USCIS Removes Term “Nation of Immigrants” from Its Mission Statement

The US agency tasked with U.S immigration services–United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) made a major change to its mission statement by removing the phrase “nation of immigrants” on Feb.22.

The USCIS’ updated its mission statement emphasizing on “safeguarding its integrity’ and “securing the homeland”. The new mission statement was announced via email to the employees of the agency by the USCIS director Francis Cissna, reported The Intercept.

According to the USCIS, the new mission statement reads: “U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services administers the nation’s lawful immigration system, safeguarding its integrity and promise by efficiently and fairly adjudicating requests for immigration benefits while protecting Americans, securing the homeland, and honoring our values,”

As per a USCIS official, CNN reported, the agency’s new mission statement was developed and debuted within the agency by USCIS Director Cissna during his first conference with USCIS senior leadership from around the world. “It reflects the director’s guiding principles for the agency. This includes a focus on fairness, lawfulness and efficiency, protecting American workers and safeguarding the homeland. These key priorities are reflected in the agency’s new mission statement,” added the official.

In the previous mission statement, USCIS secured America’s promise as a nation of immigrants. “USCIS secures America’s promise as a nation of immigrants by providing accurate and useful information to our customers, granting immigration and citizenship benefits, promoting an awareness and understanding of citizenship, and ensuring the integrity of our immigration system,” the mission statement previously read, according to reports.

The letter from Cissna to USCIS’ employees makes it clear that the USCIS answer to the American people who look to the agency to ensure that people who are eligible for immigration benefits receive them.

“Those who are not eligible–either because they don’t qualify or because they attempt to qualify by fraud–don’t receive them, and that those who would do us harm are not granted immigration benefits,” the letter stated.

In the letter, Cissna also emphasized the removal of the word “customers” from the previous statement, saying the word evokes a false impression.

“All applicants and petitioners should, of course, always be treated with the greatest respect and courtesy, but we can’t forget that we serve the American people,” he wrote, reported The Guardian.

An official of the agency explained, according to reports, that this mission statement indicated that the United States is moving away from the transactional language of customer and product. “Citizenship, residency and the other benefits of our immigration system are granted only after a rigorous evaluation, not merely by the payment of a fee, or submission of an application,” the officials said.  The director also said that the emphasis should be on them serving the American people.