Thread by @CIS_org

Watch our conversation with USCIS Director Lee Francis Cissna live on Facebook, starting right now:

facebook.com/CenterforImmig…

"For whatever reason, our authority on enforcement has not been fully exercised in the past. Well, now it well be...Everything we at the agency should be guided by the law, not any other thing. That's our Bible." - Director Cissna

"As for the problem of employers not being able to get the specific highly qualified people they want for their job...it should be directed toward ensuring that the truly qualified people get the visas. But it must be mindful of possible adverse effects on American workers."

"I am not unsympathetic to the issue of highly-skilled and US educated foreign students who an employer wants to hire. There are tweaks we could make to H-1B to possibly improve the chances of those students getting a shot at a visa...but it would not solve it as Congress could."

Q: Should we remove the per-country green card caps?

Cissna: "Well, it would be great for people in India, whose wait time would be decreased...but I think most of the flow of immigrants in green card categories would be from India, almost exclusively, for many, many years."

Director Cissna on "public charge" and potential proposals that could limit green cards based on welfare use:

"The goal is not to shut the door on families in some diabolical fashion. It's simply to enforce what's been on the books in one form or another since the 1880s."

"A lot of press completely misunderstands what my agency has done on de-naturalization. We reviewed a bunch of cases where someone came into the country under one identity years ago, got deported, came back again under identity #2, and became a citizen. That's outrageous."

"It's ridiculous to suggest that USCIS is running around ripping open boxes and trying to de-naturalize people for just missing a comma or something like that. This is about people who lied about their identity and should be de-naturalized," -Director Cissna.

Director Cissna's "wish list" for Congress to fix:
- Clarification of the standard of proof for credible fear claims
- Clarification of "frivolous asylum claims"
- One-sentence provision prohibiting American workers from being replaced by H-1B
- Access to state crime databases

Q: How have new vetting measures affected the refugee program? Was more fraud detected?

Cissna: "As a consequence of those checks, the number of refugees coming in will be below the ceiling. And remember--it is a ceiling...But these checks take time."