Foxx joins coalition against Trump administration effort to block asylum seekers from working

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx has joined a coalition of leaders from major cities and states that are opposed to new rules that would make it harder for people seeking asylum in the country to work.

The group is challenging new restrictions by President Donald Trump’s administration it says will “indefinitely delay” or in some cases bar asylum seekers from access to employment authorization.

“The Trump Administration continues to take extraordinary steps to block people from creating better and healthier lives,” Foxx said in a statement Tuesday. “These discriminatory rules are creating unnecessary immoral barriers to employment and inhibiting communities from thriving.”

The new rules require asylum seekers to wait a year before applying for employment authorization and will eliminate a previous rule that applications for employment authorization be processed within 30 days, the state’s attorney’s office said in a release.

The coalition, led by New York Attorney General Letitia James and District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine, is asking the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland to uphold a preliminary injunction against the rules.

The group argues the rules will cause states and cities will lose tax revenue, increase social service costs and will harm their ability to enforce their own laws, according to legal filings.

So far, 20 state attorney generals and 10 cities and or counties have joined the coalition, according to Foxx’s office.