April 28, 2023

EOIR Announces Appointment of Sheila McNulty as Chief Immigration Judge

EOIR, Apr. 26, 2023 "The Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) today announced the appointment of Sheila McNulty as the Chief Immigration Judge. Judge McNulty has served EOIR since 2010, including as a part of Office of the Chief Immigration Judge leadership for the past 6.5 years. “Judge McNulty brings to this critical leadership position an incredible depth of experience and both the skills and desire...

April 28, 2023

Changes to Parole Process for Cubans, Haitians

Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 82 / Friday, April 28, 2023 - "This notice announces that the Secretary of Homeland Security has authorized a change to the Parole Process for Cubans that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) described in a Federal Register notice on January 9, 2023. The change provides that those who have been interdicted at sea after April 27, 2023 will be ineligible for the announced parole...

April 28, 2023

OFLC Posts Unofficial Preview 9089, Appendices

OFLC, Apr. 27, 2023 "Office of Foreign Labor Certification Posts Unofficial Watermarked Preview Copy of Revised Form ETA-9089 to Allow Stakeholders to Become Familiar with Changes to the Form The Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) will begin accepting the revised Form ETA-9089 in the on May 16, 2023, but filers are currently permitted to prepare PERM applications in the Foreign Labor Application Gateway...

April 27, 2023

DHS/DOS Announce Sweeping New Actions to Manage Regional Migration

DHS, Apr. 27, 2023 "Today, the Department of State (State) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are announcing sweeping new measures to further reduce unlawful migration across the Western Hemisphere, significantly expand lawful pathways for protection, and facilitate the safe, orderly, and humane processing of migrants. Like many other COVID-era public health measures, the CDC’s temporary Title 42 public...

April 24, 2023

OFLC Announces Form ETA-9089 Case Creation and Case Submission in Foreign Labor Application Gateway

OFLC, Apr. 21, 2023 "The Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) will begin accepting the revised Form ETA-9089, Applications for Permanent Employment Certification in the Foreign Labor Application Gateway (FLAG) system on May 16, 2023. Filers may begin creating and staging applications in the FLAG system on April 24, 2023. As a result of the transition to the revised version of the form and the transition...

April 24, 2023

Free Webinar: Seeking Labor-Based Deferred Action (Wed. Apr. 26th)

NIPNLG Seeking Labor-Based Deferred Action Wednesday, April 26th at 11am Pacific/2pm Eastern Zoom Webinar Duration: One Hour   Cost: Free   CLE Credit: None  Program Description: Immigrant workers involved in a labor dispute may be eligible for deferred action based on new policy guidance issued by DHS in January 2023. In this free webinar, the speakers will delve into issues of eligibility and best practices...

April 21, 2023

ICE launches online CeBONDS capability to automate bond payments

ICE, Apr. 20, 2023 "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced today the implementation of  Cash Electronic Bonds Online (CeBONDS)  – another step toward the modernization of the agency’s immigration processes. This web-based system provides a fully automated, online capability to request verification of bond eligibility, make cash immigration bond payments, and send electronic notifications to cash...

April 21, 2023

USCIS Policy Alert: Citizenship for Adopted Children (Apr. 21, 2023)

USCIS, Apr. 21, 2023 "This guidance, contained in Volume 5 of the Policy Manual, consolidates and clarifies existing guidance on how citizenship and naturalization provisions apply to adoptees and supplements policy in Volume 12 of the Policy Manual on citizenship and naturalization. This guidance is effective immediately."

April 20, 2023

Everything Expedited Removal: NILA Practice Advisory

NILA, Apr. 20, 2023 "Enacted in 1997, expedited removal is the name for the summary removal process applied to persons whom immigration border officers determine are inadmissible for allegedly having false or improper documentation. Expedited removal proceedings have resulted in hundreds of thousands of removals since 1997. The process lacks procedural safeguards and, thus, is rife with errors, resulting in widespread...

April 20, 2023

General Motors to Pay $365K Penalty to DOJ

DOJ, Apr. 18, 2023 "The Justice Department announced today that it has secured a settlement agreement with General Motors (GM) to resolve the department’s determination that GM discriminated against non-U.S. citizens in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). The department also announced the release of a new fact sheet to help employers avoid citizenship status discrimination when complying...

April 20, 2023

DOJ Settles With Micron Technology to Resolve a Claim of Immigration-Related Employment Discrimination

DOJ, Apr. 20, 2023 "The Justice Department announced today that it has secured a settlement agreement with Micron Technology Inc. (Micron), a manufacturer of semiconductor memory and storage products based in Boise, Idaho. The settlement resolves the department’s determination that Micron violated the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) by discriminating against a U.S. citizen when it failed to hire him for a...

April 19, 2023

DHS, DOS Need to Coordinate Immigration Tweets

Cyrus D. Mehta and Kaitlyn Box, Apr. 18, 2023 "On April 11, 2023, USCIS’s post on Twitter created a great deal of interest and some confusion. The tweet indicated that nonimmigrants can apply for jobs or attend job interviews while in B-1 or B-2 status. The post was the subject of numerous press articles, with some incorrectly interpreting it as a change in USCIS policy or authorization for B-1/B-2 visa holders...

April 18, 2023

ICE Withheld Records; ACLU Sued and Won

ACLU of Maine, Apr. 17, 2023 "A federal judge last week ordered United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement to conduct a new search of the agency’s records and to release items related to their detention practices in Maine and a proposed facility in Scarborough. The ACLU of Maine and local immigrants’ rights advocates sued ICE after the agency blatantly ignored the groups’ lawful  2021 request for records...

April 18, 2023

Transcript, Audio of Supreme Court Oral Argument, Apr. 17, 2023: Pugin v. Garland

Supreme Court, Apr. 17, 2023 Pugin v. Garland Docket Number:  22-23 Date Argued:   04/17/23 Play Audio:   Media Formats:   MP3 Download  Transcript (PDF) View

April 17, 2023

OFLC Issues Clarification on Question H.10-B "Acceptable Alternate Occupation Title" on Form ETA-9089

OFLC, Apr. 14, 2023 " OFLC is posting an announcement regarding recent permanent labor certification applications that were denied where the employer did not explicitly answer the question in field H.10-B. OFLC has thoroughly reviewed past and current permanent labor certification (PERM) applications with respect to how question H.10-B on the Form ETA-9089 has been completed. As a result of this review, OFLC...

April 14, 2023

CA2 Vacates Matter of Y-I-M-, 27 I. & N. Dec. 724 (B.I.A. 2019)

Malets v. Garland "Petitioner, a native and citizen of Ukraine, seeks review of a December 12, 2019 decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) affirming the denial of his application for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). Based on ostensible inconsistencies in Petitioner’s testimony and a purported failure to submit corroborating evidence, an Immigration...

April 14, 2023

May 2023 Visa Bulletin: Retrogressions and "Corrective Action"

May 2023 Visa Bulletin Notes: D.   VISA AVAILABILITY IN THE EMPLOYMENT-BASED FIRST PREFERENCE (EB-1) FOR CHINA AND INDIA Increased rest of world demand and number use in EB-1 will most likely necessitate retrogression in the final action dates for China and India in the coming months to hold number use within the maximum allowed under the FY-2023 annual limits. This situation will be continually monitored, and any...

April 13, 2023

How Complicated Is Immigration Law? Take A Look...

Expert immigration litigator Margaret D. Stock recently won this victory in Immigration Court.  Very few attorneys could have spotted, much less threaded, this retroactivity / stop-time rule needle.  (ICE did not appeal.)

April 12, 2023

Safe Address and Special Procedures for Persons Protected by 8 U.S.C. 1367

USCIS, Apr. 11, 2023 "U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is updating policy guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual to provide guidance on mailing address and case handling procedures for persons protected under 8 U.S.C. 1367. Persons eligible for and recipients of survivor-based immigration relief (specifically Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) self-petitioners as well as those seeking T and U nonimmigrant...

April 11, 2023

OFLC Webinars: PERM, 9089

1.  OFLC Announces Technical Webinar on April 20, 2023, to Provide Stakeholders an Update to the Permanent Labor Certification (PERM) Program Modernization Process The Office of Foreign Labor Certification will host an instructional webinar to provide a technical demonstration to employers and authorized attorneys or agents on how to prepare the Form ETA-9089 using the new PERM online filing system. Meeting Details...

April 07, 2023

Advance Copy: CAM Enhancements

This document is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on 04/11/2023 "This notice announces enhancements to the Central American Minors (CAM) Program by, among other things, updating certain eligibility criteria for program access. The CAM Program allows certain qualifying individuals to request access to the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) on behalf of their qualifying children who are nationals...

April 06, 2023

2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

State Department, Mar. 20, 2023 "The annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – the Human Rights Report – cover internationally recognized individual, civil, political, and worker rights, as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international agreements. The U.S. Department of State submits reports on all countries receiving assistance and all United Nations member states to the...

April 05, 2023

Denver IJ Grants CAT, Withholding Relief (El Salvador, PSG)

Prof. Elizabeth Jordan writes: "DU clinic students Anni Winan and Sharon Malhotra got a win in Judge Caley’s courtroom a few weeks ago on behalf of a Salvadoran who fears return to El Salvador under the State of Emergency declared by President Bukele. Notably, Caley found “Salvadoran men with tattoos erroneously perceived to be gang members” cognizable as a PSG, departing from Matter of EAG , and...

April 05, 2023

DOS on "Special Student Relief" for Certain Ukrainian J-1 Students

Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 65 / Wednesday, April 5, 2023 "In accordance with the General Provisions of the Exchange Visitor Program regulations, the Department’s Assistant Secretary for Educational and Cultural Affairs waives and modifies certain regulatory requirements with respect to a temporary educational and cultural exchange program established pursuant to an arrangement between the Government of the...

April 05, 2023

Special Immigrant Juvenile Status & Visa Availability: ILRC Practice Advisory (Mar. 30, 2023)

ILCR, Mar. 30, 2023 "In this resource – updated to reflect significant changes to the Visa Bulletin that will impact special immigrant juveniles beginning in April 2023 – we discuss the visa backlog for youth applying for a green card through special immigrant juvenile status (SIJS). We discuss how to determine when your client may apply for a green card and provide practice tips for representing youth seeking...