To ensure email delivery directly to your inbox, please add
@migrationpolicy.org to your address book.

The Migration Policy Institute

June 15, 2020

Dear John,

Unless Congress provides U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) with $1.2 billion in emergency funding -- an infusion that would amount to 25 percent of its current budget -- the agency says it may have to furlough up to 80 percent of its workers within the coming month.

USCIS is attributing its severe budget shortfall on the COVID-19 pandemic. But a closer look at the agency's budget and operations suggests the seeds for its difficulties were planted well before the coronavirus outbreak stalled in-person services and international travel.

In a new Migration Policy Institute (MPI) commentary, Sarah Pierce and Doris Meissner examine how Trump administration policies and management have driven significant declines in immigration petitions and fee revenues, even as other parts of the fee-funded agency's spending increased.

USCIS has more than doubled spending on vetting applications and immigration benefit fraud, though has not offered evidence indicating undetected levels of fraud exist. Amid the resulting slowdown in processing, the agency's backlog of pending cases has swelled by more than 1 million, and processing times for most types of petitions have increased.

The commentary details how the rising spending in some USCIS accounts and declining immigration applications have produced a swing from a $790 million cash reserve in fiscal 2017 to being $1.5 billion in the red this year.

You can read the commentary here: www.migrationpolicy.org/news/uscis-budget-implosion-owes-far-more-pandemic

With best regards,

Michelle Mittelstadt

Director of Communications and Public Affairs,
Migration Policy Institute

###

The Migration Policy Institute is an independent, nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C. dedicated to analysis of the movement of people worldwide. MPI provides analysis, development, and evaluation of migration and refugee policies at the local, national, and international levels. For more on MPI, please visit www.migrationpolicy.org.

_________________________________________

Migration Policy Institute
Stay up to date on MPI's events and newest publications: [link removed].

Migration Data Hub
Find the latest immigration statistics, maps, and numbers for the United States and other countries: [link removed].

Migration Information Source
Read a unique, online journal that provides fresh thought and global analysis of international migration and refugee trends: [link removed].

Click here to unsubscribe [ [link removed] ]