Speech #1090100218

Chairman. I support this amendment. and I want to commend the gentlewoman from New York for offering it. One can ask all 435 Members of the House of Representatives what is the principal area of constituent complaints that caseworkers in our local offices deal with. and they will all say immigration complaints. because the immigration service legacy. as well as the component parts that it has been split into. has not been dealing with these issues properly. This is an issue that deals with immigration benefits that legal aliens are entitled to receive. And it seems to me that if we are the welcoming country to legal aliens that we claim to be. we ought to deal with their petitions promptly and professionally. That is not being done. and we owe it to our present constituents and future constituents. as many of these people are eligible for permanent resident status and will eventually become citizens of the United States. to solve the problems of the backlog in dealing with immigration benefits. The Government Accountability Office is about to issue a report that will deal with the effects of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to reduce the immigration application backlog that has plagued the system for years. This report will confirm that this new agency. created under the Homeland Security Act and transformed from the old Immigration and Naturalization Service. has made significant strides in reducing application backlogs since its creation in 2003. Nevertheless. more progress needs to be made. The current backlog stands at about 1 million applications for immigration benefits. Although this figure was reduced from over 3 million applications when the new agency was formed. much of this came from definitional changes which I have publicly questioned. We must do more to challenge the Department of Homeland Security to improve. This will mean a more professional and prompt resolution of dealing with the documents that legal immigrants need to integrate themselves into American society. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment. Mr.