For months now, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) has been moving work done by union members at its Service Centers in California, Vermont, and Nebraska to low-paying, non-union contract locations.
Fee processing at all Service Centers has been relocated to contract workers at USCIS “Lockboxes.” The remaining work is being redistributed among the Service Centers, resulting in mass layoffs of hundreds of UE Local 1008 members in California, with hundreds more soon to follow for Local 208 in Vermont. According to bid solicitation documents obtained by the UE, the plan doesn’t stop there. Once USCIS has eliminated good union jobs in California and Vermont, it will then shift to eliminating good union jobs in Nebraska, where UE Local 808 represents hundreds of workers.
To save a few bucks and silence the voices of organized workers, USCIS is jeopardizing the U.S. immigration system. When all is said and done, USCIS will have eliminated the jobs of roughly one thousand skilled union workers, many of whom have served the agency for decades. This move dramatically undercuts USCIS’s capacity to handle its still massive backlogs, including H-1B visas, asylum cases, and VAWA petitions.
It’s not too late for USCIS to reverse this reckless decision. USCIS can decide today to protect the rights of workers and to ensure that immigrants have access to an efficient legal process. The members of UE Locals 208, 808, and 1008 deserve better than being used for their expertise and then callously discarded. Petitioners deserve better than endless delays when trying to navigate the immigration process.