U.S. visa boss insists that new mission statement isn’t anti-immigrant

SAN DIEGO (AP) – The head of the federal agency that grants visas said Friday that he had a message for anyone who considers his new mission statement anti-immigrant: “A thousand times no.”

Francis Cissna told The Associated Press that he cut reference to the U.S. being a “nation of immigrants” from Citizenship and Immigration Services’ mission statement because a “bureaucratic” document was the wrong platform to say so. He said the country is indisputably a nation of immigrants.

The agency’s mission statement is “not something where you put eternal professions of American values. That sort of thing belongs chiseled in the wall of a monument, not in some bureaucratic mission statement,” he said.

Cissna said he was surprised by criticism after announcing the change Thursday to his 18,000 employees. He said the White House had no involvement.

“This was all inside my head,” he said.

Cissna, who became director Oct. 1 after 12 years in various positions at the parent Department of Homeland Security, said he proposed a complete rewrite of the mission statement with senior agency leaders and union officials at a meeting in mid-october. It was widely discussed in the agency over several months.

The old statement read, “USCIS secures America’s promise as a nation of immigrants by providing accurate and useful information to our customers, granting immigration and citizenship benefits, promoting an awareness and understanding of citizenship, and ensuring the integrity of our immigration system.”