![\"Immigration](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/FU3A8575-1000x667.jpg\")
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Rob Salinas\/Houston Public Media<\/p>\n
Protesters gathered at Ervan Chew Park in Houston on Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025, to demonstrate against the immigration policies of President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration has proposed a new rule<\/a> that would make it harder for some immigrants to obtain legal authorization to work in the U.S., which could have a significant impact in the Houston area and across Texas.<\/p>\n The rule, published Friday in the Federal Register, would affect people with temporary protection to enter the country and not be deported. That includes immigrants on humanitarian parole and deferred action recipients, including those covered under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals<\/a> (DACA).<\/p>\n U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) stated, in its executive summary of the proposed rule, that the proposed changes were designed to comply with an executive order President Donald Trump issued in 2025 on the first day of his second term in office, entitled, \u201cProtecting the American People Against Invasion<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n Sign up for the Hello, Houston!<\/a> daily newsletter to get local reports like this delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n “DHS [U.S. Department of Homeland Security] also seeks to ensure that its rules are aligned with the Administration’s efforts to reduce illegal immigration and the incentives for aliens to try to obtain immigration benefits outside of the comprehensive scheme Congress has provided for aliens to legally immigrate to the United States,\u201d the proposed rule\u2019s executive summary reads. \u201cEnforcement is essential to the integrity of the immigration system.”<\/p>\n Gordon Quan, senior attorney with the Quan Law Group, said the new rule could be devastating to immigrants in the Houston area, particularly asylum seekers from Latin America.<\/p>\n “I think the logic is to discourage people from seeking refuge in the United States,” Quan said, “because if they cannot work to support their families, then they have to work illegally or starve.”<\/p>\n Austin-based immigration attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch said it’s hard to overstate the potential effect the threat to immigrants’ work authorizations could have on their lives and those of their families.<\/p>\n “When you have a job, and you have an apartment and a car and a family, and you, all of a sudden, lose your work permit,” Lincoln-Goldfinch said, “some landlords will not continue to rent homes or apartments to people who don\u2019t have work eligibility. So, somebody can face an entire disruption in their life and their ability to support themselves and their family based on a denial or even a delay of a work permit.”<\/p>\n Quan said several key sectors of the Houston economy also would feel the impact of the proposed rule.<\/p>\n “We\u2019re facing shortages [of labor] in the area of construction, of food service, and just many basic services,” Quan said. “I was with the American Business and Immigration Coalition recently, looking at the dire need for workers who can work legally.”<\/p>\n RELATED: Texas restaurant owners sounding alarm over immigrant labor shortages<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n