the very positive experience that we have had with Congressional staff serving in district and state offices who assist individual constituents and other stakeholders in resolving immigration benefits problems. We appreciate their dedication and value the opportunity to meet frequently with them. I also wish to thank on behalf of our Office the USCIS staff and leadership team for their friendship and collaboration. Finally, I extend my sincere gratitude to the professional staff of the Ombudsman's Office, who, after seamlessly transitioning to a remote work environment, have continued to work with admirable diligence and creativity to achieve the mission of this Office.

Sincerely,

Michael T. Dougherty

CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION SERVICES OMBUDSMAN v

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