U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will furlough nearly 13,000 of its 20,000 employees in less than a month unless Congress steps up with over $1 billion in emergency relief, but both the House and Senate say the Trump White House has yet to make an official request that includes a dollar number, CBS News reports.
That the administration hasn’t had second thoughts about unlawfully diverting funds to Trump’s border fencing that Mexico was supposed to pay for, but his administration is delaying on USCIS isn’t shocking considering this is the agency that administers the legal immigration system, and impeached president Donald Trump isn’t too keen on that either (maybe unless it’s from Norway). “To be clear, this is intentional,” tweeted one immigration attorney. “This nativist cabal WANTS to shut down legal immigration.”
CBS News reported that the Trump administration is trying to point a finger at Congressional Democrats (another shocker) and say that legislators already have everything they need to go forward with saving USCIS, but legislators and aides are basically saying they have no idea what the fuck the administration is talking about.
"The Trump White House is responsible for requesting supplemental funding, but all they have sent Congress is a one-page letter that provides virtually no information on the shortfall or proposed remedies," House appropriations panel spokesperson Evan Hollander said according to the report. On the Senate side, the report said a Republican aide also confirmed that the Trump White House hasn’t yet made an official request—a pretty freaking alarming development considering thousands of USCIS workers have already received furlough notices.
That’s a major reason why it’s pretty hard to believe that the novel coronavirus pandemic is the sole reason for USCIS’ approaching disaster. Yes, COVID-19 forced the closure of offices (some have been reopening for select services in recent weeks), but even current employees are saying that the administration’s anti-immigrant and anti-asylum policies have wreaked havoc on the agency. "Over the last four years, the policies of this administration and the way that they ran things pushed the agency to the very edge of a cliff—and COVID was the finger on the back that sent it over," one worker who asked to not be identified told CBS News.
Just look at what’s happening at this very moment. Nearly three weeks after the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration illegally ended the DACA program, officials still have yet to fully reopen the program to tens of thousands of prospective new applicants and raise some much-needed funds, as we previous noted. Instead, the administration is again reportedly threatening to end the program—a move that the impeached president would own and would be all on him, since the court didn’t order him to end anything or rule the the program itself is unlawful.
“Michael Knowles, an asylum officer and president of the union for USCIS employees in the Washington, D.C. area, said he doesn't think the American public has fully grasped the consequences of his agency's potential partial shutdown,” the report continued. Knowles told CBS News: “Millions of people will be affected, not just people who have yet to come to the U.S., but millions who are here. Millions of workers who depend on their work permits. Millions of lawful, tax paying residents who deserve to become citizens.”
Will the impeached president let this agency go under and send thousands of government workers home? Considering he’s responsible for the longest shutdown in our nation’s history due to his damned wall, it’s possible, and continued confirmation that his problem isn’t just with undocumented immigrants—it’s with immigrants, period.
