Washington, D.C.— Congressman Henry Cuellar (TX-28) voted for H.R. 8089, the Emergency Stopgap USCIS Stabilization Act, to temporarily prevent the need for furloughs by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). This legislation would increase the agency’s premium processing revenues, allowing the agency to halt the immediate furloughs while also providing more reliable and expanded services for premium processing applicants.

The Emergency Stopgap USCIS Stabilization Act passed in the House and now requires a vote in the Senate.

“Furloughs at the USCIS would cause our legal immigration system to grind to a halt, hurting Texas families, businesses, educational institutions, medical facilities,” said Congressman Cuellar. “This bipartisan bill will provide the federal agency with additional revenue, giving them immediate relief and making sure they are fully operational during these unprecedented times. As the Vice Chair of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Appropriations, I will continue to fight for long-term solution for this critical federal agency to ensure the USCIS can sustain its workforce and continue to process legal immigration cases.”  

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is the primary agency running the nation’s immigration system, handling citizenship, green-card, visa and other immigration applications. The agency was scheduled to furlough 13,355 (or 67%) of its 19,881 employees on August 30, 2020. If these furloughs are implemented, they will have a destructive impact on the agency’s ability to provide immigration and naturalization services to American businesses and families for many months, possibly years.

The bill authorizes the Secretary of Homeland Security to establish and collect a “premium” fee for certain immigration benefit types:

• Employment-based nonimmigrant petitions and associated applications;
• Employment-based immigrant petitions filed by or on behalf of aliens;
• Applications to change or extend nonimmigrant status;
• Applications for employment authorizations; and
• Any other immigration benefit type that the Secretary deems appropriate for premium processing.

These fees will be used to provide infrastructure improvements related to the adjudication process, respond to adjudication demands, including by reducing the number of pending immigration and naturalization benefit requests, and offset the cost of providing adjudication or naturalization services.

To read a summary of the Emergency Stopgap USCIS Stabilization Act, click here.