More backlogs

As we muddle along without immigration reform, many individuals who have been legally admitted to the United States struggle in an immigration bureaucracy that seems incapable of meeting their needs.  I receive periodic email from immigrants who have been admitted into the United States and are outraged and frustrated at the slow and inscrutable nature of their immigration proceedings.  The NYTimes kicks off the new year with an account of the frustration of handicapped immigrants who have been granted asylum but have had their benefits terminated due to bureaucratic inefficiencies:

Congress understood the special plight of handicapped immigrants who are granted asylum and made sure they are entitled to monthly disability benefits of $603 each as they go through the citizenship process. But it turns out that more than 6,000 people, including some who are amputees or blind, have already found their benefits cut off, and tens of thousands more face a similar fate, because they exceeded the seven-year deadline Congress originally considered adequate for obtaining citizenship.

The op-ed explains that lawyers for these asylees are suing the government, “pointing out that these cases increasingly are victims of the background backlog. Unless a solution is ordered, officials estimate another 46,000 will have their benefits cut off by 2012 as they become delayed in the pipeline.”

The full op-ed is here.  A more detailed story from the Philadelphia Daily News and the full complaint were posted by KJ on this site on 12/21.  A Washington Post story on the matter is here.

-jmc