The New York Times
The Biden government is facing a backlog of 380,000 people waiting to immigrate
When the pandemic forced their children’s school and daycare to close, Luwam Beyene started working at night so that he could be home during the day. Once you get home, make breakfast and get your child ready for their online classes. Beyene takes care of her children until she returns to work at night. “I’m not even taking a nap,” says Beyene, 29, who works as a caregiver in San Francisco. ‘My life is falling apart. I just hope my husband can come. Beyene’s husband is an Ethiopian waiting for his immigrant visa, a process that often took more than two years even before the coronavirus pandemic in the case of the husband of a permanent US resident. He was almost in the final stretch, waiting. in a personal interview with a consulate official, when last spring due to the pandemic, US consulates were temporarily closed. “They left everything paralyzed and we never heard from them again,” Beyene said. issued half a million immigrant visas, most to spouses, children and parents of US citizens and permanent residents. In April, former President Donald Trump signed an edict suspending most legal immigration – with some exceptions for a few privileged categories – under the pretext of Protect US Jobs Now President Joe Bid and vowed to reopen the gates of the country and has indicated that he will lift restrictions on refugees, foreign workers and asylum seekers. But the veto, coupled with staff shortages in consulates around the world and logistical challenges associated with the pandemic, has left hundreds of thousands of people eligible for visas insecure, such as Beyene’s husband; this is a delay that, according to immigration specialists, could hamper the system for years. Last month, a State Department official said in federal court that more than 380,000 immigrant visa applicants were waiting for an interview at the consulate as of Dec. 31. Experts noted that under normal circumstances it could take up to a year for all of these requests to be made. This week, in an interview with reporters to discuss Biden’s most recent immigration orders, senior government officials declined to say when the edicts banning entry could be suspended, noting that it could take time to review his predecessor’s policies . If the ban were lifted, consulates would be ordered to resume processing visas. But data on the issuance of visas and recent State Department assessments of consulate activities indicate that consulates are still ill-prepared to process visas. A State Department official told a federal court last month that many consulates were “very understaffed” and had difficulty scheduling face-to-face interviews with all adult applicants, as required by US regulations. During the pandemic, consulates were ordered to process visas for the small subgroup of immigrants who were not disfellowshipped – primarily the spouses and children of U.S. citizens – but only they took care of a small number of them, according to State Department data. visas and issued them at about one-third the speed they were issued before the pandemic. Immigration advocates say the Trump administration appears to have brought about a deliberate slowdown, and evidence suggests emergency resources have been diverted from visa processing. But the State Department and former consular officials noted that consulates faced legitimate challenges as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. Visa-issued face-to-face interviews, used to detect fraud and security threats, are conducted by diplomats working shoulder to shoulder in armored offices behind bulletproof glass. Chris Richardson, a former consular officer who is an immigration attorney, recalled the Consular Section of Lagos, Nigeria, as a poorly ventilated space where the coronavirus can easily spread. “A whole consular section … I couldn’t even imagine it,” he said. During the pandemic, consulates took public health precautions, including physical distance in waiting rooms and fewer interviews at a time. “These necessary measures have temporarily reduced the ability to process visas at many of our facilities,” said a State Department official speaking on behalf of the ministry. This official noted that the date when consular services abroad can resume normal operation depends on many “local circumstances” of the pandemic, including the number of COVID-19 cases, the capacity to respond to the emergency, the availability of commercial flights and local travel. restrictions. “We are working to return to normal pre-pandemic workforce for visas and workloads as soon as possible in all our offices around the world, while protecting the health and safety of our staff and users,” said the official from the State Department. Experts assured the delay will continue to increase until the new government lifts the immigration ban and resolves the issue of visas in places where COVID-19 cases are common. Former consular officials warn that even then it could be years before the backlog is cleared due to lack of staff, budget and staff shortages. If they are adequately staffed, many consulates have one or two officers who issue immigrant visas, which is generally enough to keep demand from exceeding that much, but it’s certainly not what it takes to resolve that delay if they at the same time getting more and more requests. . “That’s the maximum they can do,” said Brett Bruen, a former consular officer and member of the Obama Administration’s National Security Council. “Immigration visas take a long time.” As a result of job cuts during the Trump years and a recent hiring suspension, an inevitable bottleneck in the system could be exacerbated by understaffing. The American Foreign Service Association, the union for diplomats, recently warned of the departure of personnel, warning that management bias and lack of opportunity are driving out foreign service workers. In June, The New York Times reported that many black diplomats resigned after facing discrimination. Others resigned in response to the Trump administration’s policies. According to the State Department’s Office of Human Resources, the Foreign Service and Public Administration have lost a total of 408 employees posted abroad in the past four years, about 4.5 percent of that department’s workforce overseas. “Many of those posts were consular offices,” Bruen noted. “That will have consequences.” In addition to the lack of staff, the consulates are facing a budget crisis. Consular activities are funded by the fees charged for visa processing – including tourism and other non-immigrant visas – at a total cost of $ 3.5 billion per year. As a result of the pandemic, State Department officials forecast losses of approximately $ 1.4 billion in 2020 and continued losses through at least 2022. Even if Congress were to allocate emergency funding, an increase in staff numbers would not be immediately felt . “It takes a long time to bring in new officials,” said Bruen. With few exceptions, he said, it takes about two years for new diplomats to pass the foreign service exam and complete the required training and security clearance. “I think the delays will continue for a long time.” Bruce Morrison, a former Connecticut congressman who drafted the last major immigration reform in 1990, called the backlog and situation at the consulates “a breakdown of the system.” According to Boundless, a Seattle-based immigration services company, spouses of U.S. citizens, who are among the top priority of visa applicants in the immigration system, expected 11 to 17 months to obtain your visa prior to the pandemic. Immigration specialists and former consular officials said they predicted the current backlog will add at least a year to the process for new applicants. “This means that people starting the trial now will have to wait a really long time … much longer than before,” Richardson said. To address the backlog, immigrant advocates are pushing for major changes in the visa granting process. The first of his suggestions is to cut the in-person interview, something that other Western countries have already done, including Canada, the United Kingdom, and many European countries. “The face-to-face interview has taken on an almost mythical character in the visa advice process in the United States,” Bethany Milton, a former State Department official, wrote in an op-ed last year arguing that this requirement has become an obstacle. “It is becoming increasingly difficult to justify in this digital age,” he wrote. Lawyers and former consular officers have suggested that all immigrant visa applicants be interviewed remotely and that certain categories of immigrants for whom fraud is not common, such as in the case of immigrant visas, could be exempted from interviews. Persons over 65 years of age or specific persons, at the discretion of the consular officer. However, the State Department official stated that there was a reason that face-to-face contact was required. This official noted that “consular officers are trained to analyze all available information”, including the applicant’s body language and the words he chooses, which helps them assess potential risks to national security. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. © 2021 The New York Times Company