DHS OIG: USCIS Faces Challenges Assembly Statutory Timelines and Lowering Its Backlog of Affirmative Asylum Claims

DHS OIG, July 3, 2024

“U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Companies (USCIS) didn’t adjudicate affirmative asylum functions in a well timed method to satisfy statutory timelines and to cut back its present backlog. On the finish of fiscal 12 months 2023, USCIS had greater than 1 million asylum instances pending dedication. Of these, USCIS had greater than 786,000 affirmative asylum instances pending dedication for a interval longer than 180 days from the date of submitting. This occurred as a result of USCIS didn’t have ample funding, staffing, and planning to finish its affirmative asylum caseload. USCIS obtained restricted appropriated funding and primarily relied on utility charges. Nonetheless, in 2023, USCIS decided that its fee-funded income was not ample to help staffing wanted to completely execute adjudication and naturalization providers. This scarcity compelled USCIS to prioritize sure forms of work over resolving its backlog of affirmative asylum instances and likewise resulted in USCIS setting efficiency targets at ranges too low to well timed adjudicate new claims inside the statutory limits and deal with the prevailing affirmative asylum backlog. The rise in asylum claims with out a corresponding enhance in sources will proceed to stop USCIS from assembly statutory timelines and outcome within the continued development of the backlog of affirmative asylum instances. If USCIS continues to not well timed adjudicate asylum claims, eligible affirmative asylum candidates will probably be delayed in acquiring not solely asylum, but additionally associated immigration advantages, resembling lawful everlasting residency and citizenship. USCIS will probably expertise elevated litigation involving people difficult adjudication delays. This takes sources from USCIS’ manufacturing efforts as these litigation instances take priority over new affirmative asylum claims and divert already restricted sources from well timed processing of current-year claims.”