Former FAIR Leader Julie Kirchner Appointed to USCIS Ombudsman Position

Former executive director of the Federation on American Immigration Reform (FAIR) Julie Kirchner (who was previously an advisor to Customs and Border Protection) has reportedly been appointed to the position of USCIS Ombudsperson.  According to a USCIS website related to case assistance questions, “[t]he Ombudsman provides an impartial and independent perspective to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in an attempt to resolve problems with pending cases.” 

The Ombudsman also submits an annual report to Congress that should “provide a summary of the most pervasive and serious problems encountered by individuals and employers applying for immigration benefits with [USCIS],” and that “reviews past recommendations to improve USCIS programs and services.”  For instance, outgoing Ombudsman Maria Odom stated the following in her message to Congress in 2016:

 USCIS … still has much work to do to resolve longstanding systemic issues that compromise efficiency, quality of adjudications, and customer service.… With a myriad of competing priorities, the agency has made insufficient progress to address processing times delays (critically on the rise in the past 2 years); inconsistencies in adjudications across service centers; substantial failure to meet the 90-day regulatory adjudication deadline for employment authorization documents; and the continued issuance of overly burdensome and unnecessary requests for evidence.   I believe USCIS will achieve its full potential as a 21st century immigration agency when its customer service and adjudicatory functions are consistently prioritized, resourced, and afforded equal oversight.

In other words, the Ombudsman’s Office is designed to actually improve problems at the agency and identify areas for potential improvement. In the past, immigration attorneys have sought assistance from the USCIS Ombudsman’s Office with problematic cases.

FAIR has been identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group for its extreme anti-immigration positions.  According to the SPLC, “Since its founding in 1979, FAIR has push an agenda centered on a complete moratorium on all immigration to the United States and defined by vicious attacks on non-white immigrants. Its founder was white nationalist John Tanton, an avowed eugenicist who created the modern anti-immigrant movement in the United States.”

-JKoh