A ruling today by the U.S. Supreme Court allows the Trump administration to turn away asylum seekers at the border. The move adds to the government’s ongoing assault on the asylum process, including efforts to make life untenable for those already in the country.
Under a rule proposed by USCIS in February, the agency would stop processing new work permits, or Employment Authorization Documents (EADs), creating significant barriers to employment for nearly 4 million people with pending asylum cases.
“Losing the ability to work would make it difficult, if not impossible, for me to continue pursuing my education and future career goals,” said Jaime (we are not using his real name because of the sensitivities of his case).
Originally from Mexico, Jaime is a member of the LGBTQ community. Having arrived in the US at the age of 9, he recently graduated with an associate’s degree from a nearby community college. He has spent nearly half his life petitioning the U.S. government for asylum.
Jaime’s case highlights the challenges for those in the U.S. asylum system, which experts acknowledge is overwhelmed, with average wait times lasting as much as 6 years or more. Advocates say that for individuals like Jaime, waiting 9 years is not uncommon.
By its own admission, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) — which oversees the asylum process — projected that a backlog of 1.4 million asylum claims (as of February 2026) would take anywhere from 14 to 173 years to bring average processing times down to less than half a year.
In the interim, applicants now face the possibility of not being able to work and support themselves while they wait.
The Supreme Court’s ruling today narrows who can access the asylum system, and the proposed rule creates an economic hardship, making it difficult for those who are waiting to survive. Taken together, these actions squeeze asylum seekers and the larger community of employers, co-workers, and family members.
“Since 1980, U.S. law has guaranteed a legal right to apply for asylum to those fleeing persecution and arriving on our shores,” said Michael Posner, director of the Center for Business and Human Rights at the NYU Stern School of Business and former Assistant Secretary in the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, in response to SCOTUS’ decision on turning back asylum seekers at the US-Mexico border. “This decision slams the door shut, denying this most basic protection of U.S. law even to those who face likely persecution in their home countries.”
Justifying the proposed rule, the agency said it “believes that the asylum system is currently overburdened and overwhelmed by asylum applications, including the frivolous, fraudulent, or otherwise meritless asylum applications filed by aliens who are seeking to obtain employment authorization.”
USCIS did acknowledge the rule would create a potentially significant hardship for applicants. (DACA recipients are facing similar challenges as the agency slow walks renewal applications putting their work authorization and status at risk.)
USCIS added the tighter restrictions would give asylum seekers less incentive to seek asylum.
The proposed rule would also double the waiting period for asylum seekers to apply for work permits to a full year and lengthen the processing period six-fold to 180 days.
“We’re looking at a minimum of 545 days that individuals would have to wait to apply for a work permit,” said Rose Godinez, policy attorney and strategist at Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC). “And this means asylum applicants are without the ability to work and provide for their families for a very long time, for 18 months at least, if not for decades or their entire lifetime.”
USCIS’ records from the last three months of 2024 show asylum seekers account for 374,000 new EAD applications, nearly half of all immigrants who had applied for new employment authorization.
“The proposed rule goes against everything that was declared as an intent behind the Refugee Act of 1980,” said Godinez, “which was to encourage our nation to provide assistance and resettlement opportunities to refugees.”
The 1980 law includes a pathway to apply for asylum for those fearing persecution and violence where their home countries cannot protect the individual or group under attack. About half of all asylum seekers are women and girls fleeing gender-based violence, while many cases stem from discrimination against those identified as LGBTQ.
Kursten Phelps is a litigation counsel at Tahirih Justice Center, a nonprofit serving immigrant survivors of gender-based violence. “If we think about an asylum seeker, and particularly a survivor who fled with their child, they are here parenting by themselves and trying to manage a job,” she said.
The Tahirih Justice Center offers wraparound services intended to address the full spectrum of their clients’ needs, noted Phelps. “If you are facing homelessness, then it is very hard to focus on your immigration case.”
If approved, the new USCIS rule would add to the string of more stringent regulations already imposed by the administration on asylum seekers currently authorized to work. Renewal fees are costly, at $795 each year for work permit fees and another $102 for the annual asylum fee, with severe consequences for missing the payment deadlines.
Since late October, the Trump administration also ended automatic extensions of work permits — now valid for 18 months, compared to 5 years previously — that bridged the gap as asylum seekers applied for renewals. That puts asylum seekers in a tough spot if their current permit expires.
Individuals petitioning or granted asylum are ineligible for most federal benefits programs, including refugee cash assistance. Additionally, asylum seekers cannot qualify for state unemployment benefits if they don’t have work authorization, even in more liberal states like California.
“The reality for our clients and for asylum seekers generally is that if you can’t work in the United States lawfully while you’re waiting for your asylum case to be heard, you can’t survive,” said Ariana Smith, staff attorney at East Bay Sanctuary Covenant. The nonprofit advocacy organization is currently holding 1300 active pending cases on behalf of asylum seekers.
Public comment on the proposed rule change has closed. Its adoption is pending a final decision by USCIS.
By a vote of 6-3, the Supreme court justices revive a policy known as “metering” allowing border officials to cap the number of asylum seekers processed each day. In practical terms: fewer people get to come to the United States to file a claim at all.
These restrictive policies are designed to push immigrants out of the US, according to Smith. “For a lot of people, it means returning to environments and places that they fled for fear of their lives.”
