Assume the FO memo is indeed intended to be a backlog reduction measure, then two conclusions can be drawn:
1. The pushbacks and political turf fights within the BSIC are quite fierce. The BCIS headquarter apparently does not have much direct control over the service centers. Instead, it's up to the service center directors to interpret how to implement the memo. For anyone working at a private company, it's really amazing to observe the way the organization of BCIS operates.
2. FO and his/her staff is probably immature in the sense that they did not realize the legal, procedural and political consequences of their memo. Instead of issuing a guideline specifying how to speed up the process, they issued a few constraints (binding 140 and 485 adjudication, etc). If you have a child you would understand that it's counterproductive to tell a toddler waht not do to. Instead of saying "don't stand on the sofa" you should say "sit down honey". Fujie Ohata apparently forgot whom s/he's dealing with.
The essential problem of the whole thing is, these people DON't care. The children of early immigrants subconsciously don't want any new comers and the competition they bring, the H1B employers kinda enjoy the shackles on the feet of their H1B workers waiting for the never-ending GC process, and we the GC applicants cannot vote the incompetent service center directors out of their office. Any system without feedback is bound to de-stabilize ultimately. In this most mature democracy in the history of human kind, immigration is probably the last domain reigned by tyrans. In the largest free market, immigration provides a vast highly-trained highly-talented workforce tied up to big employers and separated away from the free labor market. The green card is designed to be a venue of immigration based on the intention of future employment. However, with the current eternity the process seems to consume, the green card instead has become a convenient way for employers to lock in low-cost labor and terrorize workers looking for other opportunities.
Both republicans and democrats tout an overhaul of the immmigration system, both republicans and democrats paint a rosy picture of globalization and free market but nobody stands up and try to do something about this de facto semi-slavery system.
For "taxation without representation" America rose against the British empire. Compared with us who are not only taxed without representation, but also deprived of the right to plan your career, your personal life, living under the constant fear that you might be kicked out of the country where you called home for the majority of your adulthood, those early immigrants were way too lucky. It's time for the congress to have a better look at how the "new blood" of this nation can be absorbed into the veins of America LEGALLY instead of proposing and passing bills legalizing illegal immigrants who smuggled in.
