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 </figure>By DANIEL C. VOCK, <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2020/09/10/immigration-agency-cuts-of-800-kansas-city-jobs-expected-to-trigger-backlogs-delays-nationwide/'">Kansas Reflector</a>WASHINGTON
 — Members of Congress from the Kansas City region scored a victory last
 month when a federal immigration agency backed off plans that would 
have led to thousands of layoffs of government employees in the metro 
area.But
 their relief was short lived, as the agency now intends to furlough 800
 of its local private contractors instead — a move expected to set off 
immigration backlogs and processing delays throughout the nation.The
 Kansas City furloughs are the latest result of budget shortfalls at 
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which earlier this summer <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/08/11/covid-19-stimulus-deal-us-immigration-services-plans-furloughs/3344178001/">threatened to furlough two-thirds of all its workers</a> across the country, raising the specter of a severely damaged immigration system and outraging lawmakers.The
 news that Kansas City still could sustain an 800-job hit has produced 
fresh objections from bipartisan members of Congress from both Missouri 
and Kansas, who wrote the agency saying “the economic impact of such a 
reduction will be felt for years to come.”But
 the job cuts also more broadly could further delay the ability of USCIS
 to process green cards, work authorizations and other 
immigration-related documents nationwide.&nbsp;Those
 backlogs, immigration advocates say, could slow any economic recovery, 
if companies in fields like technology and health care cannot hire the 
workers they need quickly.The
 800 people who are being furloughed work for a contractor at the 
National Benefit Center in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. USCIS uses the 
processing center to collect information, conduct background checks and 
prepare a variety of applications for local field offices.&nbsp;But
 the agency says demand for immigration paperwork has dropped 
dramatically this year, as the COVID-19 pandemic has prevented many 
people from traveling and the Trump administration has raised more 
procedural obstacles to legal immigration.&nbsp;That
 has caused a financial crisis for USCIS, because 96% of its revenue 
comes from application fees — not general tax revenues.&nbsp;“USCIS
 has seen a 50% drop in receipts and incoming fees starting in March and
 estimates that application and petition receipts will stay well below 
plan through the end of (September). This dramatic drop in revenue has 
made it impossible for our agency to operate at full capacity,” a USCIS 
spokesperson said in an emailed statement.<h2>Threats of mass layoffs</h2>The
 immigration agency has been threatening to issue mass layoffs since 
late spring and, until recently, said it would have to send 13,000 of 
its 20,000 employees home at the end of August.&nbsp;A week before the cutbacks were set to take place, though, USCIS deputy director for policy Joseph Edlow <a href="https://www.uscis.gov/news/news-releases/uscis-averts-furlough-of-nearly-70-of-workforce">announced</a> the agency would avoid such widespread furloughs.Members
 of Congress from the Kansas City area, particularly Sen. Roy Blunt, a 
Missouri Republican, and Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Missouri Democrat, 
worked across party lines to avoid the threatened furloughs, which would
 have hit the bi-state area hard. USCIS employs 3,100 people in the 
region.&nbsp;The U.S. House unanimously passed <a href="https://cleaver.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/rep-cleaver-s-bipartisan-bill-to-prevent-uscis-furloughs-passes-house-of">legislation authored by Cleaver</a>
 in late August that would have helped the agency halt the furloughs by 
immediately increasing the agency’s revenue from so-called premium 
processing, or special faster services. The agency announced its own 
plan to fend off furloughs before the Senate could take up the measure.To
 cancel the furloughs, though, Edlow said the agency had to make other 
cuts in the short term. To get things back on track for the long term, 
USCIS wants Congress to provide $1.2 billion in emergency funding.&nbsp;“Averting
 this furlough comes at a severe operational cost that will increase 
backlogs and wait times across the board, with no guarantee we can avoid
 future furloughs. A return to normal operating procedures requires 
congressional intervention to sustain the agency through fiscal year 
2021,” which ends in September 2021, Edlow said.One
 of the ways USCIS is saving money is by reducing the number of contract
 employees it uses in the Kansas City area. Before the pandemic, the 
agency used 1,300 workers from contracting business Pacific Architects 
and Engineers to help process applications. Now it will use just 500. 
The move is expected to save $9 million through the end of November.&nbsp;The
 agency expects the cutbacks will increase backlogs and processing 
delays throughout the country. They also come at a time when the 
agency’s 86 field offices have scaled back their operations. The field 
offices were closed from March until July because of the pandemic.&nbsp;Now
 that they’re open again, they are still conducting half as many 
interviews as they were before the March closures for health reasons.&nbsp;The
 slowdown at the field offices, though, means that fewer cases need to 
be prepared for them. Cutting the size of the contract at the National 
Benefit Center will better meet the current workload, a USCIS 
spokesperson said.<h2>Kansas City delegation</h2>Those moves have not gone over well with the Kansas City area’s congressional delegation.“The
 jobs at the National Benefit Center support the livelihoods of many 
Kansas families and allow legal immigration applications to be processed
 without interruption,” said Rep. Sharice Davids, a Kansas Democrat. “I 
am very disappointed that the USCIS would end these jobs without working
 with Congress on possible solutions.”Davids was one of several area lawmakers to criticize USCIS for the furlough of contract employees in <a href="https://www.blunt.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/USCIS%20Contract%20Letter%20Final.pdf">a letter last week.</a>&nbsp;Davids,
 Blunt and Cleaver were joined by Republican Sens. Josh Hawley of 
Missouri and Jerry Moran and Pat Roberts of Kansas and Republican Rep. 
Sam Graves of Missouri in signing the letter.They asked for a briefing from the agency, which USCIS held on Friday.Diane
 Rish, the associate director of government relations for the American 
Immigration Lawyers Association, said the delays USCIS is predicting as a
 result of furloughing the private contractors will only make things 
worse for a system that has been experiencing longer and longer delays 
in processing key immigration documents.The Trump administration has repeatedly slowed down those processes, she said.One
 of the most significant changes came in the fall of 2017, just a few 
months after the president took office. That’s when USCIS started 
requiring in-person interviews for applicants seeking work permits, 
along with several other categories of potential immigrants.&nbsp;Trump
 administration officials acknowledged at the time that the new steps 
would increase processing times, but said they were necessary to prevent
 fraud.Now
 that USCIS says its capacity to handle in-person interviews is reduced,
 Rish said, the agency could simply rescind the interview requirement.“The
 administration is saying they’re enforcing a legal immigration system,”
 she said, “(but) people in line who are trying to comply with the law 
are being thrown into a system that is now taking longer and longer, 
making it almost impossible to comply with the law.”<h2>Blaming the pandemic</h2>Rish also questioned USCIS’ claim that its budget troubles are related to the slowdown in cases brought on by the coronavirus.&nbsp;The
 agency proposed raising several fees — some by as much as 80% — last 
November, citing budget concerns. Recently, USCIS finalized those fee 
hikes, which are now set to take effect in October.Immigration
 lawyers did see a dip in cases when the coronavirus pandemic first 
struck the United States in March and April, but the number of cases has
 returned to “similar levels” to pre-pandemic levels since then, Rish 
said. USCIS caseloads usually climb right before fee hikes, so there 
will likely be even more applications filed in the coming weeks, she 
added.USCIS officials said the higher fees would not be enough to cover the drop in revenue it faced this year.&nbsp;In
 fact, USCIS has to periodically revise its fees to keep up with its 
expenses. The fee hikes scheduled to take effect next month will amount 
to a weighted average increase of 20%, compared to 21% increases the 
last time the agency changed its fees in December 2016.“USCIS
 is required to examine incoming and outgoing expenditures and make 
adjustments based on that analysis. These overdue adjustments in fees 
are necessary to efficiently and fairly administer our nation’s lawful 
immigration system, secure the homeland and protect Americans,” Edlow, 
the agency’s deputy director, said in a statement.With
 the rising number of applications and fewer people to process them, 
Rish predicted that the effects of the furloughs in the Kansas City area
 would be far-reaching.&nbsp;“These
 are applications that are filed from all over the country,” she said, 
“so all states and all cities are going to feel the impacts of these 
furloughs.”Daniel C. Vock is a correspondent for the States Newsroom Washington, D.C., bureau.

Immigration agency's job cuts expected to trigger nat'l backlogs