Keep legal immigrants legal: President Trump and Congress should maintain USCIS' rule providing job flexibility for high-skilled workers.

• Author: Muklewicz, Jacob 'Jake'
• Position: Legal Brief

On November 18, 2016, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published a final rule entitled "Retention of EB-1, EB-2, and EB-3 Immigrant Workers and Program Improvements Affecting High-Skilled Nonimmigrant Workers." USCIS explained that the rule:

1. Provides greater stability and job flexibility for high-skilled foreign nationals working lawfully in the U.S., and

2. Increases transparency and consistency in processing nonimmigrant (temporary) and immigrant (permanent) work visa petitions.

The rule took effect on January 17, 2017, only three days before President Donald Trump's inauguration. Given the timing, some believe that President Barack Obama's administration passed the rule only to make immigration reform more difficult for President Trump.

One person who apparently believes so is Rep. Darrell Issa (R-California), who recently introduced The Midnight Rules Relief Act, H.R. 21. This act would allow Congress to disapprove regulations that federal agencies have submitted for congressional review within the last 60 legislative days of a session of Congress during the final year of a president's term. If passed, this act would allow Congress to abolish all regulations that complied with the public notice and comment requirements of the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) including USCIS' rule for high-skilled workers.

Is USCIS' new rule a political ploy by a lame duck president, or is it what USCIS claimed--an amendment to outdated regulations? To answer this question, we need to know what the rule fixes.

Examining the rule

Outdated U.S. immigration regulations created many predicaments for legal foreign workers. If employers terminated legal foreign workers, they had no grace period to look for new jobs or settle their affairs before leaving the United States. Instead, they lost their legal status immediately upon termination, which often occurs without prior warning. Consequently, many became illegal just because they lost their jobs. The new rule amended immigration regulations by giving legal workers a grace period of up to 60 consecutive days to either find a new job or leave the United States.

Also, foreign workers with Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) often lost their work authorization because of USCIS' processing delays. Foreign workers who timely filed EAD extensions often could no longer work just because of bureaucratic delays. The new rule amended immigration regulations by automatically extending the...