Identical DHS and DOS media notes are here and here . Media coverage here , here , here , here , here and here . The intent is to curtail irregular migration through the Darién Gap . [I have...
Cyrus D. Mehta and Kaitlyn Box, July 1, 2024 "The conservative majority Supreme Court recently issued two decisions that will have a major impact on the administrative state by transferring power...
CISOMB, June 2024 "I am pleased to present the Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman’s (CIS Ombudsman) 2024 Annual Report to Congress. This Report, submitted annually...
Gaby Del Valle, The Verge, June 28, 2024 "Chevron deference has given the Department of Homeland Security and its component agencies broad latitude. For example, under Chevron , decisions made by...
Prof. Nancy Morawetz said this on today's ImmigrationProf Blog : "In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’ decision in Loper Bright , you might think that everyone would agree that courts...
Nicole Narea, Vox, Feb. 16, 2022
"Amid nationwide labor shortages in critical industries, more than a million immigrants are waiting on the US government to issue them work permits. Without these permits, many could lose their jobs, and some already have. Biraj Nepal, a Nepali asylum seeker living in Woodland, California, has been working as a software engineer in the IT department of a bank for the last four years. Nepal went on unpaid administrative leave starting on January 26 because his work permit expired and the government has yet to process his renewal application. That has left his employer in a lurch: There’s long been a shortage of IT workers, and the pandemic accelerated that trend as companies went remote. Now, nearly a third of IT executives say that the search for qualified employees has gotten “significantly harder.” If Nepal isn’t issued a new work permit within 90 days of taking administrative leave, his company will, by law, no longer be able to hold his job for him and will likely look for a contractor to fill his role. Under normal circumstances, that wouldn’t be a concern; work permits are meant to be issued quickly so that immigrants can be self-sufficient even while they are waiting on other applications for visas and green cards, which can take months or years to process. But the backlog at US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has reached crisis level. “It’s a critical situation here. I’m in a financial crisis,” Nepal said. “We are being punished by the government without doing any crime.” It only takes about 12 minutes for an official to review an application for a work permit, but an overstretched USCIS still hasn’t been able to keep up."