IMMIGRATIONProcessing Backlogs in the U.S. Immigration System: The Scale of the Problem
Conventional wisdom holds that the U.S. immigration system is broken – but the issue is not who should be admitted legally, for how long, and what about their families. Rather, a defining way in which the system is broken is that the current system is unable to implement the policies that Congress and the administration have already chosen. This article summarizes the basic facts about the immigration backlogs, which comprise roughly 24 million cases across the U.S. government.
Conventional wisdom holds that the U.S. immigration system is broken, but for many years, conversations about its brokenness focused on policy questions. Who should be able to come to the United States or live here legally? For how long? Are they allowed to work? What about their families? But now a defining way in which it is broken is that the current system is unable to implement the policies that Congress and the administration have already chosen. This incapacity to carry out policies has triggered prolonged wait times that have led to massive backlogs of pending applications. The processing backlogs have caused immigrants and Americans with whom they wish to associate to lose out on benefits that the system is supposed to provide.
This brief paper summarizes the basic facts about the immigration backlogs, which comprise roughly 24 million cases across the U.S. government. It demonstrates that backlogs are not isolated within certain portions of the system but are rather a systemic and growing problem for all four departments responsible for executing U.S. immigration law. It also shows that except for visa processing, backlogs have not arisen primarily from COVID-19 shutdowns. Instead, they are a consequence of inefficient agency processes that have caused wait times and backlogs to grow during the past decade. This also means that the agencies culpable for the problem will have the most important roles to play in fixing it.
Introduction
Government agencies process requests for various immigration‐related benefits, including travel and work authorization, relief from deportation, and citizenship. A processing backlog develops when the number of submitted requests exceeds the number of processed requests. Congress can also create cap‐induced backlogs by setting a legal limit on approvals below the number of requests that would otherwise be approved by the agency. Millions of people stuck in the cap‐induced backlogs desperately want to be able to submit applications to join the processing backlogs.
This brief paper focuses only on the processing backlogs. Even if Congress completely rescinded the caps on permanent residence, for instance, the processing backlogs would effectively nullify its action. If the agencies can administratively process only one million green cards annually, authorizing them to approve nine million would simply move immigrants from a cap‐induced backlog to a processing backlog. It would not solve the problem. If Congress wants to make any major shifts in immigration policy, it must also address immigration processing.
