{
  "id": "RL33319",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
  "number": "RL33319",
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  "source": "EveryCRSReport.com, University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department",
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      "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
      "id": 341295,
      "date": "2007-01-25",
      "retrieved": "2016-04-07T18:26:52.543029",
      "title": "Toward More Effective Immigration Policies: Selected Organizational Issues",
      "summary": "As Congress weighs comprehensive immigration reform legislation that would likely include additional border and interior enforcement, a significant expansion of guest workers, and perhaps include increased levels of permanent immigration, some question whether the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) can handle the increased immigration workload. There are concerns that the immigration responsibilities in the DHS are not functioning effectively. DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff announced a \u201cSecond Stage Review\u201d (2SR) in 2005 that includes strengthening border security and interior enforcement and reforming immigration processes as major agenda items. Currently, three agencies in DHS have important immigration functions: Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).\nThe immigration functions are dispersed across three agencies within DHS. The Assistant Secretary of ICE, the Commissioner of CBP, and the Director of USCIS all serve with the same rank directly under the DHS Secretary. Of these, only the Director of USCIS has responsibilities that are exclusively immigration. While the DHS Secretary is the lead cabinet officer on immigration issues, he shares substantial immigration policymaking roles with the Attorney General and the Secretary of State.\nSome now argue the disaggregation of the government\u2019s immigration responsibilities across several agencies has weakened immigration as a policy priority and has made it much more difficult for the executive branch to develop a comprehensive immigration reform and border security strategy. Others maintain that the current organizational structure sharpens the focus on the key, yet disparate, immigration functions and is optimal from a homeland security perspective.\nIn seven of the eight workload measures analyzed over the past decade in this report, the immigration workload has declined in recent years. Only removals of aliens has surpassed levels prior to the restructuring of immigration responsibilities. While several key workload trends\u2014notably, border apprehensions and immigration adjudications\u2014are inching upward, the workload trends in asylum, inspections, naturalization, criminal prosecutions, and work site enforcement have declined or remained flat.\nThus far, independent assessments of the functioning of immigration in DHS have centered on problems rather than successes. Indeed, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has concluded that many of the management problems that existed before the restructuring of the federal immigration functions still remain. An underlying question is whether a sufficient length of time has elapsed to assess DHS\u2019s efficacy in managing immigration policy. This report does not track legislation and will not be regularly updated.",
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    },
    {
      "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department",
      "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metacrs9969/",
      "id": "RL33319 2006-03-17",
      "date": "2006-03-17",
      "retrieved": "2007-06-12T16:05:17",
      "title": "Toward More Effective Immigration Policies: Selected Organizational Issues",
      "summary": null,
      "type": "CRS Report",
      "typeId": "REPORT",
      "active": false,
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      "topics": [
        {
          "source": "LIV",
          "id": "Immigration",
          "name": "Immigration"
        },
        {
          "source": "LIV",
          "id": "Naturalization",
          "name": "Naturalization"
        },
        {
          "source": "LIV",
          "id": "Immigration law",
          "name": "Immigration law"
        },
        {
          "source": "LIV",
          "id": "Alien labor",
          "name": "Alien labor"
        },
        {
          "source": "LIV",
          "id": "Border patrols",
          "name": "Border patrols"
        },
        {
          "source": "LIV",
          "id": "Immigration policy",
          "name": "Immigration policy"
        },
        {
          "source": "LIV",
          "id": "Labor",
          "name": "Labor"
        },
        {
          "source": "LIV",
          "id": "International affairs",
          "name": "International affairs"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Foreign Affairs",
    "Immigration Policy"
  ]
}