CORREA CALLS TO TACKLE IMMIGRATION BACKLOG

DOGE cuts severely impacted processing capabilities of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Representatives Lou Correa (CA-46) and Dan Goldman (NY-10) announced that they led 124 of their colleagues in a letter to the House Appropriations Committee to request $700 million for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to address backlogs in case processing. Reducing USCIS's backlog would allow applicants to move through the immigration process more efficiently. The current backlog has made these applicants more vulnerable to the Trump Administration's anti-immigrant policies.

"As each case takes longer to resolve and fewer staff are available to do the work, a large and long-term backlog of cases awaiting adjudication is growing," The members wrote. "Congressional appropriations will reinforce USCIS's accountability to Congress by ensuring it allocates adequate resources and personnel to deliver prompt, respectful, and efficient service."

The funding requested would facilitate the hiring of personnel to ensure timely adjudication of immigration petitions, as well as the dedication of resources to efficient electronic processing.
USCIS is fee funded, with 97% of its budget coming from the filing fees it accepts. The first Trump Administration obliterated the agency's rainy-day account, and without money coming in during the early days of the pandemic, USCIS was forced to let go of two-thirds of its employees. In the past year, DOGE-related cuts led to the termination of USCIS employees responsible for processing immigration and asylum applications, including staff in the CIS Ombudsman's Office who help resolve public issues with agency operations.

"In January 2025, there were just over 11.2 million applications awaiting processing across the agency. Of those applications, over 6.2 million were officially backlogged, including 2,355,271 family petitions and 1,219,526 work permit applications; 56.3% had been pending at least six months. By October 2025, according to the most recent statistics available, the backlog of all applications had increased by more than 260,000, and the share pending at least six months shot up to 68%," the members added. "The lack of publicly available comprehensive FY2025 Q4 processing data also limits Congress's ability to assess the full scope of current delays across form types and service centers."

This effort has also been endorsed by several immigrant rights organizations nationwide, including the National Partnership for New Americans, the NALEO Educational Fund, and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights.

"NALEO Educational Fund applauds Congressman Correa, Congressman Goldman, and the Members of Congress leading efforts to secure critical funding to reduce USCIS backlogs. Ensuring timely and fair processing of applications is key to protecting due process and access to legal immigration pathways. This investment will ease delays, build trust in the system, and improve the efficiency and responsiveness of our immigration process," said Erica Bernal-Martinez, CEO of the NALEO Educational Fund.

Nicole Melaku, Executive Director of the National Partnership for New Americans said, "As administrative policies have paused some adjudications indefinitely and initiated re-vetting of previously approved cases these and a slew of similar actions are impacting USCIS's already strained budget and furthermore, diverting some of its limited funds toward enforcement, creating an unnecessary backlog. USCIS must recommit to its core mission of processing immigration benefits rather than allowing delays that effectively prevent eligible individuals from receiving those benefits. As calls grow to rein in DHS and ICE's violent operations, Congress must stop the anti-democratic drift throughout DHS and address the backlog at USCIS in the 2027 appropriations process."

"We applaud the efforts by Rep. Correa and Rep. Goldman to address longstanding backlogs at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for FY27," said Angelica Salas, Executive Director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights. "Fixing this problem recognizes that timely and efficient processing is essential to families, workers, and communities across the country. These investments are meaningful in a time when the Trump administration has made efforts to attack our communities, increase the backlog, and, in many cases, deport those eligible for the benefits for which they have applied. We urge continued commitment to ensuring USCIS remains transparent, accountable, and firmly grounded in its core mission of fairly and efficiently adjudicating immigration benefits for all who qualify and rely on it."

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