WASHINGTON — Today, Representatives Lou Correa (CA-46) and Dan Goldman (NY-10) led 113 of their colleagues in a letter to Appropriations Committee leadership requesting $700 million for United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to address the historic immigration backlog in the wake of historic cuts to the agency by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
“We write to request discretionary appropriations of $700 million for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in the FY26 Homeland Security Appropriations bill to support the agency in addressing historic backlogs in case processing,” the members wrote. “This funding would facilitate the timely processing and adjudication of immigration petitions and allow for the hiring of personnel to build agency capacity.”
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 recent months, DOGE cuts have resulted in employees at USCIS responsible for processing immigration and asylum applications being terminated, including employees of the CIS Ombudsman's office, responsible for resolving issues regarding agency functioning with the public.
“In January 2025, there were 2,355,271 pending family petitions, 1,219,526 work permit applications pending processing, 540,820 pending naturalization applications, and 560,941 family-based adjustments, processing of hundreds of thousands of cases pending over 6 months,” they added. “To make legal immigration possible, a stated goal of this administration, we need Congress to grow its investment in the agency, make lawful pathways and benefits accessible, which will in turn generate revenue that will help sustain the agency's operations. For FY26, we call for increased funding to address the severe backlogs.”
The letter is being co-led by Reps. Correa and Goldman and was co-signed by 113 additional House Democrats. You can read the full text of the letter and view all co-signers HERE.
This effort has also been endorsed by several immigrant rights organizations nationwide, including: National Partnership for New Americans, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), Immigrant Defenders Law Center, Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR), Church World Service, Estrella del Paso, Kids in Need of Defense, OCA - Asian Pacific American Advocates, Refugee Council USA, Welcoming America, Massachusetts, Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA), International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), NALEO Educational Fund, Louisiana Organization for Refugees and Immigrants (LORI), GMHC Inc, Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network (SIREN), CARECEN, The Advocates for Human Rights, Hispanic and Immigrant Center of Alabama, Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, and UnidosUS.
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ABOUT LOU: Congressman Lou Correa is a longtime Orange County resident, with deep local roots. To this day, he lives only three miles from his childhood neighborhood in Anaheim. He is the son of working-class parents whose hard work gave him a chance at success, and has spent his career fighting to protect the American Dream, and ensure anyone can reach the middle class, just as he did. In 2016, Lou was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives to continue his work by representing the community he has spent the past 20 years serving, fighting to give everyone access to the same opportunity he had. Congressman Correa is committed to working across party lines to strengthen the middle class and give everyone a shot at the American Dream by investing in education, healthcare, and our fading infrastructure, and has introduced legislation to protect the legal rights of immigrants, care for veterans, and fight against the wasteful spending of taxpayer money.