Work Permits for Asylum Seekers Included in Latest Round of Border Negotiations in the Senate

The possibility of granting work permits to asylum seekers has been brought to the immigration negotiating table in the Senate, CBS reported on Thursday.

The outlet said the talks also include potentially giving permanent legal status to tens of thousands of Afghan evacuees and relief to children of immigrants working on H-1B visas for high-skilled workers. Members of this group is often at peril of self-deportation when turning 21 because their status is tied to their parents' visas.

With regards to the first item, the proposal entails certain migrants become eligible to work legally in the country if they pass their preliminary asylum interview. Democrats have highlighted the expense represented by migrants who arrive and are capable of working but not legally allowed to, the outlet added.

The proposals could make the negotiation more palatable to some Democrats who have been critical of the Biden administration's willingness of passing hard line immigration measures in exchange for Republican support of the broader bill, which includes aid for Ukraine and Israel in their wars with Russia and Hamas, respectively.

Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus said they were "deeply concerned" about the chance that the government could support broader border authority to expel migrants without asylum screenings and a drastic expansion of detentions and deportations, according to a separate report by CBS.

The White House indicated it would support a new law to allow U.S. border officials to summarily expel migrants without processing their asylum claims. This would effectively revive the Trump-era Title 42 pandemic order and allow officials to pause U.S. asylum law without a public health justification.

The administration would also back an expansion of a process known as expedited removal, which allows officials to deport migrants without court hearings if they don't ask for asylum or if they fail their initial asylum interviews. The program is currently limited to the border region. It would also detain certain migrants allowed into the country pending the adjudication of their claims.

Negotiations continue while migration keeps on dominating the national conversation during the electoral year. ABC News reported that there were 302,000 encounters along the southwest border in December, marking the highest monthly total ever recorded.

The Biden administration is also seeking to increase Mexico's support to stem the flow of migrants reaching its territory, with numerous trips from high-ranking officials to ask for more assistance from its counterparts. The latest took place in late December and included Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

In a recent press conference, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, commonly known as AMLO, asked the U.S. approve a plan that would see $20 billion in investment to Latin America and the Caribbean, suspend the US. blockade of Cuba, remove sanctions against Venezuela and grant at least 10 million Hispanics living in the U.S. the right to remain and work legally.

"Instead of pointing out that nothing is being done in Mexico to stop migrants, or unreasonably accusing our country, what U.S. lawmakers should be doing is approving a plan for the development of the peoples of Latin America," said López Obrador.

According to a report by NBC News, Mexico brings significant leverage to the ongoing negotiations, which are expected to resume this month in Washington DC. The outlet highlighted that, to bring numbers down, the Biden administration needs for Mexico to let it send back more non-Mexican migrants, as it was able to do until early 2023.