Upwardly Global CEO Jina Krause-Vilmar was recently featured in an Axios article examining the growing anxiety among white-collar employers and immigrant professionals amid a new wave of immigration enforcement actions.
The article, “Immigration crackdown fears hit white-collar offices,” explores how recent federal actions are creating uncertainty for workers with legal status under humanitarian programs such as asylum, Temporary Protected Status (TPS), and parole. These newcomer professionals now face the risk of losing their ability to work and remain in the U.S., even if they are currently authorized.
Friction point: White-collar employers are perhaps most nervous about employees who have work authorization under humanitarian programs — temporary protected status, asylum or parole — now under fire from the White House.
These might include people from countries like Venezuela, Afghanistan, Ukraine or Haiti. “Even if they’re legal today, they don’t know if they’re going to be legal tomorrow,” says Jina Krause-Vilmar, CEO of Upwardly Global, a nonprofit that offers career assistance to immigrants.
The piece also features insights from Daniel Pierce, an immigration attorney at Fragomen, a long-standing Upwardly Global partner. He noted that employers are scrambling to verify work authorization and prepare for potential disruptions:
“Employers are scrambling to figure out who they can employ because one of their obligations is to verify someone if their employment authorization is ending.”