Inside sources reveal that a serious shortfall in available funding and personnel at the INS Texas Service Center is resulting in a dramatic increase in processing backlogs and a serious morale problem at the large processing facility. The Texas Service Center handles a substantial portion of the immigration applications in the southeastern portion of the United States and is one of four INS regional service centers.

TSC officials estimate that the current caseload will require approximately 91,000 work hours to adjudicate. However, the TSC’s 99 available adjudications officers can realistically be expected to produce only 81,081 hours of work. One solution might be to authorize 10,000 hours of overtime at an estimated cost of $250,000. Another solution would be to add 13 to 16 new officers to the TSC adjudications staff. The problem with the latter solution is that the TSC has no additional space or computer workstations to support new staff. So the overtime solution is more attractive.

Part of the problem stems from a dramatic increase in the number of applications being handled by the TSC. The total number of cases pending at the Texas Service Center increased from approximately 750,000 cases in the spring of 1997 to approximately 2,250,000 two years later. The number of cases adjudicated, however, has remained relatively constant.

The problems have grown worse despite a substantial increase in fees that was imposed last year. According to our sources, the fees are not being allocated back to the service centers to adjudicate cases. Instead, the money is going to separate budgets for enforcement, asylum cases and naturalizations. For every $51 million collected in fees, only $1 million is being returned to the TSC.

Officials expect the processing problem to grow dramatically worse if a funding increase is not approved. I-130s in spouse cases, for example, could stretch to as long as two years.