Confessions of an Immigration Bureaucrat, with Michael Valverde
Every year, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) makes millions of highly consequential decisions that affect individual people’s lives. Applications for green cards, work permits, asylum and refugee status, even U.S. citizenship – they’re all handled by the 20,000 civil servants at USCIS. The agency has always had its struggles, but under Trump 2.0, political appointees have actively undermined and targeted civil servants like never before.
Michael Valverde dedicated his career to USCIS for three decades, working in roles throughout the agency and rising to senior management. Having taken early retirement after the DOGE debacle, he’s ready to pull back the curtain on how this agency really works: Why backlogs seem so endless, how immigration officers think, and what’s the difference between useful vs. useless security vetting. Michael also shares what he’s told countless new Americans at their citizenship ceremonies: Immigrants make our country richer.
In This Episode
- Introduction
- Who is Michael Valverde?
- Six billion dollars in user fees
- Michael to immigrants: Thank you for making me richer
- Immigration in simpler days
- How is USCIS using AI?
- The journey of a green card application
- What does an immigration officer do?
- Are immigration interviews useful?
- The truth about national security screening
- The plight of Mohammed Mohammed
- The truth about social media vetting
- What is “continuous vetting”?
- Why can’t we just eliminate the backlogs?
- The targeting of civil servants under Trump 2.0
- “Working with you politicals…”
- Conclusion
Learn More
Amanda, Claire, and Doug express their own personal opinions on The Melting Pod. This episode was produced by Michael Palmer (palmer.media). Read more about the topics in this episode:
Who Pays Immigration Fees? USCIS gets most of its money from U.S citizens and companies
Right-Sizing Vetting for a Secure, Fair, and Efficient Immigration System
San Bernardino attackers did not post about jihad on social media, FBI says
Systemic Change Needed After Faulty Times Article
USCIS Filing Trends: New Data Shows Immigration Processing Falling Further Behind
Legal immigration agency employees asked to volunteer to help ICE operations
Six-hour polygraphs, forced reassignments: inside homeland security’s campaign of fear
Give More
Want to help build a more sane and humane immigration system? Support hardworking organizations like these:
National
Working to ensure the U.S. keeps its promise to our Afghan allies
The country’s largest membership organization of asylum seekers, working together for change
Organizing and advocating for racial, social and economic justice
Providing humanitarian, legal, and social services
Strategic litigation and advocacy to uphold the rights of people seeking safety
Immigrant justice through litigation and storytelling
Local
Legal and humanitarian support to refugees, deportees, and other migrants in the U.S. and Tijuana
Providing assistance to the poor and most vulnerable populations in the Rio Grande Valley community
Free and low-cost legal services to immigrants and refugees in West Texas, New Mexico, and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico
Three Big Lies About Immigrants and Fraud, with Sonya Schwartz
From the first moments of his first campaign for president, Donald Trump has accused immigrants of fraudulently obtaining public benefits, immigration protections, and even votes. Does any of this hold up under scrutiny? We asked Sonya Schwartz, who knows more than just about anyone about the complex intersection of immigration, public benefits, and voting laws. She has the data to debunk all three of MAGA’s big lies about immigrants and fraud, and how this scapegoating leads to policies that harm all of us – from millions of families losing food assistance to voter ID laws that would block U.S. citizens from the polls. Meanwhile, some of the country’s worst actual fraudsters are getting pardoned instead of prosecuted.
Next EpisodeAsylum Is Not a Loophole, with Colleen Zengotitabengoa
What is asylum? Simply put, the United States must not return someone to a country where they have a well-founded fear of persecution. Following the atrocities of World War II, Congress created a U.S. asylum system under international treaty and federal law. But in recent years, as many more people sought asylum at the U.S./Mexico border, this moral and legal obligation became a political lightning rod. Colleen Zengotitabengoa has seen these challenges first-hand, in her two decades serving at the Department of Homeland Security, the White House, and Congress. As an attorney, she has directly represented asylum-seekers – real people who were not “exploiting a loophole.” Colleen will help you understand what happened to our asylum system, why it matters, and what we as a nation need to do next.