US immigration agency ‘welcomes immigrants’ in new statement

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has updated its mission statement to ‘welcome immigrants’. The new mission statement replaces a Trump-era version that controversially removed the ‘nation of immigrants’ label. The latest version describes the United States as a ‘nation of welcome and possibility’.

In an internal memo to employees, USCIS director Ur Jaddou said that the new mission statement ‘better reflects the Biden administration’s commitment to a US immigration system that is accessible and humane’. 

Jaddou wrote to USCIS staff saying: “We strive to provide a timely decision, be it yes or no, and with the utmost respect, to every petitioner or person who seeks a benefit from USCIS, be it a US citizen seeking to reunite with a family member, a US business attempting to hire a skilled foreign national, a lawful permanent resident seeking naturalization, or a person who hopes to find a place of refuge from persecution.”

Erase Trump-era remnants

While the change to the USCIS mission statement has been described as ‘symbolic’, government officials have said that it is part of a wider Biden administration effort to erase all remnants of the US immigration policies set by Trump, which focused more on restricting legal US immigration routes and spouting controversial rhetoric toward immigrants.

In 2021, the Biden administration urged all US immigration agencies to discontinue using terms like ‘illegal alien’, which were deemed to be dehumanizing. 

Back in 2018, Trump’s decision to scrap the term ‘nation of immigrants’ from the USCIS mission statement sparked a huge backlash from US immigration advocates and other rights’ groups.

The USCIS mission statement during Trump’s presidency read: “US Citizenship and Immigration Services administers the nation’s lawful immigration system, safeguarding its integrity and promise by efficiently and fairly adjudicating requests for immigration benefits while protecting Americans, securing the homeland, and honoring our values.”

Customers removed

At the time, then-USCIS director, L. Francis Cissna, said that the term ‘customers’ was also removed from the mission statement because it ‘fostered an institutional culture that focused on satisfying people applying for US immigration benefits’.

“Use of the term leads to the erroneous belief that applicants and petitioners, rather than the American people, are whom we ultimately serve,” Cissna said at the time.

Th Biden administration has now updated the mission statement to read: “USCIS upholds America’s promise as a nation of welcome and possibility with fairness, integrity, and respect for all we serve.”

Integrity

The new mission statement was revealed after incorporating feedback from 750 USCIS employees. In her agency-wide memo, Ur Jaddou said that the overwhelming feedback was that the mission statement should be one of ‘integrity’.

Jaddou wrote: “Overwhelmingly, the word you submitted was integrity, and you also cited compassion, service, security, respect, decision, fairness, innovation, welcoming, and opportunity.”

US asylum officer Michael Knowles, who also serves as a union representative for USCIS employees, praised the new mission statement, saying: “It renews our sense of purpose, and affirms what our country stands for.”

“The way we treat those seeking our protection determines who we are: the American dream is either renewed or betrayed, one case at a time. When we treat each individual with dignity and respect, we keep faith with the promise,” Mr Knowles added.

Numerous policy changes

Since Joe Biden became US President, USCIS has instituted numerous policy changes, most of which were to reverse restrictions on legal US immigration enforced by the Trump administration.

In 2019, USCIS halted a rule that made it more difficult for low-income migrants to obtain US permanent residency, while reversing a series of asylum restrictions.

However, USCIS, which is largely funded by US visa and immigration application fees, continues to struggle with a mounting backlog of petitions, which has crippled the agency’s ability to review cases in a timely manner.

The agency has also failed to incorporate several key Biden administration policy proposals, including plans to revamp the asylum process at the US border with Mexico and a rule that would protect the status of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program from legal challenges.

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