By Camila DeChalus, posted August 19, 2020 at 4:32pm
U.S. Immigration and Citizenship Services said without emergency funding, it will move forward with furloughs on Aug. 30
Senate Appropriations ranking member Patrick J. Leahy called for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to call off plans to furlough more than 13,000 of its employees at the end of this month.
The fee-funded Homeland Security agency has said it could begin the furloughs on Aug. 30 because of a projected budget shortfall. But in a letter Leahy sent Tuesday to the agency, the Vermont Democrat noted that USCIS recently projected it had enough funding to pay all of its staff through the end of the current fiscal year and still have “a sizeable” balance to start the new year.
“To put it more plainly, USCIS could pay all of its staff through the end of the fiscal year, avoid furloughs entirely, and still end the fiscal year with a sizeable carryover balance,” Leahy told USCIS Deputy Director for Policy Joseph Edlow and acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf.