Immigrant Challenges DHS Rule Halting Work Permit Grace Period

A Trump administration policy eliminating automatic extensions of immigrant work permits with pending renewal applications violated the Administrative Procedure Act, a lawsuit filed Monday argues.

The lawsuit filed Monday in the US District Court for the District of Columbia argues US Citizenship and Immigration Services violated procedural requirements under the APA by issuing an interim final rule without allowing public comment. It’s also arbitrary and capricious because it disregarded the facts behind previous rulemaking and ignores the harms of eliminating automatic extensions, it says.

At issue is the regulation USCIS released last year that ended an automatic grace period that had been in place for nearly a decade for applicants caught in administrative backlogs. The Biden administration had increased the automatic extension window to 540 days from six months to prevent lapses in employment authorization for immigrant workers.

USCIS cited the need for additional vetting of foreign nationals in making the policy shift. It came amid a wider set of moves by the Trump administration to limit immigrants’ access to humanitarian protections and work permits. A subsequent policy change shortened the duration of work permits. Advocates and business immigration attorneys have warned those measures could push tens of thousands of the workforce this year.

The complaint was filed on behalf of a Mexican national granted immigration relief under the Violence Against Women Act who’s now at risk of losing her ability to work legally. The government has long recognized that immigrant workers shouldn’t be forced out of jobs just because it failed to act on their work permits in a timely manner, said Stephanie Garlock, an attorney at Public Citizen Litigation Group, which filed the case.

“With this new regulation, the Trump administration unlawfully eliminated necessary safeguards protecting immigrant workers like our client, without any input from directly impacted immigrants, employers, communities, and others who will be harmed as a result,” she said in a statement.

Processing backlogs at the agency remain significant. More than 395,000 renewal applications had been pending for over 180 days at the end of September, with no signs of improvement, according to the complaint.

The plaintiff is also represented by Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project.

The case is Doe v. US Citizenship and Immigration Services, D.D.C., No. 1:26-cv-01336, complaint filed 4/20/26.