The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) unilaterally decided to codify a previously temporary expansion of work authorization rules for paroled asylum applicants on Tuesday, just days after a request from Maine politicians.
U.S. Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), and Gov. Janet Mills (D-Maine) penned a letter Friday requesting that the DHS make permanent a temporary extension to employment authorization documents (EAD) for non-citizens who are currently paroled in the U.S. while their asylum claims are pending.
The non-citizens impacted by the decision, sometimes referred to as “asylum seekers,” include defensive asylum applicants who entered the U.S. without authorization and later sought legal status under federal asylum rules. While their asylum claims pend, they are paroled within the interior of the country.
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas appears to have heeded the letter because, just days later, he announced that he would be making the exact change the Maine politicians requested.
The change permanently increases the 180-day extension on EADs for asylum seekers to 540 days, codifying a previously temporary measure already in effect under President Joe Biden.
Mayorkas parroted the Maine politicians’ claims that allowing people who entered the country illegally to continue working in the U.S. will benefit the nation’s economy and employers.
“Increasing the automatic extension period for certain employment authorization documents will help eliminate red tape that burdens employers, ensure hundreds of thousands of individuals eligible for employment can continue to contribute to our communities, and further strengthen our nation’s robust economy,” said Mayorkas.
Rep. Pingree took to social media to celebrate the change.
“This is GREAT news. Not just for Maine immigrants and asylum-seekers (and their families), but for the many businesses that won’t have to scramble to find new employees—and for the communities that these new Mainers have come to call home,” said Pingree on X.
The unilateral executive decision is set to go into effect on January 13, exactly one week before President-elect Donald Trump takes office for his second term on January 20.
Trump has promised to carry out a historic crackdown on illegal immigration, including reforming the often-abused federal asylum system, and was unlikely to continue the temporary Biden-era extension.
Asylum seekers, whether they enter the country legally at a port of entry and affirmatively claim asylum or enter the country illegally and later make a defensive asylum claim, are given work permits within six months, regardless of whether their asylum claims have been approved.
The asylum claims typically take years to adjudicate, leaving the non-citizen in a temporary state of parole, during which they are allowed to work.
If their claim is denied, the asylum seekers are required to self-deport and inform their employers that they are no longer eligible to work within 30 days of their claim’s denial.
Most asylum claims are denied, but the U.S. does not maintain reliable data on how many asylum seekers actually return to their home countries.
Unless an employer is using E-Verify for employees or a denied asylum applicant informs their employer, the revocation of their work authorization will have little effect.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="33180 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=33180">18 Comments
All these people should be deported. Tom Homan feel free to come and collect them for deportation!!! Then maybe Mainers will get to work.
Hay Maine……..you folks tired yet, supporting all these illegals while we struggle to feed our families, pay rent and heat ourselves is almost impossible, yet we can find money for illegals! At some point, we really need to wake the f/k up!
.Noem and Trump can undo this just as quick. Mayorkas will be gone soon enough and these 3 idiots are as usual on the wrong side of yet ANOTHER issue. Is it any wonder people are fleeing Maine to red states? ME is fuckin’ broke, Soros owns our media, York County DA doesn’t prosecute anyone and we are infested with liberals from Massachusetts. Now they are trying gaslighting us into believing we need thousands of illegals to do our jobs which lowers all of OUR wages. We are outta here and off to Florida in May. This place is a shit show.
None of these illegals, refugees etc. are really looking for work. If that was true, then all the openings in Portland Maine and other towns would have all the openings filled. Instead these useless never will work are walking around Portland spending hours in fancy coffee shops drinking lattes for hours and eating fancy lunches in foodie restaurants while us real Mainers legal ones are busting our butts working 9 hours eating homemade lunches and drinking cheap coffee out of our thermos. And on top of that, I see these never will be Americans going to local banks cashing welfare checks sending the money back to their homelands – they all are wearing gucci junk from head to toe and loads of Nasty colognes. At the gym they dont wear deodorant and smell up all equipment never wipe it down for next person. When you tell them to please clean the sweat off they look at you like what is my problem. They also now many of them getting loans from banks even though they are on welfare. How does that work?
Dorotea, you hit the nail on the head
Stop calling them”liberals”. Classical liberals advocate for free markets, the rule of law, limited government, individual freedom and free speech. Mills, Pingree, King and their ilk are Marxists, Communists, Leftists, totalitarians, globalists, etc. Why they’re not arrested and tried for treason I don’t know, but they sure don’t represent the real Maine people and their traditional values.
The Mills dynasty was selected not elected. Katherine would roll over in her grave if she knew what her kiddos were up to.
May be time for the northern counties of Maine to consider seceding from the state, create a separate free state, everything south of Augusta is already hopeless, 80% of the voters in Portland voted for Harris!! Save part of Maine while there is still time!!
Why have Congress when unelected officials do what they want
Trump will reverse it, yay.
Biden is doing nothing g, someone else is.
Fraud vitiates everything.
Beachmom TY
If Maine politicians weren t usurping the will of their citizens, they d be doing nothing. They are all treasonous scoundrels
Exactly right Infidel. I used to love liberals before they went extinct
The Democrats are still trying to bring down Trump, they are still trying down us common folk.
I am TIRED of supporting illegals; I am tired of those politicians who support illegals.
Do hear us King, Pingree, Governor, and Jarred.
If I’ve said it once and I’ve said it a 1000times the biggest problem in Maine is that the Republican Party is as corrupt and deceitful as the Dems . Some of the biggest SCUMBAGS come out of Aroostook Cty. …. Troy Jackson , John Martin of Eagle Lake , Austin Theriault , Trey Stewart , And The Shining Example …. “Cow Face Collins ” . The list is endless. Add to that the GenX’ers -Gen Z that have “Daddy Issues” (due to single parent Households) and want Mommy to continue running their lives voting in Women to hold Public Office and you have the perfect shit show of Crack Granny Mills and her Dykes of the Round Table …