Nearly 14,000 feds face looming pandemic furloughs

Budget shortfalls at the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services have caused the agency to issue furlough notices to approximately 75 percent of its staff, a move that could lead to a vicious cycle of increasing financial challenges.

The agency is funded almost entirely by visa and citizenship applications, which have dropped significantly from the pandemic and Trump administration policies that have restricted the number of immigrants arriving to the U.S.

That drop in fee revenue means that a majority of the USCIS workforce will be required to stop work and go without pay for at least 30 days, beginning Aug. 3, unless Congress intervenes.

“We’ve never seen anything like this,” said American Federation of Government Employees Local 2660 President Nicole Guess on a July 14 press call about the upcoming furloughs.

The furloughs would last for at least 30 days, but could last as long as 90 days before USCIS would have to make a decision to either bring the employees back or start taking more long-term measures, which could include laying those employees off entirely.

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