January 14, 2021

DOJ OIG Report Slams Sessions, Zero Tolerance

DOJ OIG, Jan. 2021 - Review of the Department of Justice’s Planning and Implementation of Its Zero Tolerance Policy and Its Coordination with the Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services

January 14, 2021

Groups Sue EOIR Over Access to Justice

Democracy Forward, Jan. 12, 2021 "Unlawful EOIR Rule Makes Sweeping Procedural Changes That Will Deny Due Process, Cause Wrongful Deportations, and Worsen Case Backlog As Trump Admin Scrambles to Finalize Policies in Waning Days, Coalition of Immigration Justice Orgs File Suit to Block EOIR’s Dramatic Changes Late Monday, five immigrant justice groups  filed suit  against the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Executive...

January 13, 2021

A New Administration Will Rely on The Treatise: Immigration Law & Procedure

All immigration law professors, and most practitioners, have or have access to "The Treatise," Immigration Law & Procedure, published by LexisNexis . This is the "must have" item for incoming agency and congressional staffers for the new administration. Immigration Law and Procedure is the 21-Volume "Bible'' of immigration law that has been cited in over 450 federal court decisions...

January 12, 2021

ICE Detention COVID-19 Practices Violate Law: Report

Physicians for Human Rights, Jan. 12, 2021 - Praying for Hand Soap and Masks "The harsh and punitive conditions reported in this study show that ICE practices did not comply with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance or with ICE’s own Pandemic Response Requirements, creating unacceptable health risks which violated the constitutional and human rights of detainees. International law requires governments...

January 12, 2021

Groups Sue EOIR Over Asylum Rule

NIJC, Jan. 8, 2021 "Immigration legal service providers are joining together to  sue  the U.S. government agency that oversees immigration courts to block a Trump administration rule that would create insurmountable obstacles for people applying for asylum in the United States. The  rule , scheduled to take effect on January 15, is one of an onslaught of new regulations the Trump administration has finalized...

January 08, 2021

Expert: Houston Chef Hits Trump's "Invisible Wall"

Gabrielle Banks, Houston Chronicle, Jan. 7, 2021 "Every day Chef Sanjay Kumar Kashyap whipped up 30 fresh recipes for a vegetarian Thali-style Indian restaurant in southwest Houston. In a month, he prepared a whopping 900 different curries, dals, paneers, chutneys, flatbreads, desert dumplings and delicacies at the storefront eatery that prides itself on starting from scratch. That was the executive chef’s arduous...

January 07, 2021

Migratory Notes 194 (Jan. 7, 2021)

Migratory Notes 194, Jan. 7, 2021 - Where was DHS? We fled failed governments; Expulsions on the rise...and much, much more!

January 06, 2021

Report: "Remain in Mexico" Program Harms Kids, Families

Human Rights Watch, Jan. 6, 2021 "The  United States  government’s “Remain in Mexico” program subjects children and adults to serious, ongoing harm, including abduction and rape, and should be quickly and decisively dismantled, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. President-elect Joe Biden should quickly act on his promise as a candidate and end the  two-year-old program . The 103-page report, “...

January 06, 2021

Expert: SC Decision in Niz-Chavez Could Affect "Hundreds of Thousands of Cases" (Law360)

Suzanne Monyack, Law360, Jan. 1, 2021 "The justices heard oral arguments in November in a challenge to DHS' practice of sending required information about an immigrant's deportation proceedings separately across multiple documents, rather than including it all in one notice. ... If the Supreme Court holds that deportation notices must be sent as one document to stop the clock on residency accrual, the ruling...

January 04, 2021

Cyrus Mehta on Trump's Last Gasp: Extending the Visa Bans

Cyrus Mehta, Kaitlyn Box, Jan. 4, 2021 "On the last day of 2020, Trump issued a  Presidential Proclamation  extending two previous Proclamations –  Proclamation 10014  (Suspension of Entry of Immigrants Who Present a Risk to the United States Labor Market During the Economic Recovery Following the 2019 Novel Coronavirus Outbreak) and  Proclamation 10052  (Suspension of Entry of Immigrants and Nonimmigrants Who...

January 03, 2021

CBP Deports American Citizen Babies

Felipe De La Hoz, The Intercept, Jan. 2, 2021 "U.S. Customs and Border Protection has used a controversial Centers for Disease Control and Prevention order authorizing the expulsion of asylum-seekers on supposed public health grounds to send multiple U.S.-born infants — who are by law U.S. citizens — and their migrant families across the southern border to Mexico. In interviews with The Intercept, three asylum...

January 03, 2021

Experts: Trump's Extension of Visa Ban a "Time Bomb" and a "Mistake"

Lubna Kably, Shilpa Phadnis, TNN, Jan. 2, 2021 "The outgoing US president Donald Trump has extended the ban on H-1B and L-1 work visas through March ... [Cyrus] Mehta said Trump deliberately planted this time bomb for Biden, knowing that it would be politically unpalatable to rescind the ban on day 1 since unemployment due to Covid-19 is still high. But at least the new ban’s shelf life is only till March 31, he...

December 30, 2020

Mich. FOIA Lawsuit Seeks Tanton Records

Martin Slagter, Michigan Live, Dec. 29, 2020 "The Michigan Supreme Court will hear arguments next week over whether sealed off records of an anti-immigration activist that are housed at the University of Michigan are considered public record. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the case on Jan. 6, 2021, regarding papers in the collection  of the late John Tanton,  who sought to end illegal...

December 29, 2020

Emails Reveal Illegal CBP Actions at Border

NWIRP, Dec. 28, 2020 - NEW EMAILS SHED FURTHER LIGHT ON ILLEGAL DETENTIONS OF IRANIANS "Today, the Council on American Islamic Relations¬-Washington (CAIR-WA) and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP) are making public an official copy of a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) directive that unlawfully directed agency personnel to detain all Iranians at certain U.S. ports of entry along the northern border...

December 29, 2020

Building Better, Not Backward: Learning from the Past to Design Sound Border Asylum Policy

Yael Schacher, Dec. 18, 2020 "During his first week in office, President-elect Biden should issue an executive order on border asylum policy that departs dramatically from that which President Trump put forth during his first week. President Biden’s executive order should give asylum seekers access to the border and provide for cooperation with border states and shelters to safely and humanely receive asylum seekers...

December 28, 2020

MALDEF Sues ExxonMobil Over DACA Policy

MALDEF, Dec. 28, 2020 "ExxonMobil unlawfully denied a DACA recipient a job based on his immigration status, according to a class-action lawsuit filed last Thursday in federal court. MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund) and William G. Simpson of Tin Fulton Walker & Owen in Chapel Hill, N.C., filed the suit on behalf of Aldo De Leon Resendiz, 22. De Leon is a recipient of Deferred Action...

December 28, 2020

EOIR Updates "Myths vs. Facts" Page

@MatthewHoppock reports : " Last week the  @DOJ_EOIR   quietly updated its list of " Myths vs. Facts ." I haven't factchecked the new one, but it's much longer and at first glance appears to even more misleading than the previous one." Looking forward to this being shredded by the New Due Process Army, the Round Table , and others.

December 23, 2020

Deregulating Legal Immigration: A Blueprint for Agency Action

David J. Bier, CATO Institute, Dec. 18, 2020 "These 30 deregulatory actions would lessen the costs of America’s outdated immigration laws. The results would be greater freedom and prosperity for both immigrants and Americans who rely on them."

December 23, 2020

Building Immigration Policy Back Better: Prof. Anil Kalhan

Prof. Anil Kalhan, Dec. 2020 "... Experts have provided detailed recommendations for specific actions that the next administration should take across different areas of immigration policy, and many of those recommendations can and should be swiftly implemented. However, fully rolling back the Trump presidency’s immigration legacy requires more than detailed technocratic attention to specific policies. Several broad...

December 23, 2020

Asylum Seekers And Service Providers Sue Trump Administration To Stop Rules That Block Access To Work Permits

NIJC, Dec. 23, 2020 "A group of asylum seekers and immigrant services organizations are  suing  the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), purported Acting Secretary Chad Wolf, and purported Acting DHS General Counsel Chad Mizelle to vacate  two   rules  that have drastically curtailed access to work authorization and identity documentation for people who flee to the United States and apply for asylum protection...

December 23, 2020

Why 'Accidental Americans' Are Desperate to Give Up Their U.S. Citizenship

Vivienne Walt, TIME Magazine, Dec. 23, 2020 "Other than Eritrea,  the U.S. is the only country  in the world with  citizenship tax rules , demanding that all Americans—including anyone born in the U.S.—submit yearly tax filings to the Internal Revenue Service, no matter where they live. And since 2010, when the U.S. introduced the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA, all the world’s banks have been obligated...

December 22, 2020

Lawsuits Challenge Massive "End of Asylum" Rule

1.  Pangea Legal Services, et al. v. DHS et al. - "[T]he Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program, and Sidley Austin LLP filed suit today challenging the mammoth asylum rule in the Northern District of California on behalf of organizational plaintiffs Pangea Legal Services, Dolores Street Community Services, Inc., CLINIC, and CAIR Coalition. The complaint challenges...

December 21, 2020

From the Bookshelf: Being Sheela, by Adithi Rao

Being Sheela: The Life Journey of an Immigration Lawyer (Harper Collins 2020) "A young mother separated from her children for eight long years; a man facing deportation after being mistaken for a terrorist; a woman forced to endure domestic violence so that she can retain her right to remain in her adopted country… These are just a few among the thousands of people whom Sheela Murthy - lawyer, entrepreneur...

December 19, 2020

Innova Solutions v. Baran: Computer Programmer is a Specialty Occupation Under the H-1B Visa

Cyrus D. Mehta & Kaitlyn Box, Dec. 18, 2020 "On December 16, 2020, the Ninth Circuit issued its opinion in  Innova Solutions, Inc. v. Baran ,  which involved a technology company, Innova, that wanted to hire an Indian employee in the specialty occupation of Computer Programmer, and filed an H-1B petition on his behalf.  Innova Solutions, Inc. v. Baran , No. 19-16849, *4.  USCIS denied the petition stating that...

December 17, 2020

Massive Class Action FOIA Victory: Nightingale v. USCIS

NWIRP, Dec. 17, 2020 "Judge William H. Orrick today, granted summary judgment in favor of two nationwide classes suing the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for failing to timely produce the class members’ immigration files (A-Files). The court found that the agencies’ practice of failing to produce the immigration case files...