A new video from the Center for Immigration Studies analyzes the factors behind the growing immigration backlog at USCIS, which is due to the underfunded mandate of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, a major increase in naturalization requests ahead of the 2016 elections, and an increase in asylum claims following the border crisis.
Jessica Vaughan, the Center's Director of Policy Studies, offered several solutions for USCIS to clear its backlogs: "We cannot simply rubber-stamp applications, due to problems with fraud. Instead, the agency needs to have a modernized process of collecting fees, surcharges on categories where the fees aren't covering application costs, and finally we need to avoid dumping even more work on this agency."