Confessions of an Immigration Bureaucrat, with Michael Valverde

Every year, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) makes millions of highly consequential decisions that affect individual people’s lives. Applications for green cards, work permits, asylum and refugee status, even U.S. citizenship – they’re all handled by the 20,000 civil servants at USCIS. The agency has always had its struggles, but under Trump 2.0, political appointees have actively undermined and targeted civil servants like never before.

Michael Valverde dedicated his career to USCIS for three decades, working in roles throughout the agency and rising to senior management. Having taken early retirement after the DOGE debacle, he’s ready to pull back the curtain on how this agency really works: Why backlogs seem so endless, how immigration officers think, and what’s the difference between useful vs. useless security vetting. Michael also shares what he’s told countless new Americans at their citizenship ceremonies: Immigrants make our country richer.

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Amanda, Claire, and Doug express their own personal opinions on The Melting Pod. This episode was produced by Michael Palmer (⁠palmer.media⁠). Read more about the topics in this episode:

* Who Pays Immigration Fees? USCIS gets most of its money from U.S citizens and companies - Boundless (July 2020)

* Right-Sizing Vetting for a Secure, Fair, and Efficient Immigration System - American Immigration Lawyers Association (Feb. 2026)

* San Bernardino attackers did not post about jihad on social media, FBI says - The Guardian (Dec. 2015)

* Systemic Change Needed After Faulty Times Article - New York Times (Dec. 2015)

* USCIS Filing Trends: New Data Shows Immigration Processing Falling Further Behind - American Immigration Council (Aug. 2026)

* Legal immigration agency employees asked to volunteer to help ICE operations - CBS News (March 2025)

* Six-hour polygraphs, forced reassignments: inside homeland security’s campaign of fear - The Guardian (July 2026)

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