At MPI #immconf, Francis Cissna of USCIS defends changes to public charge standards for immigrants, saying there was no previous definition in regs and so it was impossible to enforce
That’s strictly true, though immigration officers were using field guidance (not regulations) that defined public charge and had been in place since 1999
Cissna now addressing refugee policy, saying that Trump admin has instituted new measures to make the program more secure but has slowed down admissions #immconf
It’s certainly true that vetting has slowed down admissions. But my reporting has found that some extra measures and reviews came about not from real need but were politically directed by the White House reuters.com/article/us-usa…
Cissna says USCIS is working to equip Asylum division with more permanent staff so refugee officers can go back to doing the job they were hired to do, though some ROs will still be detailed to asylum in 2019 FY #immconf
Cissna says he “hopes and anticipates” that refugee officers will not be detailed to asylum much longer “but we shall see” #immconf
Cissna says a new USCIS policy that gives officers the ability to refuse a petition without first issuing an RFE or NOID is meant to deal with frivolous, “skeletal” applications and free up adjudicator time for serious petitions #immconf
Cissna: “for the 10,000th time, there is no denaturalization task force.” Says USCIS is simply looking for people who used fraudulent identities to obtain citizenship, and its work is based on a 2016 DHS IG report (which I believe is this one: oig.dhs.gov/assets/Mgmt/20…) #immconf
Asked about the chilling effect of public charge changes, Cissna acknowledges that welfare reform in the 90s led people to unnecessarily disenroll from benefits. He says people should look carefully at the reg, which doesn’t take into account all benefits. #immconf
”there should not be a mad rush to unsubscribe from all benefits...look at the proposed rule...it’s very clearly laid out what we’re going to look at and what we’re not going to look at.” #immconf
