The government’s legal immigration agency is planning to launch a loan forgiveness program for employees, promising up to $60,000 in repayments if they are working in tough-to-fill jobs.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services employees can earn $10,000 in forgiveness a year and must promise a three-year commitment. But they can collect for up to six years, reaching the $60,000 level, according to a notice circulated at the agency.
The notice to agency managers, obtained by The Washington Times, says the program is still hush-hush and will be announced to employees on July 1.
“Our work to hire employees at USCIS has been relentless,” Donna Campagnolo, chief human capital officer, said in the notice. “With a strong workforce, we can meet our mission. We also know that if we retain talent, we gain so much — we can reduce the cost and the stress of hiring and training new employees.”
The agency didn’t respond to a request for comment for this story, so it’s not clear where the money for the program is coming from.
Experts said the forgiveness was an odd move for an agency that’s supposed to be entirely funded by fees paid by immigrants and the businesses seeking to bring them. The forgiveness is all the more striking because USCIS has faced financial difficulties for years, and has begged for a taxpayer bailout each year under President Biden.
Part of the imbalance is because USCIS doesn’t charge fees for what it considers humanitarian applications, and the crush of asylum cases from Mr. Biden’s border chaos has meant a massive new workload without any new fee income to pay for it.
Rosemary Jenks, policy director at the Immigration Accountability Project and a longtime observer of USCIS, questioned where USCIS is getting the funds.
“USCIS is a fee-funded agency, so whose money is being diverted to pay off these student loans? Are they skimming even more from the fees legal immigrants are paying, or are they expecting a taxpayer bailout?” she said.
The agency did not respond to an inquiry.
Emilio Gonzalez, who ran USCIS in the Bush administration, said the agency’s employees are already well-paid and the spending is a waste.
“The average USCIS employee is not struggling to put food on the table,” he said.
He pointed out that employees at the agency, like other Homeland Security workers, are already enjoying a massive perk with Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’s general leave policy. Mr. Mayorkas regularly grants extra days off for everything from Christmas Eve to “public service recognition week.”
The loan forgiveness comes as Mr. Biden is pushing loan forgiveness more broadly.
His initial attempt was ruled illegal by the Supreme Court.
He has since proposed more limited forgiveness that would reduce or eliminate accrued interest for millions of borrowers.
USCIS’s plan would operate under a federal law that allows for loan repayments at the discretion of federal agencies. It’s known as SLRP — or the Student Loan Repayment Program.
The latest government-wide report on SLRP dates back to 2021. It said Homeland Security, the department that oversees USCIS, made student loan repayments to 348 employees that year. Across the full executive branch agencies, the Office of Personnel Management reported 9,143 employees getting loan repayments, at a total cost of $75.4 million.
USCIS did not say how many employees it expects to apply or be approved, nor did it provide a cost.
In her notice to managers, Ms. Campagnolo said the program was launched “after careful consideration” and is aimed at boosting employee retention.
She did not say what positions would meet the difficult-to-fill standard.
USCIS has been on a crash course to hire more people to handle all the work Mr. Biden’s border has created.
The agency had 18,339 staff positions in fiscal year 2021, but Mr. Biden’s latest budget submission to Congress envisions 25,431 positions by 2025.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.