The US immigration system relies on a wide variety of applications and other documents that must be acted upon (typically by issuing an approval or denial), including applications that are decided by immigration judges, government employees at US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), an agency within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), or government employees at the Department of State.

In recent years, the processing times for cases at USCIS has grown considerably, leading to many immigrants waiting for prolonged periods of time to find out if their paperwork will be approved. For some applicants, delays at government agencies could mean that a person outside of the United States must wait to join family members inside the country or a person inside the country may have to live in legal limbo for months or years while waiting on an outcome. For others, delays at the agency mean waiting on work authorization or other paperwork that may require little more than a perfunctory signature, but that prevent the person from working and participating fully in society. However, filing a mandamus action may speed getting a decision on their application; but that decision could well be to have their application denied. There is no assurance it will be approved.

Although USCIS is not the only agency named in recent lawsuits, USCIS does illustrate the challenges that agencies are currently facing when trying to process immigration paperwork, which then lead to growing lawsuits. Many of the record number of lawsuits filed in May 2022 name USCIS Director Ur Jaddou as a defendant, while others name DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, US Citizenship and Immigration Services as an agency, Attorney General Merrick Garland (who oversees the immigration courts), and even USCIS regional directors.

Despite agency attempts to address the backlog of paperwork, immigrants who are facing delays often see a lawsuit as the only means for obtaining a decision on their case when they hear nothing back from agencies for months or even years. A lack of a meaningful solution to the growing backlog of immigration cases across several government agencies (not only the immigration courts) is having a spillover effect by leading to more resource-intensive litigation efforts in the federal civil courts.

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