Posted on 06/25/2020 6:59:21 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is responsible for approving citizenship, work visas and other benefits for legal immigrants, has begun notifying 13,400 of its 20,000 employees that they will be furloughed beginning Aug. 3 unless Congress approves more funding, a spokesperson for the agency told NBC News.
The agency runs largely on fees paid by applicants, which have been down by 50 percent during the COVID-19 pandemic and are estimated to be down by over 60 percent by the end of the fiscal year, the spokesperson said.
"This dramatic drop in revenue has made it impossible for our agency to operate at full capacity. Without additional funding from Congress before August 3, USCIS has no choice but to administratively furlough a substantial portion of our workforce," the statement said.
Beginning in April, the Trump administration postponed asylum hearings for immigrants and froze the issuance of a broad range of visas, citing the need to protect American jobs. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday extending and expanding his original proclamation through Dec. 31.
But there are other categories of visa applicants, including health care workers responding to the COVID-19 outbreak, and food processing workers, who are still allowed into the United States and whose applications may be slowed by the reduction in staff.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
Well, if you’re not needed and you have no funding, it makes sense. I suspect many government agencies could do some cutting, certainly those in charge of protecting government property can be fired if they’re not doing their job.
Oh, they’ll get taxpayer money to keep sucking at the government teat. They’ll continue to write each other emails, sit in endless meetings, and plot their taxpayer funded retirements at 100% pay.
Question: Are these like post office workers, where the agency is a govt agency and they are considered gov employees with all the benefits but they are not (supposed to be) paid from tax collections, but rather from the fees they charge? They need to let these people go and go to a contract based approach when the need arises to hire again. I dont think they are protected in the way postal workers are, the post office being specifically called out in the constitution.
Indians and Communist Chinese hardest hit.
Good riddens.
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