How can I find out what the government is actually doing with immigration investigations?

The situation

I am living in Chicago, Illinois, and I have been trying to navigate the immigration system for about eighteen months now. My brother applied for his residency papers back in January 2023, and we have been waiting for updates ever since. Lately, I have been reading news stories about how much work the immigration offices are doing, but it feels like everything is a total mystery. I want to know if the government is actually keeping track of how many investigations they are running or if they are just overwhelmed and understaffed. I spent three hours last Tuesday looking through the USCIS website to find any kind of official update on their internal operations or how they use their budget for investigations, but I couldn't find anything specific. I tried calling their help line twice, but the agent just told me to check the website again. I am looking for any kind of official report that describes how their internal affairs are running and what kind of resources they are putting into these investigations. Is there a specific document that the government is required to give to Congress that shows exactly what they have been working on over the last six months?

Detailed Analysis

While you may not find these specific internal details on the general USCIS website, the law requires the government to keep Congress informed about these exact issues. Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, the Secretary of Homeland Security is mandated to provide regular updates to the Committees on the Judiciary in both the House of Representatives and the Senate^[1].

Specifically, the law requires a report that includes "a description of internal affairs operations at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, including the general state of such operations and a detailed description of investigations that are being conducted (or that were conducted during the previous six months) and the resources devoted to such investigations"^[1]. This means the government is legally obligated to track and report on the very things you are looking for: how investigations are running and how much money and staff are being used for them.

Regarding your brother's residency application from January 2023, these reports are intended for Congressional oversight rather than for individual applicants to track their own specific case status. However, if you are looking for general data on how many people are being detained, the Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is required to maintain a "report, on a publicly accessible website in a downloadable, searchable, and sortable format" regarding aliens detained by the agency^[2]. This report includes data on daily populations, the number of people transferred to ICE custody, and the number of people issued a Notice to Appear^[2].

It is important to note that while these reports exist to provide transparency to Congress, they may not provide the real-time, individual updates you are seeking for your brother's specific application. The law does not explicitly state that these specific internal investigation reports must be published on the public USCIS website for all citizens to view, but rather that they must be submitted to the relevant Congressional committees.

Statutory Citations

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