US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) this week announced that the agency will cancel an administrative furlough of more than 13,000 employees that was scheduled to begin August 30. In a statement, USCIS said that they expect to be able to maintain operations through the end of fiscal year 2020 (on September 30), although Joseph Edlow, USCIS Deputy Director for Policy, noted that “averting this furlough comes at a severe operational cost that will increase backlogs and wait times across the board, with no guarantee we can avoid future furloughs.” He added: “A return to normal operating procedures requires congressional intervention to sustain the agency through fiscal year 2021.”
For months the agency has been requesting a $1.2 billion emergency bailout, though USCIS officials later acknowledged that their initial projected budget shortfalls were inaccurate and that the agency in fact has hundreds of millions of dollars more in its accounts than reported. Going forward, USCIS said that they anticipate increased wait times for pending case inquiries with the USCIS Contact Center, longer case processing times, and increased adjudication time for foreign nationals adjusting status to permanent residence or naturalizing, though naturalization ceremonies will continue.
Immigration advocates and practitioners have blamed USCIS’s financial problems on mismanagement as well as unnecessary policy changes and verification measures that create more work for USCIS officers and applicants. One USCIS employee told BuzzFeed News: “I and my coworkers are relieved that we won't be furloughed, and we can continue our good work on immigration. However, the fact that the announcement still requires more cost-cutting, is still worrying, especially saying in the future a furlough scenario is still possible. This seems to still be a game of politics, which is frustrating.”
Doug Rand, co-founder of Boundless Immigration, labelled the USCIS announcement of averted furloughs “grade A spin.” He said in a tweet: “USCIS leadership *caused* the looming furlough & threw its workforce into tumult for 4 months before backing off at the last second.” He added: “No apologies for bringing >13k civil servants to the brink of an unpaid furlough in the middle of an economic crisis.”