BS BULLETIN:

• The Trump administration is proposing to eliminate the up-to-60-day grace period that allows certain foreign workers to remain in the U.S. after losing the job tied to their visa.
• The change would affect H-1B workers along with several other employment-based visa categories.
• DHS says the move would restore the expectation that foreign workers leave the country when the employment underlying their legal status ends.

The Trump administration is taking another swing at the nation’s legal immigration system — this time targeting what happens when a foreign worker loses the job that allows him or her to remain in the United States.

The Department of Homeland Security is proposing to eliminate the up-to-60-day grace period currently available to certain employment-based nonimmigrant workers after their employment ends.

The proposed rule is scheduled for publication in the Federal Register on Friday, Sept. 11.

Under current regulations, workers in several visa classifications can generally remain in lawful status for up to 60 consecutive days after their employment ends, giving them time to find another qualifying employer, change status or prepare to leave the country.

DHS wants to eliminate that provision.

“This proposal restores a direct relationship between an alien’s nonimmigrant status and the specific employment or activity that formed the basis of his or her admission or grant of status in the United States,” the department says in the proposed rule.

The change would apply to workers in E-1, E-2, E-3, H-1B, H-1B1, L-1, O-1 and TN classifications, along with their dependents.

That makes the proposal considerably broader than just the heavily debated H-1B program.

The current grace period was established by a DHS rule finalized in 2016 and effective Jan. 17, 2017 — just three days before Donald Trump first took office.

DHS now argues that allowing workers to remain after the qualifying employment has ended creates a disconnect between their immigration status and the reason they were admitted to the country in the first place.

The department also says eliminating the grace period could benefit American workers.

DHS assumes employers losing foreign workers would generally have several options: offer those jobs to equally qualified U.S. workers, sponsor another eligible nonimmigrant worker or redistribute the work among existing employees.

The agency acknowledges that some employers could temporarily lose productivity because of the increased turnover.

The proposal does not take effect Friday.

Publication begins the formal rulemaking process, including a public-comment period before DHS can move toward a final rule.

But it represents another significant piece of the administration’s broader effort to reshape legal immigration — and particularly employment-based immigration — around the argument that American workers should receive greater protection in the domestic labor market.

MY QUICK TAKE

Here’s one of those Washington rules that sounds stranger the longer you explain it: Your legal status is tied to your job.

You lose the job.

But you don’t lose the status tied to the job — at least not immediately.

Trump’s DHS is essentially saying: If the job is the reason you’re here, losing the job matters.

The immigration lobby will undoubtedly call this cruel. Corporate America may call it disruptive.

A whole lot of American workers may have another question: When exactly did protecting their shot at the job become the controversial position?

DBS WIRE SOURCES

• Fox News — Trump admin proposes ending 60-day grace period after job loss for H-1B, other visa holders
• Federal Register — DHS proposed rule eliminating the up-to-60-day grace period
• USCIS — Options for nonimmigrant workers following termination of employment
• USCIS — H-1B specialty occupations
• USCIS — Temporary (nonimmigrant) workers