U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced Thursday it will require some categories of immigrants with work permits to renew them much more often, changing the timeline from five years to 18 months.
The decision to shorten work authorization periods is the latest attempt by the Trump administration to erect new hurdles for documented immigrants, including through increased vetting. The change is effective starting Dec. 5, and impacts all pending and future work permit applications.
The move will affect immigrants who received work permits admitted under refugee status, who were granted or have pending asylum applications and who have been exempted from deportation for a number of reasons, among other categories.
“Reducing the maximum validity period for employment authorization will ensure that those seeking to work in the United States do not threaten public safety or promote harmful anti-American ideologies,” said Joseph Edlow, the director of USCIS, in the release announcing the change.
Edlow cited the recent shooting of two National Guard troops near the White House as evidence of a need for more “frequent vetting” of immigrants. USCIS already requires applicants to submit biometric information as part of criminal and national security background checks when applying for a work permit.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment asking how many people are expected to be affected by the change.
Conchita Cruz, co-executive director of the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, said in a statement that the decision would only “cause longer work permit backlogs, which are already a huge problem and threaten to push immigrants out of the workforce.”
“Shorter validity periods hurt hundreds of thousands of immigrants — asylum applicants, spouses of U.S. citizens waiting for a green card, and many others who are waiting for the government to process their applications,” Cruz said. “But it will also hurt U.S. citizen family members, employers, coworkers, labor unions, and others who depend on immigrant workers throughout the United States.”
It’s the latest change to work permits made by the Trump administration.
On Tuesday, USCIS announced it was halting consideration of all pending asylum applications and pausing the consideration of work authorizations, green cards, sponsorship and citizenship applications from immigrants from 19 countries. The memo also announced immigration applications approved during the Biden administration will be reviewed again.
In October, DHS ended the automatic extension of most work permits for immigrants who filed to renew their work permits on time.
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