Unblocking the U.S. Immigration System: Executive Actions to Facilitate the Migration of Needed Workers
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Highlights
Without congressional action, U.S. federal agencies can take targeted steps to cut processing backlogs and keep needed workers authorized and productive in the U.S. economy.
- Chronic processing delays by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the State Department left more than one-fifth of work permits expired before renewal in fiscal year (FY) 2021, disrupting workers and the U.S. employers who depend on them.
- Key near-term fixes include longer validity periods for employment authorization documents, reduced unnecessary requests for evidence, and expanded reuse of previously collected biometrics.
- The State Department should expand domestic visa reissuance, codify third-country processing for overburdened consulates, and publish clearer data on administrative processing timelines.
- Across agencies, better customer service, online case transparency, and coordinated interagency communication would ease burdens for applicants, attorneys, and employers alike.
With the U.S. unemployment rate hitting a 54-year low in January 2023 and more than 10 million job vacancies recorded monthly since mid-2021, the economy is hungry for workers. Yet longstanding bureaucratic inefficiencies in the legal immigration system and case backlogs that worsened dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic are preventing individuals eligible for immigration to the United States from filling some of the vacancies. They also are hampering conditions for temporary workers already in the country, some of whom are struggling to renew their status and work authorization. While legislative action is ultimately the solution to better align a legal immigration system that was last updated in 1990 with current and future U.S. economic imperatives, Congress appears highly unlikely to do so at present.
This policy brief outlines a range of actions the executive branch could take under current law to facilitate the migration of needed workers, retain immigrants already in the U.S. workforce, and ease challenges experienced by U.S. employers and their foreign-born workers. Many are proposals for small-bore changes to improve the efficiency of caseload processing at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the State Department.
The brief is the first in a series of policy analyses and blueprints being generated under MPI’s Global Skills and Talent Initiative, which is exploring the role that immigration can play in addressing current and future workforce needs in rapidly evolving labor markets.
Table of Contents
1 Introduction
2 Efficiency Improvements at USCIS
3 Helping Work-Authorized Immigrants Remain Able to Work
4 Helping U.S.-Based Migrants Maintain their Legal Status
5 Ensuring Smooth Consular Processing
6 More and Better Communication
7 Broadening Pathways to the U.S. Labor Force
8 Conclusion
About the Global Skills and Talent Initiative
Anchored in the premise that immigration policy must be part of a broader skills and talent strategy, the Initiative has a particular focus on employment-based immigration and the supports that can help immigrants apply their full range of educational and professional skills.
About the U.S. Immigration Policy Program
The U.S. Immigration Policy Program provides analysis of U.S. immigration pathways, the impacts of enforcement and other policies, and the characteristics of immigrant populations.
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