US judge blocks Trump bid to strip work permits from immigrants

What the report says

Al Jazeera, citing Reuters, reported that a US federal judge has temporarily halted Trump administration policies that could have led to tens of thousands of asylum seekers and Temporary Protected Status holders losing work authorization. US District Judge Nathaniel Gorton issued the order on Tuesday, stopping parts of the policy from taking effect as early as Wednesday while a lawsuit continues.

The case was brought earlier in July by immigrant rights groups and labor unions represented by Democracy Forward. The plaintiffs challenged recent US Citizenship and Immigration Services changes linked to immigration restrictions approved by Congress last year. According to the report, those changes include allowing USCIS to reject pending asylum applications and revoke work permits when applicants do not pay a new annual asylum fee, and ending a long-standing requirement that initial asylum work permit applications be processed within 30 days.

The order particularly protects some people from El Salvador, Sudan and Ukraine who remain covered by TPS, a status that lets nationals of crisis-affected countries live and work legally in the United States on a temporary basis. The judge did not stop the government from collecting the asylum fee, but he blocked immediate penalties for nonpayment, including rejected applications or terminated work permits. A decision on whether to issue a longer-term injunction is expected by August 5.

The ruling matters because work authorization is central to migrants’ ability to support themselves while immigration cases or temporary protections remain in place. Al Jazeera noted that the Trump administration has sought to end TPS for people from several countries, and that the US Supreme Court recently allowed protections to end for some Haitian and Syrian immigrants. USCIS did not immediately comment to Reuters.