In recent weeks, significant personnel reductions throughout the federal government made in the name of eliminating “waste” have caused concerns about the government’s ability to continue providing timely services. Agencies that provide immigration-related services have not been spared from these cuts, including those within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of State (DOS), and the Department of Justice (DOJ). These layoffs, part of the Trump’s administration broader federal workforce reduction initiative spearheaded by Elon Musk, are poised to negatively impact processing within the legal immigration system.
However, the enforcement arms of DHS, such as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), have been reportedly spared from these cuts. As a result, while agencies that handle immigration benefits face staffing shortages and mounting backlogs, immigration enforcement is set to receive unprecedented funding and support from other federal law enforcement agencies, exacerbating the challenges for noncitizens seeking to travel to the U.S. or obtain any immigration benefit.
USCIS Layoffs
On February 14, 2025, DHS terminated nearly 50 U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) employees, identifying them as “non-mission critical personnel in probationary status.” USCIS adjudicates immigration-related benefits requests and, last fiscal year, it received a record 10.9 million applications. It has faced processing backlogs in the past several years but made substantial progress in addressing them during the Biden administration.
Despite this progress, the agency continues to face substantial pressures to its workload. While USCIS is a fee-funded agency—relying on fees for about 96% of its budget—it continues to face a growing humanitarian caseload that isn’t fully funded. In 2023, for the first time, pending asylum claims surpassed one million cases and the number of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) requests have also increased. The recent firings, as well as others which may come under the Trump administration’s continued call for reductions in force, will likely impede USCIS’ ability to make progress on its processing backlogs, and may even lead to backsliding.
In fiscal year 2023, DHS’ Office of Inspector General found that USCIS has struggled to obtain sufficient staffing and additional federal funding to address this increased workload. In January 2024, the agency increased its fees to address processing delays, including by adding an asylum program fee to employment-based applications.
Given USCIS’ reliance on fees for its services, and its recently increased fee structure, the firings don’t neatly fall into the Trump administration’s dubious argument that reducing the federal workforce will decrease “wasteful spending.” Instead, with fewer personnel, USCIS will likely struggle to manage its caseload efficiently, resulting in longer wait times for applicants.
Department of State Reductions and Visa Processing
DOS has also experienced significant staff reductions, particularly within U.S. consulates and embassies worldwide. These changes were made in response to President Trump’s executive order, “One Voice for America’s Foreign Relations.” The layoffs are anticipated to have substantial consequences for visa processing. In October 2024, the last month DOS issued its visa backlog report, over 360,000 visa applicants were awaiting an interview. Staff shortages are likely to cause increased delays in scheduling both immigrant and nonimmigrant visa interviews.
In a move that is expected to exacerbate these issues, the U.S. Department of State announced new restrictions to the visa interview waiver program on February 18, 2025. It reversed a previous Biden administration policy by narrowing eligibility to diplomats, certain NATO personnel, and those renewing visas expired for less than 12 months—down from the previous 48-month window.
Visa interview waivers were initially expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic to reduce backlogs and processing times. However, due to the policy’s positive effects in decreasing visa wait times, they were permanently expanded in December 2023. The intent was to conserve staff resources by waiving interviews for applicants who had fulfilled biometrics screening and were already vetted. However, the new restrictions are expected to further increase the workload for consular staff.
Firings Place Further Strain on Immigration Courts
In mid-February, the DOJ fired at least 15 immigration judges and 13 managers, including assistant chief judges who handle management tasks. This has left the remaining 700 or so immigration judges with average caseloads of about 5,600 cases each. While the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), which oversees the immigration court system, more than doubled the number of immigration judges between fiscal year 2017 and 2024, the pending caseload for the courts has grown by nearly 300%.
In addition, the Trump administration reduced the number of appellate immigration judges at the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), which decides appeals of immigration judge decisions. The number of BIA members were decreased from 28 to 15; all nine fired members had been appointed by the Biden administration. Pending cases at the BIA have also skyrocketed since fiscal year 2017, growing from 12,685 to 112,952 in fiscal year 2024. Fewer immigration and appellate immigration judges will only lead to extended processing times for immigration cases and further strain the already overburdened immigration court system.
Reductions Haven’t Focused on Immigration Enforcement
Trump campaigned on implementing a mass deportation operation, which has met substantial resource constraints. However, despite arguing that reducing federal “waste” means firing federal workers, the Trump administration’s recent staff cuts haven’t touched ICE and CBP. Instead, the administration is looking 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 reconciliation process. For comparison, this represents nearly six times the fiscal year 2024 budget of those agencies combined.
In addition, Congress is currently working to continue to fund the federal government past March 14, which is when the current funding agreement expires. That agreement has largely maintained the same levels of funding for the past year and a half. While it seems like Congress may pass a similar agreement to fund the federal government for the rest of the current fiscal year, which ends on September 30, 2025, the White House has asked for an additional $485 million for ICE to fund additional detention beds and transportation and removal costs. This would likely benefit private prison corporations as nearly 90% of people in ICE custody are held in privately-operated facilities.
While key federal agencies responsible for immigration benefits processing—USCIS, DOS, and EOIR—are facing reductions in personnel, the Trump administration continues to pursue dramatic increases in immigration enforcement funding. With fewer personnel to handle an already overwhelming volume of applications and cases, noncitizens traveling to the U.S. or trying to legalize their status will experience prolonged wait times for immigration benefits, visa appointments, and court hearings.
Ultimately, these policies will lead to increased hardship, delays, and uncertainty for people seeking to navigate the U.S. immigration system, while simultaneously ballooning the federal government’s enforcement infrastructure.
FILED UNDER: Trump administration, USCIS
