Bingxin Yan

Date of Award

6-28-2022

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Public Administration (MPA)

Abstract

As of March 2022, the Asylum Division within Unites States Immigration and Citizenship Services (USCIS) has about 440,000 cases pending for adjudication due to an influx of migrants from Central American countries and a lack of resources at the agency. After an affirmative asylum application is filed, an asylum officer is supposed to interview the applicant within 45 days and a decision is expected to be made within 180 days. In a reality, those deadlines have been hard to meet. There are various factors that have contributed to the growing backlog. This research focused on three factors that contributed to the backlog, those are: staffing challenges, out-of-date technology, and ineffective asylum outreach program. Scholarly articles on staffing, technology and outreach program had been reviewed and used to support this research. Additionally, this paper included an analysis of the data collected from both internal and external stakeholders. With the help of this research paper, the Asylum Division within USCIS will better understand the cause of the backlog cases and take appropriate actions to reduce the backlog cases.

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