Nextgov: "New USCIS Computer Was Supposed to Speed Up Immigration Processing. What Went Wrong?"

The online electronic system that was supposed to transition US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) away from paper-based applications to a sophisticated and secure online system has faced major delays and increasingly high budget costs and isn't expected to be fully operational until 2018 or 2019. This system, called the Electronic Immigration System (or ELIS, to honor our nation's first federal immigration processing center) is an online, account-based system that allows users to "submit and view certain benefit requests, receive electronic notification of decisions, and receive real-time case status updates."

Currently ELIS is only available for paying the immigrant visa fee and for I-539 applications as well as EB-5 Investor Visa applications. (For a short window I-90 applications were accepted). The ELIS system was originally budgeted at $536,000 with a 2013 completion date and now has a price tag of $2.6 billion, which has been financed by USCIS application fees. The system was designed to streamline the immigration application process and make case review and adjudication more effective and efficient for the estimated 18,000 USCIS officers and contractors who process the six million immigration benefits yearly.

Nextgov reports that as USCIS fixes, programs, and further develops ELIS capabilities USCIS field offices continue to use outdated and incompatible systems and that the most troubling aspect is "paper files have proved more efficient than ELIS as it currently operates." Indeed, a 2014 Inspector General report found that it takes twice as long for an officer to close a case with ELIS than with paper documents, citing the 100 to 150 clicks required for moving through the ELIS system. A staffer on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee says: "'Transitioning to an electronic system would improve USCIS’ search capability, help it analyze for patterns, and share information on an interagency basis[.]”

USCIS press secretary Shin Inouye says that going digital "'is a priority for USCIS,'" and that they "'will continue to engage with stakeholders, members of Congress, and interested individuals as we build a system that will transform the way USCIS accesses information and processes cases, while maintaining our commitment to ensuring the integrity of America’s immigration process.'"

In the meantime, FedEx, UPS, and the US Postal Service aren't complaining.

UPDATE (April 2, 2015): USCIS announced earlier this week that Form I-90, Application to Replace Permanent Resident Card, is available in the ELIS system after a short trial period last year. Lawful permanent residents may now use ELIS to apply for a replacement or renewal of their existing permanent resident card (i.e., Green Card). Conditional permanent residents may use ELIS to apply only for a replacement of an existing Green Card; they may not use this form to apply for an extension or renewal of their status.

UPDATE (June 24, 2015): USCIS announced that as of June 15, 2015, they are longer accepting electronically filed Form I-539, Application to Extend/Change Nonimmigrant Status, and Form I-526, Immigrant Petition by Alien Entrepreneur. In addition, USCIS  discontinued the Regional Center Document Library. For those who have a pending or draft case created before June 15, USCIS will continue to adjudicate those cases to completion and allow thirty days for completion and submission of the draft cases. Moreover, those who filed a Form I-539 or Form I-526 electronically before June 15 will still be able to access their account to check case status, change address, and respond to requests for evidence. Those who filed Form I-526 electronically will still be able to review and attest existing deal packages created by the Document Library Manager; however, Document Library Managers will not be able to create new document libraries or deal packages. Time to get out that typewriter again! (Okay, or maybe just fill the forms out on a computer.)

It Is Yours

"She's always thought that one of the beauties of New York is that you can be from anywhere and within moments of landing it is yours.”

- Colum McCann
  Let the Great World Spin

Vox: "Where the world's migrants go, in one map"

"Most Popular Destination for Each Country's Migrants" by DMan9797.

The most popular migrant destinations for each country around the world have been mapped and color coded. Created by Devinn Jani, aka Reddit user DMan9797, the very cool map uses 2013 United Nations data to show country-specific global migration. The map reveals some interesting facts about migration (but note that when looking at the map in addition to color coding, it also labels countries with the most popular country migrant destination of that country—e.g., USA is labeled as Mexico and Argentina is labeled as Spain—and so for those who haven't memorized all the countries a world map may be useful):

• Unsurprisingly, the United States (whose immigrants are colored in red) is the most popular destination for the geographically-close countries of Mexico, Canada, Honduras, Guatemala, Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic, among others, but also for such countries as diverse and culturally unique as Japan, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Germany, Sweden, and Iran.
• More interesting to us is seeing that the United States is not the most popular migrant destination for many countries that nevertheless have had many migrants come to the US. Not for Russians, whose nationals immigrate to Ukraine; not Colombia, whose nationals immigrate to Venezuela; and not for China, whose citizens immigrate to Hong Kong; 
• There are other surprises too. Indians tend to immigrate not to the United States, United Kingdom, or Australia but instead the United Arab Emirates. Mongolians tend to go to South Korea. Germany, the economic powerhouse of Europe, is not only the top destination for the bordering countries of Poland, Czech Republic, and Austria but also Italy, Croatia, Hungary, Greece, Turkey, and Sardinia.

This map is helpful to correct the assumption that the US is the first and most popular destination for all global migrants. As we've reported before, the US ranks 65th worldwide in terms of the percentage of population that is foreign born—data also based on 2013 UN numbers. But according to a report by the US Census Bureau this could change by 2060 when a projected 18.8 percent of the US population will be foreign-born (currently it's at 14.3 percent but back in 1890 it was 14.8 percent). This is not because of a dramatic increase in immigrants but rather because the US birth rate is projected to decline. The census report also has some good news for those who are a fan of diversity: the fastest growing share of the population in the US will be Americans of two or more races, which "has the potential to totally scramble racial categories as they exist today." For those really into maps (hey, maps are fun) and immigration and who want more, Vox has thirty-five maps that "explain how America is a nation of immigrants."

Quotes In Honor of International Women's Day

"We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller. We say to girls: ‘You can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful, but not too successful. Otherwise, you will threaten the man.'...Because I am female, I am expected to aspire to marriage. I am expected to make my life choices, always keeping in mind that marriage is the most important. Now, marriage can be a good thing, it can be a source of joy and love and mutual support, but why do we teach girls to aspire to marriage and we don’t teach boys the same?"

- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
   TEDxEuston: We Should All Be Feminists

“[W]e need to reclaim the word 'feminism.' We need the word 'feminism' back real bad. When statistics come in saying that only 29% of American women would describe themselves as feminist—and only 42% of British women—I used to think, What do you think feminism IS, ladies? What part of 'liberation for women' is not for you? Is it freedom to vote? The right not to be owned by the man you marry? The campaign for equal pay? 'Vogue' by Madonna? Jeans? Did all that good shit GET ON YOUR NERVES? Or were you just DRUNK AT THE TIME OF SURVEY?"

- Caitlin Moran
   How to Be a Woman

"And so I hope that my presence on your screens and in the magazines may lead you, young girl, on a similar journey. That you will feel the validation of your external beauty but also get to the deeper business of being beautiful inside. There is no shade in that beauty."

 - Lupita Nyong’o
"Black Women in Hollywood" Acceptance Speech

Snow Falling on D&B

Huffington Post: "Whoops! The Department of Justice Admits That It Misunderstood U.S. Citizenship Law"

The US government has been misinterpreting certain citizenship statutes since 2008 and has consequently been incorrectly ordering US citizens deported, reports Laura Murray-Tjan, the Director of the Federal Immigration Appeals Project. The Department of Justice (DOJ) admitted their mistake in a recent decision saying that they "misread" the legal requirements for legitimation. Murray-Tjan writes:

The DOJ's error involved what is known as "derivative citizenship." If a parent naturalizes while a child is under 18, the child automatically becomes a citizen, if some other conditions are met. For example, if a father naturalizes, his out-of-wedlock children must be "legitimated" to derive citizenship.

This recent DOJ decision overturned an immigration judge's order to remove (i.e., deport) Oshane Shaneil Cross, a twenty-six-year-old man who was born out of wedlock in Jamaica to parents who were not American citizens at the time. Cross had been arrested for burglary in Connecticut and argued that he became a US citizen when his father naturalized. The immigration judge, however, said that Cross had never been legitimated under Jamaican law because his biological parents never married. In response, the decision clarified that "a person born abroad to unmarried parents can qualify as a legitimated 'child'...if he or she was born in a country or State that has eliminated all legal distinctions between children based on the marital status of their parents or has a residence or domicile in such a country or State[.]" This was true in Cross's case as Jamaica had passed a law in 1976 that eliminated legal distinctions between children born to married and unmarried parents.

What about those already deported? Murray-Tjan asks. "Will the DOJ communicate its error to affected individuals? How? When?...Will the government make any effort to identify them and bring them home?"

In Between

“I am in between. Trying to write to be understood by those who matter to me, yet also trying to push my mind with ideas beyond the everyday. It is another borderland I inhabit. Not quite here nor there. On good days I feel I am a bridge. On bad days I just feel alone.”

- Sergio Troncoso
  Crossing Borders: Personal Essays