The federal government isn’t responding to questions about impending layoffs at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Mike Harrington, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Labor, said Tuesday.
More than 1,100 Vermonters employed by USCIS are due to be furloughed without pay for at least 30 days. USCIS notified Congress May 15 that a $1.2 billion budgetary shortfall will affect more than 13,000 employees nationwide.
The temporary cuts would hit Vermont disproportionately hard.
The Vermont DOL normally contacts employers planning furloughs or layoffs to get the wage information it needs to expedite unemployment insurance claims, said Harrington. But USCIS isn’t responding, Harrington said at Gov. Phil Scott’s twice-a-week Covid-19 press briefing.
“We have requested upon multiple occasions to receive detailed information for each of the employees,” said Harrington. “USCIS and the federal government have denied our request for that information. We continue to reach out to get that.”
Vermont U.S. Rep. Peter Welch and U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy are working to avert the layoffs.
Harrington said DOL is working with the local USCIS office to provide information to local employees.
“Our biggest concern right now is this is a large number of employees who will be impacted,” Harrington said. “We’re concerned about our ability to turn around those claims in a timely manner due to a lack of information we have in regards to the employees.”
Leahy noted Tuesday that USCIS was expected to run a $571 million deficit for this year but is now looking at a surplus.
“Despite this welcome reversal in revenue estimates, USCIS has perplexingly chosen to proceed with furloughs of over 13,000 federal employees. During this pandemic with record unemployment, needlessly forcing these hard working Americans into unemployment will crush the morale of the workforce and put an untold number of families into unnecessary financial distress,” Leahy and Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., wrote to the head of Homeland Security.
The senators pledged to work with the agency to avoid a deficit next year, but said now is not the time to make cuts.
“We hope you will do everything in your power to ensure that the hardworking Americans carrying out the critical mission of USCIS do not go without a paycheck this fiscal year,” wrote Leahy and Tester .
They noted employers, students and members of the military rely on USCIS work. The loss of jobs would also affect already struggling communities, they said.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Sen. Jon Tester’s party affiliation. He is a Democrat.
