June 10, 2021

Expert: Business Visa Categories Outmoded

Hannah Miao, CNBC, June 10, 2021 “We have not revamped our legal immigration categories, including business immigration, since 1990. Some of those categories are out of alignment with our needs in the United States today,” said Stephen Yale-Loehr, an immigration law professor at Cornell Law School , who was not involved with the NAE study.  “The pandemic has exacerbated those inconsistencies because people who are desperately...

June 09, 2021

Expert: Congress Must Fix TPS Problem

Aline Barros, VOA, June 8, 2021 "For many TPS holders, hopes of a path to U.S. citizenship were dashed Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that certain immigrants with TPS cannot get green cards, or permanent residency, in the United States. The court’s unanimous decision affects those who entered the United States unlawfully and without inspection. The justices unanimously found that having TPS does...

June 08, 2021

Strategies for a Future Immigration System: Webinar, June 9, 2021

Documented Talks: "Immigration Matters," Strategies for a Future Immigration System "How do we build a more humane immigration system in the U.S.?   In their new book, "Immigration Matters: Movements, Visions, and Strategies for a Progressive Future," Ruth Milkman, Deepak Bhargava, Penny Lewis convened a group of scholars and activists to try to envision this new future. The contributors tackle...

June 08, 2021

80 Unions and Scholars Ask Garland to Support NAIJ, Withdraw Decertification

Letter, June 7, 2021 - Department of Justice Should Support the National Association of Immigration Judges and Withdraw the Petition to Decertify its Union "We, the undersigned unions, organizations, immigration law professors and scholars, and other immigration court stakeholders call your attention to the urgent need to preserve and protect the National Association of Immigration Judges (NAIJ) and support collective...

June 03, 2021

Migratory Notes 215, June 3, 2021

Migratory Notes 215, June 3, 2021 - Heartland Immigration Boom; Maine’s Bantu farmers; Texas disaster?...and much, much more!

June 03, 2021

Slowing U.S. Population Growth Could Prompt New Pressure for Immigration Reform

Muzaffar Chishti and Randy Capps, May 26, 2021 "The 2020 decennial census revealed a near-record decline in U.S. population growth over the last decade. Between 2010 and 2020 the population grew just 7.4 percent—the second-lowest rate of any decade since the country’s first census in 1790, and just a hair faster than the record-low 7.3 percent growth rate during the 1930s, amid the Great Depression. One important...

June 03, 2021

Rethinking the U.S. Legal Immigration System: A Policy Road Map

Muzaffar Chishti, Julia Gelatt and Doris Meissner, May 2021 "The U.S. legal immigration system, built on a scaffolding first established in 1952 and last significantly updated by Congress in 1990, is profoundly misaligned with demographic and other realities—resulting in enormous consequences for the country and for its economy. This misalignment is the principal cause for illegal immigration. It is also responsible...

June 02, 2021

Cyrus Mehta: DOS Guidance on ART is Welcome

Cyrus Mehta, June 2, 2021 "On May 18, 2021, the State Department issued  guidance  broadening the path for transmission of US citizenship to a child born abroad to married parents. The guidance is reproduced below: Recognizing the advances in assisted reproductive technology the State Department is updating our interpretation and application of Section 301 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), which...

June 01, 2021

Expert: Biden Immigration Proposal a "Good First Step"

Jorge Cancino, Univision, May 31, 2021 "Either by eliminating the barriers imposed by its predecessor or authorizing new regulations that soften procedures and / or requirements, the Joe Biden government has in mind undoing the entirety of the 'zero tolerance' immigration policy inherited from Donald Trump to create a new system. And just as the ex-president did, he will have to do it by means of memoranda...

May 28, 2021

Migratory Notes 214 (May 27, 2021)

Migratory Notes 214, May 27, 2021 - Can Biden keep his refugee promise?...ICE deportations lowest on record...Border Patrol out of $$?...and so much more!

May 28, 2021

$220K Penalty Settles I-9 Beef with LNK International, Inc.

DOJ, May 27, 2021 "The Department of Justice announced yesterday that it reached a settlement with LNK International Inc. (LNK), a Hauppauge, New York-based manufacturer of over-the-counter pharmaceuticals. The settlement resolves the department’s claims that LNK violated the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) when it discriminated against work-authorized non-U.S. citizens. Based on its investigation...

May 27, 2021

Free, Public Virtual Events: Driving While Brown (New Book!)

Join top border journalists Jude Joffe-Block and Terry Greene Sterling as they discuss their new book, Driving While Brown: Sheriff Joe Arpaio versus the Latino Resistance .  The book chronicles former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's unprecedented local immigration crackdown and the Latino-led backlash that organized to stop him, sued him for racial profiling, and helped change the political landscape of Arizona...

May 27, 2021

Providers Ask Biden to Bolster LOP

Letter, May 25, 2021 Statement from Immigration Legal Services Providers to the Biden Administration: Abandon Harmful Trump Policies and Include Immigrants in DOJ Access to Justice Initiative -  21 Legal Services Contractors Call for Restoration of Legal Access Programming in the Immigration Courts "... During the Trump administration, legal access programs in the immigration courts were consistently under attack...

May 25, 2021

What Does “Credible Fear” Really Mean?

Elizabeth L. Silver, May 24, 2021 "A FEW MONTHS BEFORE COVID-19 descended, I spent a week in Dilley, Texas, as a volunteer attorney at the South Texas Family Residential Center, which is essentially a holding center, specifically for women and their children. It’s the last stop before expedited removal and the place where many women and children are sent once they’ve claimed fear of persecution for the purpose...

May 24, 2021

The End of Asylum?

You know you have a hit on your hands when Stacey Abrams writes a cover blurb: "Required reading for an understanding of how the Trump administration wrecked the U.S. asylum system and how our humanitarian legacy can be restored." To be honest, it was a painful read for me, as I had (on purpose, I guess) forgotten many of the details, even though I lived through them, professionally (I began my law practice...

May 22, 2021

The Additional H-2B Visa Numbers: Too Few, Too Late...And The "Irreparable Harm" Attestation is Ultra Vires

To understand what is wrong with the DHS/DOL Joint Temporary Final Rule adding 22,000 H-2B visas to the quota (6,000 reserved for nationals of the "Northern Triangle" countries of Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala), see my July 25, 2017 Law360 Expert Analysis  - H-2B Visas and the Making of an Ultra Vires Regulation - (still fresh as a daisy, unfortunately) and David J. Bier's comments on Twitter . ...

May 22, 2021

Immigration Nerds Talk with Steve Yale-Loehr About his 35 Years in Immigration Law

Erikson Immigration Group, May 2021 "In this week’s Immigration Nerds podcast, we talk to Steve Yale-Loehr , the co-author of  Immigration Law and Procedure, the leading 21-volume treatise on U.S. immigration law . Over his 35-year career, Mr. Yale-Loehr, founded and was the original executive director of Invest In the USA, a trade association of EB-5 immigrant investor regional centers, and is now a Professor...

May 21, 2021

UNHCR Calls for End to CDC Title 42 Blockade

UNHCR, May 20, 2021, Statement attributable to UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi "I appeal to the government of the United States to swiftly lift the public health-related asylum restrictions that remain in effect at the border and to restore access to asylum for the people whose lives depend on it, in line with international legal and human rights obligations. I welcome the US government’s plans...

May 20, 2021

Lawsuit Filed against CoreCivic in NM

ACLU-NM, May 13, 2021 " The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico and the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center (NMILC) today filed a lawsuit on behalf of nine asylum-seekers formerly detained at the Torrance County Detention Facility as well as the Santa Fe Dreamers Project, a non-profit that advocates for immigrants and refugees detained in New Mexico. The lawsuit alleges that CoreCivic violated the individual...

May 20, 2021

Migratory Notes 213, May 20, 2021

Migratory Notes 213, May 20, 2021 - Immigration lawyers under surveillance; Global pandemic refugees; ICE ordered to stop detention at two county jails...and so much more!

May 20, 2021

Unleashing International Entrepreneurs to Help U.S. Economy Recover from Pandemic

Dan Berger, Steve Yale-Loehr, Doug Rand, Leon Rodriguez, Lindsay Milliken, Kelli Duehning, Megan Kludt, Jeff Goldman, and Michael Serotte, May 20, 2021 "In 2014, then-Secretary of the  Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Jeh Johnson issued a memo  (the 2014 memo) recommending “policies supporting U.S. high-skilled businesses and workers.”  DHS offered a range of policies for updating the employment-based immigration...

May 20, 2021

Remembering Esequiel Hernández, Jr. - 25 Years Ago, U.S. Marines Shot and Killed This U.S. Citizen on American Soil

Every year around this time I remind readers: "In 1997, U.S. Marines patrolling the Texas-Mexican border as part of the war on drugs shot and killed Esequiel Hernández, Jr.  Mistaken for a drug runner, the 18 year old was, in fact, a U.S. citizen tending his family's goats with a .22 rifle.  He became the first American killed by U.S. military forces on native soil since the 1970 Kent State shootings.   The Ballad...

May 19, 2021

Cyrus Mehta: Proposals for Shattering Barriers and Obstacles to Legal Immigration Without Waiting for Congress to Act

Cyrus Mehta, May 19, 2021 "Re: USCIS-2021-0004, Identifying Barriers Across U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Benefits and Services; Request for Public Input I would like to propose ideas that would provide relief to beneficiaries of immigrant visa petitions caught in the backlogs.  While I understand that President Biden has proposed the US Citizenship Act of 2021, my proposals do not need legislative...

May 19, 2021

Rocketdyne Misunderstood ITAR, Pays DOJ $37K to Settle Immigration Discrimination Claim

DOJ, May 17, 2021 "The Department of Justice today announced that it reached a settlement with Aerojet Rocketdyne Inc. (Aerojet Rocketdyne), a rocket and missile propulsion manufacturer. The settlement resolves a charge brought by a lawful permanent resident whom Aerojet Rocketdyne did not consider for a mechanic position because of his immigration status. The department’s investigation concluded that Aerojet...

May 19, 2021

Utah Opens Law Enforcement Jobs to Certain Non-Citizens

On March 16, 2021, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed S.B. 102, the Peace Officer Training Qualifications Amendments  bill, into law, permitting some lawful permanent residents to apply to become peace officers or dispatchers.  Here is a May 18, 2021 Op-Ed by Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown, supporting the new law.