USCIS Processing Times

Some things are progressing like petitions for alien relatives; however, many petitions are now pending for one year or more. Things that before the pandemic and Trumps administration only took months to complete such as things like work permits and renewals of permanent residency cards. Applications for citizenship and petitions to remove conditions on permanent residency are over a year many times. It is unclear which embassies in the middle east are actually open. as many cases from Pakistan continue to pend for years but are documentarily qualified and whether Mexico will reschedule many appointments that were cancelled. This must stop! My cabinet was not built to hold cases for years. My clients are suffering.

The immigration courts are even worse. Judges canceling hearings of people who waited seven or more years for their final hearings. Simply because of the backlog Trump create with his "arrest everyone illegal" policy.

The immigration system is broken and must be fixed. However, it seems that no president truly wants to fix the system, Democratic or Republican. Every president only patches holes in the system which eventually leak again. This must stop. I urge the government to seek out experienced immigration attorney's and partner with groups like AILA to fix the problems. Until then nothing will be truly fixed. And this should not be. We are a land of immigrants, and everyone deserve a chance at the American Dream.