President Donald Trump has provided employers with two more weeks of migrant labor by delaying the elimination of work permits for at least 350,000 migrants with expiring Temporary Protected Status.
The Washington Post reported Friday:
Work permission will now expire for Haitians with temporary humanitarian protections July 24, according to the update from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Work permits for TPS holders from Myanmar, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Syria, Yemen and Somalia will end next Friday.
Industries — from nursing homes and hospitals to schools and airports — that employ workers with these protections are scrambling and pleading behind the scenes with the Trump administration for relief. Some employers had begun terminating TPS holders before today, according to labor organizations and unions.
The work permits were expected to end on Friday.
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) claimed credit for the delay, saying:
Following my conversations with President Trump and Secretary Mullin, I am grateful they took this important step to temporarily extend work authorizations for Haitian beneficiaries.
This extension provides more time for Haitian TPS holders to continue serving their communities and supporting their families while figuring out their next steps, whether that includes pursuing additional work authorizations, green cards, or otherwise. It reflects the practical, commonsense approach I have been advocating for, one that recognizes the President’s ability to terminate TPS while supporting the folks who want to stay in the U.S. legally.
Lawler, who faces a tough re-election fight, is backed by many donors who have built their businesses with the expectation that the federal government will supply continuous migrant renters, consumers, and workers.
Any delay is good for employers. They gain extra profits from the extended use of cheap migrant labor compared to hiring Americans at market rates.
But the shift from TPS workers to Americans will be painful and chaotic for on-site managers. In Massachusetts, a Boston Globe article in June described one employer who has laid off 130 migrants:
“It’s not like these folks were taking jobs that Americans would be doing,” said [Chris] White, who has had to increase overtime pay and bring in temporary relief staff to keep from cutting services.
Delays also give employers time to transfer migrants into fly-by-night staffing companies. The staffing companies can provide migrants with fake documents that serve as a legal shield for the employers who do not want to hire Americans.
The extra time will allow more lobbying for an additional Trump concession that could keep the workers on the job for more weeks.
Trump was elected with a popular mandate to enforce the nation’s immigration laws. But he has zig-zagged amid pressure from businesses and directed his enforcement officials not to detain many illegals working in the nation’s agriculture, hotel, and restaurant sectors.