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Obama Admin Mishandled Thousands of Citizenship Applications Before 2016 Election
The government began last year with about 390,000 pending applications, which is about the usual number, and was averaging four months of processing time. It ended the year with more than 635,000 applications in its backlog and was taking far more than four months. In the final quarter of the year, it received nearly 240,000 applications and processed just 112,000–less than half its intake.
The problem can be traced to a new DHS computer system that was put in place last year, according to the department's watchdog. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services deployed the system to help transition the agency from a paper-based system to a digitized one.
The $1 billion computer system known as ELIS, a homage to Ellis Island, was so flawed that naturalization interviews and even citizenship ceremonies had to be canceled in case the immigrant applying for citizenship was not actually approved.
The government began last year with about 390,000 pending applications, which is about the usual number, and was averaging four months of processing time. It ended the year with more than 635,000 applications in its backlog and was taking far more than four months. In the final quarter of the year, it received nearly 240,000 applications and processed just 112,000–less than half its intake.
The problem can be traced to a new DHS computer system that was put in place last year, according to the department's watchdog. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services deployed the system to help transition the agency from a paper-based system to a digitized one.
The $1 billion computer system known as ELIS, a homage to Ellis Island, was so flawed that naturalization interviews and even citizenship ceremonies had to be canceled in case the immigrant applying for citizenship was not actually approved.