USCIS announced work authorization restrictions targeting asylum seekers and TPS holders under One Big Beautiful Bill

On July 23, 2026, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services policies implementing the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — the Trump administration's tax and spending law passed by Congress in July 2025 — were scheduled to take effect, threatening to strip work authorization from tens of thousands of asylum seekers and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders from El Salvador, Sudan, and Ukraine. The policies included: a new rule permitting USCIS to reject asylum applications and terminate work permits when applicants fail to pay a newly created annual asylum fee without adequate notice or opportunity to appeal; an April 2026 interim final rule removing the longstanding regulatory requirement that USCIS adjudicate initial asylum work authorization applications within 30 days; and a retroactive application of the new fee and work authorization rules to existing TPS holders from three designated countries.

A coalition of immigrant advocacy organizations — the Venezuelan Association of Massachusetts, the National TPS Alliance, the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, the Service Employees International Union, and SEIU Local 32BJ — filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts on July 1, 2026, challenging all three policies as adopted without required public notice-and-comment rulemaking under the Administrative Procedure Act and as exceeding the agency's statutory authority. On July 22, 2026 — one day before the policies were set to take effect — U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton granted emergency relief, blocking the policies' most harmful consequences. The court did not block collection of the asylum fee itself, but temporarily blocked rejection of asylum applications, termination of work permits, and retroactive application of the new rules to TPS holders.

TPS is a congressionally-created protection allowing nationals of designated countries facing ongoing armed conflict or environmental disasters to remain and work lawfully in the United States. Asylum seekers applying for work authorization under statute have long been entitled to adjudication within 30 days. The USCIS policies — adopted through interim final rules that bypassed public notice-and-comment — would have cut off lawful income for people who entered the United States legally and maintained protected status under federal law.