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By Billal Rahman
Immigration Reporter
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A former senior USCIS official has told Newsweek that the agency’s newly announced review of green card and other immigration applications could place a significant strain on resources and lead to widespread delays.
Ricky Murray, who was chief of staff of Refugee and International Operations at USCIS until November 29, described the effort as unprecedented in scope.
"This is going to have a tremendous effect on the backlog. Having to pull resources together to review hundreds of thousands of cases is going to require thousands of man-hours. These man-hours are only going to be taken from processing of new filings," Murray told Newsweek on Wednesday. "There are finite resources. You can expect to see significant delays in the processing of any new forms in the area that USCIS steals the resources from to do this re-review."
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USCIS is handling a record 11.3 million pending applications, the highest number in its history.
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The review, outlined in a USCIS memo published in December, targets pending applications from individuals with adjusted status and from countries the agency classifies as high risk.
The pause affects applications from 19 countries previously subject to travel restrictions, including Afghanistan, Cuba, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Venezuela. Immigrants from these nations may face delays for green cards, work permits, travel documents, visa extensions, and, in some cases, naturalization, even if they have already completed interviews or other standard vetting processes.
USCIS said the measure is intended to ensure that those receiving immigration benefits do not pose a national security risk. The agency has not provided a timeline for completing the review, which may include cases going back to January 20, 2021, and could potentially expand to even earlier admissions.
The agency cited the shooting of two National Guard troops by a suspect who is an Afghan national as a reason for the pause and heightened scrutiny for people from those countries. One National Guard soldier was killed and another wounded in the Thanksgiving week shooting near the White House.
“My primary responsibility is to ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible,” USCIS Director Joseph Edlow said in a statement following the attack.
"The memo is unique in that it is using a single event to call into question the validity of the benefits of thousands of immigrants, almost all who have nothing to do with this isolated event. Immigrants of 18 of the 19 countries have no ties to this event, and even a very limited number of Afghans have ever even had contact with the perpetrator of the heinous event spurring this release of this memo," Murray said.
Experts told Newsweek that the large-scale review is likely to identify only a small number of cases where applicants were not admissible at the time of filing.
"I think this is a needle-in-the-haystack search. Reviewing these hundreds of thousands of petitions and applications will inevitably discover a small swath of cases where the applicant was not admissible at the time of filing. Those cases can be rescinded or revoked, depending on the petition. But, this will be an extremely time-consuming process for very little extra security," Murray said.
Murray said the policy is likely to slow the processing of new filings, a side effect he believes the administration is aware of and may be counting on. USCIS has not provided a timeline for completing the review, and the impact on overall immigration backlogs remains uncertain.
Attorneys report that interviews for applicants from affected countries have already been delayed or canceled, leaving many waiting for guidance on the status of their cases. The memo directs field offices to prioritize the review of pending applications while continuing routine processing as resources allow, a balance, experts say, will be difficult to maintain.
"There is a limited legal framework to reopen already approved petitions en masse, so this work is going to be a tremendous drain on already scarce resources at USCIS, with a limited probability of success in reaching the stated goal," Murray said.
"Those who have an adjusted status may be re-reviewed in accordance with this memo. However, the regulations allow for this within a five-year period, a process known as recession. But doing it on this scale is unprecedented. Generally, this is done on a single case or group of cases where a bad actor or fraud is found."
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