Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests we are discussing USCIS. That is the agency under the Department of Homeland Security that is tasked with adjudicating petitions for visas such as the K-1 Fiancé Visa, the K-3 Marriage Visa, the IR-1 Spousal Immigrant Visa or the CR-1 Conditional Spousal Immigrant Visa. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from Immigration Impact, that's immigrationimpact.com, the article is titled: While Federal Firings Focus on Immigration Processing, Funding for Immigration Enforcement Expands. 

I urge those who are watching this video, go check out that article in detail. I'm going to quote some relevant sections here. Quoting directly: "In recent weeks significant personnel reductions throughout the federal government made in the name of eliminating "waste" - and that's the first; you have got to take this with a grain of salt. This is kind of from folks that are left of centre on the political spectrum, not that that really matters, but you need to have the context. Quoting further: "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, the Department of State, and the Department of Justice. These layoffs, part of the Trump Administration's 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 and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), have been reportedly spared from these cuts." Well yeah. The mandate of Trump is to stop the invasion at the Southern Border, so yes, the enforcement arms of DHS are going to be prioritized toward that electoral mandate. I don't know why this is surprising to anyone in America. Quoting further: "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 non-citizens seeking to travel to the U.S. or obtain any immigration benefit."

I have brought up my criticism of the first Trump Administration that they focused on like chain migration and family-based stuff and it was like, "Hey guys, those really aren't the problem people. And anyone trying to use the legal immigration channels to go to America, these are not our problems, these are the immigrants we want. These are the Ellis Island - give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses. To paraphrase Dennis Miller, "sign the guest book on the way in the door". That's all we're asking; go through the legal channels. That said, quoting further: "USCIS Layoffs - On February 14th, 2025" - wow, they did that on Valentine's Day. I guess that is a Trumpism - quoting further: "DHS terminated nearly 50 U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services employees, identifying them as "non-mission critical personnel in probationary status". To paraphrase the film Office Space that Elon seems enamoured with and maybe other folks in the Maga universe are too, "what would you say it is you do here?" I think that's a euphemism for and I quote: "non-mission critical personnel in probationary status". And I don't know maybe they were amazing superstars; I kind of doubt it. That said, quoting further: "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."

I have worked with USCIS. They could have processing backlogs under perfect frictionless, efficient circumstances. I don't know why, but they can just have backlogs. Now that said, there are levels of backlogs and different levels of backlogs are going to be dictated by different policies. That said, quoting further: "Despite this progress, the agency continues to face substantial pressures to its workload." - oh darn it! - quoting further: "While USCIS is a fee-funded agency" - (I'll get to that in a minute) - "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 1 million cases and the number of Temporary Protected Status requests have also increased." - Do you mean the thing that Vance brought up in the debates that needs to be turned off? The CBP1 App that was just allowing people to cross the border and legally sign up for this thing and now you're in pending status, so we won't deport you? You mean that thing no Americans really want? You mean that thing that Trump has a mandate to get rid of? That thing? - quoting further: "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." 

Well first of all, is that USCIS threatening us? It's what it sounds like! "You really want to get anything done around here, give us more money." That's what gangsters say when they are extorting people. And by the way, that's the whole point isn't it USCIS? This idea that you're self-funded is a nonsense con. It is.  Because all the time you're coming back to Congress when nobody's looking with your hat in your hand saying you need money from we the people. Then at other times you run around talking about how you are fee based and you're self-funded and everything so that we won't give you any lip. But the fact of the matter is, at the end of the day when the S hits the F, at the end of the day you end up coming crawling back to Old Uncle Sugar for money. So don't give us this you are "fee-funded". Every time there's a shortfall, we make up the shortfall. That's like having a teenager saying "I'm self-reliant”, except every time they overdraw their credit card or checking account, they come back to you the parent. So how is that self-reliant?

So yeah, at the end of the day this whole notion that USCIS is self-funded is nonsensical. I think the whole thing needs to be reset; we need to go back to some sort of new fee system, but under that fee system either USCIS - no we need to stop this self-funding, non-self-funding. This thing needs to be just an arm of the government. Quite frankly, it's in line with Trump's mandate. USCIS should be funded by Congress to deal with Immigration. That’s their remit. They've done this self-funding thing so that they can dodge accountability if and when they want to. So it needs to come to an end.