The Trump administration on Thursday formally proposed "eliminating" a long-standing immigration policy that allows certain foreign workers to remain in the United States for up to 60 days after losing their jobs, potentially forcing workers and their families to leave the country "immediately" unless they have another legal basis to stay. "By removing the up to 60-day discretionary grace period, as this rule proposes, aliens in these nonimmigrant classifications would know with certainty that they are required to depart the United States ... [and] would be considered to be immediately failing to maintain their nonimmigrant status the day after the principal alien’s employment or activity ceases." the new rule said. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) estimates that about 3,795 workers a year, nearly all H 1B visa holders, use the grace period to find new employment after a layoff or resignation.
The proposal could also affect more than 208,000 spouses and children whose immigration status is tied to those workers. The grace period, established under President Barack Obama, currently covers workers in the H 1B, L 1, O 1, TN and several other employment based visa categories. DHS said eliminating it would restore a "direct relationship" between a worker's immigration status and the employment on which that status is based.
The agency acknowledged the proposal could affect workers, employers and families who have structured their lives around the current policy, but said those interests are "outweighed" by the government's goal of ensuring foreign nationals depart the United States when they no longer meet the conditions of their visa. "DHS has considered these potential reliance interests and impacts and believes the negative impacts of the up to 60-day discretionary grace period on the legal immigration system, discussed in this preamble, outweigh any potential benefits to employers, aliens, and the community at large of retaining the grace period," the new rule said. Adam Klein, co-founder of Globali.ai and a former DHS official, told Newsweek he was "stunned" by the proposal, saying that it turns "an ordinary employment event, a layoff or termination" into "an immigration event" for workers and their families.
Klein said the existing grace period recognizes that "losing a job and losing lawful status should not necessarily happen at the same moment," while warning that under the proposal, "someone who loses a job on Friday could be expected to leave the United States beginning Saturday." This is a developing story; refresh for updates.
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