A bipartisan group of House lawmakers is demanding answers from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) after what they described as an "alarming pattern" of inaccurate and unresponsive correspondence that has frustrated congressional offices seeking help for constituents navigating the immigration system. "We write to express our concern regarding an alarming pattern that has emerged in Congressional casework involving USCIS over the past several months," 72 lawmakers led by Representative Bill Foster wrote in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and USCIS Director Joseph Edlow.
The lawmakers said congressional offices have experienced "significant difficulties" working with USCIS liaisons, resulting in delays for constituents and wasted time for both congressional staff and agency personnel. The letter, signed by 71 Democrats and one Republican, comes amid mounting complaints from lawmakers that the agency's responses to congressional inquiries have become increasingly generic, inaccurate and difficult to follow up on. Newsweek has contacted USCIS, as well as its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, for comment via email and is awaiting responses.
According to the lawmakers, congressional caseworkers have received responses addressed to the wrong staffers, identifying the wrong constituents and containing information that either failed to answer the question asked or included factual inconsistencies. They also said USCIS responses now rarely identify the individual liaison handling a case, instead being signed simply as "Congressional Liaison." The lawmakers argued that the problems have persisted despite Congress providing additional funding for the agency through President Donald Trump's sweeping tax-and-spending package, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. "The quality of USCIS's Congressional liaison services appears to have declined," they wrote.
Under the Trump administration, USCIS, an immigration benefits agency, has increasingly tilted its focus toward enforcement priorities, emphasizing fraud investigations and heightened scrutiny of immigration applications while playing a larger role in efforts supporting Trump's mass deportation agenda. The administration has also increased arrests at routine USCIS appointments, including green card interviews. One example highlighted in the letter involved a congressional inquiry about a constituent's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, case.
After seeking an update, congressional staff received a response stating only that "a decision" had been issued. The response did not explain what the decision was and instead directed staff to publicly available USCIS case-status tools. In another case, a congressional office asked whether a constituent had received a final approval notice after previously obtaining conditional approval.
Lawmakers said USCIS responded with language discussing expedited processing despite no request for expedited processing having been made. The letter also pointed to what lawmakers described as a glaring timeline error in a response concerning an employment authorization document. USCIS informed congressional staff that a work permit was approved on July 21 and produced on July 27, while also stating that postal records showed it had been mailed on June 28 and delivered on June 30, weeks before it was approved.
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