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July 16, 2024

USCIS Policy Alert: EB-5 Regional Center Noncompliance and Sanctions

USCIS, July 16, 2024 "U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is issuing policy guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual to address the new provisions added to the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) by the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 (RIA) relating to the consequences to regional centers, new commercial enterprises, job creating entities, and investors for noncompliance in the EB-5 program.&q...

July 15, 2024

DOS: Easing the Nonimmigrant Visa Process for U.S. College Graduates

DOS, July 15, 2024 " On June 18, 2024, the Biden-Harris Administration announced actions to more efficiently process employment-based nonimmigrant visas for those who have graduated from college in the United States and have a job offer. As part of this initiative, the Department clarified existing guidance to consular officers related to when they should consider recommending that DHS grant a waiver of ineligibility...

July 14, 2024

Does the Signing of the I-485 Supplement J By a New Employer Constitute Visa Sponsorship?

Cyrus D. Mehta and Jessica Paszko, July 13, 2024 "Portability under Section 204(j) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) allows certain employment-based green card applicants to change jobs or employers while their adjustment of status (Form I-485) application is pending. Portability becomes available once the I-485 has been pending for at least 180 days. It must be exercised by submitting Supplement J ...

July 11, 2024

Advance Copy of DOS Final Rule: Regulatory Changes to Accreditation and Approval Regulations in Intercountry Adoption

This document is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on 07/12/2024 "The Department of State (the Department) publishes a final rule revising the Code of Federal Regulations to amend requirements for accreditation and approval by the United States to provide adoption services in intercountry adoption cases. This rule amends regulations to provide clarification, updates, or other adaptation of familiar...

July 10, 2024

Visa Bulletin for August 2024

Visa Bulletin for August 2024

July 09, 2024

CA4 on Naturalization, Burden of Proof: Azumah v. USCIS

Azumah v. USCIS - Vacated and remanded by published opinion. Judge Harris wrote the opinion, in which Judge Thacker joined. Judge Richardson wrote a separate opinion concurring in part and concurring in the judgment. ARGUED: Benjamin Ross Winograd, IMMIGRANT & REFUGEE APPELLATE CENTER, LLC, Alexandria, Virginia, for Appellant. ON BRIEF: Ava Cayetano Benach, BENACH COLLOPY LLP, Washington, D.C., for Appellant. "As...

July 08, 2024

TPS for Yemen Extended, Redesignated

DHS media release here . Advance copies of FR notices here and here .

July 05, 2024

EOIR on Classified Information

June 18, 2024 memo from Chief IJ Sheila McNulty July 1, 2024 memo from CAIJ David H. Wetmore

July 05, 2024

CA8 on Nexus, Evidence: Rivera v. Garland

Rivera v. Garland "The BIA and IJ both failed to conduct the required careful examination of the record to determine whether religion may have been one of multiple central reasons for the gang members’ persecution of Rivera. ... Neither the BIA nor the IJ considered the possibility that Rivera’s religion could have been an additional central reason for his persecution. This was error. The BIA and IJ...

July 04, 2024

EOIR Launches Respondent Access Portal

EOIR, July 2, 2024 "The Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) today announced the launch of Respondent Access Portal , a secure online platform that allows unrepresented individuals who have a hearing scheduled before EOIR to view their case information and scheduled hearings online, download their electronic case file, and file documents with the immigration court."

July 04, 2024

Colo. Ct. App. on 287(g) - Nash v. Mikesell

Nash v. Mikesell "A division of the court of appeals considers whether Colorado law prohibits state or local law enforcement officers from performing the arrest and detention functions of federal immigration officers under an agreement executed pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1357(g). The division concludes that the agreement violates Colorado law. Specifically, it concludes that state or local law enforcement officers...

July 02, 2024

Sup. Ct. Takes Up Voluntary Departure Case: Velazquez v. Garland (CA10)

VELAZQUEZ V. GARLAND DECISION BELOW: 88 F.4th 1301 (CA10) CERT. GRANTED 7/2/2024 QUESTION PRESENTED: Federal immigration law allows the government to grant a "voluntary departure" period of up to 60 days to a noncitizen "of good moral character" who receives an adverse decision in removal proceedings. 8 U.S.C. §1229c(b). If the noncitizen fails to depart during that window, he or she is...

July 02, 2024

CA9 on Crime of Violence, CIMT, Reopening: Gutierrez v. Garland

Gutierrez v. Garland "Sergio Manrique Gutierrez petitions for review of a Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) decision dismissing his appeal of an order of removal by an Immigration Judge (“IJ”) based on Gutierrez’s conviction of an aggravated felony crime of violence and for having been convicted of two crimes of moral turpitude. The BIA affirmed the IJ’s holding that Gutierrez’s...

July 02, 2024

BIA Amicus Invitation (due July 29, 2024)

BIA, June 28, 2024 "The Board of Immigration Appeals welcomes interested members of the public to file amicus curiae briefs discussing the below issue(s): ISSUE(S) PRESENTED: What is the scope of the Immigration Judge’s duty to develop the record for a pro se respondent? See, e.g., Arteaga-Ramirez v. Barr, 954 F.3d 812 (5th Cir. 2020); Matter of J-F-F-, 23 I&N Dec. 912, 922 (A.G. 2006); Matter of S-M...

July 02, 2024

White House Extends DED for Liberians (Advance Copy)

This document is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on 07/03/2024 "MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE [and] THE SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY SUBJECT: Extending Eligibility for Deferred Enforced Departure for Liberians ... I hereby direct the Secretary of Homeland Security to take the necessary steps to implement for eligible Liberians: (1) a deferral of enforced departure from the United...

July 02, 2024

ETA Updates H-2A AEWR for Non-Range Occupations

DOL, July 2, 2024 "The Employment and Training Administration published an FRN on June 24, 2024 updating the AEWRs under the H-2A temporary agricultural employment program that apply to a limited set of H-2A job opportunities for which the AEWR is determined using the Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS survey. These changes will go into effect, as stated in the FRN, on July 8, 2024. The Department is also making available...

July 01, 2024

Judge Gee Partially Ends Flores Agreement

Jaimie Ding, Associated Press, June 28, 2024 "A federal judge on Friday approved the Biden administration’s request to partially end a nearly three-decade-old agreement to provide court oversight of how the government cares for migrant children in its custody. U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee ruled that special court supervision may end at the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, which takes custody...

July 01, 2024

OFLC Issues Technical Release Notes for the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics Update for the July 2024 through June 2025 Wage Year

OFLC, July 1, 2024 "The Office of Foreign Labor Certification has published the latest prevailing wage data from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) as generated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the new wage year from July 2024 through June 2025, effective July 1, 2024. Prevailing wage determinations issued from the National Prevailing Wage Center reflect the 2018 SOC codes. View the...

July 01, 2024

Federal Court Blocks OK Immigration Law

USA v. Oklahoma "Oklahoma “may have understandable frustrations with the problems caused by illegal immigration . . . , but the State may not pursue policies that undermine federal law.” Arizona, 567 U.S. at 416. Should more explicit guidance foreclose that conclusion, this Court will listen. But until then, for the reasons set forth herein, the United States’ motion for a preliminary injunction...

July 01, 2024

Diversity Visa 2020 and 2021 Update

State Department, June 27, 2024 "On June 25, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit reversed the district courts’ decisions in Gomez v. Biden , Rai v. Biden , Goodluck v. Biden, and Goh v. Biden , which had ordered the State Department to reserve and adjudicate diversity visa (“DV”) cases from the DV-2020 and DV-2021 program years. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the...

June 28, 2024

TPS for Haiti Extended, Redesignated

DHS, June 28, 2024 "Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas today announced the extension and redesignation of Haiti for Temporary Protected Status for 18 months, from Aug. 4, 2024, to Feb. 3, 2026, due to extraordinary and temporary conditions in Haiti. The corresponding Federal Register Notice provides information about registering for TPS as a new or current beneficiary under Haiti’s extension...

June 28, 2024

R.I.P. Chevron

Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo What will it mean for immigration litigation? Superlitigator Brian Green says, "The overruling of Chevron opens the door to U.S. federal judges scrutinizing USCIS, DOL, State Department, ICE and CBP decisions and policies. Many courts should now be inclined to be less deferential to U.S. immigration agency decisions than in the past."

June 26, 2024

OFLC Updates Appendix A

OFLC, June 26, 2024 "On November 15, 2021, the Employment and Training Administration issued a Federal Register notice (FRN) informing the public that the Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) was updating Appendix A to the Preamble–Education and Training Categories by Occupational Information Network (O*NET)–Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) Occupations. Appendix A is a list of professional...

June 26, 2024

The Uncertain Path of the D-3 Waiver for DACA Recipients under Biden’s New Immigration Initiative

Cyrus D. Mehta and Kaitlyn Box, June 25, 2024 "On June 18, 2024, the Biden administration announced two new immigration initiatives aimed at keeping families together. The first is a “parole in place” program which will provide a pathway for undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens to become lawful permanent residents (LPRs). In order to be eligible, the noncitizen spouse must have entered the U.S. without...

June 25, 2024

CA9 on One Central Reason: Alfaro Manzano v. Garland

Alfaro Manzano v. Garland "Petitioner Gerson Eduardo Alfaro Manzano, a native and citizen of El Salvador, preached to the youth of his hometown to convince them to embrace religion instead of joining gangs. The gangs did not like this. They attacked him, threatened him, and even tried to kill him. Alfaro Manzano fled to the United States. An immigration judge (“IJ”) granted withholding of removal but...