Congress is deadlocked over the country’s budget, and October 1st is quickly approaching as the deadline for passing funding legislation approaches. And certain immigration services and visa programs may be impacted by that.
Only those who are absolutely necessary will be employed if the federal government closes. No further federal employees will be permitted to work. How then will that impact immigration to the United States?
The following agencies differ primarily in that some are supported by fees, while the others are financed by appropriations from Congress.
Cesar Cuauhtemoc Garcia Hernandez, an expert on migration studies and professor at Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law, said, “We need to look at the plans that each agency has published for just this kind of scenario, in addition to where the budget for these different agencies comes from.”
USCIS
The Homeland Security Department’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is responsible for overseeing the nation’s immigration and citizenship processes. USCIS is mostly supported by fees and will carry on with business as normal as it is not dependent on Congress for funding. Nonetheless, there are notable outliers, like as the state and labor departments’ coordination of the E-Verify and EB5 investor programs.
“That being said, even though USCIS will continue to search, certain labor applications cannot be submitted unless they are accompanied by a Department of Labor declaration stating that there are insufficient workers in the United States to fill specific employment positions,” Garcia Hernandez posted on social media.
The Labor Department’s Office of Foreign Labor Certification will cease operations. Thus, a shutdown will have an impact on people who are awaiting word on their work permit applications.
Because those [work] visa applications cannot be processed without that Labor Department certification, he stated, “this aspect of the Labor Department’s work will likely close down in the event of a shutdown, and so that will affect the visa application and [other] things, even if slightly indirectly.”
CBP
Passenger processing will continue at open ports of entry overseen by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the country’s borders with Mexico or Canada. However, there may be an impact on the processing of some applications submitted at the border.
Since the majority of CBP employees will be working at the border, even if they are not paid, most CBP activities should proceed as usual. However, I wouldn’t be shocked if CBP stopped processing some visas at border ports of entry, such as the few professional visas that need to be processed in person by CBP at ports of entry. Garcia Hernandez told VOA via phone that “to be clear, this is a miniscule part of what CBP does at any port of entry.”
State Department:
Operations related to visas and passports are fee-funded and typically unaffected by a closure. Backlogs in visa interviews may arise from the processing of non-essential visas, such as those related to recreation, slowing down or ceasing at U.S. embassies and consulates abroad.
ICE
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel will continue to deport unauthorized immigrants even during a shutdown. However, they will concentrate on people with removal orders who are detained in immigration detention facilities.
Even during a shutdown, [ICE] will be able to deport individuals; but, since the immigration courts will be operating at a far slower pace, the number of deportations is expected to be much lower. There will be fewer removal orders for [ICE] to enforce if judges don’t issue as many as they typically would because the majority of immigration court employees are unemployed, Garcia Hernandez told VOA.
courts for immigration:
Only cases involving individuals detained for immigration will be handled by representatives of the Executive Office for Immigration Review, a subagency of the Justice Department charged with deciding immigration claims.
Courts have not accepted new applications during prior shutdowns, according to the American Immigration Council, and it is unclear if EOIR will continue to accept filings through its electronic system, or ECAS, which was not in place during the previous shutdown.
Hearings on cases involving people who are not in custody will be postponed by immigration courts.
“They’ll make an effort to continue pursuing cases involving ICE prisoners. Garcia Hernandez stated on social media that “those whose cases get canceled or whose hearings get canceled then rescheduled are going to have to wait a very long time to acquire another court date.”
The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse reports that there are currently significant backlogs in immigration courts around the US.
A hearing on an immigrant’s asylum claim must be scheduled at least five years in advance.
“Despite increasing recruitment attempts to add additional immigration judges, the Executive Office for Immigration Review has not been able to even partially reduce the backlog, which is still growing, due to decades of underfunding.” By the end of August, it had reached 2,620,591,” the TRAC website states.
Therefore, Garcia Hernandez stated, “we can expect it to influence the government’s tasks more the longer the closure lasts.”
Republicans in the House Freedom Caucus declared that they would not back any budget package until specific demands were met, such as building a wall along the border, holding asylum applicants for extended periods of time, and deporting unaccompanied youngsters. Furthermore, the Senate, which is controlled by Democrats, is unlikely to endorse that.
September 30 is the deadline for government financing unless Congress takes action.