Human Rights First Comment on the Department of Homeland Security’s Interim Final Rule, “Removal of the Automatic Extension of Employment Authorization Documents,” Docket No. USCIS-2025-0271

Dear Secretary Noem, 

Human Rights First submits this comment in opposition to the Interim Final Rule (IFR) promulgated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), titled “Removal of the Automatic Extension of Employment Authorization Documents.” The IFR amends federal regulations to eliminate the automatic extension of employment authorization validity for people who are waiting for the government to adjudicate their timely filed renewal application. Human Rights First recommends that the IFR be rescinded in its entirety. 

Overview 

Human Rights First strongly opposes the IFR, which threatens the ability of asylum seekers and other immigrants to support themselves. The IFR is part of the administration’s wide-ranging efforts to target and coerce immigrants by making it extremely difficult to survive in the United States. By eliminating an automatic extension of employment authorization for immigrants who file timely renewal applications, the IFR will inevitably cause gaps in employment authorization because of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) processing times. In recognition that immigrants should not lose employment authorization due to agency delays, DHS has provided for an automatic extension for nearly a decade and permanently lengthened the extension just last year.  

For many, gaps in employment authorization are catastrophic: asylum seekers and other immigrants who do not have permission to work face housing instability or homelessness, food insecurity, inability to afford medical care, deteriorating mental and physical health, loss of a driver’s license, and other consequences. These gaps leave people unable to provide for themselves and their families, shattering the stability that they have built in the United States after fleeing persecution or other harms. The agency’s issuance of the IFR contravenes the Administrative Procedure Act, jeopardizes Constitutional due process protections, and violates core guarantees of U.S. asylum law and the Refugee Convention. The IFR should be rescinded and the 540-day automatic extension restored.