United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is a bureau of the United States Homeland Security that performs administrative functions that were formerly carried out by the United States Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS). The priorities of the USCIS citizenship bureau are to promote national security, to eliminate immigration case backlogs, and to improve customer services overall as they pertain to the immigration and citizenship process. Duties of the USCIS include adjudicating asylum claims, issuing employment authorization documents, administering immigration services and benefits, and granting permanent resident and citizenship status within the United States.