II

106TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION S. 2586

To reduce the backlog in the processing of immigration benefit applications

and to make improvements to infrastructure necessary for the effective

provision of immigration services, and for other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

MAY 18, 2000

Mrs. FEINSTEIN (for herself, Mr. ABRAHAM, Mr. LEAHY, Mr. JEFFORDS, Mr.

REID, Mr. MOYNIHAN, Ms. MIKULSKI, Mr. GRAHAM, Mr. DURBIN, and

Mr. DEWINE) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

A BILL

To reduce the backlog in the processing of immigration benefit applications and to make improvements to infrastructure necessary for the effective provision of immigration

services, and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Immigration Services

5 and Infrastructure Improvements Act of 2000’’.
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1 SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

2 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following find3 ings:

4 (1) Applications for naturalization have in5 creased dramatically in recent years, outpacing the

6 Immigration and Naturalization Service’s ability to

7 process them.

8 (2) The dramatic increase in applications for

9 naturalization and the inability of the Immigration

10 and Naturalization Service to deal with them ade11 quately has resulted in an unacceptably large back12 log in naturalization adjudications.

13 (3) The processing times in the Immigration

14 and Naturalization Service’s other immigration ben15 efits have been unacceptably long. Applicants for

16 family- and employment-based visas are waiting as

17 long as 3 to 4 years to obtain a visa or an adjust18 ment to lawful permanent resident status.

19 (4) In California, the delays in processing ad20 justment of status applications have averaged 52

21 months. In Texas, the delays have averaged 69

22 months. Residents of New York have had to wait up

23 to 28 months; in Florida, 26 months; in Illinois, 37

24 months; in Oregon, 31 months; and in Arizona, 49

25 months. Most other States have experienced unac26 ceptably long processing and adjudication delays.
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1 (5) Applicants pay fees to have their applica2 tions adjudicated in a timely manner. These fees

3 have increased dramatically in recent years without

4 a commensurate increase in the capability of that

5 Immigration and Naturalization Service to process

6 and adjudicate these cases in an efficient manner.

7 (6) Processing these applications in a timely

8 fashion is critical. Each 12-month delay in adjudi9 cating an adjustment of status application requires

10 the alien to file applications to extend employment

11 authorization to work and advance parole documents

12 to travel.

13 (7) The enormous delays in processing applica14 tions for families and businesses have had a negative

15 impact on the reunification of spouses and minor

16 children and the ability of law-abiding and contrib17 uting members of our communities to participate

18 fully in the civic life of the United States.

19 (8) United States employers have also experi20 enced debilitating delays in hiring employees who

21 contribute to the economic growth of the United

22 States. These delays have forced employers to send

23 highly skilled and valued employees out of the

24 United States because their immigrant petitions

25 were not approved in a timely fashion. Such disrup-
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1 tions seriously threaten the competitive edge of the

2 United States in the global marketplace.

3 (b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this Act is to—

4 (1) provide the Immigration and Naturalization

5 Service with the mechanisms it needs to eliminate

6 the current backlog in the processing of immigration

7 benefit applications within 1 year after enactment of

8 this Act and to maintain the elimination of the back9 log in future years; and

10 (2) provide for regular congressional oversight

11 of the performance of the Immigration and Natu12 ralization Service in eliminating the backlog and

13 processing delays in immigration benefits adjudica14 tions.

15 (c) POLICY.—It is the sense of Congress that the

16 processing of an immigration benefit application should be

17 completed not later than 180 days after the initial filing

18 of the application, except that a petition for a non19 immigrant visa under section 214(c) of the Immigration

20 and Nationality Act should be processed not later than

21 30 days after the filing of the petition.

22 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

23 In this Act:

24 (1) BACKLOG.—The term ‘‘backlog’’ means,

25 with respect to an immigration benefit application,
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1 the period of time in excess of 180 days that such

2 application has been pending before the Immigration

3 and Naturalization Service.

4 (2) IMMIGRATION BENEFIT APPLICATION.—The

5 term ‘‘immigration benefit application’’ means any

6 application or petition to confer, certify, change, ad7 just, or extend any status granted under the Immi8 gration and Nationality Act.

9 SEC. 4. IMMIGRATION SERVICES AND INFRASTRUCTURE

10 IMPROVEMENT ACCOUNT.

11 (a) AUTHORITY OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL.—The

12 Attorney General shall take such measures as may be nec13 essary to—

14 (1) reduce the backlog in the processing of im15 migration benefit applications, with the objective of

16 the total elimination of the backlog not later than

17 one year after the date of enactment of this Act;

18 (2) make such other improvements in the proc19 essing of immigration benefit applications as may be

20 necessary to ensure that a backlog does not develop

21 after such date; and

22 (3) make such improvements in infrastructure

23 as may be necessary to effectively provide immigra24 tion services.

25 (b) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—
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1 (1) IN GENERAL.—There is authorized to be

2 appropriated to the Department of Justice from

3 time to time such sums as may be necessary for the

4 Attorney General to carry out subsection (a).

5 (2) DESIGNATION OF ACCOUNT IN TREAS6 URY.—Amounts appropriated pursuant to paragraph

7 (1) may be referred to as the ‘‘Immigration Services

8 and Infrastructure Improvements Account’’.

9 (3) AVAILABILITY OF FUNDS.—Amounts appro10 priated pursuant to paragraph (1) are authorized to

11 remain available until expended.

12 (4) LIMITATION ON EXPENDITURES.—None of

13 the funds appropriated pursuant to paragraph (1)

14 may be expended until the report described in sec15 tion 5(a) has been submitted to Congress.

16 SEC. 5. REPORTS TO CONGRESS.

17 (a) BACKLOG ELIMINATION PLAN.—

18 (1) REPORT REQUIRED.—Not later than 90

19 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the At20 torney General shall submit a report to the Commit21 tees on the Judiciary and Appropriations of the Sen22 ate and the House of Representatives concerning—

23 (A) the backlogs in immigration benefit ap24 plications in existence as of the date of enact25 ment of this Act; and
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1 (B) the Attorney General’s plan for elimi2 nating such backlogs.

3 (2) REPORT ELEMENTS.—The report shall

4 include—

5 (A) an assessment of the data systems

6 used in adjudicating and reporting on the sta7 tus of immigration benefit applications,

8 including—

9 (i) a description of the adequacy of

10 existing computer hardware, computer

11 software, and other mechanisms to comply

12 with the adjudications and reporting re13 quirements of this Act; and

14 (ii) a plan for implementing improve15 ments to existing data systems to accom16 plish the purpose of this Act, as described

17 in section 2(b);

18 (B) a description of the quality controls to

19 be put into force to ensure timely, fair, accu20 rate, and complete processing and adjudication

21 of such applications;

22 (C) the elements specified in subsection

23 (b)(2);

24 (D) an estimate of the amount of appro25 priated funds that would be necessary in order
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1 to eliminate the backlogs in each category of

2 immigration benefit applications described in

3 subsection (b)(2); and

4 (E) a detailed plan on how the Attorney

5 General will use any funds in the Immigration

6 Services and Infrastructure Improvements Ac7 count to comply with the purposes of this Act.

8 (b) ANNUAL REPORTS.—

9 (1) IN GENERAL.—Beginning 90 days after the

10 end of the first fiscal year for which any appropria11 tion authorized by section 4(b) is made, and 90 days

12 after the end of each fiscal year thereafter, the At13 torney General shall submit a report to the Commit14 tees on the Judiciary and Appropriations of the Sen15 ate and the House of Representatives concerning the

16 status of—

17 (A) the Immigration Services and Infra18 structure Improvements Account including any

19 unobligated balances of appropriations in the

20 Account; and

21 (B) the Attorney General’s efforts to elimi22 nate backlogs in any immigration benefit appli23 cation described in paragraph (2).

24 (2) REPORT ELEMENTS.—The report shall

25 include—
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1 (A) State-by-State data on—

2 (i) the number of naturalization cases

3 adjudicated in each quarter of each fiscal

4 year;

5 (ii) the average processing time for

6 naturalization applications;

7 (iii) the number of naturalization ap8 plications pending for up to 6 months, 12

9 months, 18 months, 24 months, 36

10 months, and 48 months or more;

11 (iv) estimated processing times adju12 dicating newly submitted naturalization ap13 plications;

14 (v) an analysis of the appropriate

15 processing times for naturalization applica16 tions; and

17 (vi) the additional resources and proc18 ess changes needed to eliminate the back19 log for naturalization adjudications;

20 (B) the status of applications or, where ap21 plicable, petitions described in subparagraph

22 (C), by Immigration and Naturalization Service

23 district, including—

24 (i) the number of cases adjudicated in

25 each quarter of each fiscal year;
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1 (ii) the average processing time for

2 such applications or petitions;

3 (iii) the number of applications or pe4 titions pending for up to 6 months, 12

5 months, 18 months, 24 months, 36

6 months, and 48 months or more;

7 (iv) the estimated processing times

8 adjudicating newly submitted applications

9 or petitions;

10 (v) an analysis of the appropriate

11 processing times for applications or peti12 tions; and

13 (vi) a description of the additional re14 sources and process changes needed to

15 eliminate the backlog for such processing

16 and adjudications; and

17 (C) a status report on—

18 (i) applications for adjustments of sta19 tus to that of an alien lawfully admitted

20 for permanent residence;

21 (ii) petitions for nonimmigrant visas

22 under section 214 of the Immigration and

23 Nationality Act;

24 (iii) petitions filed under section 204

25 of such Act to classify aliens as immediate
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1 relatives or preference immigrants under

2 section 203 of such Act;

3 (iv) applications for asylum under sec4 tion 208 of such Act;

5 (v) registrations for Temporary Pro6 tected Status under section 244 of such

7 Act; and

8 (vi) a description of the additional re9 sources and process changes needed to

10 eliminate the backlog for such processing

11 and adjudications.

12 (3) ABSENCE OF APPROPRIATED FUNDS.—In

13 the event that no funds are appropriated subject to

14 section 4(b) in the fiscal year in which this Act is

15 enacted, the Attorney General shall submit a report

16 to Congress not later than 90 days after the end of

17 such fiscal year, and each fiscal year thereafter, con18 taining the elements described in paragraph (2).

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