The Trump administration's efforts to reform the nation's immigration system are continuing with a planned closure of all international U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) offices.
According to The Washington Post, USCIS Director L. Francis Cissna wrote an email to staff Tuesday that referenced the plan to shutter the 21 locations.
Closing the offices would help "maximize our agency's finite resources," he wrote, the Post reported.
"I believe by doing so, we will better leverage our funds to address backlogs in the United States while also leveraging existing Department of State resources at post. Change can be difficult and can cause consternation. I want to assure you we will work to make this as smooth a transition as possible for each of our USCIS staff while also ensuring that those utilizing our services may continue to do so and our agency operations continue undisrupted."
USCIS started in 2003 and, according to its website, operates more than 200 offices worldwide. It employs 19,000 government employees and contractors to handle several facets of the immigration system, from reissuing lost green cards to helping foreign nationals apply for U.S. citizenship.
The 21 offices being closed fall under the USCIS's International Operations Division (IO) and are more specifically known as the Refugee, Asylum, and International Operations Directorate. The IO employes 240 people in the U.S. and abroad.
A senior official at the Department of Homeland Security told the Post that closing the international offices is being done to save money. The White House on Monday unveiled its 2020 budget proposal, which contained cuts to several government agencies.
The USCIS announced in February its Moscow office would close, while an office in Cuba has already shuttered.