Detail employees are the worst employees. If the USCIS is trying to get work out of detail employees..best of luck. Usually in government agencies, an employee is sent on "detail" for him/her to meet his/her goals that they missed in the past. Most of the detail employees are lazy SOBs and its a way of government not firing people but reassigning them temporarly....We get detail employees all the time at USPS and most of them don't do anything.
It would've been good news if they had hired new adjusters.
Now actually it makes sense as to why most of the ND 2000 and ND 2001 are still waiting...A Detail employee can have a case open forever and say he/she is working on it and trying to get a response from the customer....since they have to meet lofty goals, they try to show that they are working more than others.
In other words, if my case stays with a detailed employee, their duty is extended until the case is finally resolved. Here at USPS, we call detailed employees as on "vacation"...
Oh yes detailed employees are also some employees who are close to retirement. Usually it takes 15-20 years to be in govermnt to get retirment from them..so when an employee is not productive, they send them on detail so they can finally get their rest of years and live happily ever after.
I would love for the USCIS to hire contractors so that the backlog is eliminated in a jiffy...but they wont do that since its matter of security.