For Immediate Release
July 29, 2024
Media Contacts
Matt Adams, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project
(206) 957-8611, matt@nwirp.org
Mary Kenney, National Immigration Litigation Alliance
(617) 819-4447, mary@immigrationlitigation.org
Seattle, WA – Today, July 29, 2024, the parties in Garcia Perez v. USCIS, No. 22-cv-806 (W.D. Wa.) filed a proposed settlement agreement in the federal district court in Seattle on behalf of a certified nationwide class and jointly asked the court to preliminarily approve it. If approved, the settlement will secure the rights of thousands of asylum applicants to obtain employment authorization while waiting for the immigration courts and agencies to adjudicate their asylum applications. Plaintiffs and the certified class are represented by Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP), and the National Immigration Litigation Alliance (NILA).
The complaint, filed in June 2022, challenged agency policies administering the “asylum clock”—the system immigration agencies use to determine when asylum applicants are eligible for a work permit. By law asylum applicants may not receive a work permit until the asylum application has been pending for at least six months. However, the six-month asylum clock stops if the asylum application is denied or if there are delays in its adjudication caused by the asylum applicant. The complaint alleged that the current system stops the clock without notice or an opportunity to correct agency errors regarding the calculation of time, unlawfully attributes certain delays to the applicant, and fails to restart the clock in cases where applicants prevail on appeal on their asylum claims.
After prolonged negotiations, the defendant agencies have agreed to:
- provide notice when they stop the asylum clock
- provide an opportunity to correct agency determinations stopping the asylum clock
- implement a policy requiring that the clock restart from the date of the previous denial where an asylum applicant prevails on their appeal of a decision denying the asylum application;
- eliminate the policy stopping the asylum clock because an applicant’s immigration case is transferred to another court, and
- issue a policy ensuring that the asylum clock does not stop in cases for unaccompanied children when asylum applications are routed from the immigration court to the asylum office.
The parties jointly moved for the court to certify a nationwide class, and to grant preliminarily approval to the settlement agreement. In the interim, the agency already has modified its policies to implement the agreement so that the asylum clock is not stopped for asylum applicants who prevail on appeals, have venue of their cases transferred to other immigration courts, and are unaccompanied children whose asylum applications are filed with the asylum office.
“We are very excited that the settlement agreement will help ensure that thousands of asylum seekers will be able to obtain employment authorization so that that may support themselves and their families while waiting--often years--for their asylum applications to be resolved,” said Matt Adams, legal director for NWIRP. “The settlement agreement includes significant changes to ensure that vulnerable asylum-seekers are no longer arbitrarily deprived of the ability to work while the government decides their cases,” according to Mary Kenney, Deputy Director for NILA.
The complaint can be viewed here.
The proposed settlement agreement can be viewed here.