Supreme Court Decides CSPA Case | On June 9, 2014, the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Scialabba v. Cuellar de Osorio , 2014 U.S. LEXIS 3991 [ enhanced opinion available to lexis.com subscribers ]. The Court held that the BIA’s textually... Read More

Supreme Court: Padilla Did Not Create New Rule: No Retroactive Application to Cases on Collateral Review On February 20, the Supreme Court announced its decision in Chaidez v. United States. The majority of the Court held that the decision in Padilla... Read More

Napolitano Resigns as Secretary of Homeland Security On July 12, 2013, Janet Napolitano announced her resignation as Secretary of Homeland Security, a position she has held since the start of the Obama administration. Napolitano will remain in her... Read More

EOIR Releases Statistics for FY2012 The Executive Office for Immigration Review has released its statistical yearbook for fiscal 2012. As expected, the backlog of cases before EOIR continued to grow, with 326,255 pending proceedings before immigration... Read More

EOIR Releases Plan to Protect Detainees with Mental Disorders | The Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) recently released the first phase of a nationwide plan to provide heightened protections for unrepresented detainees with mental disorders... Read More

USCIS Issues New Guidelines on Credible Fear Interviews On February 28, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued new guidelines for asylum officers charged with determining whether applicants possess credible fears of persecution or torture... Read More

Administration Seeks More Special Immigrant Visas for Afghan Nationals | The Obama administration is urging Congress to expand the number of special immigrant visas available to Afghan nationals who assisted the U.S. government and to do so before... Read More

Federal Judge Certifies Class Action in Mandatory Detention Lawsuit On February 10, 2014, U.S. District Judge Michael Ponsor certified a class consisting of noncitizens in Massachusetts who are challenging their mandatory detention under Section 236... Read More

USCIS Ombudsman Recommends Improvements to SIJ Adjudication Process| On December 11, 2015, the Ombudsman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued a 12-page report containing recommendations for improving the process for adjudicating applications... Read More

Expedited Review Announced for Cases Affected by Specific Administrative Errors USCIS has now established an expedited process for reviewing and correcting decisions resulting from certain administrative errors. This new process allows customers to... Read More

EOIR Revises Docket Priorities | On February 3, 2016, Chief Immigration Judge Print Maggard issued a memorandum revising certain docket priorities for the Executive Office for Immigration Review. In cases involving unaccompanied minors, immigration... Read More

Haitian Family Reunification Parole Program To Begin in 2015 On October 17, 2014, the Department of Homeland Security announced that Haitian beneficiaries of approved family-based immigrant visa petitions may soon be paroled into the United States... Read More

USCIS Issues Policy Memo on International Filings On November 30, 2012, USCIS issued a final policy memorandum outlining the circumstances in which applicants may file Form I-601 (Application for Waiver of Grounds of Inadmissibility) and any associated... Read More

EOIR Appoints New Immigration Judges and Assistant Chief Immigration Judges | In November, the Executive Office for Immigration Review announced the appointment of two new immigration judges and six new assistant chief immigration judges. Jonathan... Read More

USCIS Transitions to Centralized Policy Manual On January 7, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services launched its transition to an online policy manual that will ultimately replace the Adjudicator's Field Manual (AFM). According to USCIS Director... Read More