Barring a truly last-minute miracle, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will furlough more than 13,000 of its 20,000 employees in less than two weeks, after Congressional legislators went on August vacation without agreeing to any relief as part of the novel coronavirus pandemic legislation. Now left with a “skeleton crew” to process vital paperwork like naturalization forms, a former Obama adviser tells Forbes, the layoffs are set to fulfill a goal of White House aide and noted white supremacist Stephen Miller and force the nation’s legal immigration system “to a halt.”
USCIS had initially been set to furlough employees on Aug. 3 until revised estimates showed the agency actually had enough funds to continue work for several more weeks, Senate Appropriations Vice Chair Patrick Leahy found. That gave USCIS a lifeline until the end of the month, enough time for the federal government to get its shit together and save the agency. It didn’t happen. The consequences will be devastating, Boundless Immigration co-founder Doug Rand told Forbes.
“Nearly 3 million people applying for temporary work permits each year, plus over 760,000 permanent residents who need to renew or replace their green cards each year. No physical green card means no ability to work,” he said in the report. “And the agency has already thrown lives into havoc with egregious delays in shipping green cards.” Immigration Impact said last month that thousands of green cards in fact remained unprinted and unsent because the broke agency couldn’t print them.
We’ve already talked about the lawless Trump administration openly defying the court rulings to fully reopen the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients. The program is still in place for current and former beneficiaries, “but what if Dreamers simply can’t renew their work permits and deportation protections?” Rand asks. That’s exactly what could happen with a depleted USCIS.
“Let’s tick through some of the consequences of USCIS largely shutting down: people in queue to become naturalized citizens won’t get there in time for the 2020 election,” tweeted The Wall Street Journal’s Michelle Hackman. “Even if border restrictions are lifted and consulates reopen, visas (for marriage, fiancées, work, etc.) won’t get processed.” She also touches on the dilemma facing young immigrants already here: “DACA recipients who are still eligible to renew their DACA … can’t.”
“13,400 people are set to lose at least a month of pay, and not just in DC: in small towns in Vermont, Missouri and California among other places,” she continued in her thread on Twitter. “That could result in attrition of a lot of staff, including highly trained officers who run our refugee and asylum programs. That could make ramping up those programs under a President Joe Biden a tougher task.”
This is a fucking disaster, and has been completely preventable except for the fact that it’s been completely on purpose. As former USCIS chief counsel and Department of Homeland Security Watch Director Ur Jaddou said in a statement received by Daily Kos in June, “Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda has run USCIS into the ground.” Rand agreed in his conversation with Forbes: “The evidence is overwhelming that USCIS was in financial trouble long before Covid-19, as the direct result of mismanagement and deliberate policy choices.”
This doesn’t have to be happening. Much like outrage over U.S. Postal Service sabotage has helped force the House to return from recess to vote on legislation and force the postmaster general to testify before Congress, the same could theoretically happen when it comes to USCIS. But public outrage coming even slightly close to outrage over the postal service has failed to materialize.
“I’d like to believe that, at the very least, USCIS delays its furlough start date until the end of September or later,” Rand continued. “This will happen if DHS comes under enough pressure from lawmakers and stakeholders from both sides of the aisle. After all, USCIS is about to lay off thousands of workers in places that include Nebraska, Missouri, and Texas—and every single member of Congress has constituents who will suffer if USCIS shuts down at the end of the month.”
