Moran Pushes for Permanent USCIS Office in Southwest Kansas Beef Belt

Southwest Kansas handles over a fifth of the nation's beef processing capacity, and U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-KS, says that is exactly why the region needs a permanent U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services field office instead of a three-hour drive to Wichita.

Moran made the request in a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, asking him to establish a permanent USCIS field office in southwest Kansas to serve agricultural workers and employers in the region's livestock, beef processing and dairy industries. He also urged Mullin to restore consistent mobile USCIS services in Garden City, Dodge City and Liberal.

Why does the distance matter?

The closest USCIS field office to southwest Kansas today sits in Wichita. Moran wrote that the travel burden falls directly on labor and payroll.

"For agricultural workers, traveling two to three hours from southwest Kansas to Wichita can mean missing one or two days of work," Moran wrote.

He noted the region's agricultural industry does not run on a typical Monday-through-Friday schedule, which makes it especially hard for workers to leave for appointments. A permanent local office, he argued, would make USCIS services more accessible to the workers and employers who depend on them.

The takeaway: the senator is framing the office as a labor-supply issue for packing plants and dairies, not a paperwork convenience.

How big is the stake?

Moran tied the request directly to the region's economic weight. "Southwest Kansas accounts for over a fifth of the nation's beef processing capacity, supporting cattle producers across the region, including in Oklahoma," he wrote.

He also pointed to dairy expansion. "Kansas has been one of the fastest-growing states for the dairy industry, with much of this growth in the western part of the state," Moran wrote. "These industries have used and continue to use legal immigrant labor to supplement their workforces and support continued growth."

The claim that these sectors rely on legal immigrant labor is Moran's; the letter does not cite workforce figures or specify how many workers would use the office each year.

Is this a new request?

No. Moran has advocated for a USCIS presence in southwest Kansas for years. In 2021, he joined Sen. Roger Marshall, R-KS, and Rep. Tracey Mann, R-KS, in an earlier push to expand immigration services in the region.

That earlier effort did not produce a permanent office — a fact the letter does not address. The new request adds a specific ask: restore consistent mobile services in Garden City, Dodge City and Liberal while DHS weighs the larger commitment.

What Moran's letter does not say is how DHS responded previously, what a permanent office would cost, or where it would be located. Those details would determine whether the request moves beyond the 2021 effort.

For now, the ask sits with Mullin's department, and southwest Kansas processors, dairies and feedyards wait to see whether mobile service returns before any permanent office is approved.