Hang In There, Immigration Caseworkers

Written By Anne Meeker

Hi caseworkers,

All casework is worth doing and involves its own particular level of skill and difficulty — but given the events of the last few weeks, I wanted to start out today by taking a moment to acknowledge and send some virtual support to immigration caseworkers in particular. Immigration has always been one of the most complex, technical, confusing, emotionally challenging, and politically sensitive areas of Congressional casework, and the last year has seen those particular demands blown out of the water. Please know that we see your dedication and skill at weaving through that maze of rocks and hard places, and hope you’re hanging in there.

And for everyone, we are very excited to share that we are kicking off our webinar series for this year with two events:

Fresh Start: Casework Notes and Data for 2026

Thursday, February 12, 1 PM ET

Keeping good case notes is one of the most foundational skills for all caseworkers, but the easiest to overlook when things get busy. This workshop — hosted in partnership with the House Digital Service — will dive into standards and practices for case notes and tags, sustainable management practices for helping your team keep good notes, and making the most of the data from well-kept notes.

Learn More / Register

The Constitutional Basis for Casework with Dave Rapallo

Wednesday, March 18, 1 PM ET

Safeguarding constituents’ First Amendment right to petition the government for redress from grievances is what caseworkers do — but how much is casework actually enshrined in law, and what does that mean for how far caseworkers can push agency contacts? We’ll be joined by Dave Rapallo, former Staff Director of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform and current Federal Legislation Clinic Director at Georgetown, for a discussion of how oversight powers have evolved, practical strategies for dealing with unresponsive agencies, and how to work with committee staff to escalate casework trends to formal oversight.

Learn More / Register

If you have questions about our work or suggestions for how we can be helpful, please feel free to reply to this email, or reach out to me at anne@popvox.org.

Anne Meeker
Managing Director
POPVOX Foundation

Casework News

The great annual casework roundup isn’t over yet, Charlie Brown!

A quick reminder: casework totals vary widely based on regional demands, agency presence, and how offices track their data – so direct comparisons aren’t always apples-to-apples. That said, these numbers are, in a word, bonkers.

The House Office of the Whistleblower Ombuds has released the 2026 edition of their “Training Manual: Best Practices for Working with Whistleblowers” (available on HouseNet). It offers step-by-step guidance and templates for working with whistleblowers – whether they come forward as constituents or oversight sources. This resource is only available for House offices.

Agency News

Immigration

  • ICE officers are asserting the authority to enter homes without a judicial warrant, based on a previously unreleased DHS memo from May 2025.

  • DHS Secretary Kristi Noem reinstated a seven-day advance notice requirement for Congressional oversight visits to ICE facilities, bypassing a federal court ruling that blocked a similar policy last month.

  • USCIS employees in Vermont have received temporary reassignment notices to ICE supporting enforcement efforts in Minnesota. Employees have expressed concerns about entering a potentially dangerous situation without enforcement experience or training.

  • DHS terminated Temporary Protected Status for Somalia, effective March 17, 2026. Somali nationals without other legal status are being directed to use CBP’s mobile app to self-deport, which is advertised to include a complimentary plane ticket, $1,000 exit bonus, and potential future legal immigration pathways.

  • The State Department paused immigrant visa processing for 75 countries, including Brazil, Nigeria, Cuba, Somalia, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The pause relates to proposed changes to “public charge” rules that would expand the definition to include use of programs like Medicaid, SNAP, and CHIP.

  • ICE has not paid third-party medical providers for detainee care since October 3, 2025, after the VA terminated its agreement to process reimbursement claims. ICE will not resume processing claims until at least April 30, 2026, affecting services like dialysis, prenatal care, and chemotherapy as the total detained population has grown from under 40,000 in January 2025 to over 73,000 today.

  • Senators Padilla [D, CA] and Schiff [D, CA] conducted an oversight visit to California City Detention Facility, California’s largest ICE detention center housing over 1,400 detainees, and reported inadequate medical care including a diabetic detainee who hasn’t received treatment in two months.

  • Three detainees at Camp East Montana, an ICE tent facility at Fort Bliss in El Paso, housing detainees from around the country, have died in 44 days – the most recent on January 15. ICE attributed the deaths to presumed suicide, natural liver and kidney failure, and medical distress while in segregation. The facility houses 2,903 detainees as of January 8 and is one of the largest ICE detention centers in the country.

  • The State Department stripped nonprofit public libraries of their ability to collect passport processing fees and serve as passport acceptance facilities, limiting access to passport services in many rural areas. Members of the Pennsylvania delegation introduced H.R. 6997, the Community Passport Services Access Act, to reverse the decision.

SSA

  • SSA is launching nationwide appointment scheduling and workload management systems on March 7 that will allow employees across the country to handle initial claims cases from any state. Critics have raised concerns about unfamiliarity with state-specific rules.

  • The Senate and House passed S.269, Ending Improper Payments to Deceased People Act which requires SSA to share death data with the Treasury’s Do Not Pay system to prevent improper payments and mandates “clear and convincing evidence” before recording someone as deceased. The law also requires SSA to notify agencies when someone is incorrectly marked as deceased.

  • A report from the Strategic Organizing Center, an AFGE-affiliated think tank, found that 54% of SSA’s 36,000 frontline employees earn less than a living wage for their region, with 70% of surveyed employees reporting decreased service speed and 65% reporting deteriorated service quality – challenges compounded by the loss of 7,000 employees last year and ongoing hiring restrictions limiting agencies to one new hire for every four departures.

IRS

  • The Disaster Related Extension of Deadlines Act (H.R. 1491), signed December 26, 2025, addresses two key IRS disaster relief problems: it prevents taxpayers from receiving confusing collection notices before postponed payment deadlines and ensures they won’t lose refunds due to technical lookback period issues.

  • January 23 is EITC Awareness Day – the IRS estimates one in five eligible taxpayers don’t claim the Earned Income Tax Credit, leaving billions in benefits unclaimed annually. In 2025, approximately 24 million workers received about $70 billion in EITC with an average credit of $2,894. Free assistance is available through IRS digital tools like the EITC Assistant, and volunteer tax preparation through VITA and TCE programs.

Miscellaneous

  • In its FY2025 report, the VA Office of Inspector General identified five major challenges facing the VA in FY25 – healthcare delivery, benefits processing, financial management, IT systems, and leadership – that may affect timely and quality service.

  • Federal retirement benefits are calculated based on high-three average salary and length of creditable service, but complications like breaks in service, military service credit deposits, non-deduction service periods, retirement coverage changes, and part-time work schedules can affect calculations – essentially a roadmap for where to expect issues, especially useful for caseworkers new to the OPM portfolio.

  • Many states saw a drop in people enrolled in ACA plans for 2026 — experts attribute the drop in part to the high premium increases in many states and plans.

  • The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau received $145 million in funding through March after the Federal Reserve approved the allocation following a court order, temporarily averting mass furloughs, though the agency cut employee dental, vision, and life insurance benefits and altered locality pay.

  • FEMA sent non-renewal notices to 50 Cadre of On-call Response/Recovery Employees (CORE) in early January, breaking from typical case-by-case renewals. Internal emails show FEMA conducted a December planning exercise with draft targets including a 41% cut to disaster response staff. CORE employees made up 39% of FEMA’s workforce as of 2022, and are often first deployed to disasters.

  • The bipartisan Duty Status Reform Act would consolidate over 30 National Guard and reservist duty statuses into four categories to ensure equal pay and benefits for service members performing similar assignments and eliminate administrative delays when shifting between statuses.

  • Three tech-focused bills were introduced last week on casework-related issues:

    • Sen. Markey [D, MA] and Rep. Lee [D, PA] reintroduced legislation requiring federal agencies using AI to establish civil rights offices to address algorithmic bias;

    • Rep. Hamadeh [R, AZ] introduced a bill to expand the VET TEC program to include emerging technology training like AI for veterans; and

    • Rep. Thompson [D, MS] introduced legislation to limit ICE’s use of the Mobile Fortify facial recognition app to ports of entry only and require biometric data deletion within 12 hours.

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