Vera D’Aponte, a registered behavioral technician for children with special needs in Florida, had to step down from her job this month after her work permit that allows her to work legally in the United States lapsed. Her family has since adjusted their vacation plans, which include no longer flying with her husband’s mother, over financial concerns.
“I had to talk to my daughter about the situation. … It’s not in my hands. It’s frustrating, and how do I explain this to her? I can’t buy her Christmas presents because I’m afraid to spend the money.” ,” Vera de Aponte, a US political asylum seeker, told CNN in Spanish.
An IT company lost five employees this year because their permit to work was not renewed, leaving them legally unable to work in the United States, according to Leon Fresco, an immigration attorney representing the company. According. The business, which has about 1,000 employees, declined to be named due to privacy concerns.
While three of those employees have gotten their renewals, the incident marks a problem plaguing companies across the country. “Usually there are big concerns that this will continue to happen,” Fresco said.
The limited supply of workers has already disrupted US companies and is at risk of being exacerbated by immigrants who are unable to keep jobs because they cannot legally work unless their permits are renewed. Would be The US Citizenship and Immigration Services, which decides and approves work permits, says there is an unprecedented backlog of 1.4 million work permit applications pending, including initial applications and renewals.
USCIS did not have details on how many of those permits have expired because of the backlog, but an agency official told CNN they are hearing from affected people about the problem.
“We’re hearing from companies. We’re hearing from nonprofits. We’re hearing from hospitals. And we’re hearing directly from affected individuals,” the official said. “We’re very aware of the problem all the way from the top of the agency and the department.”
Some immigrants, including asylum seekers, are allowed to work in the US while their cases are pending – a process that often takes years to complete – and they are required to renew those permits on a regular basis.
But without those renewals, as work permits expire, employers have no choice but to terminate workers, even during times of shortage.
“The severity of the labor shortage is unprecedented,” said Gad Levanon, vice president of labor markets at The Conference Board, a trade membership think tank. “When labor shortages are so severe, any additional factors that are driving people away from the labor market deserve more attention.”
“If the labor market was normal, it would be easier for these companies to replace companies that lost work permits,” Levanon said. “Now, finding a qualified employee to replace is far more difficult.”
Months delays in renewal of work permits have been “disruptive” for companies, said John Basilis, vice president of immigration policy at the US Chamber of Commerce, who has heard frequently from companies concerned about processing issues.
“It’s been quite disruptive,” he said. “You’re talking about a situation where a company can’t lay off an employee, at least in the short term, because of a lack of paperwork.”
For employees that would otherwise mean waiting for routine paperwork, turning down plans and fretting over family finances.
Abelardo Rios, a Florida telecommunications technician, was suspended from his job last week. Rios, a US political asylum seeker, submitted her application for renewal in February, three months before her work permit expired. He’s still waiting.
“We have no benefits, no medical insurance. They have put the situation on hold, but my family has no benefits right now,” Rios told CNN in Spanish.
One of the most frustrating parts of the ordeal for Rios, who is the sole provider for his wife and 17-year-old daughter, is that he doesn’t have the option of finding another job. It cannot function unless a renewal request is granted, as has been done several times before.
According to Lady Perez-Davis, policy director of the Asylum Seekers Advocacy Project, in recent weeks, the Asylum Seekers Advocacy Project has received hundreds of inquiries from people who say their work permits have expired or are about to expire. are on the verge. These include doctors and experts who attended to patients, engineers and long-distance truck drivers, among others, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
A work permit for an asylum seeker is usually valid for two years. Applicants can apply for renewal while their asylum application is pending. If they file before the permit expires, they can get an automatic 180-day extension of their current permit. But processing is, in some cases, proceeding beyond that deadline, leaving asylum seekers in limbo.
USCIS, an agency within the Department of Homeland Security, is facing huge backlogs across the board due to the coronavirus pandemic and, one official argued, poor management under previous administrations, resulting in a million cases that were shut down. was done. January.
Since then, the Biden administration has been clearing various backlogs at USCIS through policy changes, paying overtime and trying to bring in more personnel, the official said. But while USCIS is trying to streamline operations to address delays, it is also doing so at a time when the agency is working to provide work permits to tens of thousands of Afghans, stressing already overwhelmed resources. Still working.
“We are very focused on the human consequences of people losing their ability to work when they have no legal reason why they shouldn’t be eligible, and so we are focused on fixing that,” the official said. are.”
Hegaine Muradyan, a California doctor who cared for hundreds of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, lost her job in October after her work permit did not arrive on time. It was approved this week, but she is still waiting for a permit to go back to work. Muradian, an asylum seeker who is also a named plaintiff in the ASAP lawsuit, spent the past several weeks worrying that she would lose her license to practice medicine if she didn’t return to work soon.
The uncertainty of what comes next still looms large over others.
Biraj Nepal, a software engineer, receives frequent warnings from Human Resources that his work permit will expire in January, a reminder that he is on the verge of losing his job.
“We think this country is our home,” said Nepal, who has a 4-year-old daughter and a toddler on the way. “But we live in constant fear and worry because we don’t know what will happen to us tomorrow.”
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