The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) states that in recent weeks they have received reports from members of delays in the issuance of Employment Authorization Documents (EAD) and Lawful Permanent Resident Cards (i.e., Green Cards) for some employment-based, family-based, and asylum-based immigration applications. Columnist Catherine Rampell in The Washington Post also confirmed the delays noting that US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) has shut down printing EADs and Green Cards at one facility in Corbin, Kentucky, weeks ago, as well as scaled back printing at a second facility in Lee's Summit, Missouri, all of which have led to these massive delays.
The reduction in printing of the EAD and Green Cards reportedly comes after USCIS ended a contract with a third-party vendor with the intention of in-sourcing the printing, but “the agency’s financial situation” instead led to shutdowns and delays. According to USCIS, the printing backlog consists of approximately 50,000 Green Cards and 75,000 other Employment Authorization Documents that have not yet been printed. With the agency in financial crisis and seeking a $1.2 billion bail-out from Congress as well as threating furloughs for their staff, USCIS noted it “cannot speculate on future projections of processing times.”
The USCIS Ombudsman confirmed there have been printing delays for EAD and Green Cards since June 2020 and that “USCIS expects these backlogs will continue for the foreseeable future.” If USCIS furloughs employees on August 3, 2020, the backlog in card production will likely increase. The USCIS Ombudsman is assisting foreign nationals whose applications have been approved but who have not yet received cards by sending weekly spreadsheets to USCIS to “verify card requests are in line to be processed.” The Ombudsman instructs: “If you are experiencing a delay in receiving your secure document, you may submit a request for case assistance with the Ombudsman at https://www.dhs.gov/topic/cis-ombudsman/forms/7001. LPRs may obtain proof of their status by requesting a stamp of temporary evidence in a valid passport. Please reach out to USCIS’ Contact Center (800-375-5283) to make an appointment at your local USCIS field office.” If you have not received your document please contact your immigration lawyer to discuss how best to proceed.
Rampell noted that foreign nationals awaiting EAD or Green Cards are especially anxious, given they require the EAD card for work authorization or Green Card for work and international travel. “Our volume of inquiries [has] spiked concerning cases being approved, but the cards [are] not being produced,” one agency employee said in the Washington Post. “A lot are expedite requests, and we can’t do anything about it; it’s costing people jobs and undue stress.” This employee added: “It really does frustrate a lot of us to not let applicants know what’s really going on.”
AILA is encouraging their members to take action by contacting their Congressional representatives to urge them to approve additional funding for USCIS “conditioned on key changes centered on transparency, fiscal responsibility, and efficiency.” Additionally, AILA is encouraging their members to ask Congress to support the bipartisan “Case Backlog and Transparency Act of 2020 (H.R. 5971)” which could address the extensive agency delays and backlogs.
In additional to Presidential executive orders and immigration restrictions, this printing delay is another instance of the Trump administration disrupting legal immigration, immigration practitioners and advocates noted. Anis Saleh, an immigration attorney in Florida said in the The Washington Post: “The bottom line is that applicants pay huge filing fees, and it appears that these fees have apparently been either squandered through mismanagement or diverted to enforcement-focused initiatives, to the great detriment of applicants as well as the overall efficiency of the immigration process. The administration has accomplished its goal of shutting down legal immigration without actually changing the law.”