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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 159 / Friday, August 20, 2021 / Proposed Rules
mitigate the beneficial impacts to employers.
The early possible entry into the labor force of some positive-screened credible fear asylum applicants is not expected to change the composition of the labor market, as it would affect only the timing, not the scale of the labor force.
However, there may be some labor market impacts from asylum seekers who currently enter the labor market with a pending asylum application and who may no longer be entering the labor market under this proposed rule if they get a decision sooner on their asylum claim. As we cannot predict how many people would be impacted in such a way, we are not able to quantify this impact.
Furthermore, there may be tax impacts for the Government. It is difficult to quantify income tax impacts of earlier employment in the tight labor market scenario because individual tax situations vary widely, but the Departments estimate the potential contributory effects on employment taxes, namely Medicare and Social Security, which have a combined tax rate of 7.65 percent 6.2 percent and 1.45 percent, respectively.89 With both the employee and employer paying their respective portion of Medicare and Social Security taxes, the total estimated accretion in tax transfer payments from employees and employers to Medicare and Social Security is 15.3 percent.90
The Departments will rely on this total tax rate where applicable. The Departments are unable to quantify other tax transfer payments, such as for Federal income taxes and State and local taxes. As noted above, the Departments do not know how many individuals with a positive credible fear determination will be affected, and what the average day-difference would be, and therefore the Departments cannot make an informed monetized estimate of the potential impact. It therefore follows that the Departments cannot monetize the potential tax impacts of the proposed rule. However, the Departments can provide partial quantitative information by focusing on the workday earnings presented earlier.
At the wage bounds, the workday
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89 See
Internal Revenue Service Publication 15, Circular E, Employers Tax Guide for Specific Information on Employment Tax Rates Feb. 4, 2021, https www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p15.pdf; see also Market Watch, More Than 44 Percent of Americans Pay No Federal Income Tax Sept. 16, 2018, https www.marketwatch.com/story/81million-americans-wont-pay-any-federal-incometaxes-this-year-heres-why-2018-04-16.
90 Calculation: 6.2 percent Social Security + 1.45
percent Medicare 2 employee and employer losses = 15.3 percent total estimated tax loss to Government.

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earnings, at $136.88 and $314.00, are multiplied by 0.153 to obtain $20.94
and $48.04, respectively, with a midpoint of $34.49, which are the daily employment tax impacts per individual.
The tax impacts per person would accrue to the total day-difference in earnings scaled by 0.714, to reflect a five-day workweek.
Having developed partial based on an individual basis monetized impacts of this proposed rule, there are two important caveats applicable to the population of asylum applicants who have received a positive credible fear determination. Foremost, as we detail extensively in the following module, there will be resource requirements and associated costs needed to make this proposed rule operational and effective.
These changes will not occur instantaneously and may require months or even a year or more to fully implement. While existing USCIS
resources will be able to effectuate changes for some individuals rather quickly, others and thus the entire population from an average perspective will face a time horizon in realizing the impactsgenerally the impacts are beneficial as they include earlier asylum determinations, income gains, and possible filing cost-savings. While the time horizon would not be accounted as a cost to applicants, some may face a delay in realizing such benefits. Second, despite the possibility that some baseline EAD filers may choose not to file in the future, there could be mitigating effects to concomitant volume declines for Form I765c8
submissions.
In closing, we have noted that the impacts developed in this section apply to the population that receives a positive credible fear determination.
Additionally, for the subset of this population that receives a negative asylum determination from USCIS, the possibility of de novo review of their claim by an IJ may benefit some applicants by affording another opportunity for review and approval of their asylum claims.
ii. Impacts to USCIS
a. Total Quantified Estimated Costs of Regulatory Changes In this section, DHS discusses impacts to the Federal Government. Where possible, cost estimates have been quantified, otherwise they are discussed qualitatively. The total annual costs are provided only for those quantified costs that can be applied to a population.

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Costs of Staffing to USCIS
USCIS will need additional staffing to implement the provisions presented in this proposed rule. The staffing requirement will largely depend on the anticipated volume of credible fear referrals. In addition to asylum officers, USCIS will require additional supervisory staff, operational personnel, and organizational structures commensurate with the number of asylum officers needed. USCIS
anticipates an increased need for highergraded field adjudicators and supervisors to implement the provisions of this proposed rule. Approximately 92
percent of the field asylum officers are currently employed at the GS12 pay level or lower.91 Under this model, USCIS will be assuming work normally performed by an IJ. EOIR data indicate the weighted average salary of $155,089
in FY 2021 for IJs, $71,925 for Judicial Law Clerks JLCs, $58,394 for Legal Assistants, $132,132 for DHS Attorneys, and $98.51 per hour for interpreters.92
Notably, entry-level IJs are required to adjudicate a wider array of immigration applications than asylum officers, and their decisions are not subject to 100
percent supervisory review, unlike current USCIS asylum officers. As such, under this proposed rule, USCIS asylum officers making final decisions on statutory withholding of removal and CAT protection cases would be at a GS
13 minimum, considering they will be conducting adjudications traditionally performed only by IJs.93 In addition, first-line Supervisory Asylum Officers SAOs reviewing these decisions would be graded at a GS14.94
Currently, not all SAOs are at a grade GS14. However, aligning all first-line SAOs to a GS14 ensures operational flexibility and makes this position consistent with the similar work processes and functions performed by the first-line Supervisory Refugee Officer position.
Currently, USCIS refers all credible fear determinations to IJs at EOIR. This 91 In 2021, the base salary for a GS12 ranges from $66,829, at step 1, up to $86,881, at step 10. See Office of Personnel Mgmt., Salary Table 2021GS
Incorporating the 1% General Schedule Increase Effective January 2021, https www.opm.gov/
policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/salaries-wages/
salary-tables/pdf/2021/GS.pdf last visited May 17, 2021.
92 Weighted average base salaries across position, FY, and location are drawn from DOJ EOIR PASD
analysis. Interpreter wages are presented hourly here, as these positions are paid differently and not always on an annual basis. In 2021, the base salary for a GS15 step 3 is $117,824 and step 4 is $121,506. See id.
93 In 2021, the base salary for a GS13 step 1 is $79,468. See id.
94 In 2021, the base salary for a GS14 step 1 is $93,907. See id.

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