Obama's Immigration Action Is Creating a Hiring Blitz at DHS

The agency tasked with carrying out the bulk of President Obama’s immigration order is on a hiring blitz in order to carry out the new policies, according to job postings and an agency spokesman.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will hire about 1,000 employees, both federal and contracted, to process applications for deferred deportation and perform other functions related to Obama’s executive action. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., a vocal critic of the unilateral immigration decision, first made the openings public by posting a bulletin on his website.

USCIS, a component of the Homeland Security Department, will open a new operational center in Arlington, Va., to house the employees, according to the bulletin. They will serve in a “variety of positions and grade levels.”

“The initial workload will include cases filed as a result of the executive actions on immigration announced on Nov. 20, 2014,” USCIS wrote.

An agency spokesman did not confirm the exact number of hires, but said USCIS is hiring to support Obama’s plan.

“USCIS is working hard to build capacity and increase staffing to begin accepting requests and applications for upcoming initiatives,” the spokesman said. “Increasing staffing will ensure that every case received by USCIS receives a thorough review under our guidelines. We will monitor resources and capacity very closely as this process develops over the course of the coming months.”

Many of the positions are already posted on USAJobs.

DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson tasked USCIS with determining, on a case-by-case basis, who qualifies for deferred action. The agency will also create the regulations to implement the bulk of Obama’s action, adapt a credit card processing system for naturalization fees and study the effects of waiving only part of those fees for certain applicants.

USCIS said from the get-go it would likely need to hire more staff, and Congress could have a hard time intervening.

“USCIS will need to adjust its staffing to sufficiently address this new workload,” the agency stated last month. “Any hiring will be funded through application fees rather than appropriated funds.”

Still, Sessions vowed to fight the hiring and the underlying action.

“Some have suggested that implementing this amnesty would not have a financial cost, but this action unmistakably demonstrates otherwise,” Sessions said. “The president cannot spend money unless the Congress approves it, and certainly the Congress should not approve funds for an illegal amnesty.”