Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of Homeland Security at the Department of Homeland Security under President Joe Biden announces a job giveaway to newly-arrived migrants with valid work permits.
Mayorkas announced on Tuesday a final rule by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services that allows millions of migrants who have been released to the interior of the United States under the Biden Administration to keep their work permit for up to five hundred forty days when they apply to renew it.
Migrants could renew their permits to work for 180 days. Democratic mayors have lobbied DHS for years to extend this automatic employment authorization. The rule is set to take effect on January 13, 2025.
Mayorkas stated in a press release that the initiative is intended to “help businesses fill” American positions with more migrants.
Increased automatic extensions for certain employment authorizations will reduce red tape for employers and ensure that hundreds of thousands of people eligible for employment are able to continue contributing to our communities. This will also strengthen the robust economy of our nation.
USCIS Director Ur Jadou stated that the rule would “help U.S. Employers better retain their employees and prevent workers who timely filed [work permit] renew applications from experiencing lapses of their employment authorization and documentation for employment authorization through no fault on their own.”
Tom McClintock, Chairman of the Immigration Subcommittee (R-CA), scolded Jaddou at a hearing held last week for this rule. He noted that the inflation rate has consistently outpaced U.S. wage growth and foreign workers are responsible for nearly all the job creation in the United States.
McClintock stated, “Now that we know the agency plans to increase temporary work permits from 180 to 540 days.” “If anyone is wondering why the real wages of working families have decreased under this administration, then look no further than the agency in front of us today.”
Over a million immigrants have gained American jobs in the past year while more than 800,000 native-born Americans have left the workforce.
A Pew Research Center report from July this year found that by 2022, there will be more than 30 million legal and illegal immigrants working in the United States. This is a 20% increase over the past 15 years.
The number of native-born Americans added to the labor force has increased by less than 10 percent during the same time period.
