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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 159 / Friday, August 20, 2021 / Proposed Rules TABLE 11MONETIZED COSTS OF THE PROPOSED RULE
In millions, 2020 dollars Undiscounted
3-Percent
7-Percent
Population Level 10-Year cost
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Low
Primary
High

As discussed in Section G of this preamble, and alluded to above, DHS
expects this proposed rule to be implemented in phases. Our quantitative cost estimates are based on the assumption that the funding for the proposed rule is essentially available when the proposed rule takes effect, and that implementation costs are spread out over several years due to timing effects related to operational and hiring impacts. In reality, the effect of budgeting constraints and variations is expected to play a prominent role in the phasing in of the program. Our estimates thus account partially but not fully for such phasing. Incorporating additional phasing into resource allocation models is complex because of the interaction between initial and recurring costs, and DHS is not prepared at this time to attempt to fully phase in the costs quantitatively. Despite this limitation, we do not believe that the true costs would be significantly different than those presented above. A
phased implementation would not skew the actual costs, but rather allocate them to different timing sequences. In fact, from a discounting perspective the present value of the costs would actually be lower if they were allocated to future years. DHS will continue to evaluate all pertinent data and information related to the phasing approach, and if tractable, may include refined estimates of the resource-related costs in the final rule.
DHS welcomes public comment on the phasing of costs and provides some additional, preliminary information here to supplement the cost data presented above. As of the final drafting of this proposed rule, DHS believes that through FY 2022 new staff positions can be funded with existing resources, which would support a minimum processing level of 50,000 annual family-unit cases. For the medium and high-volume bands of 150,000 and 300,000 annual cases, respectfully, DHS
does not believe it can meet the full staffing requirements with current funding. Based on preliminary modelling, it could take up to three years to fully staff the medium-volume
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10-Year cost
$1,811.0
4,559.7
10,076.2

Annualized cost
$1,538.8
3,871.3
8,550.3

band and up to five years to staff the high-volume band.
If the mediumand high-volume bands of 150,000 and 300,000 were to be funded through a future fee rule, it would increase fees by an estimated weighted average of 13 percent and 26
percent respectively. This estimated increase would be attributable to the implementation of the asylum officer portions of the proposed rule only, and it is provided to show the magnitude of the impact that implementation of this proposed rule would have in addition to other increases in a future fee rule. The 13 percent or 26 percent estimated weighted average increase would be in addition to any changes in the IEFA
non-premium budget.
b. Intra-Federal Government Sector Impacts This proposed rule is expected to shift the initial case processing of some asylum and protection claims from EOIR to USCIS. We present this shift in case processing as new resource costs to USCIS since new staff would be employed, new IT expenditures acquired, etc. There will be new resource costs to the economy. The IJs at EOIR will continue to remain at DOJ
and work on other priority matters not related to the high volume of asylum and protection claims processed through expedited removal. Some IJs are expected to continue to work on these claims through the do novo review process for appeals from the denial of asylum claims. Cases in which USCIS
grants all relief under the proposed rule, however, would not receive further administrative review. Accordingly, every case granted relief or protection by USCIS would constitute a direct reduction in new cases that EOIR would have to adjudicate. Given EOIRs significant pending caseload of approximately 1.3 million cases, reducing the number of cases referred to EOIR by 11,250 to 45,000 will enable EOIR to focus its resources on addressing existing pending cases and reducing the growth of the overall pending caseload. A reduction in the pending case load may reduce the overall time required for adjudications
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10-Year cost
$180.4
453.8
1,002.4

$1,260.8
3,168.9
6,993.7

Annualized cost $179.5
451.2
995.8

since dockets would not have to be set as far into the future. This in turn will better enable EOIR to meet its mission of fairly, expeditiously, and uniformly interpreting and administering the Nations immigration laws, including granting relief or protection to noncitizens who qualify.
iii. Familiarization Costs, Benefits, and Transfers of Possible Early Labor Market Entry It is likely that there will be familiarization costs associated with this proposed rule. It is expected that applicants and their support network will incur costs to read and develop an understanding of this proposed rule and the associated changes in process. If, for example, attorneys are utilized, the cost could be $101.07 102 per hour, which is the average hourly wage for lawyers including the full cost of benefits.
The proposed rule offers other benefits to asylum applicants and the Government. Although we cannot parse out the transfer and costs portions explicitly, we believe that most of the distributional effects will comprise transfers that are beneficial to the asylum seekers which we calculated on a per-person, workday basis, as opposed to costs. These transfers may impact the support network of the applicants. This network could include public and private entities, and it may comprise family and personal friends, legal services providers and advisors, religious and charity organizations, State and local public institutions, educational providers, and nongovernmental organizations. To the extent that some applicants may be able to earn income earlier, burdens to this support network may be lessened.
However, as described above, it will take time for USCIS to make the requisite resourcing and staffing changes needed to fully effectuate the changes under which the impacts could 102 The average wage for lawyers is provided by the Department of Labor. See U.S. Dept of Labor BLS, May 2021 National Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates, https www.bls.gov/oes/2020/
may/oes_nat.htm00-0000 last visited May 13, 2021. Calculation: Average hourly wage for lawyers $69.70 benefits burden of 1.45 = $101.07
rounded.

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