Unlicensed Nefarious Chinese Biolab in Reedley, CA

The FBI was way behind on this one…sigh

In operation since 2022…

Code enforcement check uncovers illegal lab making COVID-19 and pregnancy test kits, bacterial and viral agents and 900 white miceUniversal MediTech and Prestige Biotech were using and storing reagents on site that were imported from outside the U.S.—using these foreign chemicals requires a federal permit that the business owners didn’t have, according to the document.

CG: Why would a COVID lab run by a shady Chinese company be operating in Reedley, CA in the central San Joaquin Valley? The lab, which was supposed to be an empty building, was discovered by Reedley city code enforcement officers when they saw a garden hose attached to the building and investigated.

Darren Fraser at the MidValley Times reported earlier this week that the building has been illegally operated since October 2022 by Wang Zhaolin of Prestige Biotech, and the lab was used to produce COVID-19 tests and pregnancy tests.Furniture, chemicals, and devices improperly stored.

City of Reedley officials called in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the FBI, the State Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC), the State Department of Health, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) and the Fresno County Department of Public Health (FCDPH).Warehouse location in Reedley, Calif.

“Reedley officials and personnel from CDPH and FCDPH executed a warrant on March 16 to inspect the warehouse at 850 I Street,” MidValley Times reported. “According to a declaration from Humero Prado, Assistant Director of Fresno County Public Health, which was filed in superior court, investigators discovered that one room of the warehouse was used to produce COVID-19 and pregnancy tests. In other rooms, investigators found blood, tissue and other bodily fluid samples. They also found thousands of vials that contained unlabeled fluids.”

And they found 900 genetically engineered mice, engineered to catch and carry COVID-19, living in “inhumane” conditions. 773 of the mice had to be euthanized, and officials found another 178 mice already dead.

Mid Valley Times further reports:

“From May 2 through May 4, the CDC’s Division of Select Agents and Toxins inspected 850 I Street. Court documents confirm the CDC found potentially infectious agents at the location. These included both bacterial and viral agents, including: chlamydia, E. Coli, streptococcus pneumonia, hepatitis B and C, herpes 1 and 5 and rubella. The CDC also found samples of malaria.”

“Court documents identify Xiuquin Yao as the alleged president of Prestige. Neither Reedley nor FCDPH was able to obtain from Yao any substantive information regarding Prestige or why infectious agents and mice were being stored at 850 I Street other than to say that the company was developing diagnostic testing kits.”

“Court documents include copies of an email exchange Prado conducted with David He, who identified himself as a representative of Prestige, beginning May 31 and continuing through June 13. Over the course of numerous emails, Prado repeatedly asks He to provide documentation regarding licensed medical waste disposal, Prestige’s reasons for storing infectious agents and how the company will respond to the biological abatement orders handed down by FCDPH.”

“They (Prestige) completely avoided the questions,” Prado said. “This individual (He) was either unaware or was intentionally trying to mislead us.”

***

Officials were unable to get any California-based address for either company except for the previous Fresno location from which UMI had been evicted.

“The other addresses provided for identified authorized agents were either empty offices or addresses in China that could not be verified,” court documents said.

Prestige BioTech is accused of failing to comply with orders, including providing a plan for biological abatement and disposal of the materials. Emails sent to Yao and Prestige BioTech requesting comment were not immediately answered Thursday.

Prado told NBC affiliate KSEE of Fresno that those associated with Prestige BioTech were not forthcoming with information. Court documents say they failed to provide any licensing or permit that allows experimentation or other laboratory activity.

Two Tech Companies Report Chinese Malware in the Power Grids

No worries America, President Biden is on vacation again, this time for a week. Meanwhile, it was back in May that Microsoft and Mandiant (0wned by Google) reported Volt Typhoon was in a few power systems either for espionage or worse for later capability to disrupt. Presently, there is no immediate threat however, experts outside of the Federal government are studying the cyber language and issuing warnings.

Volt Typhoon's Cyberattack: Key Concerns and Implications for the Industry  | TXOne Networks source

Experts say it’s one of the largest known cyber espionage campaigns against the US.

A key US military outpost, Guam’s ports and air bases would be crucial to any Western response to a conflict in Asia. Together with the Five Eyes alliance – comprising the intelligence agencies of the US, Australia, Britain, New Zealand and Canada – Microsoft published details of the malware.

A cyberattack on Guam is equivalent to an attack on Silicon Valley. Guam, with a population of nearly 154,000, is indistinguishable from the 50 states for the purposes of defense under international and domestic law. It would also be vital to US military operations in any conflict over Taiwan. The Guam Defense System, the defense architecture surrounding Guam and the Mariana Island Chain, is the top homeland defense priority of the current commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, Admiral John Aquilino. Guam contains the United States’ largest refueling and armament stations in the first and second island chains that provide lines of defense against China. The 2023 National Defense Authorization Act also announced $1.4 billion for defense projects in Guam, and the U.S. Marine Corps is building its first new base in 72 years there. Guam has among the highest military recruitment levels in the United States. In recognition of Guam’s military importance, China calls its DF-26 intermediate ballistic missile, which has a 2500-mile firing range, “the Guam Killer.” Source

The U.S. has 3 military bases (installations in Guam)

Q&A: What does the US military do on the island of Guam? source

***

China’s “peacetime” targeting of critical infrastructure that is used by both civilians and the US military erodes the principles of the law of war. The principle of distinction ordinarily forbids targeting civilian objects, such as civilian property and infrastructure. However, many computer networks are used for both civilian and military purposes. Such “dual use” objects may be targetable based on their nature, purpose, and use. However, combatants must still comply with the other principles of the law of war: military necessity, proportionality, and avoiding unnecessary suffering.

Microsoft has tracked a group of what it believes to be Chinese state-sponsored hackers who have since 2021 carried out a broad hacking campaign that has targeted critical infrastructure systems in US states and Guam, including communications, manufacturing, utilities, construction, and transportation.

Microsoft’s blog post offered technical details of the hackers’ intrusions that may help network defenders spot and evict them: The group, for instance, uses hacked routers, firewalls, and other network “edge” devices as proxies to launch its hacking—targeting devices that include those sold by hardware makers ASUS, Cisco, D-Link, Netgear, and Zyxel. The group also often exploits the access provided from compromised accounts of legitimate users rather than its own malware to make its activity harder to detect by appearing to be benign.

Blending in with a target’s regular network traffic in an attempt to evade detection is a hallmark of Volt Typhoon and other Chinese actors’ approach in recent years, says Marc Burnard, a senior consultant of information security research at Secureworks. Like Microsoft and Mandiant, Secureworks has been tracking the group and observing its campaigns. He added that the group has demonstrated a “relentless focus on adaption” to pursue its espionage.

US government agencies, including the National Security Agency, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the Justice Department published a joint advisory about Volt Typhoon’s activity today alongside Canadian, UK, and Australian intelligence. “Private sector partners have identified that this activity affects networks across US critical infrastructure sectors, and the authoring agencies believe the actor could apply the same techniques against these and other sectors worldwide,” the agencies wrote. As early as 2009, US intelligence officials warned that Chinese cyberspies had penetrated the US power grid to “map” the country’s infrastructure in preparation for a potential conflict. Two years ago, CISA and the FBI also issued an advisory that China had penetrated US oil and gas pipelines between 2011 and 2013. China’s Ministry of State Security hackers have gone much further in cyberattacks against the country’s Asian neighbors, actually crossing the line of carrying out data-destroying attacks disguised as ransomware, including against Taiwan’s state-owned oil firm CPC. Source

It was not until the New York Times reported this condition that anyone took it seriously. What is worse are the facts reported by CyberScoop in part:

The largely unknown amount of Chinese-made equipment within the North American grid is a threat to national security, experts warned during a Thursday congressional hearing that explored cybersecurity vulnerabilities within the electric sector.

Witnesses from the Department of Energy and private sector testifying during the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee echoed a sentiment increasingly heard in Washington that a longstanding dependence on Chinese technologies and cheap components is now an alarming national security issues for U.S. critical infrastructure.

 

 

 

Your Vehicle is Spying on you and You’re not Getting Paid

Every app on your phone is collecting data, often protected and confidential data and selling it. Selling it to whom? No idea. But then you have invited the same thing when it comes to your home with the streaming apps…never mind Alexa and Siri. But now while it has been highly suggested to never use or click on Tik Tok videos that people seem to ignore at their own peril…let’s consider your own cars or trucks you drive every day. Oh you have nothing to hide…yeah yeah yeah…but manufacturers and tech companies are making trillions a year selling everything about YOU and you don’t care or have nothing to hide? Are you fine with your passwords, social security numbers, ATM card numbers or even children’s names being transported to entities unknown to you?

Privacy is gone and you should care…. it is a cyber war actually and you are in the middle of it.

Autonomous Car Technology Market Outlook From 2020-2026 - Science Techniz source

It all started with OnStar and now there is facial recognition requirements to even start your car….

America’s national security experts have made a compelling case that TikTok, the popular social media application owned in part by the Chinese government, constitutes a national security threat.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has warned that TikTok allows the Chinese government to access location, biometric identifiers and browsing history, which could be shared with the Chinese Communist Party. This information led a bipartisan group of senators, led by Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), to recently introduce legislation providing the Department of Commerce the power to regulate the popular social media app. The Biden White House quickly endorsed the bill and called for its immediate passage.

It’s encouraging that the federal government is taking the TikTok threat so seriously. Many policy analysts even believe it should double its efforts to combat harmful social media companies’ data collection. After all, TikTok is not the first company that poses such a problem, nor will it be the last. Many other apps, such as WeChat, have equally dangerous connections to the Chinese Communist Party that lawmakers should watch closely.The data regulations that they impose on TikTok should apply across the board including American companies that may pose similar threats.

That said, Chinese-owned social media apps are not the only data collection threat that the American people currently face. Chinese-owned automakers present just as significant of a national security problem, if not an even greater one.

Modern cars are becoming data collection vacuums. Their cameras and computers not only diagnose engines, but they also collect information about where you travel, what stores you shop at, what music you listen to, and how fast you drive. Electric cars, particularly autonomous vehicles, collect millions of terabytes of information that automakers rightfully see as digital gold.

This data collection would be beneficial if consumers owned and controlled it, but currently, they don’t. The car companies do. Best Android Car Apps 2016 | Caromotor 2017

Chinese automakers like Volvo and Lotus must comply with the same Military-Civil Fusion laws that TikTok and other problem Chinese apps must follow. That means the same data security concerns apply but with even more in-depth personal in play, from when they leave the house to their driving patterns and histories.

American vehicle manufacturers have yet to modernize their security infrastructures with the modern-digital age. Over the last year, API attacks in the automotive industry have surged by over 380 percent, and 34 percent of auto employees admitting their company receives more security threats now than two years ago. China is one of the global leaders in API attacks, and U.S. attorneys have already warned automakers to watch out for the country’s theft of their personal information.

For all these reasons and more, this information shouldn’t remain the property of the carmakers. The drivers should own and control it.

Reps. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) and Jan Schakowsky’s (D-Ill.) Innovation, Data, and Commerce Subcommittee should consider a comprehensive legislative framework that ensures transparency and accountability from car manufacturers and protects drivers against misuse of their personal information. This will turn a staunch national security problem — TikTok on wheels — into a valuable addition to the U.S. economy.

Again, the problem is not that this auto data exists; the problem is that carmakers are the ones in control of it. From diagnosing and fixing vehicle malfunctions to providing insurance discounts, vehicles keeping track of this information is benefiting drivers in untold ways. If consumers own this data instead of the auto industry, they will receive the utility of this information without the baggage of it potentially falling in the wrong hands.  Source

CCP’s Little Red Classrooms Across America, Does Anyone Care?

Reposting in full from FNC:

Parents Defending Education (PDE), a grassroots organization dedicated to fighting indoctrination in the classroom, says it has uncovered disturbing evidence linking Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-sponsored financial entities to American K-12 schools.

The findings are detailed in a new report dubbed “Little Red Classrooms,” which was sent to 34 governors, key lawmakers and committee chairs on Wednesday.

“The alarming evidence uncovered by our investigation should concern parents, educators, and policymakers alike. Families deserve to know who is influencing the American education system so that they can make informed choices about what their children are learning behind closed doors,” PDE president Nicole Neily told Fox News Digital.

“The Trump administration took steps to rein in Confucius Institutes at colleges and universities. It is frightening, however, that no such transparency mandate exists at the K-12 level,” Neily continued. “Accordingly, it is imperative that elected officials at both the federal and state levels take immediate action to gauge the extent of these programs in order to ensure that American schoolchildren receive a high-quality education free from undue foreign interference.”

REP JIM BANKS DEMANDS ANSWERS ON ‘INADEQUATE’ DOD CONFUCIUS INSTITUTE WAIVER GUIDANCE: ‘AGENTS’ OF THE CCP

chinausflags

Parents Defending Education, a grassroots organization dedicated to fighting indoctrination in the classroom, says it has uncovered disturbing evidence linking Chinese Communist Party-sponsored financial entities to American K-12 schools. (Getty)

Parents Defending Education bills itself as “a national grassroots organization working to reclaim our schools from activists imposing harmful agendas. PDE’s sister organization, PDE Action, sent the “alarming” results of its lengthy “Little Red Classrooms” investigation to House Education & Workforce Committee Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C.; House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala.; and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Texas.

According to the letters, which have been obtained by Fox News Digital, the investigation exposed how millions of dollars of China-linked funding has flowed into America’s K-12 classrooms. PDE believes American students are subject to CCP propaganda under the guise of Chinese language and culture programming.

“The fact the Chinese government had so much access to American classrooms, students, and curriculums should worry families,” PDE senior adviser Michele P. Exner wrote to McCaul.

The committee chairs were informed that through “records requests and publicly available information, it was discovered that 143 school districts across the United States have engaged in contracts to establish Confucius Institutes and Classrooms,” including in three of the nation’s top science and technology high schools, and several that are near 20 U.S. military bases.

“Considering China’s adversarial relationship with the United States, this poses significant security risks that warrant immediate attention from your committee,” Exner wrote to Foxx.

“The Chinese government has long touted their Confucius programming as a way to advance their strategic goals around the world. In 2009, former Chinese Communist Party Senior Chairman Li Changchun admitted that Confucius Institutes were an ‘important part of China’s overseas propaganda set-up’ and in 2017 Chinese government officials lauded the programs as a way to push China’s Belt and Road initiative,” the Foxx letter continued. “Security concerns with these China-led courses in America’s schools are well documented.”

BILL LIMITING CHINA-BACKED CONFUCIUS INSTITUTES PASSED UNANIMOUSLY BY SENATE

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) arrives to a caucus meeting with House Republicans on Capitol Hill

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Texas, was notified of Parents Defending Education’s findings. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

PDE also listed “examples of the alarming relationships China’s government has established with American K-12 classrooms,” such as the Simpson County Board of Education in Kentucky entering into an agreement with the North China Electric Power University to develop the Confucius Institute of Western Kentucky.

“The North China Electric Power University works directly with the Chinese government’s energy sector to push China’s global energy initiatives. The Chinese International Education Foundation (CIEF) tasked the university with selecting more than 34 Chinese teachers to send to Simpson County Public Schools for the 2020-2021 school year,” Exner wrote.

PDE also pointed to a pair of Chinese nationals who taught Mandarin at Appoquinimink School District in Delaware during the 2012-2013 school year. “According to a district webpage, these teachers underwent a ‘rigorous selection process’ in China. This includes interviews with Chinese government officials ‘at the national level,’” according to Exner, who also serves as PDE Action’s director of federal affairs.

The letter to McCaul noted that “34 states and the District of Columbia have had schools that have engaged in financial exchanges with the Chinese government or affiliated entities ranging from a few thousand dollars to more than a million dollars per contract,” according to PDE findings.

“Since 2009, the Chinese government has used Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classrooms to push their agenda in schools around the globe. Chinese Communist Party officials have openly stated how they are using these educational partnerships established under the guise of ‘cultural and language immersion programs’ to expand China’s overseas propaganda campaign,” Exner wrote.

“In a Chinese state media article from 2016, the Chinese Communist Party ‘lauded’ Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classrooms for promoting its Belt and Road Initiative. Security concerns with these China-linked programs became so problematic that the State Department declared them a ‘foreign mission’ during the summer of 2020,” Exner continued. “These programs have created significant security vulnerabilities for the United States and gave the CCP unfettered access to curriculums and America’s classrooms. PDE uncovered at least two connections between U.S. and China schools tied to the Chinese military and energy operations.”

UNIVERSITY TO CUT TIES WITH CHINESE CONFUCIUS INSTITUTE AFTER GOP SCRUTINY ON $17M DOD GRANT

PDE also accused the CCP of openly using deceptive tactics to influence the next generation of Americans to advance their own self-serving agenda.

“We cannot allow this to happen. We urge the committee to take immediate action to investigate, expose, and hold hearings on the Chinese government’s involvement in America’s schools. PDE looks forward to working with you in protecting our students from the threats of the CCP,” Exner wrote to McCaul.

PDE informed Rogers that Confucius Institutes and Classrooms were operating in schools in the vicinity of the following U.S. military bases including U.S. Naval Academy, Buckley Air Force Base and Space Force, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Dover Air Force Base, Fort Bliss, Fort Liberty, Fort Knox, Naval Station Great Lakes, Hanscom Air Force Base, Hill Air Force Base, Lackland Air Force Base, Langley Air Force Base, Los Angeles Air Force Base, MacDill Air Force Base, McGuire Air Force Base, U.S. Coast Guard Academy, Nellis Air Force Base, Naval Station Norfolk, Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Naval Base San Diego.

“Allowing China to have unfettered access to America’s schools poses significant security risks to students and their families. It becomes even more dangerous when this is happening near sensitive locations containing information critical to our national security,” Exner wrote.

Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs

PDE sent a letter to Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs urging an investigation between Arizona’s public schools and Chinese government sponsored programs. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)

WHAT CHINA IS DOING IN CUBA IS A BIG THREAT TO ALL OF US

PDE Action also wrote to several other influential lawmakers including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.; and Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La. The House China Select Committee, the Senate HELP Committee, the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee are expected to be notified of “Little Red Classrooms” findings, too.

PDE Action political director Alex Nester also sent a letter, which has been obtained by Fox News Digital, to Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs.

“Documents uncovered via online searches and public records requests show that three schools in Arizona — Catalina Foothills School District and Tucson Unified School District, as well as the International School of Tucson — forged ties with Chinese government backed programs over the course of a decade,” Nester wrote.

“PDE Action respectfully requests the Office of the Governor of Arizona to investigate ties between Arizona’s public schools and Chinese government sponsored programs, such as Confucius Classrooms,” Nester continued. “While it’s vital for American students to have opportunities to learn world languages and cultures, public school districts should not give the Chinese government unfettered access to K-12 classrooms. This has the potential of posing significant security risks to students, families, and our national interests.”

A similar letter was sent to 33 additional governors on Wednesday morning, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

PDE’s “Little Red Classrooms” report details more examples that the group finds deeply concerning, breaking down the $17,967,565 spent across 143 school districts in 34 states plus the District of Columbia.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is Now Complaining about the Policies

Reposting in full:

As the Biden administration continues to expand ways for immigrants to legally enter and remain in the United States, the agency tasked with overseeing and implementing those efforts is suffering under the strain of its ever-growing workload. U.S. Immigration Courts' Backlog Exceeds One Million Cases - WSJ

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is struggling to keep pace with its new and growing responsibilities, according to watchdogs and agency employees, and some of its backlogs have grown to unprecedented heights. The 842,000 pending asylum cases are at an all-time high and the number is expected to exceed 1 million in 2024. The higher-than-usual number of migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border, coupled with global events such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan following the U.S. military’s withdrawal there, has created dueling priorities that have exacerbated longstanding capacity concerns.

President Biden has expanded the use of “humanitarian parole,” which allows various groups temporarily enter the country, to Central and South Americans fleeing persecution, Ukrainians escaping the dangers of war, Afghanis evacuated out of their home nation and others. He has offered Temporary Protected Status to 700,000 people from 16 countries. The administration has ramped up efforts to slash the wait time for those seeking naturalization or employment status. Most recently, it deployed employees overseas to conduct asylum screenings abroad and created new opportunities for family members of U.S. residents to enter the country.

Despite successes in some areas, the agency is not meeting its targets.

Many USCIS employees are also taking on new responsibilities, as they are more heavily involved in determining up front whether newly arriving migrants can remain in the country and regularly face deployments to the border to help process and screen those individuals.

“2022 brought with it significant new tasks for the agency that would create their own processing and operational challenges—challenges that the agency continues to grapple with in 2023 and which will impact future workloads,” according to a recent report from the USCIS ombudsman.

The watchdog predicted the various emergency responses by the Biden administration will “continue to present operational challenges to USCIS in the coming years.” Even before much of the new programs went into effect, the agency was experiencing a surge of new work. According to a 2021 Government Accountability Office report, USCIS’ caseload increased by 85% between 2015 and 2020. Now, the impacts of the agency’s efforts are compounding and many processing times have grown significantly.

“We’ve dealt with backlogs before but not like this, and not with some many other competing priorities,” said Michael Knowles, a long-time asylum officer who represents his colleagues in the Washington, D.C. area as part of the American Federation of Government Employees.

‘Came at a price’ 

USCIS’ successes have come with a heavy toll. It doubled the normal number of completed employment-based visas in fiscal 2022, which the ombudsman said was not without a cost.

“By prioritizing this adjudication, others were further delayed, at a time when backlogs have never been more severe,” the watchdog said.

The agency reduced the naturalization backlog by 62% in fiscal 2022, but led to “lesser priorities” being worked at a slower pace, with fewer completed adjudications and backlogs growing.

“These decisions, however necessary, came at a price,” the ombudsman said. “USCIS is a fee-based agency with finite resources. The determinations to prioritize certain applications and petitions meant that other workloads could not be addressed as robustly as the priority programs.”

Biden issued or extended Temporary Protected Status for 11 countries in 2022 alone. The ombudsman called processing work authorization for those populations “a never-ending task for the agency.”

Shev Dalal-Dheini, the government relations director for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said USCIS employees are being pulled from their normal workloads to address the new humanitarian pathways.

“Obviously it has an impact on adjudications across the board because there’s only a certain amount of staff and only a certain amount of funding from their fees,” Dalal-Sheini said. “When something is prioritized, that necessarily means other things are deprioritized.”

Knowles noted those being paroled into the country are only being provided residency in the U.S. for one or two years, after which time they, too, will be seeking alternative status. In other words, they will all be added to various backlogs. The administration, through Operation Allies Welcome, Uniting for Ukraine and programs modeled after it aimed at Venezuelans, Haitians, “Cubans, Nicaraguans and others, has paroled 500,000 individuals into the country.

“Even a streamlined adjudication of thousands of applications each month has added considerably to USCIS workloads,” the ombudsman said.

Competing priorities

Meanwhile, nearly 1 million immigrants already in the country are awaiting resolution on their “affirmative asylum cases,” which require lengthy investigations. The nation’s immigration courts, housed within the Justice Department, has a backlog of more than 2 million cases and individuals are waiting years to get before a judge. Dalal-Dheini noted wait times on applications for new Green Cards, lawful permanent residence, residence for those making investments in the U.S. and to petition for non-resident relatives have all spiked compared to historic averages.

The administration is simultaneously pursuing an “all hands on deck” strategy at the border, meaning most asylum officers have deployed at various points to conduct “credible fear” screenings of migrants. A federal court this week struck down Biden’s new rule that severely restricted migrants who cross the border from requesting asylum, potentially creating a new wave of arrivals that USCIS employees will have to help screen. USCIS simply does not have enough staff to complete the work, Knowles lamented.

Blas Nuñez-Neto, assistant secretary for border and immigration policy at the Homeland Security Department, acknowledged the problem at a recent panel hosted by the Migration Policy Institute.

“Every time there’s a debate about what’s happening at the border, we see increases for [Customs and Border Protection], and they, to be clear, they need those resources,” Nuñez-Neto said. “But we also need to resource the rest of the system to keep pace with what we’re seeing at the border and we just simply haven’t over the last many, many years.”

He said that was starting to change as the Biden administration has attempted to dramatically increase resources for USCIS, but noted hiring in government is “a long and painful process.” The assistant secretary said the Biden administration will continue pushing for more asylum officers, Executive Office of Immigration Review personnel, U.S. Marshals and others to “help with the rest of the system.”

Dalal-Dheini said in order to sustain backlog reduction, Congress must similarly sustain a guaranteed appropriation for the agency that has historically been largely fee-funded. Doing so, she said, would enable USCIS to “shift resources without harming other folks who are in line.” She added, however, that there is “no appetite” in Congress for providing those resources this year.

‘Losing people constantly’ 

The ombudsman praised USCIS for prioritizing hiring, as it has looked to reverse the impacts of a longstanding hiring freeze. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, USCIS threatened to furlough most of its workers as normal funds collected through fees dried up. Congress eventually intervened, but not before a longstanding hiring freeze depleted the agency.

Still, Knowles noted the pressure, pace and unending nature of the growing workload—coupled with the uneasiness many employees feel about their new responsibilities—has led to high rates of burnout.

“We are hiring constantly, but we are losing people constantly,” Knowles said. A recent GAO report confirmed USCIS is experiencing unusually high levels of turnover.

The ombudsman also praised USCIS for taking steps to mitigate processing inefficiencies, digitizing some of its offerings and adjusting the frequency of employment forms so individuals had to reconfirm their status less often, though it suggested the agency still has a long way to go.

“While these steps addressed necessary issues to give the agency workforce sufficient breathing space to take on its backlogs, the majority of these actions address only the symptoms and not the root causes of backlogs themselves,” the watchdog said. “Prioritization steps are necessary, but the larger stumbling blocks of the underlying adjudications remain.”

The agency can expand the ways in which it eases the burdens for applicants looking to extend their stays, the ombudsman said, such as by reducing the number of instances in which they must provide biometric information. USCIS should further leverage new technologies and ask Congress for “some continuing form of appropriated funds” to support its vastly increased parole efforts.

Until the lawmakers and the agency find ways to fundamentally change the system, the situation may only worsen. Knowles noted backlogs have not grown due to laziness, as asylum and other USCIS workers have a “strong work ethic” and “take tremendous pride in their work.” He likened the work environment his colleagues face—regularly speaking with migrants who are “tired, hungry, scared and bewildered”—to first responders who absorb the trauma they constantly see.

“What happens when you can’t get them out of the burning building?” Knowles asked, pointing to the growing backlogs. “You gave it your best effort, but you lost them?”

 Post is for information and educational purposes