Congress is looking into a delayed program to computerize the immigration application process.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is heading the “Transformation” program, which began in 2007 with a budget of $536 million and a plan to automate the paper-based application process by 2013.
So far, $630 million has been spent, current cost estimates have ballooned to $2.2 billion, and the project is scheduled to be completed in 2022.
In a February 16 letter to the Director of USCIS, Senator Chuck Grassley, Republican of Iowa, wrote, “I’m concerned that very few improvements have been made since the Government Accountability Office reported to Congress in 2007 about the Transformation initiative. . . . The GAO and the inspector general have noted that ‘efforts to modernize . . . have been unfocused, conducted in an ad hoc and decentralized manner, and in certain instances, duplicative.’ “
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