As of June 21, 2018, US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) will also begin the process of recalling approximately 800 Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) that were issued in connection with Form I-589, Application for Asylum and Withholding of Removal. These EAD cards, that were granted by USCIS officers and mailed to recipients in April and May of 2018, contain a production error that rearranged individuals’ first and last names. Although this recall will not affect these individuals’ employment authorization, as their Form I-94s show that they were granted asylum and thus have employment authorization, USCIS will be sending notices to the recipients of these incorrect EADs, or their attorneys, so that the incorrect EADs may be sent back to USCIS in the pre-paid envelope provided within twenty days of receiving the notice or returned to a USCIS field office. According to the agency, replacement EADs will be sent to recipients within fifteen days of receiving the incorrect cards. If an individual needs proof of employment authorization, they may contact the USCIS Contact Center.
The Washington Post: “Immigration crackdown shifts to employers as audits surge”
Under the Trump administration, immigration officials have substantially increased audits on companies to verify that employees are authorized to legally work in the US. The increased efforts are focusing on both building criminal cases against noncompliant employers as well as removing employees working in the US without legal documentation. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reports that there were 2,282 employer audits opened between October 1, 2017 and May 4, 2018, a sixty percent jump from the 1,360 audits opened between October 2016 and September 2017. Derek Benner, head of ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations unit, tells the Associated Press that planned audits for this summer would push the total “well over” 5,000 by September 30. Comparably, in 2013 there were 3,127 ICE audits.
Read moreNBC News: “Trump Administration: Dreamers Can Stay, Undocumented Parents Must Go”
On the anniversary of the implementation of the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which protects approximately 800,000 immigrants (also called “dreamers”) who came to the US as children with no legal status by shielding them from deportation and providing them with work authorization for periods of two years, the Trump administration and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) formally eliminated a similar program proposed to protect the undocumented parents of these dreamers.
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