Trump admin to shutter international immigration offices

Article by John Bowden and Rafael Bernal (https://thehill.com/policy/international/433714-trump-admin-to-shutter-21-international-immigration-offices)

I find it odd that the Hill, a news organization that sits to the right, would pick the word shutter to describe a recent administration move. Shutter evokes a sense of finality, a last weary sigh as all of one’s effort has been expended and there is no other choice than to call it quits. By using this word “shutter” the authors make this piece human from the outset, which doesn’t seem like a wise decision for an organization with conservative leanings. This article does however, heavily quote individuals associated with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) when they created this article. This move, according to this article, is intended as a consolidation effort to address issues of budget and backlog. This article also quotes the head of the agency, Director L. Francis Cissna, as they address the decision to “shutter” (again a rather emotional word) their 21 offices and consolidate them into existing embassies and stateside offices. Cissna states while this change may be difficult, it is their intention to make the transition as smooth as possible. According to another, unnamed, official in the agency, this move is cost-cutting measure, and approximately 70 of the agency’s staff would be reassigned to other agencies. Oddly, at this point the article begins to criticize this move ( I saw odd as this is a conservative leaning news outlet). The authors quote a democrat house member, who states the move “sounds like a really dumb idea”. This move is exceedingly odd from a conservative organization.

Trump Administration Seeks To Close International Immigration Offices

Article created by Vanessa Romo and Joel Rose for NPR            (https://www.npr.org/2019/03/12/702807908/trump-administration-seeks-to-close-international-immigration-offices)

For a news organization that sits left of center, and often reports with a bias against the current president, the title of this article seems oddly stale. NPR, or National Public Radio, is an organization that one would expect a slightly more loaded title, instead it seems rather on the nose. However, it should be noted that the actual content of this story is certainly titled left. This article lays out a recent administration decision to cut down on the number of foreign offices the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services from 23 to 0. These planned closures would save millions of dollars each year according to the Trump administration. With the closure of these offices, and much of the Agency in general, the duties would be transferred to the State Department, Defense Department, and the Department of Homeland Security. A spokesperson for the USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) claimed that this would not result in a bottleneck for those seeking asylum in the US. It is at this point that the NPR story begins to show its bias as they then begin to discuss the potential negative impacts of closing these offices. The authors of this story quote Sarah Pierce, a policy analyst for Migration Policy Institute, who states that this decision would likely exacerbate the existing bottleneck in the process that already exists. The authors of this piece continue in this vain for the last few paragraphs of this article, making the prediction that this move would result in further calls for more reductions in immigration.