In a nearly party-line vote, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins voted with fellow Republicans on Wednesday to allow a Trump administration rule that could remove certain groups of immigrants from the workforce while they wait for the federal government to renew their work authorizations.

Thousands of people in Maine who are seeking asylum or have Temporary Protected Status have been granted permission to work legally for a certain period of time, and it needs to be renewed periodically for them to remain in the workforce.

For the past decade, while the federal office that processes work permits has faced a backlog of applications, if someone got their renewal paperwork in on time, their work permit could be automatically extended until the renewal is processed and approved. That would avoid a lapse when the person wouldn’t be allowed to work.

On Oct. 30, the Trump administration ended the practice of automatic extensions, and on Wednesday, senators voted 50-47 to uphold that order. One Republican, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, voted with Democrats and independents, including Sen. Angus King, in a failed attempt to overturn the rule. Two Republicans and one Democrat did not vote.

Immigrant advocates and the state chamber of commerce said the decision will hurt workers and employers.

“People are going to lose their jobs,” said Martha Stein, senior adviser at the nonprofit Hope Acts, which has helped thousands of immigrants in Maine apply for work authorization and renewals. 

Legally, if someone’s work permit expires, employers have no choice but to let them go, she said.

Historically, Collins has shown support for allowing immigrants to work while they wait for their asylum applications to be considered. In 2024, for example, she and the rest of Maine’s congressional delegation tried to make people eligible to work even closer to when they initially filed an asylum claim.

In a statement Wednesday night, Collins said she voted to uphold the Trump rule because otherwise, the system would’ve defaulted to automatic extensions of work permits for up to a year and a half, and she felt that was too long.

“I support returning to the 180-day extension that was in place during the first Trump Administration that would allow asylum seekers to continue working while their claims are being adjudicated,” Collins said in an emailed statement.

The vote will not make the system revert to that 180-day extension, though. The Trump administration ended automatic extensions altogether. It said the rule is meant to prioritize proper vetting and screening and it’s part of Trump’s executive order “Protecting the American People Against Invasion.”

The Biden administration had extended the automatic extension from 180 days to a year and a half because it determined that otherwise, there could be a significant gap in employment authorization. The Trump administration called that determination “speculative.”

WHAT IT MEANS TO MAINE

Seafood processing and healthcare are the industries most likely to be affected by the rule change, said Patrick Woodcock, president of the Maine Chamber of Commerce, though immigrants with legal statuses affected by the rule are employed in a wide variety of industries. 

The end of automatic extensions is among a series of changes the Trump administration is making to the processes that have allowed certain groups of immigrants to work legally. These changes could mean a significant number of people drop out of the workforce at a time when Maine faces a labor shortage, Woodcock said.

“Collectively I think it’s going to set up a real maze for this immigrant population,” he said. It could also create a burden on local services to support people who are no longer able to work, but who are staying in the U.S. while they wait for a judgment on their asylum claims.

If the new rules do result in a lapse in employment authorization, employers could face fines if they don’t fire someone, and for the employee, the consequences can be even more severe: Working without authorization can make someone eligible for deportation and criminal penalties.

The Trump administration said the automatic extension posed a security risk because it could allow bad actors to continue to work and generate income and potentially finance “nefarious activities.”

But to Stein, “It’s just cruel and unnecessary.”

She said people get vetted when they initially get authorized to work, and employers do additional vetting before they hire someone. If an employee is suspected of a crime, it would get handled through the criminal justice system.

“If this administration was truly interested in vetting and the safety of the country, they would hire and train a lot more qualified people to process work permits,” she said.

The Senate vote was part of a process known as the Congressional Review Act that allows lawmakers to challenge federal regulations during a specific time period after they’re issued. The Senate would’ve needed a simple majority to overturn the rule, which would’ve then gone to the House for a vote.

If it had passed, it also would’ve barred the administration from creating future rules that were substantially the same. That could have prevented the administration from scaling back Biden’s year-and-a-half automatic extension to Collins’ preferred 180 days.

Congress could reinstate automatic extensions for a specific period of days, which Woodcock thinks would be useful for employers in Maine, though he deferred to Congress on how long that period should be.

“I do think there’s bipartisan support,” he said. He hopes Wednesday’s vote can motivate Congress, “to make sure we don’t unnecessarily lose employees.”

The Trump administration, meanwhile, hopes the series of changes it’s made to asylum and work authorization policies will result in fewer people coming to the U.S., and fewer applications, which would eliminate delays in processing them.