On May 17, USCIS requested $1.2 billion in emergency financial aid from Congress. The agency blamed its financial woes on the COVID-19 pandemic and projected steep budget shortfalls: Applications would drop by 60 percent through September, it said. But some experts say the Trump administration’s stringent immigration policies are to blame for the agency’s current financial woes and the coronavirus merely exacerbated its issues. USCIS had been projecting the budget shortfall since November.
On July 2, 2020, 13,400 of USCIS 20,000 total employees received Furlough Notices to start on August 3, 2020.
Because of the latest Travel Ban and the strict new policies, people are too afraid to file USCIS forms and pay the steep USCIS application filing fees. The pandemic has a lot to do with it, too, because when struggling for money to feed their families, American citizens and green card holders are not filing for relatives abroad.
When nearly 70% of the USCIS workforce goes on unemployment, this will bring the whole thing to a stop. Visa filers will remain stranded, green card applications pending indefinitely, US citizenship applications frozen.
Congress must figure out a way to give funding to USCIS and keep the US immigration system going!
Source: The New York Times