The Trump administration is planning to revoke asylum seekers’ ability to work while their claims are being processed, dramatically altering decades of U.S. immigration policy, sources told CBS News.
Under the current rules, signed into law in the 1990s, asylum seekers are granted the ability to request a work permit if their cases have been pending for at least 180 days. In practice, that means applicants can apply for a permit after 150 days, and it is usually approved 30 days later.
But under the new proposals, spearheaded by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the issuance of temporary work permits would be suspended until USCIS has decided an asylum seeker’s claim, which is supposed to take an average of 180 days but often takes much longer, CBS News reports. In 2024, a government watchdog found 77 percent of all asylum applications had been pending for over 180 days, with 40 percent remaining unresolved after more than two years.
Two Department of Homeland Security officials, speaking to CBS on the condition of anonymity, said the new rule would also extend the waiting period for work permits from six months to one year after an asylum application is filed, effectively making the United States inhospitable to asylum seekers who would be left unable to feed themselves or forced into illegal work to make ends meet.
It is unknown when the policy will be announced or what changes it will go through in the meantime, the officials added.
The move would follow a similar rule change instigated by the Trump administration in March, under which the Social Security Administration quietly stopped issuing Social Security numbers to legal immigrants, potentially leaving them similarly unable to work, The Guardian reported.
The Enumeration Beyond Entry program, a joint agreement between the SSA and DHS, provided SSA with information from applicants for work authorization or naturalization, until it was abruptly halted on March 19 with little public notice.
Following the move, the Trump administration issued a memo that aimed to prevent undocumented immigrants from receiving Social Security benefits, despite providing no evidence of it being a problem.
Both President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, during his tenure as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), claimed the backlog in asylum applications was being systematically exploited by economic migrants and used by the Democrats to recruit voters from overseas. No substantial proof has been offered for either of these claims.
A record number of immigrants have arrived at the U.S-Mexico border over the last decade, while asylum applications have risen from 1.5 million to more than 2 million, according to government records.
Following his return to the White House, Trump called for an immediate shutdown of the southern border and granted border agents the power to deport migrants on the grounds that the U.S. was facing an “invasion.” The order is being challenged by human rights and immigration groups who say the move is in violation of American asylum law.
A DHS spokesperson told The Daily Beast: “Over the previous four years, the Biden administration eviscerated the integrity of America’s asylum system. The Department is exploring all possible options to protect our national security and increase program integrity.
“DHS is working to mitigate all forms of fraud and abuse. The Department does not comment on deliberative process or possible decision making.”
