ILAP Public Comment: Employment Authorization Reform for Asylum Applicants
Submitted via regulations.gov
Samantha Deshommes
Chief, Regulatory Coordination Division
Office of Policy and Strategy
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
5900 Capital Gateway Drive,
Camp Springs, MD 20746
RE: Employment Authorization Reform for Asylum Applicants (DHS Docket No. USCIS-2025-0370; RIN 1615-AC97)
Dear Chief Deshommes,
The Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, (ILAP), respectfully submits the following comments regarding the notice of proposed rulemaking, Employment Authorization Reform for Asylum Applicants (DHS Docket No. USCIS-2025-0370; RIN 1615-AC97). We recommend the proposed rule be rescinded in its entirety. It would leave already-vulnerable people seeking asylum under U.S. law with no way to support themselves and their families for extended periods of time, diminish overall public health and safety in Maine, including by creating an environment where bad actors can thrive, and deprive Maine’s communities and workforce of eager, talented people looking to contribute.
I. About ILAP and Interest in Proposed Changes:
ILAP is Maine’s only statewide immigration legal services organization, serving low-income people across the state who would otherwise not have access to immigration legal services. Every year ILAP serves hundreds of asylum seekers in Maine. In 2025, this included limited legal assistance to more than 260 initial asylum applicants and legal support to hundreds of others who had already filed applications. Through our practice over the last 30 years and our longstanding partnerships with organizations led by and serving Maine’s immigrant communities, ILAP has deep understanding of and expertise in the role that access to a work permit plays in asylum seekers’ ability to find security and stability, while providing vast benefits to communities, businesses, and Maine’s economy.
II. The Proposed Rule is Not Supported by a Legitimate Policy Basis and Would Endanger Already-Vulnerable People:
The notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) would make extreme policy shifts that eliminate asylum seekers’ ability to support themselves and their families for extended periods of time.
These policy shifts include:
Extending the existing 150-day wait period to apply for an initial work permit to 365 days;
Extending the 30-day processing timeline for an initial work permit to 180 days; and
Pausing all initial work permit processing until the average affirmative asylum application can be processed within 180 days (a time period that the Department of Homeland Security estimates could take up to 173 years).
These proposals are not in the public interest as they will undoubtedly leave people in crisis situations unable to meet basic needs and are not supported by legitimate policy rationale. One of the stated reasons in the NPRM is “reducing the incentive for aliens to file frivolous, fraudulent, or otherwise meritless asylum applications.” The NPRM’s citation is a small handful of news articles about individual cases. The NPRM puts forth no evidence of any widespread “frivolous, fraudulent, or otherwise meritless” claims in the asylum system that would justify such extreme and harmful measures.
The NPRM also comes within the context of the federal administration’s other actions on asylum and clear goal to eradicate the U.S. asylum system, especially targeting poor people and people of color. These include policies that block people from applying for asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border,¹ charging fees for initial applications and pending asylum cases,² an ongoing ban on processing asylum applications for people from 40 countries,³ and more.
While the administration has drastically reduced access to asylum in the United States, these extremist measures do not eliminate or address the humanitarian crises and other root causes that force people from their homes in search of safety. Eliminating access to work permits will also not in and of itself deter people from applying for asylum. This is because people applying for asylum have been left with few to no choices caused by circumstances beyond their control. They are seeking survival and safety. The only result of this NPRM will be already-vulnerable people facing even more dire and dangerous situations, unable to support themselves and meet basic human needs.
III. The Proposed Rule is Counter to the Department of Homeland Security’s Own Stated Goals of Improving Efficiency:
Another stated purpose for the NPRM is “facilitating faster and more efficient adjudications” of both work permits and asylum applications. Yet, for both initial and renewal work permits, the Department of Homeland Security proposes imposing a series of new eligibility criteria that would transform the work permit process into a partial adjudication of the underlying asylum claim, and impose new standards that are not required to win asylum. Under the NPRM, an asylum applicant would be ineligible for a work permit if:
They applied for asylum more than one year after entering the United States;
There is “reason to believe” a criminal bar to asylum applies;
They entered or attempted to enter the United States without inspection; or
They missed an asylum interview, court hearing, or biometrics appointment.
The first two criteria require legal and factual analyses that traditionally occur during the adjudication of the asylum application. The second two criteria impose standards that may have no impact on whether an applicant ultimately qualifies for asylum.
All of the new criteria will needlessly slow down work permit processing, deprive applicants who have valid asylum claims of access to a work permit, and is overall counterproductive to the NPRM’s claimed purpose of improving efficiency.
IV. The New Work Permit Standards in the NPRM Would Impose a Burden on ILAP and Overall Access to Immigration Legal Help in Maine:
In Maine, ILAP handles the most complex types of immigration cases, and largely counts on other organizations to be able to assist asylum seekers with work permits. The NPRM’s added criteria, requiring more in-depth analysis and expertise, would make it impossible for other organizations that currently assist with work permits for asylum seekers to continue doing that, and would necessitate ILAP absorbing that workload.
The new criteria would also increase the time and resources needed to prepare each application, requiring attorneys and support staff to gather and review substantially more documentation before a work permit application can be filed. Finally, these additional standards would make it much more difficult to assist asylum seekers, including the most vulnerable pro se asylum seekers, with work permit applications in workshop settings.
V. The Proposed Rule Would Detract from Overall Public Health and Safety, Creating an Environment Where Bad Actors Can Thrive:
By leaving asylum seekers with no ability to support themselves or their families for extended periods of time, exploitative employers and other bad actors and abusers will take advantage. These proposals will foreseeably enable traffickers, expand unauthorized practice of immigration law, and otherwise detract from overall public health and safety in Maine and beyond.
VI. There is Bipartisan Agreement in Maine That Asylum Seekers Should Be Able to Work Sooner and the NPRM Undermines Maine’s Strategies for Economic Growth:
Maine’s immigrant communities are key to improving Maine’s economic outlook, including addressing significant workforce shortages. There is bipartisan support in Maine, at both the Congressional⁴ and state legislature⁵ levels, for law and policy that allows asylum seekers to work earlier in the asylum process.
In 2024, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce rated Maine’s labor shortage in the “most severe” category, finding just 54 workers available for every 100 open jobs.⁶ In an April 2026 interview, the president of the Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce explained: “We just don't have enough employees for the jobs that exist in the area,” but newly arrived immigrants have been a boon to local businesses in recent years.⁷
Recognizing the contributions Maine’s asylum seekers and other immigrants do and can make, Maine established a statewide agency in 2024 with the mission of investing in Maine’s immigrant communities in order to bolster and strengthen the workforce.⁸ This NPRM, making it impossible for asylum seekers to work for extended periods of time, would undermine Maine’s investment and the agency’s ability to carry out its mission.
In addition to being key members of the workforce, asylum seekers are also consumers. By making it impossible for people to work, this NPRM would also hamper that side of Maine’s economy
VII. Conclusion:
Given the harm to already-vulnerable populations, negative impact on Maine’s public health, safety, economy, and legal services capacity, and overall lack of legitimate policy basis, this NPRM should be withdrawn in its entirety. Thank you for your consideration of our comments. Please contact ILAP’s Policy Director, Lisa Parisio, at lparisio@ilapmaine.org for any questions or additional information.
Sincerely,
Susan Roche
Executive Director
Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project
489 Congress Street, 3rd Floor
Portland, ME 04101
¹ HIAS Files Amicus Brief in Noem v. Al Otro Lado to Defend the Right to Seek Asylum, HIAS (Feb. 17, 2026),
https://hias.org/statements/hias-files-amicus-brief-noem-v-al-otro-lado-defend-right-seek-asylum/.
² There are new fees for asylum applications and work permits, Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project (March 26, 2026),
https://asaptogether.org/en/new-fees/.
³ Trump rolls back pause on asylum decisions imposed after D.C. National Guard shooting, NPR (March 30, 2026),
https://www.npr.org/2026/03/30/nx-s1-5766344/trump-rolls-back-pause-on-asylum-decisions.
⁴ Asylum Seeker Work Authorization Act of 2023 Bill Summary, National Immigration Forum, (2023), https://forumtogether.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Bill-Summary-_-Asylum-Seeker-Work-Auhtorization-FINAL.pdf.
⁵Maine asks for federal waiver to let asylum seekers go to work, Portland Press Herald (Oct. 25, 2023), https://www.pressherald.com/2023/10/25/maine-asks-for-federal-waiver-to-let-asylum-seekers-go-to-work/.
⁶ Understanding America’s Labor Shortage: The Most Impacted States, U.S. Chamber of Commerce (May 2, 2024), www.uschamber.com/workforce/the-states-suffering-most-from-the-labor-shortage?state=me.
⁷ Immigration raids rattle some Maine employers and business groups amid workforce shortage, MPR (April 7, 2026), https://www.mainepublic.org/immigration/2026-04-07/immigration-raids-rattle-some-maine-employers-and-business-groups-amid-workforce-shortage.
⁸ Maine Office of New Americans, https://www.maine.gov/future/ona.