The American Council of Immigration does not approve or oppose candidates for elected offices. We aim to provide an analysis of the impact of elections on the US immigration system.
In recent weeks, significant federal government-wide cuts in the name of eliminating “waste” have sparked concerns about the government’s ability to continue to provide timely services. Institutions providing immigration-related services are not spared from these reductions, including cuts within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of State (DOS), and the Department of Justice (DOJ). These layoffs are part of the Trump administration’s widespread federal workforce reduction initiative, led by Elon Musk, poised to negatively impact processing within the legal immigration system.
However, DHS enforcement weapons such as US Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs Border Protection (CBP) are reportedly spared from these reductions. As a result, while agencies handling immigrant benefits are responsible for staffing shortages and rising backlogs, immigration enforcement is set to exacerbate the challenges of non-citizens seeking travel to the United States and obtain immigration benefits, with unprecedented funding and support from other federal law enforcement agencies.
USCIS Layoff
On February 14, 2025, DHS terminated nearly 50 US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) employees and identified them as “non-missioned important personnel in probation status.” USCIS has awarded immigration-related benefits requests and received a record 10.9 million applications last fiscal year. Although we have faced a processing backlog over the past few years, we have made great strides in dealing with them during the Biden administration.
Despite this advancement, agents continue to face significant pressure on their workloads. USCIS is a fee-funded agency that relies on fees around 96% of its budget, but continues to face growing humanitarian caseloads that are not fully funded. For the first time in 2023, there have been more than one million pending asylum claims, and the number of temporary protected status (TPS) requests has also increased. Others who may be under the recent shootings and the Trump administration’s ongoing request for ongoing cuts are likely to hinder USCIS’s ability to advance its processing backlog, which could even lead to backslides.
In 2023, the DHS inspector’s office found USCIS struggled to obtain sufficient staffing and additional federal funding to deal with this increase in workload. In January 2024, the agency increased fees to address processing delays, including adding asylum program fees to employment-based applications.
Given the recent increase in fees structures in which USCIS relies on service fees, the shooting won’t fall properly into the Trump administration’s questionable debate that reduces “wasteful spending” by reducing federal labor. Instead, there are fewer people to replies, making USCIS difficult to manage caseloads efficiently and more waiting times for applicants.
State Department cuts and visa processing
DOS has also experienced significant staff cuts, particularly among US consulates and embassies around the world. These changes were made in response to President Trump’s executive order, “One Voice on American Diplomatic Relations.” Layoffs are expected to have significant consequences for visa processing. Last month, in October 2024, DOS issued a Visa Backlog report, with over 360,000 visa applicants waiting for an interview. Staff shortages can cause increased delays when scheduling both immigrant and non-immigrant visa interviews.
In a move that is expected to exacerbate these issues, the US State Department announced new restrictions on the visa interview waiver program on February 18, 2025. It overturned previous Biden administration policies by reducing diplomats, certain NATO officials, and those who renewed visas that had expired within the 12 months of the previous 48 months.
To reduce backlog and processing times, Visa interview exemptions were first expanded during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, due to the positive effect of the policy on reducing visa latency, they were permanently expanded in December 2023. The aim was to save staff resources by meeting biometric screenings and abandoning interviews with applicants that had already been vetted. However, the new restrictions are expected to further increase the workload for consulate staff.
The shooting puts more strain on immigration courts
In mid-February, the DOJ fired at least 15 immigration judges and 13 managers, including an assistant chief judge who handled administrative tasks. This brings the remaining 700 or so immigration judges with an average caseload of around 5,600 each. The Immigration Review Office (EOIR), which oversees the immigration court system, has more than doubled the number of immigration judges between 2017 and 2024, but the court’s pending caseload has increased by nearly 300%.
Additionally, the Trump administration reduced the number of appealed immigrant judges on the Immigration Appeals Committee (BIA) and decided to appeal immigration judges for decisions. The number of BIA members has decreased from 28 to 15. All nine fired members have been appointed by the Biden administration. Pending lawsuits at BIA have skyrocketed since 2017, up from 12,685 to 112,952 in 2024. Immigration and appealed immigration judges lead to an extension of time to process immigration cases, putting an additional burden on the already excessive immigration court system.
Reductions do not focus on immigration enforcement
Trump campaigned on implementing a massive deportation operation. But despite claiming that reducing federal government’s “waste” means firing federal workers, the Trump administration’s recent staff cuts have not touched on ice and CBP. Instead, the administration is aiming to dramatically increase funding for immigration enforcement. Currently, the Republican majority in Congress is aiming to provide about $175 billion to ice and CBP through the settlement process. For comparison, this represents almost six times the total budget for these institutions for fiscal year 2024.
Additionally, Congress is currently working to continue funding the federal government since March 14th. The contract has maintained roughly the same level of funding for the past year and a half. While Congress appears likely to pass a similar agreement to fund the federal government for the remainder of the current fiscal year ending September 30, 2025, the White House has sought an additional $485 million from ICE to fund additional detention beds and transportation and removal costs. This will likely benefit private prison businesses, as nearly 90% of people in ice detention are kept in private facilities.
The major federal agencies responsible for handling immigration benefits (Auscis, DOS, and EOIR) are facing cuts in staffing, but the Trump administration continues to pursue a dramatic increase in immigration enforcement funds. With fewer people already working on overwhelming applications and cases, noncitizens traveling to the US or trying to legalize their status will experience long waits for immigration benefits, visa appointments and court hearings.
Ultimately, these policies will lead to increased difficulty, delays and uncertainty for those seeking to navigate the US immigration system, while simultaneously inflated the federal government’s enforcement infrastructure.
Submitted below: Trump administration, USCIS
