Excerpt from Secretary Tom Ridge's remarks at Civic Integration Symposium 09/23/04
http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?content=4033 :
"We have also made significant strides towards our goal of eliminating the immigration backlog. So far, we have completed 1.1 million more cases this year than we completed during the same period a year ago. And much of this progress has come not from hiring more people, but from improvements to the process made by CIS.
That hard work is paying important dividends and Director Aguirre’s backlog reduction plan is not only working, but is ahead of schedule. We fully expect to meet our goal of having the backlog down to zero by 2006. Eliminating the backlog is a huge undertaking, but it is a challenge that we are determined to embrace and see through to completion.
So, we will continue to build upon these efforts and the work of our backlog reduction pilot programs in order to get the job done once and for all. In the end, despite the changes we have made to secure our country since 9-11, we will not abdicate our character as a nation, not now, not ever. We will always remain a welcome and free country."
http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?content=4033 :
"We have also made significant strides towards our goal of eliminating the immigration backlog. So far, we have completed 1.1 million more cases this year than we completed during the same period a year ago. And much of this progress has come not from hiring more people, but from improvements to the process made by CIS.
That hard work is paying important dividends and Director Aguirre’s backlog reduction plan is not only working, but is ahead of schedule. We fully expect to meet our goal of having the backlog down to zero by 2006. Eliminating the backlog is a huge undertaking, but it is a challenge that we are determined to embrace and see through to completion.
So, we will continue to build upon these efforts and the work of our backlog reduction pilot programs in order to get the job done once and for all. In the end, despite the changes we have made to secure our country since 9-11, we will not abdicate our character as a nation, not now, not ever. We will always remain a welcome and free country."