Please sign on to this letter (printable version with footnotes here) by submitting the form below.  

Letter last updated on November 13, 2023. 

**This form is accepting signatures on a rolling basis**

Dear Speaker Johnson, Majority Leader Schumer, Democratic Leader Jeffries, and Republican Leader McConnell: 

The XX undersigned businesses, trade associations and chambers of commerce, representing America's most important industries and regional economies, are committed to promoting economic growth and job creation in the United States. From manufacturing to agriculture, and from Main Street to Fortune 500 companies, the U.S. economy relies on our diverse, talented workforce to drive the country forward. We ask you to address a critical statutory barrier preventing many newly arrived asylum seekers from quickly entering the workforce. Under current law, asylum seekers must wait for at least six months after they have applied for asylum to receive a work permit. Unfortunately, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is experiencing chronic case processing backlogs, which means this waiting period can easily last eight months or longer. 

In the meantime, people seeking safety who are already in the United States and want to work are prevented from doing so for months. This hinders their ability to provide for their families, creates a cost for local communities who must tap into public resources to provide shelter and other services, and keeps employers from tapping into a much-needed, willing, otherwise available workforce.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest numbers, there are 9.6 million job openings, with only 6.5 million people looking for work. This issue is important to every one of our communities as we consistently hear from businesses that are struggling with unprecedented worker shortages, especially in industries such as durable goods manufacturing, transportation, accommodation and food, wholesale and retail, and leisure and hospitality. 

Studies have shown that the national labor shortage is the result of two factors: an increase in retirements as the baby boomer generation reaches retirement age, and lower labor participation rates since the pandemic. Indeed, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates that 1.9 million workers have left the workforce since the start of the pandemic in February 2020. 

Simply put, there are too many open jobs without enough workers to fill them. Allowing asylum seekers to enter the workforce more quickly would go a long way towards ameliorating these challenges.

The current barrier to quickly getting asylum applicants into the workforce is statutory and it requires Congress to act. There are several legislative proposals in Congress that not only reduce the waiting period for asylum seekers to obtain work permits from 180 days to 30, but also provide additional funding for work permit processing to increase USCIS' capacity to quickly process work permit applications in the future. We urge Congress to pass legislation that would make these crucial changes to bolster the workforce, allow businesses to grow, and further strengthen our economy.

Sincerely, 

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