The latest changes we are seeing in social matters are not leaving anyone indifferent. Now it seems it is the turn of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and it has set off all alarms, not only among migrant people but also among the Services’ own users, since a group of workers has received an internal notice asking them to consider early retirement or… face immediate dismissal, as you read.
This has been revealed by Doug Rand, former adviser to the agency. And as expected, this information has generated immediate concern among the staff, since this would directly affect the waiting times of millions of applications, and beside those applications, there are millions of people…
What is going on inside USCIS?
So far there is no official statement from the Government, so we could choose to make an act of faith and think this was just a mistake, but… the leaks point to this being a drastic measure they are going to implement due to internal management problems and budget adjustments being made in public services. And in fact, more than a notice, it’s a clear invitation to leave (or to be fired).
2020: the prelude
Something similar already happened in 2020, during the COVID-19 crisis. USCIS ran out of financial reserves and didn’t have enough revenue to keep all staff on payroll. It’s true that the crisis happened globally and affected all sectors, and USCIS was forced to freeze hiring, which led to a wave of resignations and a slowdown in application processing due to backlogs.
The change in administration in 2021 seemed to bring order and resolved part of the situation by opening up hiring processes and onboarding thousands of officers. To do so, they raised fees and reorganized the workflow.
But all that progress now seems at risk if this situation repeats.
How would this affect immigrants?
An understaffed agency cannot keep up. So it’s important to be prepared for delays in visas, green card renewals, work permits, and even appointments for asylum or naturalization interviews…
Also, jobs that depend on foreign labour (such as hospitals and other sectors, as, for example, ranching industry among many others) will also suffer the consequences if work permits are delayed or not approved in time.
And even worse is to think about the thousands of family reunification processes that could be paralyzed for months. That means more families separated for longer, workers waiting for documents to be able to work, and millions of people without a clear answer about their immigration status…
What can we expect then?
Although nothing has been confirmed or made official yet, we already know that where there’s smoke, there’s fire… The information revealed by Doug Rand has been echoed in media outlets specializing in immigration, which all agree that the system is once again on the verge of collapse.
Meanwhile, organizations that provide advice to migrants have also started to mobilize to demand that the Government not cut USCIS staff, reminding everyone that delays affect the stability of millions of people in the U.S. We’ll have to stay alert in the coming days, because if the layoffs are confirmed, the slowdown will be immediate and widespread.
If you have any pending documents, take care of it as soon as possible because this cut represents a real threat to the country’s immigration system, and it’s important to stay alert and anticipate what could happen…
