I
106TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 4798
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 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JUNE 29, 2000
Ms. LOFGREN (for herself, Mr. MCCOLLUM, Mr. CONYERS, Ms. ROS-
LEHTINEN, Mr. MENENDEZ, Mr. KING, Ms. PELOSI, Mr. HORN, Mr.
SERRANO, Mrs. BONO, Mr. FARR of California, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr.
BERMAN, Mr. MEEHAN, Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ, Mr. DELAHUNT, Mr. DOOLEY
of California, Mrs. THURMAN, Mr. THOMPSON of California, Mr. CONDIT,
Mr. WEINER, Mrs. CAPPS, Mr. WAXMAN, Mr. MATSUI, Mr. MORAN of
Virginia, Mrs. MINK of Hawaii, Mrs. MCCARTHY of New York, Ms.
SANCHEZ, Ms. MCCARTHY of Missouri, Ms. RIVERS, Ms. WOOLSEY, Mr.
PAYNE, and Mrs. NAPOLITANO) introduced the following bill; which was
referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To reduce the backlog in the processing of immigration ben-
efit applications and to make improvements to infrastruc-
ture necessary for the effective provision of immigration
services, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Immigration Services
and Infrastructure Improvements Act of 2000’’.
SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following find-
ings:
(1) Applications for naturalization have in-
creased dramatically in recent years, outpacing the
Immigration and Naturalization Service’s ability to
process them.
(2) The dramatic increase in applications for
naturalization and the inability of the Immigration
and Naturalization Service to deal with them ade-
quately has resulted in an unacceptably large back-
log in naturalization adjudications.
(3) The processing times in the Immigration
and Naturalization Service’s other immigration ben-
efits have been unacceptably long. Applicants for
family- and employment-based visas are waiting as
long as 3 to 4 years to obtain a visa or an adjust-
ment to lawful permanent resident status.
(4) In California, the delays in processing ad-
justment of status applications have averaged 52
months. In Texas, the delays have averaged 69
months. Residents of New York have had to wait up
to 28 months; in Florida, 26 months; in Illinois, 37
months; in Oregon, 31 months; and in Arizona, 49
months. Most other States have experienced unac-
ceptably long processing and adjudication delays.
(5) Applicants pay fees to have their applica-
tions adjudicated in a timely manner. These fees
have increased dramatically in recent years without
a commensurate increase in the capability of that
Immigration and Naturalization Service to process
and adjudicate these cases in an efficient manner.
(6) Processing these applications in a timely
fashion is critical. Each 12-month delay in adjudi-
cating an adjustment of status application requires
the alien to file applications to extend employment
authorization to work and advance parole documents
to travel.
(7) The enormous delays in processing applica-
tions for families and businesses have had a negative
impact on the reunification of spouses and minor
children and the ability of law-abiding and contrib-
uting members of our communities to participate
fully in the civic life of the United States.
(8) United States employers have also experi-
enced debilitating delays in hiring employees who
contribute to the economic growth of the United
States. These delays have forced employers to send
highly skilled and valued employees out of the
United States because their immigrant petitions
were not approved in a timely fashion. Such disrup-
tions seriously threaten the competitive edge of the
United States in the global marketplace.
(b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this Act is to—
(1) provide the Immigration and Naturalization
Service with the mechanisms it needs to eliminate
the current backlog in the processing of immigration
benefit applications within 1 year after enactment of
this Act and to maintain the elimination of the back-
log in future years; and
(2) provide for regular congressional oversight
of the performance of the Immigration and Natu-
ralization Service in eliminating the backlog and
processing delays in immigration benefits adjudica-
tions.
(c) POLICY.—It is the sense of Congress that the
processing of an immigration benefit application should be
completed not later than 90 days after the initial filing
of the application, except that a petition for a non-
immigrant visa under section 214(c) of the Immigration
and Nationality Act should be processed not later than
30 days after the filing of the petition.