- Seventy-two House lawmakers led by Rep. Bill Foster sent a demand letter to DHS and USCIS on August 27, 2026.
- Lawmakers cited wrong-office and wrong-case errors in congressional correspondence, plus replies that missed the question entirely.
- They said generic no-reply responses are slowing casework and delaying help for families, workers, and other constituents.
Seventy-two House lawmakers led by Rep. Bill Foster sent a letter to senior Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials on August 27, 2026, demanding answers about errors in casework responses. The members called the pattern “alarming.”
The letter went to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin and USCIS Director Joseph Edlow. It challenges how the agency handles requests from congressional offices seeking updates or explanations for constituents with immigration cases.
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The lawmakers described replies that went to the wrong office, identified the wrong constituent or cited an incorrect case number. Some responses also failed to answer the question submitted by the congressional staff.
The group said the problems had appeared over the past several months. Its letter described a breakdown in a channel used to assist people facing delays, errors and urgent immigration-related problems.
The lawmakers wrote:
“We write to express our concern regarding an alarming pattern that has emerged in Congressional casework involving USCIS over the past several months.”
They said congressional offices had encountered “significant difficulties” working with USCIS liaisons. The process, they warned, had become “a cycle of repeated inquiries that wastes caseworkers’ time and delays assistance for constituents.”
The bipartisan group included 71 Democrats and 1 Republican, according to the description of the letter. The correspondence places the agency’s internal handling of congressional inquiries before its director and the department’s secretary.
USCIS congressional correspondence can involve children, separated spouses, families fleeing conflict and people waiting for work permits. Those cases often require staff to clarify what happened in an individual matter or ask the agency to address a delay.
The letter points to mismatched records and unanswered questions
The lawmakers cited three examples to illustrate the problems they described:
| Casework example | USCIS response described by lawmakers | Conflicting or missing information |
|---|---|---|
| DACA case | The agency replied only that “a decision” had been issued. | The response did not explain the decision or address the question asked. |
| Conditional-to-final approval question | The response discussed expedited processing. | No expedite request had been made. |
| Employment authorization document | USCIS said the EAD was approved on July 21 and produced on July 27. | Postal records showed it was mailed on June 28 and delivered on June 30. |
The examples cover different types of correspondence failures. One response omitted the requested explanation. Another addressed a different issue. The work-permit response contained dates that did not match postal records.
The letter does not limit the concern to incorrect facts. The members also objected to the way responses reach congressional offices and how staff can seek clarification afterward.
Generic replies have made follow-up harder, lawmakers say
The members said many replies now arrive from a no-reply address. They are often signed only “Congressional Liaison,” rather than identifying a named person who can discuss the case.
That format can leave staff without a direct contact for correcting a wrong constituent, case number or factual detail. The lawmakers said the current process offered “no meaningful avenue for follow-up.”
They also said repeated inquiries consume time on both sides. Congressional caseworkers must send additional messages, while USCIS personnel must revisit correspondence that did not resolve the original request.
The complaint comes amid broader congressional frustration with replies described as increasingly generic, less accurate and harder to escalate. The letter frames those shortcomings as an operational problem affecting constituent assistance, not simply a communications preference.
Congress uses casework to seek help on individual immigration matters
Members of Congress use casework as a formal route for asking USCIS about individual constituents’ immigration matters. The channel is especially relevant when delays or errors affect families, workers, children or people in urgent humanitarian situations.
A congressional inquiry does not replace the underlying immigration application or petition. It gives a congressional office a way to request information from the agency about a constituent’s case and raise an unresolved problem.
The lawmakers said failures in that process can delay assistance while staff repeatedly seek an accurate answer. They also argued that the agency’s resources are being spent on avoidable follow-up rather than resolving the first inquiry.
Their letter asks DHS and USCIS leadership to address the correspondence problems identified by the House members. The named recipients are Mullin and Edlow.
The members’ warning centers on accuracy and accountability. As they put it, the current system has created “a cycle of repeated inquiries that wastes caseworkers’ time and delays assistance for constituents.”
