For years before it actually happened in 2003, many immigration-law pundits advocated for the division of the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) into different components. The idea was that the cultures of benefit granting and enforcement were incompatible. When the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was created in 2003, the immigration functions of the INS were moved from the Department of Justice (DOJ) and given to the new DHS. Within DHS, INS functions were, like a dream come true…

USCIS has a difficult job. It adjudicates immigration benefits. What makes the job difficult? First, the volume and scope of work. America is a large country and there are a lot of foreigners seeking lots of things – temporary visas, permanent residence visas, citizenship, work permits, travel permits, humanitarian entry into the United States, asylum, protections against deportation based on harsh conditions abroad, and on and on. The variety of different laws pertaining to each of these different types of…

In the same mail delivery as the previous frustrating mail, comes this one. A client comes to me after is arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She applied for a student visa extension and heard nothing from USCIS. Then ICE arrested her. (Years later, the extension is still pending).  We went to court a few times. The ICE attorneys were supposed to find out what happened to her student visa application. The woman was married to a United States citizen. When…