Washington Post: “A decade into a project to digitize U.S. immigration forms, just 1 is online”

After a decade and $1 billion, a project to digitize US immigration forms and the application process by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) has resulted in only one electronic form. The digitization project was originally supposed to cost $500 million and be completed in 2013. The total cost is now estimated at $3.1 billion and isn’t scheduled to be completed for another four years.

What Went Wrong?

The digitization was mismanaged from the beginning, records and interviews show. Notably, officials did not “complete the basic plans for the computer system until nearly three years after the initial $500 million contract had been awarded to IBM, and the approach to adopting the technology was outdated before work on it began.” Although in 2012, officials of DHS and USCIS were well aware the project had hundreds of software defects, the agency nevertheless chose to begin the rollout, in part reportedly because of pressure from Obama administration officials who thought the project was vital as part of the proposed comprehensive immigration reform.

In the end, only three of USCIS’s forms out of nearly a hundred were digitized and available on the electronic immigration system known as ELIS, a homage to the iconic island that housed the first federal immigration processing center. Two of these forms were consequently taken offline after the software and hardware had to be discarded. One of the digitized forms, Form I-526, Petition by Alien Entrepreneur, for EB-5 immigrant investors, was only reportedly used by eighty applicants, DHS officials said, and was met with many complaints. More than 10,000 other immigrant investor applicants opted for paper-based applications.

The sole form that is now available for electronic filing is the I-90, which can be filed to renew or replace Green Cards (i.e. permanent resident cards). According to a June report from the USCIS ombudsman, however, in nearly 200 I-90 cases filed through the electronic system, applicants did not receive their cards or had to wait up to a year, despite multiple requests.  

“You’re going on 11 years into this project, they only have one form, and we’re still a paper-based agency,’’ Kenneth Palinkas, former president of the union that represents employees at the immigration agency, said in the Washington Post. “It’s a huge albatross around our necks.’’

A Fresh Start

At one point, 500 IBM engineers were working on the project with IBM initially using an outdated programming approach. While DHS officials acknowledge the setbacks they say they are on their way to automating the immigration service, which processes about 8 million applications per year. 

“In 2012, we made some hard decisions to turn the Transformation Program around using the latest industry best practices and approaches, instead of simply scratching it and starting over,’’ Shin Inouye, a spokesman for USCIS, told the Washington Post. “We took a fresh start—a fix that required an overhaul of the development process—from contracting to development methodology to technology.”

“Since making these changes, we have been able to develop and deploy a new system that is able to process about 1.2 million benefit requests out of USCIS’s total annual work volume,” Inouye added. “Our goals remain to improve operations, increase efficiency, and prepare for any changes to our immigration laws. Based on our recent progress, we are confident we are moving in the right direction.”

National Security

Apart from lost and misplaced paper applications, many advocate switching to electronic versions of forms to assist in national security. While DHS officials said “they are confident that the current paper-based system is not putting the nation at risk,” Palma Yanni, a D.C. immigration lawyer and past president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), is not so sure. She said in the Washington Post: “If there are some bad apples in there who should not get a green card, who are terrorists who want to do us harm, how on earth are they going to find these people if they’re sending mountains of paper immigration files all over the United States?’’

NYC Marathon!

On the Verrazano–Narrows Bridge. Only twenty-six miles to go!

Last Sunday I was pleased to participate for my third-time in the New York City Marathon, the world's biggest and most popular marathon (go New York!). Originally a Central Park race with fifty-five finishers, the race now has approximately 50,000 finishers from all over the world, which explains why it is always so crowded. Despite the very unseasonably warm fall day, I was happy to see Liz, who ran last year, cheering very enthusiastically in Brooklyn. But give me some colder weather, autumn! Oh well, there's always next year.

CBP Announces the Expansion of Global Entry to UK Citizens Beginning December 3

UK citizens will be very pleased to learn that US Customs and Border Protection announced this week the expansion of Global Entry to all eligible UK citizens. Global Entry, a CBP Trusted Traveler Program, allows for “expedited clearance of pre-approved, low-risk travelers,” and comes highly recommended.

“CBP is excited to expand our partnership with the United Kingdom on this flagship program by offering Global Entry to UK citizens,” said CBP Commissioner R. Gil Kerlikowske in the press release. “Through this cooperation, CBP’s Global Entry and the UK Border Force Registered Traveller programs will enhance security and better facilitate travel between our two countries.”

Since nearly five million Britons visited the United States (in Fiscal Year 2015) and more than 125,000 of those visitors traveled to the United States four or more times, opening the expedited trusted traveler program to UK nationals makes perfect sense. The pilot program launched in May 2011 allowed a limited number of UK citizens to participate in Global Entry as the first phase of the Global Entry partnership.     

Beginning December 3, UK citizens can register for Global Entry. To register, UK citizens should do the following:

• Apply through the UK Home Office website and pay a £42 processing fee for the vetting process;

• If the applicant passes, they will receive a “UK Access Code,” which applicants will enter when applying for Global Entry through CBP’s Global Online Enrollment System (GOES);

• Apply online and pay the $100 non-refundable application fee for a five-year Global Entry membership;

• If the application is approved, a CBP officer will conduct a scheduled interview with the applicant and then make a final eligibility determination.

Global Entry is currently available at over fifty US airports and thirteen preclearance locations (including in Shannon and Dublin, Ireland, the closest preclearance locations to the UK) and has over 2.5 million members. While the goal of Global Entry is to speed qualified travelers through the screening process, no Global Entry member is guaranteed expedited screening and members may be selected for further examination when entering the United States. Moreover, any violation of the program’s terms and conditions will result in “appropriate enforcement action and revocation of the traveler’s membership privileges.”

Upon arrival at an airport, members can head directly to a Global Entry kiosk and do not have to complete any forms on the plane. Once they scan their passport into the kiosk, the computer pulls up the flight information (which the applicant must verify), scans fingerprints, and captures a photo. The member answers a few questions about whether they are bringing in any banned items and the machine prints out a piece of paper with the member’s photo, indicating that the member has been cleared. (If a traveler is not cleared, the machine will provide a receipt with a big “X” on it, indicating the passenger requires additional inspection.) With the white paper in hand, applicants can use a separate line at Customs after picking up their luggage.      

In addition to US and UK nationals, the Global Entry program is open to lawful permanent residents (i.e. Green Card holders), Dutch citizens, South Korean citizens, and Mexican nationals. Canadian citizens and residents may enjoy Global Entry benefits through membership in the NEXUS program.

US citizens who travel at least four times to the UK per year should note they can enroll in Registered Traveller, the UK trusted traveler program. The service costs £70 to apply and an additional £50 a year thereafter; however, if the application is unsuccessful, the applicant will receive £50 back. Members enrolled in Registered Traveller may use E-gates at airports in the United Kingdom. Which will leave them more time to have a pint and a Shepherd’s pie.

Top 4 Myths about Immigration

Although Paul Ryan, the newly-elected House of Representatives Speaker, ruled out working with President Obama on comprehensive immigration reform, the call for reform continues, this time from Robert Reich, political economist and former labor secretary. Reich along with MoveOn.org released a short video addressing four common myths about immigration.

Myth: Immigrants Take Away American Jobs

Not true, Reich says. “Immigrants add to economic demand, and thereby push firms to create more jobs,” he says. Although Reich doesn’t cite it in the video, a study using US census data backs this claim. The report, by the National Bureau of Economic Research, shows that each immigrant creates 1.2 local jobs for local workers, with most of these created jobs going to native workers. In addition, immigrants appear to raise “local non-tradeables sector wages” as well as attract native-born workers from elsewhere in the country.

Myth: We Don’t Need Any More Immigrants

To counter this claim, Reich ties the importance of immigration to funding for American retirees. Twenty-five years ago each retiree in America was matched by five workers. Now it’s three workers for each retiree. “Without more immigration,” Reich says, “in fifteen years the ratio will fall to two workers for every retiree, which is not nearly enough to sustain our retiring population.” More specifically, it’s estimated that undocumented immigrant workers in particular are paying an estimated $13 billion a year in social security taxes for a total of over $100 billion in the last decade.

Myth: Immigrants Are a Drain on Public Budgets

Not so, Reich says. Immigrants pay taxes. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy shows that undocumented immigrants paid over eleven billion in state and local taxes in 2012. If comprehensive immigration reform were passed, their combined nationwide state and local tax contributions would increase by another 2.2 billion. Although a study by anti-immigration group, Center for Immigration Studies, concluded that fifty-one percent of households headed by immigrants—legal or undocumented—receive some kind of welfare, this report was criticized for its research methods, and other reports show that immigrants pay more into public benefits than they receive back.

Myth: Legal and Illegal Immigration Is Increasing

The number of undocumented immigrants living in the US has declined from 12.2 million in 2007 to 11.3 million now, according to the Pew Research Center. Other reports confirm this decrease in immigration as well.

Reich concludes: “Don’t listen to the demagogues who want to blame the economic problems of middle class and poor on new immigrants, whether here legally or illegally.” He concludes: “We need to pass comprehensive immigration reform giving those who are undocumented a path to citizenship. Scapegoating them and other immigrants is shameful. And it’s just plain wrong.”

All Visa Appointments at the US Embassy in London Are Cancelled October 28

The US Embassy in London have cancelled all the visa appointments and visa processing today (October 28, 2015) due to a “local systems” malfunction. We first received reports this morning that the Embassy sent all applicants home and told them that there would be no appointments today. At the time Embassy staff said that they would either call or email applicants to reschedule the appointments, and the Embassy has now again confirmed on their Twitter feed that all applicants would be contacted by the Visa Appointment Service for appointment rescheduling. The Embassy’s Twitter feed also confirms that the technological systems failure was localized at the London Embassy (compared to the recent global shutdown) and that the Embassy is “confident systems will be fully operational tomorrow.”