Also, @doug_rand says USCIS needs to use its authority to extend premium processing to other forms, raising revenue to hire adjudicators and reduce the backlog for everyone.
Here's one of my new suggestions that I submitted as part of our comments. @gsiskind helped me with the implications for doctors. I published it as a blog post today. cato.org/blog/uscis-dol…
@angelopaparelli and co's comments include surveys of its clients on many issues. Very interesting! I love: "The inability for USCIS to authorize auto-extensions of Employment Authorization Documents (EAD) where agency processing delays result in work authorization gaps "
There are so many good ideas here! Masterful!
I plan on writing about many of these ideas on the coming days.
@BrentRenison suggests USCIS retain the priority date for a derivative child who has aged out of EB eligibility but then enters the FB line. He notes SCOTUS has already affirmed USCIS's authority to go through with this change in 2014. Why did USCIS fail to do it under Obama?
@BrentRenison elaborates on the need for automatic EAD extensions
@BrentRenison with another great suggestion! Why are EADs valid for such a short period? It makes no sense!
More from @BrentRenison. How does a rule like this persist for so long? It's like the only lights in the USCIS building are at the adjudicators' desks, and so no one can see even a tiny big of the big picture
More from @BrentRenison. I'm getting enraged reading this. This agency is supposed to be the "pro-immigrant" immigration agency but it's actually an awful Kafka-esque bureaucratic disaster
More from @BrentRenison. If it takes more than 6 months to adjudicate something, shouldn't the timeline for filing *automatically adjust* to a period much earlier than that?
Moving onto @AILANational's comment. You really get the sense that USCIS *desperately* needed to this feedback. Its new leadership was never going to discover most of this on their own when so much has gone into making this dysfunctional system
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat... YOU ARE AN IMMIGRATION AGENCY!
So much basic, basic, basic, mind-numbingly basic stuff here
USCIS: "We're going to make things easier for you! Oh but we aren't going to talk to anyone before we make things easier... We're just going to wing it! Don't you love us?"
When was the last time anyone really cared about a functioning legal immigration system? Abraham Lincoln?
I just realized that AILA's comment is 20 pages. I'm only 4 pages in. Of course, Cato's comment is 40 pages, but AILA's has probably 5 times as many suggestions. Ah! This one cuts me deep. Unreliable and unhelpful data are the worst!
Last in, first out is turning the entire asylum application process into a sham. USCIS needs to fix this! 15 year wait for processing! Insanity!
It's crazy to me that USCIS has adjudications to get to its adjudications which are only caused by failure to adjudicate still other forms!
Here's another no-one-really-cares-about-you note from USCIS
Apparently this isn't happening. My brain hurts. Who has run this agency for the last 2 decades? Not to repeat, but obviously no one has really looked at why this agency is so messed up before.
There are so many Trump policies still around. How is this possible? These are the EASY things to identify?
It certainly seems that at least some people at USCIS do not want people to easily know what the law is.
Every one of these things are enough to impeach the agency for high crimes
More Trump changes that inexplicably persist. USCIS should put into regulations that none of this is discretionary at the officer level so they can't keep easily undoing this.
CBP shouldn't get to make these decisions at all. Who cares if someone's passport is going to expire before the end of their stay? That's their problem, not CBP's. CBP should always approve for whatever the I-797 says.
An intriguing proposal. I wasn't aware that Es weren't already considered "dual intent" by virtue of the fact that they don't have to have a residence abroad that they have "no intention of abandoning" like Hs.
You would really think that Trump would've wanted more competition for @AlexNowrasteh and friends! Why is Biden keeping this?
Here's another one of my new suggestions that I submitted: "U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) should increase the three‐year limit on H-2B and H-2A extensions of status to six years." cato.org/blog/uscis-sho…
I'm hopeful that USCIS will actually do this one (unlike some of my other H-2 suggestions) because it increases the bargaining power of H-2 workers relative to their employers. If employers know that you can't extend, that's a real problem for you! cato.org/blog/uscis-sho…
Wow. Three "comply withs" in a row. USCIS is as lawless as the rest of them.
Interesting. I'd love to hear what the legal arguments are here, but let's recapture as many unused numbers as possible!
Several commenters just submitted our list of ideas to which I added three more for the comments we submitted. cato.org/publications/s…
I was always very confused by how this case turned out, but it's a great suggestion from @the_ILRC. We currently are violating the text of the law to obtain an "equal" result that harms people who are being "equalized". It doesn't make sense to me.
Ugh... there's so many problems. It's one reason why @angelopaparelli and I urged the president and the agency to require leniency in favor of the applicants in the interpretation of all laws and rules. Anything ambiguous should go to the applicant.
@NFAPResearch nails this. DHS should stop inaccurately describing its overstay report as a report on "overstays." Obama started this thing, and then Trump predictably misused it to cancel visas for certain nationalities. USCIS should clearly state that it can't count overstays
Back to @the_ILRC's awesome comments. Trying to banish people for using legal marijuana is an example of how the immigration agencies take part in some of the worst abuses of government power
Please leftists never nationalize all businesses. This is horrific.
How America treats noncitizen crime victims is illustrative of how much it values noncitizens generally.
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Courts have found that DHS has repeatedly violated 4th Amendment. In Garrison G. v. Bondi, the Court found DHS violated Garrison’s 4th amendment right by entering his home without a judicial warrant. He was one of several victims of MN home invasions storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
In USA v. Juarez-Lopez, the Court found DHS detained numerous employees of a NY manufacturing plant without basis. The only reason we know about it is b/c DHS tried to criminally charge Juarez-Lopez, and the judge suppressed the evidence storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
The NY raid occurred AFTER DHS tried and failed to secure a judicial warrant in a similar case in Texas to go into a business without probable cause to interrogate the workers about their status. Undeterred, DHS went ahead with no relevant warrant in NY cases.justia.com/federal/distri…
Courts have found DHS has violated the First Amendment many times, in different contexts. In LA Press Club v. Noem, the Ninth Circuit found that DHS regularly assaults people for peacefully protesting and observing its activities. aclusocal.org/cases/la-press…
In Suri v. Trump, the 4th Circuit found that DHS retaliated against a Georgetown post-doctoral scholar and teacher by arresting him for his online speech. ca4.uscourts.gov/opinions/25156…
In Ozturk v. Trump, the Court found that DHS arrested a college student for writing an op-ed, which was "at the very least, a substantial claim of a First Amendment violation" sufficient to justify release from custody. govinfo.gov/content/pkg/US…
A man called the Palm Beach County police to get a welfare check on his 4-year-old daughter, and instead, they tackled him, tased him, and arrested him being an asylum applicant. "Too f**king bad!" one deputy screamed. Local cops following ICE's playbook for $$.
“He just wanted to know about his daughter,” his girlfriend cried. “Why would you guys do this?”The deputy who arrested Sanchez Toledo was part of the sheriff’s office’s 287(g) Task Force that allows police to enforce immigration law. themarshallproject.org/2026/05/11/flo…
ICE bribes the localities to make arrests. The localities lie to the public about what their goals and duties are because that's what ICE has trained them to do. themarshallproject.org/2026/05/11/flo…
One in four people raised Muslim have left Islam, which means that all polls of Muslim opinion substantially understate the degree of Muslim immigrant assimilation since leaving Islam is a type of assimilation. In my post today I document how big this bias...
Muslims who were raised Muslim (not converts) basically look like Evangelical Christians, with gay acceptance being underwater by 21 points. But looking at all people raised Muslim completely eliminates this 21-point deficit because ex-Muslims are so liberal.
As we would expect, Muslim immigrant assimilation continues across generations, with each generation more favorable than the prior generation, especially when including ex-Muslims. This understates the trend b/c we don't have the children of ex-Muslims who are not raised Muslim.
Today @CatoInstitute published our report providing the first look at the fiscal effects of the wave of legal & illegal immigration over the last 3 decades. It shows immigrants created surpluses every year, by a combined $14.5 trillion, even as deficits grew
Our report covers all spending, federal, state, and local, updating the work of the National Academies' 2017 report. You can read my summary: cato.org/blog/cato-stud…
Or the full study: cato.org/white-paper/im…
How can new people cut the deficit? First, a significant portion of spending is "pure public goods," military & interest payments on old debt, that don't increase b/c of immigrants. This means the average new person is paying more in taxes than they receive in benefits...