U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services(USCIS) will open a new asylum office in Tampa on Aug. 2, in response to an increasing asylum workload in Florida. The new office becomes the 11th asylum office in the country and the second in Florida, joining the existing Miami Asylum Office. The Tampa and Miami asylum offices will divide the state's asylum workload.   

Florida currently leads the country in asylum applications filed with USCIS, and more than a quarter of the national pending caseload is from Florida residents. The addition of the Tampa AsylumOffice will help USCIS resolve urgent cases quickly and better address the large number of asylum applications pending with USCIS in the state.