In an earlier post, I analyzed the section of the USCIS ombudsman's 2021 annual report covering USCIS's 2018 notice to appear policy.
In that piece, I noted that the ombudsman correctly identified several preexisting challenges USCIS has with issuing NTAs, but I also showed that the report erred in laying blame for all of those issues on the NTA policy developed under the Trump administration.
In this piece, I will analyze a different section of the 2021 annual report that details how Covid-19 impacted USCIS operations, how the agency responded to these challenges, and the budgetary problems that were exposed once receipts for immigration benefits plummeted.
The ombudsman describes this as follows: "In a tremendous effort encompassing its 88 field offices, USCIS reconfigured public-facing activities for a pandemic."
With the exception of critiquing the agency for failing to allow certain additional flexibilities that USCIS lacks the legal authority to implement, the ombudsman's report accurately captures the agency's Covid-19 response, free of nefarious motives by the Trump political appointees who had to navigate the unprecedented situation.
Unlike most of the federal government, which operates through appropriated taxpayer dollars, USCIS is 96 percent fee-funded, meaning the agency derives its revenue from the fees paid by those who choose to engage in the immigration system.
The ombudsman calls the "Carryover depletion [] a significant problem", but even if USCIS had $1.4 billion in carryover it would not have been enough to keep the agency solvent during calendar year 2020.
https://cis.org/Law/Ombudsman-Report-Foreshadows-Biden-Policies-Bankrupting-USCIS
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