More than 1,100 Vermonters employed by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will be out of a job on Aug. 3 and without pay for at least 30 days.
If the temporary cuts go into effect, 8% of the total reductions nationwide would land on a state with less than 1% of the country’s total population.
The agency alerted Congress May 15 of its $1.2 billion budgetary shortfall and announced that more than 13,000 employees nationwide — including in Vermont — would be furloughed if emergency funding was not provided to the agency.
According to an agency spokesperson, by July 2 approximately 13,400 USCIS employees were to have received notice that without a bailout from Congress, they would be furloughed as of Aug. 3.
On the floor of the U.S. Senate Wednesday, Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy urged Congress to act and pass emergency funding for USCIS to prevent the furlough.
“In Vermont, 1,111 men and women received this notice. This is over 65% of the USCIS workforce in Vermont,” the Democratic lawmaker said. “Men and women who do important work for the nation, and have continued to do that work even during the Covid-19 pandemic, have just been told that after Aug. 3, they can no longer do their job, and they will no longer receive a paycheck.”
Leahy said he and other Senate Democrats have been pushing Republicans to support more emergency relief, but time is running out for them to act.
Leahy blamed the agency’s $1.2 billion shortfall on Covid-19, financial mismanagement and President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration policies.
“As part of the president’s efforts to erase our identity as a nation of immigrants, he has not just tried to shut our nation’s doors to asylum seekers and refugees; he has attempted to restrict almost all immigration to this country,” Leahy said. “He’s created obstacles for immigrant workers, created a ‘wealth test’ for immigrants, and even exploited the current public health emergency to impose additional immigration restrictions that have nothing to do with public health. Because USCIS has not able to issue visas and process other immigration benefits as a result of President Trump’s anti-immigrant policies, revenue has fallen.”
USCIS is a fee-based agency, meaning its revenue largely comes from fees associated with citizenship and other immigration applications, Leahy said.
Coupled with a global pandemic and restrictive immigration policies, budgetary woes at USCIS have worsened, he said.
The furloughs will impact communities where the 13,000 plus employees live, including Vermont. Agency services in Vermont are located in St. Albans and Essex.
