Congress moves to bar work permits
Congress is advancing a bill to permanently bar illegal entrants from receiving work permits, asylum, green cards, or citizenship — the proposal would close pathways that many unauthorized migrants currently use to regularize status (x.com).
A House measure titled the “No Citizenship for Alien Invaders Act” (H.R.2454) would amend Section 312 of the Immigration and Nationality Act to bar any person who entered unlawfully from ever becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen; the bill was introduced March 27, 2025 and referred to the House Judiciary Committee. (congress.gov)) The Department of Homeland Security published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on February 23, 2026 titled “Employment Authorization Reform for Asylum Applicants” that would, among other changes, extend the waiting period to apply for an asylum-based EAD to 365 days and permit DHS to pause acceptance of initial (c)(8) EAD applications when affirmative asylum average processing time exceeds 180 days. (federalregister.gov)) That same DHS proposal sets a public-comment deadline of April 24, 2026 and explicitly changes filing and adjudication timelines for asylum‑based work authorization, including new biometric and eligibility requirements for initial and renewal EADs. (federalregister.gov)) A sweeping budget-reconciliation package enacted as H.R.1—dubbed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”—contains multiple immigration-related provisions that increase enforcement funding and impose new fees and charges affecting asylum filings, work permits, and other immigration benefits (analyses and reporting identify proposed asylum fees and higher EAD/renewal costs). (congress.gov)) Separately, the Stop Illegal Entry Act (H.R.3486), sponsored by Rep. Stephanie Bice, passed the House on September 11, 2025 and increases criminal penalties for illegal entry and reentry while carrying other enforcement-oriented changes that have been sent to the Senate. (congress.gov)) USCIS and DHS acknowledged the scale of the affirmative-asylum backlog (roughly 1.4 million pending affirmative asylum claims), and the agency’s own estimates imply the proposed EAD pause could, under some scenarios, persist “between 14 and 173 years,” a projection cited widely by legal commentators and advocacy groups. (dhs.gov)) Procedurally, H.R.2454 remains at the House Judiciary referral stage while H.R.3486 has moved to the Senate and H.R.1 was enacted into law on July 4, 2025; the DHS EAD NPRM is in the 60‑day comment period ending April 24, 2026 and legal and litigation challenges to regulatory or statutory changes have been foreshadowed by immigration‑law organizations and commentators. (govinfo.gov))
