Welcome to the Garfinkel Immigration news roundup, where every month we will summarize and provide links to the latest stories impacting U.S. immigration.
Below is the November 2025 edition of the Garfinkel Immigration news roundup:
DHS ends automatic extensions of Employment Authorization Documents (EADs)
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced an interim final rule late last month ended the 540-day automatic extension of employment authorization documents (EADs) for most noncitizens filing renewal EAD applications.
The rule took effect on Oct. 30 and impacts almost all noncitizens who apply for an EAD renewal on or after that day, reducing their automatic work permit extension from 540 days to 0 days.
Applications filed before Oct. 30 were not impacted and will continue to receive automatic extensions of their employment authorization documents.
Impacted categories include spouses of principal E and L nonimmigrants (A17 & A18); H-4 nonimmigrants (C26); pending Adjustment of Status applicants (C9); Asylum application pending (C8); and TPS Granted (A12), amongst others.
Very limited exceptions exist to the interim final rule, including for extensions of EADs required “by law or through a Federal Register notice for TPS-related employment documentation.”
Immigration challenges facing the U.S. healthcare workforce
A significant portion of the healthcare workforce has historically relied on foreign-born physicians, nurses, and other allied healthcare positions, particularly in underserved areas. Recent immigration developments and proposals, however, are limiting access to these essential workers and complicating long-term workforce planning.
In Garfinkel Immigration’s latest white paper, Associate Attorney Brian Daza and Partner Colleen F. Molner, head of the Firm’s Healthcare Specialty Practice Group, examine the immigration challenges currently facing the healthcare workforce including the proposed elimination of Duration of Status, the new $100,000 H-1B visa fee, changes to shortage area designations, and more.
Read the full white paper here.
What noncitizens should know before traveling internationally this holiday season
As the holiday season approaches, many noncitizens living in the United States begin planning trips abroad to visit family or recharge. But for those on nonimmigrant visas, in particular, international travel carries more than just logistical considerations. It carries legal ones, too.
Each year, travelers encounter delays, refusals of reentry, or even visa complications that might have been avoided with a clearer understanding of travel requirements. From visa stamps to pending applications, from port-of-entry inspections to digital device searches, the rules of international travel are complex and changing.
In her latest blog, Associate Attorney Ana Delgado Hulade provides a guide which will help noncitizens prepare for international travel during the holiday season.
Trump revives policy penalizing immigrants for using safety net programs
The Trump administration published a proposed rule earlier this month that would rescind the Biden administration’s 2022 public charge rule, as detailed in this story by Politico.
“But instead of reviving the public charge rule from the first Trump term, the agency pledged to release guidance at an unspecified future date,” the story reads. “That effectively would give more power to individual Citizenship and Immigration Services officers to make determinations about who they think is or could become a public charge.”
The proposed public charge final rule, which was published in the Federal Register on Nov. 19, is subject to a 30-day comment period.
“Some health policy experts and immigrant rights advocates are warning that the change, if it takes effect, will cause both individual suffering and negative population-wide effects,” the story reads.
Find out more here via Politico.
Federal judge blocks IRS from sending ICE taxpayer information for deportations
A federal judge temporarily blocked earlier this month the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from sharing certain information with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The judge called the information sharing between the agencies “unlawful,” according to The Hill.
“(The judge) ordered that the IRS halt any further ‘unlawful’ data transfers,” The Hill story reads. “She also assessed that there was a ‘substantial likelihood’ that the data-sharing agreement violated provisions of the Internal Revenue Code and went against the IRS’s own ‘policy of strict confidentiality.’”
The story added that the judge “noted she could not order ICE or its parent agency — the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) — to ‘take any particular action with respect to the information received from the IRS’ … since neither ICE nor DHS were parties in the lawsuit.”
Read the full story from The Hill here.
Lawsuit filed on behalf of immigrants fined up to $1.8 million for remaining in the country
A lawsuit was filed in late November challenging fines from the government “designed to encourage immigrants in the U.S. illegally to leave the country,” according to this story from the Associated Press.
“Daily fines of $998, designed to encourage immigrants in the U.S. illegally to leave the country, have been imposed on more than 21,500 people who lawyers said were trying to comply with immigration laws,” the story reads. “The fines are ‘grossly disproportionate to the gravity’ of any immigration violations, said the suit, calling them unconstitutional.”
“The people we serve are doing exactly what the law requires — pursuing legal relief through immigration courts and immigration agencies,” Hasan Shafiqullah, one of the attorneys who brought the lawsuit, said in a news release (via the AP). “In return, the government is threatening to seize their wages, cars, even their homes.”
Find out more about the lawsuit via the Associated Press here.