January 13, 2020
USCIS proposes sweeping changes to the eligibility requirements, process, and timeline for employment authorization applications by asylum seekers, including a 365-day waiting period, an unlawful bar on eligibility based on an asylum seeker’s place of entry, and new provisions that permit automatic terminations of asylum seekers’ employment authorization applications. KIND opposes these changes, arguing that they are yet another example of a systemic attempt to deny meaningful access to asylum by significantly delaying the ability to work or otherwise make use of the EAD for identification purposes, both of which could harm unaccompanied children and may endanger their willingness or ability to seek asylum.
