Federal officials earlier this month denied Maine's request to allow asylum seekers in the state to get work authorization faster.
Federal law requires asylum seekers to wait a minimum of 180 days after filing their case before being eligible to work in the U.S. In October of last year, the Maine Department of Labor requested a waiver to that provision.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services denied that request earlier this month, saying "Only Congress can change this statutory requirement."
U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree and U.S. Sen. Susan Collins have introduced legislation multiple times in recent years to shorten the work permit wait period to 30 days.
Efforts to allow asylum seekers to gain work authorization sooner have attracted bipartisan support in Maine. But the state GOP is also increasingly critical of aid to asylum seekers, as they were in their response to last week's State of the State address.
