Reply #42: Immigration processing 'cooked' numbers

[flashl]

The USCIS (former INS) backlog reduction plan, introduced by Director Aguirre during Congressional testimony, promised to reduce processing times to a maximum of six months by the end of fiscal 2006.

Immigration Backlog: Creative Numbers

The Bush administration claimed recently that it had reduced backlogs on immigration applications for green cards, citizenship and other benefits by a few million. Seems this is a new twist on cooking the books though... The decline can be attributed in large part to simple changes in reporting policy.

First, the administration "cut the backlog" from 6 million to 4 million by counting only cases that take longer than six months to complete. Next, they eliminated another 1.1 million applications when they stopped counting green card applications of children and siblings of U.S. citizens, as well as of spouses and children of legal residents.

The government claims that the changes in reporting reflect a better prioritization of applications rather than an attempt to be deceptive.

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Skilled Workers Suffer for Years in Immigration Backlog

As of February, the Backlog for Guest Worker Applications Was 608,029 Cases