November 10, 2026
The Honorable Markwayne Mullin
Secretary, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
2707 Martin Luther King Jr Ave SE
Washington, DC 20528
Re: Eliminating the Discretionary 60-Day Grace Period (DHS Docket No. USCIS-2026-0364)
Dear Secretary Mullin,
On behalf of the 24 national unions in the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE), I write to oppose the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s proposed rule “Eliminating the Discretionary 60-Day Grace Period” (DHS Docket No. USCIS-2026-0364). As explained below, eliminating the up to 60-day grace period for workers on E-1, E-2, E-3, H-1B, H-1B1, L-1, O-1, or TN visas would make it easier for employers to lower labor standards for all workers, increase employers’ incentives to bypass available U.S. workers, and incentivize workers employed on these visas to accept exploitative working conditions.
The NPRM is directly relevant to DPE’s affiliate unions, which represent over four million professional, technical, and other highly skilled workers. Members of DPE’s unions include U.S. citizens; permanent residents; and people employed through the nonimmigrant visa programs impacted by the proposed rule. DPE’s response to the NPRM, as well as its long standing advocacy for fundamental reforms to high-skilled temporary work visa programs - including increasing the grace period to 90 days - is informed by the experiences of these union professionals.
The H-1B and other higher-skill nonimmigrant visa programs play an important role in the economy by attracting skilled talent, including members of our unions, to the United States. However, too often employers misuse these programs to lower labor costs by replacing U.S. professionals with workers paid below-market wages. In the H-1B context, this misuse undermines the program’s purpose of supplementing the U.S. workforce.
DPE believes that administrative actions can be important steps toward fixing broken temporary work visa programs. In October 2025, DPE wrote to your predecessor urging DHS to adopt a wage-based visa allocation process that prioritizes graduates of U.S. colleges and universities. Earlier this year, DPE wrote to then Acting Labor Secretary Sonderling urging the Department of Labor to raise the H-1B program’s minimum wage to the median wage for an occupation and area.
However, unlike modernizing the visa allocation process and raising the prevailing wage rates, DPE does not believe the present NPRM will improve standards for professionals. Rather, it will only enshrine imbalances between employers and employees that hurt U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, and other workers authorized to work in the United States.
Misuse of the H-1B program (and other temporary work visa programs) occurs in large part because employers control their employees’ ability to live and work in the United States. Employers know that workers employed through nonimmigrant visa programs are less likely to speak up about low pay, bad benefits, or poor working conditions if it may mean needing to leave the country immediately. Employers also use this power imbalance to threaten and retaliate against workers who report wrongdoing or exercise their rights under the law, including union rights. This leverage also gives employers a reason to prefer visa workers over U.S. professionals. A worker who can be silenced by the threat of removal costs less and complains less than a U.S. citizen or permanent resident who can quit, organize, or file a complaint without risking the right to remain in the country. Eliminating the grace period would strengthen that leverage and, with it, employers’ incentive to bypass available U.S. workers.
The NPRM fails to account for the fact that a grace period benefits workers and U.S. labor standards. For workers without full labor market mobility, a grace period provides the ability to quit a bad job while reducing opportunities for employer coercion. Knowing that a retaliatory or unlawful termination does not mean they must immediately depart the country empowers workers to blow the whistle on workplace crimes and exercise their legal rights. The grace period also provides time for DPE’s unions to advocate for the rights of workers covered by their collective bargaining agreements. Eliminating it would also immediately end the lawful status of workers’ spouses and children, forcing families to uproot their lives with little or no notice. In effect, the grace period helps correct for a flaw in the H-1B and other broken temporary work visa programs that this Administration has said it wants to fix.
DPE therefore urges the Administration to withdraw the proposed rule, extend the grace period to 90 days as DPE has long urged, and focus on actions that will reduce employer misuse of the H-1B program and other temporary work visa programs. Work with Congress to restore funding and staffing to DOL through the appropriations process. Make it easier for H-1B workers to change jobs and self-petition for permanent status. Prohibit outsourced work arrangements where H-1B workers are assigned to third-party job sites. Bar employers who violate labor and employment laws from temporary work visa programs. Provide protections, including work authorization, to noncitizen workers who blow the whistle on employers’ violations of labor and employment law. Regulate foreign labor recruiters and pursue prohibitions on fees charged to workers.
If you have any questions, please contact me or DPE Assistant to the President/Legislative Director, Michael Wasser at mwasser@dpeaflcio.org.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Dorning, President