From yesterday's Los Angeles Times, via Yahoo! News, "Backlog of Immigrant Paperwork Growing"

Four years ago, as a presidential candidate hoping to draw Latino votes, then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush vowed to slash the backlog of applications for legal immigration. No one would have to wait longer than six months, he promised.

Despite that resolve, the opposite has happened — more people than ever are facing longer-than-ever delays.

Green cards that would have taken 14 months to process in 2001 are now averaging 33 months. The number of pending applications for such things as replacing a lost green card and obtaining citizenship has shot up nearly 60%, to about 6.2 million. Cases more than 6 months old have increased by 89% since 2000, from 1.8 million to 3.4 million, according to the government.

The main reason for the delays is the increased security checks since the Sept. 11 attacks, according to the Bush administration. But congressional investigators and other critics say insufficient funding, lack of personnel and other shortfalls are also to blame.

[...]

Annual levels of immigration have held steady since the terrorist attacks. Now the growing backlog raises questions about the ability of the system to handle the additional load that would be created by the president's proposed guest worker program. As many as 8 million to 12 million illegal immigrants could file for legal status.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the arm of the Department of Homeland Security that inherited the work from the old Immigration and Naturalization Service, is the agency struggling with the effect of the increased security checks and scarce resources.

"All of these factors combined to put us where we are today, which is digging out of a very deep hole," said William Yates, head of operations for the immigration agency.

The agency will soon send Congress a backlog elimination plan that is expected to promise that Bush's six-month goal can still be met — but not until 2006.

At bottom, congressional investigators and outside critics say, the agency was simply unprepared to handle its new challenge. Nor has the government assigned a high enough priority to overcoming the obstacles and clearing the backlogs.

The Rove Machine has been very good at staging presidential proclamations with exaggerated backdrops. But when it comes to the actual nuts and bolts of government -- outside the headlines of WAR! TAX CUTS! GAY MARRIAGE! -- the Bush team is not holding it together.