The Trump administration has implemented a significant change to the rules allowing authorized immigrants to work within the United States. The change will impact hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers and other immigrants, and could cause significant numbers of documented immigrants to lose their ability to legally work within the U.S.

A sudden rule change may leave thousands out of work

The Department of Homeland Security recently announced that it was ending a rule that granted automatic extensions to various categories of non-citizens applying to renew their ability to work in the United States. Beginning Thursday, Oct. 30, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services will no longer extend a 540-day grace period for applicants filing to renew their Employment Authorization Document, which grants the ability to legally work in the U.S. Instead, these individuals will lose their ability to legally work in the United States once their existing EADs expire, even if they filed their renewal request on time. They will remain without work authorization until USCIS evaluates and approves their renewal request, a process that has been plagued by delays in recent years.

The change, publicized Wednesday in the Federal Register, reverses a Biden-era policy put in place to ease the backlog of applicants. Under the Biden-imposed rule, applicants for EAD renewal were granted an automatic extension of up to 540 days, allowing them to continue working while their applications were being processed. The change will impact the approximately 293,000 to 450,000 people who file EAD extensions each year. The categories of people covered under the new EAD rules include green card applicants and asylum seekers, as well as some individuals with Temporary Protected Status, and spouses and relatives of various categories of immigrants.

Administration national security justifications questioned by critics

The Trump administration has framed the sudden change as an issue of national security. USCIS Director Joseph Edlow said in a statement that “USCIS is placing a renewed emphasis on robust alien screening and vetting, eliminating policies the former administration implemented that prioritized aliens’ convenience ahead of Americans’ safety and security.” Edlow also said, “It’s a commonsense measure to ensure appropriate vetting and screening has been completed before an alien’s employment authorization or documentation is extended. All aliens must remember that working in the United States is a privilege, not a right.”

However, critics are questioning the rationale and impact of the policy change, as well as its legality. Lynden Melmed of the immigration law firm BAL warned that individuals who follow the rules may still end up out of work. “Often these individuals have been in the U.S. for over a decade and have repeatedly renewed their employment documents. Even if they file on the first day of eligibility, government processing times are often more than six months long and so they will lose work authorization,” Melmed said, per Forbes. Doug Rand, a USCIS adviser under the Biden administration, called the alleged extra vetting justification of the Trump administration “chest-puffing nonsense,” and an attempt to “dress up inefficiency as national security,” Forbes reported. Attorney Jon Wasden, who sued the first Trump administration over delays in USCIS processing, said the new regulation change is likely illegal. “Supreme Court precedent is pretty clear here, and the agency has to show new facts and provide a cogent rationale for the about-face,” Wasden said, according to Forbes. “From what I have read, they don’t have it.”

The sudden change in work authorization policy may lead to new lawsuits against the Trump administration. For now, however, the changes are poised to create disruptions for hundreds of thousands of people residing in the United States, as well as their employers and families, as following the rules may no longer be enough to maintain the ability to work in the U.S.

Department of Homeland Security

Get relevant content delivered to you once a week