Punching In: Trump Hits Immigration Milestone With Case Backlog

Monday morning musings for workplace watchers

NLRB Nominee Moves | Growing Immigration Backlogs

Andrew Kreighbaum: The backlogs for immigrant petitions, work permits, and other petitions at the US Citizenship and Immigration Services hit a 10-year high recently, despite a years-long push to shrink them.

The total number of pending cases at USCIS hit 11.3 million—the highest reported in the past 10 years—in the second quarter of 2025. Data released by the agency this month, the first under the Trump administration, showed backwards movement on the overall case backlog and typical wait times for benefits.

The total number of pending work permit applications increased by 79% from the first quarter of the fiscal year. Processing times for the I-129 form, which is used for most employment-based petitions for temporary immigrant workers, jumped 25% from the first quarter and 80% compared to the second quarter of last fiscal year, Cecilia Esterline, senior immigration policy analyst at the Niskanen Center found.

The Trump administration has made enforcement and deportations its top focus, even detailing USCIS staff to ICE for some operations.

Esterline said the growth in backlogs and processing times reflects “a collision of a bunch of things happening at once,” including staff attrition, reallocation of officers to enforcement, and increased vetting. The agency has also seen its workload grow as immigrants protected by temporary relief programs targeted by the Trump administration scramble to file asylum claims or secure another lawful status.

The Biden administration adopted new premium processing options, set internal targets for backlog reductions, and increased the automatic extension period for pending work permit renewals among other measures to reduce wait times.

The data show a slowdown in processing rather than an increase in benefit denials so far, said Julia Gelatt, associate director of the Migration Policy Institute’s US Immigration Policy Program. But slower approvals for benefits like work permits affect employers as well as immigrants’ ability to support themselves and their families, she added.

“Seeing them increase again is really disappointing,” Gelatt said.

USCIS spokesman Matthew Tragesser said the agency is thoroughly screening and vetting all applicants.

“Individual processing times may vary depending on the circumstances and complexity of a case,” he said. “USCIS will not take any shortcuts that put our communities at risk.”

Joseph Edlow, President Trump’s pick to lead the agency, pledged in a May confirmation hearing to reduce backlogs for asylum and green card applications. Gelatt said it would be instructive to understand how USCIS had been able to improve its efficiency in recent years, including removing extra steps like repeat interviews.

“Staffing was a big part of it,” she said.

Immigrants await their turn for green card and citizenship interviews at the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Queens office.

Photographer: John Moore/Getty Images

Parker Purifoy: Crystal Carey, President Donald Trump’s nominee for National Labor Relations Board general counsel, is finally going before Congress.

The partner at Morgan, Lewis, & Bockius LLP was nominated more than 100 days ago. On Wednesday she’s set to sit for a hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.

She’ll face questions from senators including Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) who proposed pro-worker labor legislation that places higher penalties on employers who violate labor law, prohibits captive audience meetings, and expedites negotiations for initial union contracts.

Carey needs approval of the committee before heading to the full Senate for confirmation. She’s previously spoken critically of Biden-era NLRB precedents limiting employers’ statements on unionization and preventing them from compelling workers to attend captive audience meetings.

The NLRB is one of several agencies that has been hobbled by a spree of Trump firings. He sacked NLRB Member Gwynne Wilcox, Equal Opportunity Employment Commission Members Jocelyn Samuels and Charlotte Burrows, and Merit Systems Protection Board Chair Cathy Harris. All three agencies are currently without a quorum because of those firings.

Wilcox, Samuels, and Harris have all sued the administration, seeking their reinstatements, but the US Supreme Court stayed district court orders restoring Wilcox and Harris.

Carey’s confirmation won’t bring a quorum back to the board but it will allow her to begin setting her agenda and finding cases that could be used to change legal doctrine. NLRB Chair Marvin Kaplan said last month that new member nominations were “imminent.”

Brittany Panuccio, Trump’s pick to replace former EEOC Commissioner Keith Sonderling, is also scheduled for hearings in the Senate HELP committee Wednesday. Panuccio, an assistant US attorney in Florida, was formerly a special counselor at the US Department of Education and clerked for the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and the Fifth Circuit.

James Woodruff II, who is nominated to take the seat of former MSPB Member Ray Limon, got approval from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee earlier this month. Limon retired from his post shortly after Harris was fired.

If Woodruff is confirmed, it would give the MSPB a quorum of two Republican members and allow it to begin processing an influx of worker appeals stemming from Trump’s efforts to slash the size of the government.

We’re punching out. Daily Labor Report subscribers please check in for updates during the week, and feel free to reach out to us.