So the committee will come back to order. We had a number of votes. Hopefully well get some of the other members who are on the way back, but for now we will start with our second panel. I would like to introduce all of them, but before i do let me ask you all to stand, raise your right hand. Will. [witnesses were sworn in] and the record will show that each of the witnesses replied in the from the. That we were introduced our witness. Marquette a lynch is present of Immigration Lawyers Association and a partner at the Chicago Office of where she specializes in business immigration programs and i9 compliance. Shes authored numerous pieces on immigration for legal publication purchaser as a of the leadership board of the National ImmigrantJustice Center in chicago and currently advises several chicagobased organizations that provide assistance to underserved immigrant communities. Jill marie busey is director of advocacy of the catholic Legal Immigration network, also known as clinic. She has worked in immigration field for nearly 20 years. Prior to clinic she served as president of board of directors at the foreignborn information and Referral Network in maryland nonprofit the support immigrants, refugees and she also served as director of the global immigration counsel and worked in private practice at the multitude of firms. Eric cohen is executive director of the immigrant legal resource center. Prior to being named executive director in 2007 he supervised the legal work as legal director staff attorney. Hes been a professor of Immigration Law and the supervised Immigration Law clinic at stanford and university of california Hastings School of law. He has coauthored countless publications and practice manuals for Immigration Attorneys and specializes in naturalization and citizenship issues. Jessica vaughan serves as director of policy studies of the center for Immigration Studies where she has worked since 1992. She is also an instructor for senior Law Enforcement officer training seminars at Northwestern University center for Public Safety in illinois. Prior to her work with the center, she was a Foreign Service officer with the u. S. Department of state where she served in belgium as well as trinidad and tobacco. So we thank each one of you for being here. As you know we have you written statements which will be made part of the record and ask your testimony be about five minutes. There is a light somewhere. Maybe not, but when youre a minute away from your fight against the yellow light will go on and the red light is supposed to go on when your time is up. We would ask you try to stay within that timeframe and we are eager to hear each one of you. With that, we will start with you, ms. Lindt. Chairwoman lofgren and Ranking Member buck and members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today on the bipartisan issue of reducing processing delays at uscis. I am the elected president of the american Immigration Lawyers Association, the private Bar Association of more than 15,000 Immigration Attorneys and law professors. Im also a partner at a law firm where i specialize in business immigration and represent a wide range of american companies. We represent businesses, families and people seeking protection before uscis in virtually every kind of emigration application. Unfortunately, our experience reveals the troubling reality. Todays uscis is an agency rife with processing delays that are driven by the agencies own inefficient policies and practices. Congress establish uscis to be serviceoriented Immigration Agency that meets the needs of american businesses and families. To accomplish this the agency must process its applications efficiently and timely in mn at the vertex the integrity of the immigration system. The magnitude of the delays now facing uscis customers, many of whom face significant fees for your seo services, are extreme. Uscis has a history of chronic management problems and processing delays at the delays are particularly acute now. Analysis of data reveals that between fiscal years 2016 20168 the agencies average Case Processing time surged by 46 and the overall backlog of delayed cases exceeded 5. 69 million. This slow death in Case Processing has a a Significant Impact on u. S. Business and family. The delays restrict the ability of u. S. Businesses to hire workers that they need to be competitive nationally and globally. They prolong the separation of families. They endanger those who need humanitarian protection and install the integration of aspiring u. S. Citizens. This is not a matter of ideology or politics. U. S. Businesses and individuals are paying substantial filing fees for applications for immigration benefits. The agencies implementation of our Legal Immigration system is simply a matter of good governance. Leaders in congress on both sides of the aisle have recognized the critical impact uscis delays are having and with bipartisan action have called for greater accountability. In march of this year a bipartisan delegation of ten house members from the houston area, some on the subcommittee, wrote that the agencies inability to act in a timely way to serve the houston area was posing a hindrance to our regions future. In may, 38 u. S. Senators including 19 republicans and 19 democrats expressed alarm over the nationwide slowdown. In response, uscis has largely attributed backlog to resource constraints and high numbers of applications. However, their own data shows that in fiscal year 2018 the agencies budget grew and application rate significantly decline. Yet during that same time Case Processing time still increased by 19 . With evidence demonstrates that, in fact, its the agencies own inefficient policies that are driving the longer processing time. In my testimony i eyesight manf the problematic policies that ucs has implemented. Here are three. First, and october 2017, uscis imposed a policy mandating an in person interview for everyone applying for a green card through his or her employer. Officers already had the discretion to select cases for an interview but now the Agency Requires in person interviews for every single applicant, even if theres no indication that its necessary. This trains the agencies valuable resources that could otherwise reduce the backlog. Second, in 2017, uscis changed its 2004 policy from the bush era to now require the agency to res judicata every application for an extension of status, even where the same employer is applying for the same employee for the same job under the same visa type and where theres been no meaningful change in circumstances. And third ucs data shows significant spikes and request for evidence issued for an agency. These requests halt Case Processing, often request irrelevant corporate provided information and create an additional timeconsuming and resource intensive step in the process. In my own practice ive witnessed a growth in Case Processing delays and the harmful consequences for businesses nationwide. Icing Companies Workforce gaps going unfilled, icing workers losing employment authorization and everyday i see the uncertainty that now pervades the business environment. As a result our countrys losing valuable university graduates, talented professionals and entrepreneurs from abroad who are choosing destinations other than the United States because the stress, the lengthy processing time and the unpredictability of the u. S. Immigration process creates an environment that is inhospitable to innovation and to attracting and retaining global talent. So members of the subcommittee is in. Both ucs and congress act swiftly to eliminate processing delays in the disruptive consequences. Uscis should reverse inefficient policies that needlessly delay adjudication. Good afternoon, Ranking Member buck, and members of the subcommittee. Im the director of the catholic integration network. Were really grateful for this invitation. And welcoming this clinic promotes the rights of immigrants. Our network has nonprofit agencies and serve hundreds of thousands of immigrants each year providing us with insights and real life examples they face before uscis. Over the past year weve been seeing the agency toward enforcement and away from its congressionally mandated purpose. Purpose. Customers provide services and pay hardearned money and put their trust in the agency. Under the current leadership their lives are upended as policy choices and gross mismanagement has case back logs. And longer rules and asking for needless information korean redundancies, cases with small errors resolved through Customer Service have been denied forcing everyone to go back to square one. It makes it harder to request expedited processing. It robs them of their dignity, their livelihood and their security and shake their trust in our immigration system. Its the problematic policies that we have identified as well their human consequences. Today we list three. The story shows the harm caused when its not processed. Came in 2011 to study engineering just as syrias civil war was erupting. Unable to go home after the student visa ended he applied for protected status and he found a job in the oregon. And he faced consequences due to processing delay, including renewing his drivers license, gaining access to his own bank account and billable hours and income. And Critical Services when green card processing stalls. For example, a Catholic Priest from india, serving a 160 mile rural area in new york, celebrates mass, performs weddings and presides over the six. Waiting for years for his green card caused him and his dioces to submit multiple documents. Because of this, the drivers license connected to immigration status hes experienced difficulties getting it renewed. His work permit and drivers license are key tools that allow him to search. And here, it may cause a vulnerable parishioner to not receive critical care, including past rites. And these are not the only ones. Cheryl is a jamaican survivor of Domestic Violence and its the four times the processing time. Cheryl fled her abuser, but without a work permit and was forced to move back and violence occurred again for six months, this is absurd and immoral, cheryl and her children should be safe yet theyre at the mercy of uscis is process the case. And its wholly and completely avoidable, brought on by misguidance, misdirection, and to raise fees would ask the petitioners would be their own failures. It must prioritize clearing the backlog, survivor based applications and limits to ensure that the most vulnerable are protected. I thank the committee for your attention to these issues and urge all members of congress to talk with their constituents and office staff to learn more about the harms that these back logs are causing. Congress must hold them accountable and we must right this ship in our immigration system together. Thank you. Thank you. Chairman buck and accomplished member members. The policies and processes that caused the back logs. Im here representing the legal resource center. For 40 years weve provided resources to practitioners and we lead the new Americans Campaign and the single biggest collaboration in the United States that helped over 400,000 people complete their applications. Our nations Naturalization Program is in a state of dysfunction and uscis is not adequately fairly and efficiency processing applications. Instead of remedying the situation, the Trump Administration policies have exacerbated unmanageable back logs, the way to naturalize has ballooned to unacceptable levels and result is nationalization applicants and their families are suffering. The naturalization wait time has gone from 5. 8 months in 2015 to 10. 3 months in 2017. As of march, 2019 the average is ten months. In miami, dallas and new york, the processing case is nearly the administration is not dedicated to back logs and resources for the back logs. And they had had cleared the backlog because it was viewed as a priority. Sadly this is not happening under the Trump Administration. This administration spends an inordinate amount of time, thus delaying the process. We served our new american campaigns partners across the nation to request to report any changes. Many surveys reported that interviews are lasting longer twice as long in the past thus contributing to the backlog. And responders reported that adjudicators are viewing applicants in more than one suspicion and asked for proof of marriage even though the couple has Children Together and it was determined during the green card interview. And its outside the scope of naturalization applications thus delaying adjudication. Our partners report that theyre asking for travel history beyond the fiveyear required statutory period and are questioning legitimacy of fee waiver applicants, low status asking irrelevant even after the fee waiver has been approved. In one recent case an 82yearold iranian woman applied for naturalization. And the adjudicator revisited aasylum case including trauma she suffered in iran and even though it was set at the nine years. She broke down during the interview and was unable to complete the interview causing her to be denied naturalization. Theyve shifted the mission from a benefit agency to one that erects barriers and serves as enforcer, including proposed changes to application by adding vague and legally overbroad questions, inviting arbitrary and ramping up the naturalization requirements, and restrictions to fee wavers and considering substantial fee increase. Naturalization benefits not only the applicant, but the u. S. Economy. Increasing citizenship results in increased gdp and increase in earnings and billions in additional tax revenue. In 2013, i was fortunate enough to be invited to speak on a panel at the george w. Bush president ial library in dallas, texas. The events focus was on naturalization and included a naturalization swearingin ceremony at which george w. Bush gave a wonderful speech. At one very powerful moment in the speech president bush told the soon to be american citizens quote, in a few moments, we will share the same title, a title thats meant more to me than any other, and ive had a lot. That would be citizen of the United States. Citizenship is important part of the foundation of our democracy and we should make sure that our naturalization process is fairly, efficiently and reasonably. Thank you for letting me speak today and i look forward to taking your questions. Thank you very much. Ms. Vaughan, wed be happy to hear from you. Thank you, every single day uscis officers face the balance of their responsibility to make the correct decision on sometimes complicated applications with the need to do so within a reasonable time frame. Its something i did on a daily basis when i was a counsellor officer. Officers have to be on the lookout for fraud which is sometimes rampant depending on the category or for people who are safety or security risks and thats not always easy to detect. On top of it, the agencies are constantly subject to pressure from special Interest Groups such as employers that sponsor Foreign Workers and Immigration Attorneys who are sometimes pressuring the agency to adopt policies or practicing they believe favor their business or clients. And especially to make decisions faster. Too often, uscis leadership has succumbed to the pressure and as a result overemphasized swift processing at the expense of correct and fair adjudication, with disastrous results for American Workers and others who suffer harm because of rushed decisions or questionable prioritization of cases. Adding to the challenge, uscis has to follow a cumbersome proceed for the fees of costs, and subsidizing some applications, this leads to understaffing which leads to underfunding for an agency dependent on fees. Processing aasylum applications and work permits for them. This afternoon weve heard criticism that the Trump Administration made to improve the screening of applications and to address the fraud and gaming of the system. Most of these, like the interview requirement and the issuance of ntas are just common sense and i address them in more detail in my retail statement. Others like ending the deference policy and allowing for refusal of frivolous applications from the get hadden go help unclog the system so the legitimate applicants are not disadvantaged. Some that they complain about reduced processing time. Advocacy groups have been silent on a policy change thats most responsible for the backlogs before the election cycle and that was daca. Since 2012 daca has added more than 2. 4 million applications to the uscis workload. 910,000 initial applications and more than a million and a half renewals. If you examine the charts in the uscis testimony the concerning growth in backlogs began shortly after daca was implemented. And a search made the backlogs worse later, but the daca workload is still a problem. Daca was responsible for about three quarters of the backlog growth that occurred before 2016. The biggest growth occurred from 201