The Trump administration is proposing to eliminate a 60-day grace period for foreign workers who lose their jobs, potentially forcing them and their families to leave the United States immediately or risk deportation.
The proposed rule, set to formally publish in the Federal Register on Sept. 11, would apply to workers in several temporary visa categories. They include H-1B workers in specialty occupations, L-1 intracompany transferees, O-1 workers with extraordinary abilities and Canadian and Mexican professionals with TN visas.
It would also affect their dependents, whose ability to live — and, in some cases, work — in the United States is tied to the principal visa holder’s status.
For nearly a decade, workers who lose their jobs have had up
to 60 days to find another sponsor, change their immigration status or prepare to leave. Created under President Barack Obama's administration, the grace period was intended to give highly skilled workers more freedom to change jobs and help American companies recruit foreign workers already in the country.
The new proposal would eliminate that breathing room. A worker abruptly fired or laid off would fall out of status the next day, forcing families to scramble to break leases, sell homes, pull children out of schools or find another way to remain in the country. Those who stay without legal status could be issued a Notice to Appear, the document that begins deportation proceedings.
The move is the latest in a broad push by the Trump administration to restrict legal immigration by raising visa costs, tightening screening and limiting pathways to remain in the country. It also represents another blow to the H-1B program, which allows American companies to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations that typically require at least a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent. The program has faced particular scrutiny as the administration has imposed a $100,000 fee on certain new petitions and changed the lottery system to favor higher-paid workers.
"We can't catch a break," said Carlos Lemus, an H-1B visa-holder who works at a technology company in California. "This past year has felt like having a noose tightening around your neck. The tech sector has been hit by so many layoffs. If something happens, how am I supposed to pack up my life and my children's lives in just one day?"
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for comment.
Whether H-1B visas help or hurt American workers has long divided policymakers. Critics say companies use the program to hire foreign workers for less, depressing wages and displacing U.S. employees. Supporters counter the visas help fill shortages and bring in talent that drives innovation and growth.
Research on whether H-1B workers displace Americans is mixed, but several studies have found broader economic benefits. One study found that increases in foreign STEM workers boosted productivity and wages for U.S.-born workers without significantly reducing their employment. Another found that higher H-1B admissions increased science and engineering employment and patenting, with limited effects on U.S.-born scientists and engineers.
A 2024 study using Census Bureau data found that companies that secured H-1B workers grew faster, generated more revenue and were more likely to survive, without displacing college-educated U.S.-born workers overall. But a 2022 study reached a different conclusion, finding that each additional H-1B visa displaced about 1.5 other workers at the sponsoring company and had limited effects on innovation.
DHS’s case for eliminating the grace period rests on the idea that a worker’s legal status should end when the job supporting it does, the department wrote in the proposed rule. Because Congress did not create the 60-day window, the agency argued the Homeland Security secretary can remove it.
DHS also casts the change as a matter of efficiency. Under the current policy, immigration officers reviewing a worker’s next application must establish when the previous job ended and decide how much, if any, of the grace period should apply.
The agency estimates that nearly 66,000 workers lost, left or changed jobs on average each year from fiscal 2021 through 2025. About 3,800 on average annually had a new employer file a petition for them within 60 days, and more than 99% were H-1B workers.
But those figures offer only a partial picture. DHS based them on petitions withdrawn by employers, and some companies never report when a worker leaves. The agency said it could not estimate how many workers — or family members whose status depends on them — would ultimately have to leave the country.
The proposal’s trade-offs are stark even in DHS’s own analysis. The agency identified no direct benefits for workers or employers, while acknowledging that workers could lose wages, families could face sudden relocation costs and companies could suffer disruptions and temporary declines in productivity.
And some of the government workload may simply move elsewhere. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services would spend resources placing workers who do not leave into deportation proceedings, DHS wrote, generating more work for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Justice Department’s already backlogged immigration courts.
Meanwhile, the proposal could make H-1B visas less attractive to workers considering jobs in high-turnover fields, including startups and innovative technology companies, said Daniel Di Martino, an economist and fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank.
Rather than reduce the number of visas issued, he said, the change could steer workers away from high-paying, innovative employers. And, he added, "by having the prospect of immediate self-deportation over their workers," the proposed rule would give companies greater power over employees — leverage that could particularly benefit third-party placement firms with low wages or unethical labor practices.
"Both of these effects go against the president’s agenda of reducing abuse of the H-1B program and supporting truly high-skilled immigration," Di Martino said.
For now, workers still have the 60-day grace period. The proposal must first go through 60 days of public comment, after which DHS could change it, abandon it or issue a final rule setting a date for the grace period to end.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: New Trump plan gives foreign workers no grace period after job loss
