Latest news with #workauthorization
The Independent
11-07-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Jeff Bezos' Amazon is purging workers who had status revoked under Trump: report
Amazon is purging warehouse workers who had their work authorizations revoked after President Donald Trump's administration ended an immigration program put in place under President Joe Biden, according to The New York Times. Hundreds of employees at a warehouse in West Jefferson, in central Ohio, have lost their jobs as part of the purge. Across the country, thousands of foreign workers have lost their right to live and work in the U.S. and been removed from jobs where they were in high demand. The Trump administration has orchestrated immigration raids in workplaces and at businesses such as Home Depot seeking out illegal day laborers. A Springfield, Ohio Haitian community leader, Viles Dorsainvil, told The NYT that the dismissals are 'not unique to Amazon,' adding that terminations have also occurred in other warehouses, auto-parts plants, and stores. The removals are taking place at many of Amazon's more than 1,000 facilities across the country. The terminations have affected warehouses in Massachusetts and Staten Island, New York. Hundreds were let go at a warehouse in Florida, The NYT found. Amazon told the The NYT it had prepared for the change in policy by the Trump administration, changing its staffing plans as it waited for guidance from the administration, which arrived in June. The Independent has reached out to Amazon for comment. 'We're supporting employees impacted by the government's recent changes in immigration policy,' a spokesperson for the company told The NYT. Amazon has reportedly informed its workers they may be eligible for free or low-cost outside legal services. The company went on a hiring spree as the pandemic increased demand for deliveries and it provides information in several languages in some of its warehouses, including Spanish, Vietnamese, and Haitian Creole. Other workers at the West Jefferson warehouse come from Afghanistan, Bhutan, and Somalia. However, workers and local officials told the paper that Haitians make up the largest share of foreign workers and may outnumber Americans. The Supreme Court granted a temporary approval on May 30 for the Trump administration to end a program called 'humanitarian parole.' It had allowed more than half a million migrants to quickly get work permits if they had a financial sponsor. The migrants came from countries experiencing political upheaval, such as Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. The effort to roll back the program was part of the administration's promise to conduct mass deportations. The Department of Homeland Security said on June 12 that it had started notifying migrants the program was coming to an end, arguing that the migrants had not been properly vetted and that they undercut Americans. As the change was announced, D.H.S. spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said that the end of the program 'will be a necessary return to common-sense policies, a return to public safety and a return to America First.' In a June 22 email obtained by The Times, Amazon told its managers that it had 'received the first list from D.H.S. identifying impacted Amazon employees' from the program, in addition to 'some employees outside of this specific program whose work authorization is similarly affected.' Amazon reportedly told its managers the affected employees would be made aware the following day via a push notification in the employee app. If they couldn't provide alternative documents showing their right to work in the U.S. in the next five days, they would be suspended without pay and subsequently dismissed. 'The Department of Homeland Security (D.H.S.) has informed us that the work authorization that you had submitted is no longer valid,' the notification stated.
New York Times
11-07-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Trump's Purge of Foreign Workers Arrives at Amazon's Warehouses
Frantzdy Jerome, a Haitian immigrant in central Ohio, received shout-out after shout-out for his work at an Amazon warehouse he joined last year. In March, his manager commended him in a message for his 'reliability, hard work and dedication to our team.' 'Thank you for your flexibility and picking up the extra shifts,' read another message, on June 7. Two weeks later, Mr. Jerome, 35, lost his job. His work authorization was revoked in late June after the Trump administration ended a Biden-era program that allowed him to live and work legally in the United States. Hundreds of others at the same Amazon building in West Jefferson, which employs more than 3,700 people, also lost their jobs. They are among thousands of foreign workers across the country who have been swept up in a quiet purge, pushed out of jobs in places where their labor was in high demand and at times won high praise. While raids to nab undocumented workers in fields and Home Depot parking lots have grabbed attention, the job dismissals at the Amazon warehouse are part of the Trump administration's effort to thin the ranks of immigrants who had legal authorization to work. 'This is not unique to Amazon,' said Viles Dorsainvil, a Haitian community leader in nearby Springfield. He is aware of more than 100 Haitians with work authorizations who are now out of work in the area, he said, with the terminations reducing work forces in warehouses, auto-parts plants and stores. Such dismissals are happening at many of Amazon's more than 1,000 facilities around the country, including in Massachusetts and the warehouse in Staten Island that fills orders for millions of New Yorkers. At one fulfillment center in Florida, hundreds were let go, a person familiar with the site said. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Bloomberg
03-06-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Walmart Cuts Some Florida Jobs After Immigration Rulings
Walmart Inc. is terminating some jobs in Florida following recent Supreme Court rulings about legal residency of migrants, the latest sign that such orders are hitting US workplaces. The company has told some employees in at least two stores in the state that they would lose jobs if they don't get new work authorizations, said people familiar with the matter.
The Guardian
03-06-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Millions of legal immigrants' lives upended after social security froze program without notice: ‘I lost the job'
Millions of legal immigrants may be left unable to work after the US Social Security Administration quietly instituted a rule change to stop automatically issuing them social security numbers. The Enumeration Beyond Entry program is an agreement between the Social Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security, where US Citizenship and Immigration Services would provide social security with information from applicants for work authorization or naturalization. The program began in 2017 under the first Trump Administration. Without any public notice, on 19 March, the program was halted, impacting millions of immigrants every year and burdening Social Security Administration offices, as those applicants will now have to visit a Social Security Administration office and apply separately to receive a social security number. Following the freeze, the Trump administration issued a memo on 15 April aimed at preventing undocumented immigrants from receiving social security benefits, but provided no evidence of it being an issue. Trump and Elon Musk, billionaire former leader of the so-called 'department of government efficiency' (Doge) have falsely claimed these programs are being used to attract unauthorized immigrants to vote for Democrats. 'Unauthorized immigrants are not eligible for Medicare or social security retirement benefits. Nor does any evidence exist that unauthorized immigrants fraudulently receive benefits in large numbers,' wrote Geoffrey Sanzenbacher, an economics professor at Boston College, in a blog post. Lee Thacker moved to south-west Minnesota last summer with his now wife, a native of the US. After getting married, he applied for a work authorization card while his permanent residency application was being processed. When the 52-year-old from Pontypridd in Wales received his work authorization card at the end of April 2025, he began applying for jobs and received a job offer. After he failed to receive his social security number, 'I lost the job,' said Thacker. 'I needed a background check and the company doing the check required a social security number, and the company itself has a policy of not employing people without social security numbers. So I am legally entitled to work, but in practice I can't because no one will employ me without a social security number.' He noted the work authorization form, I-765, still has a checkbox on it to fill out to receive a social security number card, which he did. He paid $260 for the employment authorization card application and was expecting to receive it within two weeks of receiving his work authorization card. Thacker was not informed why until he visited a Social Security Administration field office about half an hour away, where he was informed about the change. In 2022, undocumented immigrants paid $25.7bn in taxes to Social Security, despite not being eligible to receive the benefits. 'It's definitely affected a lot of individuals. We've tried to warn all of our clients,' said Jennifer Bade, an immigration lawyer based in Boston, Massachusetts. Bade explained the issues and difficulties immigrants face in visiting a Social Security Administration field office, including having to take time off work, language barriers, and issues and delays for immigrants who need a social security number to start a job, open a bank account, or receive a loan. 'The pausing of this program makes no sense,' added Bade. 'It's all just meant to attack immigrants, and it has no actual benefits. Pausing this program literally has no benefits.' Democrats on the House committee on oversight and government reform urged the Social Security Administration to reverse its decision to freeze the program. According to ranking member of the committee, the late Congressman Gerald Connolly, the acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration personally approved the pause despite legal concerns and warnings over the effects of pausing the program. Hope Rudasill of North Carolina said her husband, whose name is being kept anonymous for fear of retaliation, recently filed for a work authorization card, but did not expect the delay in receiving a social security number, as he was told it would be issued automatically when he filed his application. 'My husband hasn't been able to start his job search because most employers require a valid social security number before even considering applications. It's also prevented him from applying for a driver's license which limits his ability to get around independently,' Rudasill told The Guardian. 'We haven't been able to open a joint bank account, which is not only inconvenient for managing finances, but also creates challenges when we go to our adjustment of status interview [an essential part of applying for lawful permanent residency] as a shared bank account is a key piece of evidence to prove we're building a life together and not having that documentation makes the process more stressful.' The rule change came as billionaire Musk pushed misinformation about immigrants and social security benefits, including touting data from the Enumeration Beyond Entry program, falsely claiming it was evidence of fraud. In fiscal year 2024, 3.24m initial employment authorization documents were approved by US Citizenship and Immigration Services. The costs of issuing a social security number through this program in the same year, according to a Social Security Administration memo, was $8 per issuance, compared to $55.80 in a field office. Those field offices are also operating with reduced staff, as the Social Security Administration sought to cut staff by at least 12%, and Doge has terminated leases for at least 47 offices at the agency. The freeze is likely to add even more pressure to staff at the agency, in addition to new phone restrictions implemented by the Trump Administration, which will require individuals to make 1.93 million additional trips to Social Security field offices annually. 'I was hoping I would be able to work within a few months of applying for permanent residency, once I got the employment authorization card,' Lee Thacker added. 'If I had known social security cards were no longer being sent out automatically, I would have made an in-person visit shortly after getting my employment authorization card. There must be many people waiting patiently expecting to receive their social security cards. If this is a permanent change local SSA offices will be receiving more in-person visits at a time when staffing numbers are being reduced.' The US Citizenship and Immigration Services did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The Social Security Administration said in an email: 'The Enumeration Beyond Entry (EBE) process is currently paused for noncitizens granted work authorization (I-765) and newly naturalized US citizens (N-400) for 90 days, while the agency is evaluating its enumeration policies and procedures. SSA will continue to process EBE applications for those granted legal permanent resident status (I-485) along with all EBE applications that were filed prior to March 18, 2025.'
