A December 1 bulletin from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) details the immediate opening of 1,000 permanent federal employee positions at a new operational facility that will open soon in Crystal City, Virginia. Newly hired employees will be tasked with approving applications submitted by illegal immigrants taking advantage of President Obama's recently announced executive amnesty program.
“USCIS is taking steps to open a new operational center in Crystal City, a neighborhood in Arlington, Virginia, to accommodate about 1,000 full-time, permanent federal and contract employees 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. Many job opportunities at the operational center will be announced in the coming days and please continue to monitor USAJOBS if you are interested," the USCIS bulletin reads, urgently listing the availability of jobs in red.
According to Republican Senator Jeff Sessions, this facility will be used to immediately implement President Obama's executive amnesty before Congress has a chance to stop it.
“It has just been discovered today that the Obama Administration is now opening a new USCIS facility in Crystal City, Virginia for the purpose of immediately implementing the President’s imperial immigration decree. They are in the process of hiring 1,000 full-time staff to quickly approve applications for the President’s illegal amnesty, which will provide work permits, photo IDs, Social Security, and Medicare to illegal immigrants—all benefits rejected by Congress. This action will mean that American workers, their sons, their daughters, their parents, will now have to compete directly for jobs, wages, and benefits with millions of illegal immigrants," Sessions said in a statement. "This facility is a clear symbol of the President’s defiance of the American people, their laws, and their Constitution. He is hiring federal employees to carry out a directive that violates the laws Congress has passed in order to foist on the nation laws Congress has repeatedly refused to pass."
"Some have suggested that implementing this amnesty would not have a financial cost, but this action unmistakably demonstrates otherwise. Moreover, the USCIS employees themselves have made plain that taxpayers will be on the hook, warning through their union that the agency is an ‘approval machine’ that will ‘rubber stamp’ applications for amnesty," Sessions continued.
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The 1000 new federal employees are classified as "General Schedule" or "GS." Here's an explanation of what that means:
The General Schedule (GS) classification and pay system covers the majority of civilian white-collar Federal employees (about 1.5 million worldwide) in professional, technical, administrative, and clerical positions. GS classification standards, qualifications, pay structure, and related human resources policies (e.g., general staffing and pay administration policies) are administered by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on a Governmentwide basis. Each agency classifies its GS positions and appoints and pays its GS employees filling those positions following statutory and OPM guidelines.
The General Schedule has 15 grades--GS-1 (lowest) to GS-15 (highest). Agencies establish (classify) the grade of each job based on the level of difficulty, responsibility, and qualifications required. Individuals with a high school diploma and no additional experience typically qualify for GS-2 positions; those with a Bachelor’s degree for GS-5 positions; and those with a Master’s degree for GS-9 positions.
These new government positions will no doubt come complete with generous benefits, i.e. retirement, healthcare, vacation, etc. courtesy of the American taxpayer. Further, based on the positions posted as available in the USCIS bulletin, many of them (the GS-13/14/15 positions shown above) are at the top of the government pay scale.
For weeks now Congress has been wrestling with how to deal with President Obama's executive action on illegal immigration. Texas Senator Ted Cruz has called for all nominations not vital to national security to be stalled while fellow Republicans in the House and Senate have been reviewing ways to pull funding from USCIS, a fee based agency.
This post has been updated with additional information.
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