Amal Khalifa fled Egypt in 2019 after facing persecution for reporting corruption. She came to the United States, filed for asylum, and while her case proceeded through the courts she supported herself as an auditor for the New York State Department of Labor. She won asylum last year. The ability to work legally while her case was heard made the difference between dignity and destitution.

The Trump administration is proposing to eliminate that option for hundreds of thousands of people like her. And the public comment period closes this Friday.

The proposed rule would extend the waiting period for asylum work authorization from six months to one year and would pause all new work permit requests during periods of high case backlogs. With 1.4 million asylum cases currently pending, the administration's own estimate acknowledges this pause could last anywhere from 14 to 173 years. That is not a temporary measure. That is a permanent ban on legal work authorization for asylum-seekers, described in the government's own documents as lasting potentially longer than any living person will be alive.

The human cost is staggering. DHS estimates the rule would immediately affect at least 500,000 asylum cases and cause wage losses of between $27 billion and $127 billion annually. People who are legally present in the United States, who have filed valid asylum claims, who are waiting for their day in court, would be prohibited from supporting themselves or their families through legal work for the foreseeable future. The alternative is not that they simply wait patiently. The alternative is poverty, exploitation, and off-the-books work that the administration simultaneously claims to oppose.

The economic harm extends far beyond the asylum-seekers themselves. American industries including healthcare, manufacturing, hospitality, and logistics depend on this labor force. Over 270,000 immigrants with professional healthcare training from their home countries are currently working in the U.S. healthcare system, helping address a critical shortage. Employers in manufacturing and logistics have described asylum-seekers as reliable workers who step into the hardest-to-fill jobs from day one. Eliminating their ability to work legally does not protect American workers. It creates labor shortages, drives up costs, and pushes workers into the unregulated economy.

The American Immigration Lawyers Association has said this rule seems designed to make it impossible for people to apply for asylum in the first place, a right protected under American law. Similar rules from the first Trump administration were struck down in court. This one deserves the same fate. But the first line of defense is the public comment process that closes this Friday.

Every comment submitted before the deadline matters. Courts and future administrations look at the record of public opposition when evaluating whether rules were improperly implemented. The volume and substance of public comments can influence whether a rule survives legal challenge. This is one of the most direct levers available right now and it closes in days.

Sign this petition to oppose the proposed rule eliminating work authorization for asylum-seekers and submit a public comment before Friday's deadline, demand DHS withdraw the proposal and pursue less harmful alternatives to address frivolous asylum claims, and affirm that asylum-seekers have the legal right to support themselves while their cases proceed through American courts.