USCIS' Issuance of 3-year Employment Authorization Documents Following a Federal District Court Injunction

We did not find any evidence that the production and subsequent mailing of 3-year DACA-related EADs held in NPS from February 17 through February 19, 2015, was done in defiance of the Federal District Court’s injunction. We determined that a combination of factors led to the production, and mailing of about 2,000 of these 3-year EADs. USCIS Service Center Operations Directorate (SCOPS) management was not specific in its direction to USCIS Office of Information Technology (IT) staff. In addition, SCOPS management was mistaken in its assumptions about what IT staff was able to do or had done in halting production of the 3-year EADs. Finally, within IT, we concluded there was a lack of understanding about the consequences of actions taken related to release of the EADs that had been held. USCIS could not provide reliable data on the actual number of EADs held in NPS that were subsequently produced and mailed. USCIS also continues to discover EADs that were produced or issued after the injunction but not included in the 2,128 originally identified. Therefore, we cannot validate the number of 3-year EADs produced or issued after February 16, 2015.