Julie Kirchner, who served as the director of a group against further immigration to the US, is expected to become the new ombudsman for US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) from the beginning of this week, according to inside sources.
From 2005 to 2015, Kirchner was the director of the group known as the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which has advocated for extremely tight immigration restrictions in the US. The USCIS ombudsman’s office helps immigrants who fall foul of the agency, including applications that have been wrongly rejected, or which are taking too long to process. The ombudsman is also responsible for the preparation of an annual report intended for Congress, in which they can issue policy recommendations and audits without the need for prior consultation with USCIS.
US Citizenship and Immigration Services handles a large array of legal matters relating to immigration, such as green card and citizenship applications. The agency is also able to give legal status to asylum seekers and refugees, and others in extreme circumstances, and to adjudicate on applications from Dreamers – the undocumented immigrants who came to the US as minors.
The USCIS ombudsman is appointed by the Department of Homeland Security, which declined to comment, as did USCIS itself, and Customs and Border Protection, where Kirchner worked in a temporary political appointment. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which had labeled FAIR as a hate group, has slammed the choice of Kirchner.