The Washington Times reported today that in the President’s video message last weekend, he told tens of thousands of immigrant rights supporters that rallied at the National Mall this past Sunday, that he is pushing for an immigration reform bill to be passed that he would sign into law this year that would fix the country’s broken immigration laws.
That’s great news, but if immigration reform becomes a reality the question to ask is, “Is the DHS ready to process the increased influx of applications?”
According to the DHS’ Assistant Inspector General, the passage of immigration reform could complicate the agency’s efforts to transition to an electronic system rather than a paper based system. He actually warned that the influx of millions of applications would simply be a burden to the agency.
On the other hand, the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services’ (USCIS’), Inspector General claims that his agency is ready for the additional work, but feels that Congress will allocate additional resources so that it can get the job done.
At this point, the hurdle to overcome is to get lawmakers to pass immigration reform. Then the right thing to do would be for the agency to be given the tools and other resources it needs to carry out the work of legalizing the millions of undocumented immigrants who so desperately need this reform to stop living in the shadows and become part of this country once and for all.
