Dallas program effective in cutting green-card jam
By Michelle Mittelstadt
WASHINGTON — Green-card-application backlogs may compromise national security, a Homeland Security ombudsman says, because thousands of foreigners are being given work permits even though they're ineligible for legal permanent residence.
But a Dallas pilot program to weed out ineligible green-card applicants has proven so successful that an influential senator is asking Citizenship and Immigration Services if it can be expanded nationwide.
"Unauthorized aliens who get temporary work authorizations are a serious threat to the integrity of our immigration system and may pose a risk to our national security," Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, wrote CIS Director Emilio Gonzalez this week.
Even though the agency eventually rejects as many as one in five green-card applicants, it is required by law to hand out work permits if the paperwork isn't processed within 90 days. The wait time nationally for a green card averages eight to nine months.
Work permit in hand, foreigners can get Social Security cards and driver's licenses — which cement their ability to remain in the U.S., legally or not.
Under the two-year-old Dallas Office Rapid Adjustment program, applicants undergo on-the-spot interviews when they submit their paperwork, so most ineligible foreigners are immediately ruled out and their applications are never filed.
Dallas denials below average
Elsewhere, applicants aren't summoned for interviews until well after their paperwork and background checks begin.
In Dallas, about 2.5 percent of green-card applications are denied — compared to 17 percent nationally.
The immigration service is in the midst of a half-billion-dollar push to reduce backlogs. The green-card backlog, which reached a high of 3.8 million cases in January 2004, is now down to 202,000, the agency said. The estimate, however, omits nearly 1 million cases reclassified because of quota caps and other reasons.
