Healey-federal partnership could approve work authorization for migrants in weeks, not months

A new effort between the state and the Department of Homeland Security could drastically cut the amount of time it takes migrants to get work authorization approval — and get families working and out of emergency shelter.

The state said it will be partnering with the federal agency to host work authorization clinics for migrants in shelters during the weeks of Nov. 13 and Nov. 27, to help process the applications as efficiently as possible.

Now, heads of several organizations working at the clinics tell GBH News that the goal is to get eligible migrants work authorization within two to three weeks after they attend the clinic — a stark difference from the four months or more it currently takes for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to process applications.

Jill Seeber, founder of the Boston-based nonprofit Mabel Center for Immigrant Justice, which is helping organize the clinics, said the process is “unique.” That's because U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials — who are part of the Department of Homeland Security — will be on-site and able to assist with filings.

“Applicants will be able to receive work authorization much, much quicker,” she said. “Instead of a few months, it'll be a few weeks.”

Dr. Geralde Gabeau, executive director of the Mattapan-based Immigrant Family Services Institute, said migrants will only have to wait two weeks to receive work permits after the the clinics. She said government officials have been largely quiet about the expectations because the process is so new. “I think, because it's a pilot, they are not really advertising it,” she said.

This time reduction is key to helping the state reduce the numbers of families living in state shelters, currently at its threshold of 7,500. Approximately half are migrants. The goal is to process hundreds of individual work authorization applications per day, supported by over 200 volunteers each week, according to the New England chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the Healey administration. Federal officials didn’t comment for this story.

What’s changing?

The process is meant to help migrants arriving in Massachusetts after being detained at the border and released on humanitarian parole, a discretionary permission from the federal government to remain in the United States temporarily.

Migrants also can apply for work authorization using their asylum application but must wait five months after that initial application before they can even apply for a work permit.

Robin Nice, chair of the New England chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said applying under humanitarian parole is a “much easier” process, and it's likely most people will apply this way.

Courtesy of Roni Amit, professor at University of Massachusetts School of Law

Gov. Maura Healey has repeatedly called on the Biden administration to speed up work authorizations for migrants, a call echoed by elected officials on both sides of the aisle. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, and other legislators, recently wrote to the Department of Homeland Security asking for a number of policy changes. “Unable to pay for housing, many new arrivals have no choice but to rely on overburdened state and local shelter systems, and some turn to sleeping in public spaces such as hospital emergency rooms, or even on the streets, when shelters are full,” they wrote.

One of the changes they asked for is removing the application fee for work authorizations, which can cost $495, and an extensive application for a fee waiver. Next week, migrants at emergency shelters will instead be able to present a letter saying they’re in emergency shelter to bypass that.

“Senator Warren has been coordinating with the Department of Homeland Security, other officials in the Biden administration, and the Healey administration to find solutions to federal work authorization for new arrivals, including working closely with federal and state officials to help ensure the success of the upcoming work authorization clinics in Massachusetts,” a spokesperson for Warren's office told GBH News.

In preparation of next week's clinics, law students and professors at state universities have been volunteering at emergency assistance shelters.

Roni Amit, a professor who heads the Immigration Law Clinic with University of Massachusetts School of Law, said her group has been asked to help with the screening process of new arrivals at hotels. Staff from the clinic, along with 24 law students, volunteered last week at a state shelter in Dartmouth and screened more than 30 families.

“Not everyone can get work authorization,” she said. “It depends on how you entered the country and what your status was when you entered. So we were going through that with families to determine if work authorization was something they could apply for.”

How will it work?

Migrants at emergency shelters are being encouraged to bring a government-issued ID, or their humanitarian parole document. Organizers declined to tell GBH News where the clinics will be out of concern migrants will want to walk-in who haven't been vetted as candidates for work authorization.

The Harvard Immigration & Refugee Clinical program has a dozen students and attorneys prepared to volunteer. The Massachusetts Bar Association, Boston Bar Association and Boston University’s Immigration Law Clinic also will have attorneys involved at the clinic, along with multilingual interpreters.

Another benefit of the new program is that many migrants will be able to apply for a waiver for the cost of the permit. Normally, the cost for applying and the fingerprinting is $495. Instead, federal immigration officials will be accepting a letter showing that migrants are in shelter, and they qualify for a fee waiver. Government officials also plan to fingerprint people on-site, which should cut down processing time.

A similar effort is ongoing in New York City, where officials reported over 60,000 migrants living in city shelters in October. Mayor Eric Adams has limited shelter stays for families to 60 days, though time limits are not currently in place in Massachusetts shelters.

Since the end of June, New York City’s Asylum Application Help Center filed 6,768 applications, and over 1,500 work authorization applications, according to Adams’ office. They referred GBH News to the Department of Homeland Security on how many of those were approved. DHS and US Citizenship and Immigration Services didn’t respond to inquiries for this story.