| Much
has been made lately about the recent untimely notice
of the approval of visas for two terrorists involved in
the cowardly 9/11 attacks.
These notices, which inform the school of the approvals
of the visas for their students (the visas were actually
approved in July and August 2001) have given rise to a
tremendous torrent of abuse and vitriol directed at the
INS. It is
no surprise that it is popular, in political circles,
to accuse INS of incompetence or to bash them when something
goes wrong. It
would seem that criticizing the INS makes everyone happy.
Those who wish to close US borders are happy because
INS is being criticized for being too soft.
Those who utilize INS (immigrants and their families)
are happy to see the organization they blame for shortcomings
in the law take a hit or two.
There seems to be no downside to critiquing the
INS.
Action
has been taken since the gaffe.
Four high ranking INS officials have been reassigned
in the last week, in direct response to the criticism.
But cosmetic changes aside, although the politicos
have been quick to address the latest symptom of problems
with INS, no one has addressed the true disease that
affects applications submitted to INS.
I
want to make clear that I am writing about problems
with adjudications and waiting periods at the Texas
Service Center, a regional facility run by INS that
handles certain applications and petitions submitted
by those in the Southeastern United States.
Here in Tampa we are very fortunate to have an
extremely efficient, effective, and responsive local
office of the INS which serves our interests.
Under the leadership of Officer James Minton,
in the last few years the local INS has seen the processing
times for citizenship applications drop from two to
three years, to six to eight months.
The processing time for petitions for immediate
relatives has dropped from two years to ten months over
the same period.
We have little to complain about locally.
However,
when one submits an application to the Texas Service
Center, such as an application for an extension of a
vacation visa, or a petition for a non-immediate relative,
it can sometimes seem that the submission has fallen
into a black hole.
Anyone who has attempted to extend a vacation
visa knows, if you apply for only a six month extension
to your visa, the six months will pass before you have
an answer, so you better apply for a one year extension.
These and other petitions and applications take
a long time for many reasons, among which are changing
priorities of INS and the limited funding and personnel
at the disposal of the regional service centers.
Unlike
most entities of the federal government, the adjudications
branch of the INS is funded by the user fees collected
from those filing applications.
There is one problem with this set up, however,
and it is that Congress sometimes diverts monies collected
by the adjudications branch of the INS to other areas. Also, filing fees collected by INS often bear no relation to
the amount of work or review needed to adjudicate a
given petition or application.
So what happens is what we have.
An overworked, underfunded agency tries desperately
to keep up with the expectations of Congress and the
public. It
is no wonder that sometimes applications and petitions
take a long time.
It is no wonder that sometimes applications and
petitions disappear.
It is no wonder that occasionally a gaffe will
happen that "shocks and dismays" those in power in Washington.
What is a wonder is why nothing will be done
to fix the underlying problem. |
