Immigration Services chief tackles benefits backlog

Eduardo Aguirre, director of the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, says that the "day of reckoning" has arrived, and that he's taken the first steps toward reducing a massive and long-standing backlog of immigration benefits applications.

The citizenship bureau is composed of former immigration benefits adjudicators of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The INS was disbanded and incorporated into the Homeland Security Department earlier this year.

In an interview with Government Executive, Aguirre said research the agency is now conducting will eventually increase its efficiency through new information technology investments, while significantly reducing wait times and application backlogs for immigration benefits, such as permanent residency and naturalization.

Still, Aguirre acknowledged that the INS' longstanding technology woes continue to hold back his new bureau, one of three bureaus in the Homeland Security Department where former INS employees now work. The other two-the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement-are charged with enforcement of immigration laws at the border and in the interior of the United States.

"We have a long, long way to go before we get to the level of technology that we need to be able to function as a world class operation," said Aguirre, a former executive with Bank of America who was confirmed as head of the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services by the Senate in June. "We are having to do more manual work than we should. Much of the technology we have right now is several generations behind what the state-of-the-art is in the commercial world."

And Aguirre acknowledged that heightened security concerns in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks have increased backlogs to the point where applicants for U.S. citizenship now wait a year or more for a response from the bureau. In some parts of the country, wait times exceed two years. And adjudicators continue to scrutinize applications closely. The Homeland Security Department has denied 11 percent more visa and green card applications this year than the INS did last year, according to a report in the Chicago Lawyer. The number of applications approved by DHS dropped 22 percent in 2003, leaving 37 percent more applications pending this year than last. More than 7 million people filed applications in each year.

As acting director, Aguirre rolled out new electronic filing for certain immigration benefits applications in May, and also began to allow immigrants to schedule appointments with immigration adjudicators online as a means of reducing huge lines that continue to form outside the bureau's offices.

Aguirre said that the agency is now researching information technology systems that will reduce processing times. To do so, Aguirre is relying on a $500 million infusion of congressionally appropriated funding.

But the citizenship bureau continues to rely for its administrative support on former INS managers now stationed in the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That situation has led to some concern among agency employees that Aguirre may not receive first priority as the two bureaus set up new financial management, personnel and information technology systems. Aguirre said that for now his needs are being addressed. But he added that the Homeland Security Department is "still working our way through the shared services aspect to make sure the optimum [arrangement] has been established. Now is that situation ideal? I don't know if we've found the ideal set-up yet."

Aguirre said that his main priority is to reach the goal-set by President Bush-to reduce wait times on immigration benefit applications to no more than 6 months by the end of 2006. "Just like these backlogs didn't grow overnight, we can't solve it overnight, but we are going to solve it," Aguirre said.