USCIS Hit With Class Action by Immigrants For Failing to Process Work Documents

Immigrants applying to work legally in the United States have filed a class action lawsuit against the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), alleging that it takes too long to achieve clearance to work legally in the country, which hurts the workers financially.

USCIS is supposed to take 90 days to process applications and provide immigrant workers with the proper employment authorization documents (EADs) they need in order to work in the United States legally, but this process typically takes longer than that, the immigrants claim in their class action lawsuit.

The USCIS class action lawsuit was filed on May 22 in a federal court in Washington state by three immigrants with the help of two advocacy groups, the Northwest Immigrants Rights Project and the Advocates for Human Rights, who are also named defendants. Both organizations provide legal assistance to immigrant workers in the United States.

In the event that the USCIS is unable to provide EADs to immigrant workers within the 90-day window, the federal agency is supposed to give workers interim documents, which are supposed to cover the workers for 240 days, the class action lawsuit explains. However, “USCIS regularly fails to timely adjudicate EAD applications, and never issues interim employment authorization.”

The immigrant workers allege that USCIS and DHS are violating regulations and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) in their failure to process their EAD applications according to the law.

The three plaintiffs are Marvella Arcos-Perez who currently lives in Tacoma, Carmen Osorio-Ballesteros who lives in Rockford, Illinois, and W.H. who is an asylum applicant who lives in St. Louis.

All three plaintiffs have filed applications for EADs more than 90 days ago and have yet to receive interim documents that would allow them to work in the United States legally.

According to the immigrant worker class action lawsuit, “defendants’ failure to grant interim employment authorization in accordance with this regulation leaves EAD applicants at risk of being unable to support themselves and their families as a result of lost jobs or interruptions in employment.”

Immigrant workers who have the proper documentation and who are able to “prove their eligibility to work in the United States earn higher wages than those who do not,” which they argue in the class action lawsuit, also benefits the U.S. economy as they are able to “pay more in federal and state taxes and have more disposable income to spend on goods and services.”

In addition, the workers claim that that “in some cases, the lack of employment can result in the loss of driver’s licenses, as well as work-related medical and other benefits.”

USCIS also nullifies “individual plaintiffs’ regulatory right to interim employment authorization while their EAD applications are pending.”

In the case of asylum applicants, such as W.H., they are supposed to wait 150 days from their first claim to stay in the United States to apply for EADs, but EAD applications are then supposed to be processed in 30 days. USCIS has also failed to process W.H.’s application within that 30 day window.

“If an asylum applicant does not have an extension of work authorization timely adjudicated and continues to work without such authorization, he or she accrues unlawful presence which may have potentially devastating consequences for future immigration to the United States,” the class action lawsuit explains.

There is no attorney information available for USCIS at this time.

The plaintiffs are represented by Christopher Strawn of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, Melissa Crow and Leslie K. Dellon of the American Immigration Council, Robert H. Gibbs, Robert Pauw, Devin Theriot-Orr and Erin Cipolla of Gibbs Houston Pauw, Scott D. Pollock, Christina J. Murdoch and Kathryn R. Weber of Scott D. Pollock & Associates PC, and Marc Van Der Hout of Van Der Hout Brigagliano & Nightingale LLP.

The Immigrant Worker Class Action Lawsuit is Northwest Immigrant Rights Project et al. v. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Case No. 2:15-cv-00813, in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.