ACLU of Florida v. USCIS

  • Latest Update: Jun 16, 2025
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Summary

The ACLU of Florida submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the U.S. Citizens and Immigration Services (USCIS) in August 2024 concerning changes to an asylum application processing policy. In 2023, over one million applications were pending with USCIS. This includes hundreds of thousands of affirmative asylum cases pending over two years, with several thousand pending for over a decade. This effectively leaves affirmative asylum seekers in limbo, unable to progress in their education, find a job, or live a secure life.

USCIS has been known to operate under a “last in, first out” system that leaves those who have been waiting the longest left to wait and wonder even more while new applications are prioritized. In response to this unacceptable lack of transparency, the ACLU of Florida inquired to USCIS about their process for scheduling interviews, prioritizing cases, and addressing delays. Because the government failed to produce the documents, we filed a lawsuit on December 16, 2024, seeking to compel USCIS to immediately release internal communications regarding its systems to adjudicate affirmative asylum applications and address the critical backlog of cases.

WHAT'S AT STAKE

Florida is home to over 2.7 million foreign-born residents, many of whom are asylum seekers whose applications have been pending for years with no indication of when they will progress in the asylum process. In order to gain insight into the USCIS system for managing new applications and addressing years of backlog, the ACLU of Florida requested internal documents that the USCIS still has yet to produce. This lawsuit aims to increase the transparency of the asylum process.

The Latest: On June 16, 2025, the court stayed the case at the parties’ request while USCIS continued processing the ACLU of Florida’s request. The parties continue to submit joint status reports.