Shaheen Raises Awareness to Local USCIS Furloughs and Calls for Funding to Keep Employees on the Job

Press Release

U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) called on Senate leadership to make sure employees of the U.S. Customs and Immigration Service (USCIS) are paid by addressing a funding shortfall at the agency and avoiding a furlough of agency staff anticipated for August. Senator Shaheen called for this funding shortfall to be addressed in future COVID-19 relief legislation. The USCIS is typically funded almost entirely through fee collection. The Trump administration's policy and management decisions, coupled with a reduction in visa applications during the COVID-19 pandemic, have led to severe funding shortfalls at the agency that will result in missed paychecks for Granite Staters employed by USCIS.

Shaheen expressed concern about the agency furloughing New Hampshire workers in response to financial difficulties, writing, "In addition to the enormous processing backlog such furloughs would cause, I have heard from USCIS employees in New Hampshire with significant concerns about the impact these pending furloughs would have on American workers in the Granite State… The 21 employees at the USCIS Manchester Field Office, along with the dozens of other New Hampshire residents who work at other Field Office locations, are among the more than 13,000 USCIS employees who, in addition to thousands of contracted workers, stand to lose their income if Congress does not step in."

Shaheen continued, "It is essential that funding appropriated to USCIS in future COVID-19 relief legislation be designated specifically and exclusively to preserve the agency's critical immigration services... Congress should act now to ensure that USCIS employees can continue to perform their critical work and that our nation's legal immigration system continues to function."

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