Trump officials crafting rule to prevent asylum-seekers from getting work permits
Source: CBS News
Updated on: June 3, 2025 / 1:51 PM EDT
The Trump administration is considering a regulation that would prevent most asylum-seekers from getting work permits, potentially upending longstanding U.S. immigration policy, two Department of Homeland Security officials told CBS News.
A proposal by officials at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services would amount to an indefinite pause on the U.S. government's decades-old policy of allowing migrants with pending asylum claims to work in the country lawfully while their cases are decided, the DHS officials said, requesting anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
The proposed changes — which have not been previously reported — would add yet another layer to President Trump's government-wide immigration crackdown, targeting a massively backlogged asylum system that his top aides have argued is being systematically exploited by economic migrants. But a halt to work permits for asylum-seekers would also trigger concerns among advocates that it could prevent migrants from supporting themselves and their families, and drive them to work illegally in the underground economy.
Since the 1990s, U.S. law has allowed immigration officials to grant work permits to asylum applicants if their cases have been pending for at least 180 days. Generally speaking, that has allowed asylum applicants to request a work permit 150 days after they make their claim. Those eligible can be granted the permit after another 30 days. But a regulation under internal consideration by the Trump administration would suspend the issuance of new work permits to asylum-seekers until USCIS decides all asylum claims within an average of 180 days, the DHS officials said.
Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/asylum-seekers-work-permits-trump/
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