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Jun 22, 2009 6:08 pm US/Central
Immigration Agency Says Backlog Virtually Gone
ANABELLE GARAY, Associated Press Writer
DALLAS (AP) ―
FBI name checks on people seeking to work, live or become citizens of the United States are getting completed more quickly, winding down a backlog that had left some petitions pending for more than a year, immigration officials announced Monday.
The delays have come during the FBI's routine checks for possible criminal backgrounds and national security questions. But now, nearly all name check requests submitted to the FBI are being answered within 30 days with the remaining 2 percent within 90 days, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials said.
"The FBI has made great strides ... and shown its capable of sustaining that service level," Michael Aytes, the agency's acting deputy director told The Associated Press.
Petitions that require more evaluation or interaction with other agencies do not fall under the FBI name check backlog count, Citizenship and Immigration Services officials said. Currently, some 6,000 cases flagged during the name check were pending with Citizenship and Immigration Services, including some in which the application was filed several years ago, Aytes said.
"They are being looked at. They don't just sit on a shelf," said Gregory Smith, the agency's assistant director for national security and records verification directorate.
The volume of pending FBI name checks hit its peak in November 2007 when there were about 350,000 stalled cases. At the time, more than half had been waiting for more than three months and a large number had been pending for more than a year, Aytes said.
Many of those affected were people who had common names for their ethnic group, such as Garcia. Others facing delays included people of Muslim backgrounds. They faced delays that stretched from a few months to a few years, said Crystal Williams, deputy director for programs at the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
In April 2008, the FBI and Citizenship and Immigration Services established milestones and priorities for the name checks. The goals required processing all name checks pending more than three years by May 2008, those pending more than two years by July 2008, and requests pending more than one year by November 2008.
A government audit issued in June 2008 found the FBI was using old technology and workers without enough training to do security checks. The problems led to large backlogs in name checks and kept some who applied to become U.S. citizens, legal residents or bring in foreign workers from receiving an answer.
That same month, a group of Muslim immigrants seeking U.S. citizenship in Missouri filed a federal class-action lawsuit claiming they had been made to wait for months or years because of slow background checks. Some cases have since been resolved.
On Monday, Citizenship and Immigration Services said the name check process has been improved by the FBI through the addition of staffers, training and refinement of the search criteria.
The changes have sped the pace of name checks, making delays fewer. But it's important the agencies continue focusing on the work so another backlog doesn't build up, Williams said.
"We're very pleased to see the announcement," she said. "I think they need to sustain what they have been doing."
An average of 6 million to 7 million applications for immigration benefits stream into Citizenship and Immigration Services each year. The agency is the FBI's biggest customer for name checks.
(© 2010 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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