Announcement from UU Solidarity Initiative (on Immigration issues)
BUFsters are encouraged to participate in a number of UU programs, in particular, the UU Solidarity Initiative (UUAI) of the UUA. UUSI provides training and education to members of congregations around the nation concerning the changes in immigration law and the impacts on immigrants coming whether as refugees, asylum-seekers, work visas, etc. BUFster Deb Cruz attends the The UU Solidarity Initiative First and Third Friday sessions -- https://sidewithlove.org/uu-solidarity-initiative -- to stay abreast of these changes and their impacts on immigrant communities.
One of the current priorities of the Initiative is opposing rule changes that would severely limit and hinder asylum-seekers ability to obtain work permits while they wait adjudication of their cases. Key proposed changes in the rule include:
Pause on processing initial work permits based on asylum. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will stop accepting initial work permit applications until the agency processes all affirmative asylum applications within an average of 6 months. This will be an indefinite pause given that DHS estimates it could take anywhere from 14 to 173 years to clear backlogs.
New barriers for approval. The rule expands USCIS’s authority to deny initial and renewal work permits, including denial at USCIS’s discretion for any reason and tying eligibility to how a person entered the country or whether they met the one-year asylum filing deadline.
Increased wait times for an initial work permit. If processing resumes, applicants would need to wait 1 year (instead of 5 months) after applying for asylum before applying for a work permit. USCIS would then have at least 180 days (instead of the current 30-day max) to adjudicate the work permit application.
We are asking folks to file a comment. UUSI has created a toolkit that folks can use in creating comments
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JMm9nqRVYbUQTTq9UwmJwxD_NyT7Te0Zn1DoH-DGfOk/edit?tab=t.0
It’s very important that folks submit their own comments in their own words as it holds, by far, much more weight than signing a petition.