January 15, 2025

CA10 Slaps BIA, OIL Hard on Lozada: Montufar-Caballero v. Garland

Montufar-Caballero v. Garland (unpub.) - [This should be published!] "The BIA, citing Mickeviciute and Lopez v. Whitaker, 761 F. App’x 790, 793-94 (10th Cir. 2019), concluded Petitioners’ failure to provide a copy of the disciplinary complaint meant they had not complied with the Lozada requirements. Petitioners argue the BIA departed from established policy by creating a new requirement that does not...

January 15, 2025

Second Preference Eligibility for National Interest Waiver Petitions: USCIS Policy Alert

USCIS, Jan. 15, 2025 "This guidance, contained in Volume 6 of the Policy Manual, is effective immediately and applies to requests pending or filed on or after the publication date. The guidance contained in the Policy Manual is controlling and supersedes any related prior guidance on the topic. Policy Highlights • Provides that a petitioner seeking a national interest waiver must first demonstrate qualification...

January 15, 2025

Visa Bulletin for February 2025

Visa Bulletin for February 2025 Notes D & E: D. EMPLOYMENT FOURTH PREFERENCE RELIGIOUS WORKERS (SR) CATEGORY EXTENDED H.R. 10545, signed on December 21, 2024, extended the Employment Fourth Preference Certain Religious Workers (SR) category until March 14, 2025. No SR visas may be issued overseas, or final action taken on adjustment of status cases, after midnight March 13, 2025. Visas issued prior to that date...

January 14, 2025

Challenging U.S. Passport and N-600 Denials under 8 U.S.C. § 1503 - Practice Advisory

NIPNLG, Jan. 10, 2025 "8 U.S.C. § 1503 provides pathways for individuals who were denied a right or privilege of nationality to challenge such denials in federal district court and obtain a declaratory judgment that they are indeed a citizen or national of the United States—by birth, naturalization, or derivative citizenship. These claims generally arise in the context of a passport denial or revocation...

January 14, 2025

O-1 Victory in Vermont!

Superlawyer Ava Benach reports: "Friends, the jamón iberico is on me! I am very excited to share this wonderful decision from Judge Crawford in Vermont finding that the USCIS denial of the José Andrés Group (fka “Think Food Group”) petition for an expert jamón slicer was arbitrary and capricious. The court found that the USCIS decision was arbitrary and capricious because...

January 13, 2025

Advance Copies of TPS Extensions: El Salvador, Venezuela, Sudan, Ukraine

All four will be published on Jan. 17, 2025. El Salvador Venezuela Sudan Ukraine

January 13, 2025

CA3 on Categorical Approach: Ndungu v. Atty. Gen.

Ndungu v. Atty. Gen. "By statute, lawfully admitted noncitizens are subject to deportation for committing two or more crimes involving moral turpitude on separate occasions. See 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(ii). A lawfully admitted Kenyan national residing in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was convicted in 2014 and again in 2019 of felony vehicular fleeing or attempting to elude a pursuing police officer in violation...

January 13, 2025

CA5 on Fact Finding, Withholding: Partial Remand to BIA, Santos-Zacaria - Published!

Santos-Zacaria v. Garland ON REMAND FROM THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES [598 U.S. 411 *; 143 S. Ct. 1103 **; 215 L. Ed. 2d 375 ***; 2023 U.S. LEXIS 1891 ****] Before Clement, Richman, and Higginson, Circuit Judges. "Per Curiam: On remand from the Supreme Court, we are tasked with reviewing petitioner Leon (Estrella) Santos-Zacaria’s remaining arguments in support of her petition for review. We...

January 11, 2025

CA1 on CAT: Akinsaya v. Garland

Akinsaya v. Garland "Rasheed Akinsanya is a Nigerian citizen. He has brought a petition for review challenging the administrative denial of his application for deferral of removal pursuant to the regulations implementing the Convention Against Torture ("CAT"). Akinsanya contends that if he were to return to Nigeria, he would be tortured by a terrorist organization called Boko Haram. The Board of Immigration...

January 10, 2025

TPS Extended for El Salvador, Venezuela, Ukraine, Sudan

El Salvador (advance copy of FR notice here ) Venezuela Ukraine Sudan

January 10, 2025

Romania Joins Visa Waiver Program

DHS, Jan. 10, 2025 "Today, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas, in consultation with Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, designated Romania as a participating country in the Visa Waiver Program (VWP). The collaboration and information sharing at the core of the VWP will significantly enhance the security interests of the United States in addition to encouraging legitimate travel and commerce...

January 08, 2025

EOIR to Open Indianapolis Immigration Court

EOIR, Jan. 7, 2025 "The Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) today announced it will open a new immigration court in Indianapolis on Jan. 27, 2025, to meet the growing needs of our Indiana stakeholders. The Indianapolis Immigration Court will have seven immigration judges. EOIR will provide official advance notice to all parties whose cases are reassigned to the Indianapolis Immigration Court. If you...

January 08, 2025

USCIS Policy Alert: Evidentiary Requirements for O-1 Nonimmigrants

USCIS, Jan. 8, 2025 "U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is issuing policy guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual to clarify how USCIS evaluates evidence to determine eligibility for O-1A nonimmigrants of extraordinary ability, including adding examples of evidence for individuals in critical and emerging technologies. ..."

January 06, 2025

OFLC Publishes List of Randomized H-2B Applications Submitted January 1-3 for Employers Seeking H-2B Workers Starting April 1, 2025

OFLC, Jan. 6, 2025 "To keep the public informed regarding the submission and assignment of H-2B applications for review, the Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) published the assignment group(s) for 8,759 H-2B applications covering 149,953 worker positions with the start date of work of April 1, 2025. Following the randomization procedures published in the Federal Register on March 4, 2019, OFLC completed...

January 04, 2025

Class Action Detention Victory: Orellana Castaneda v. County of Suffolk

Law360 (subscription) - "A federal judge said Thursday [Jan. 2, 2025] that Suffolk County, New York, violated state law and the Fourth Amendment by detaining hundreds of immigrants past their release dates at the request of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In his decision , U.S. District Judge William F. Kuntz II found the county and its sheriff's office liable in a lawsuit brought by a certified class...

January 04, 2025

Unpub. CA3 Remand: Madrid-Mancia v. Atty. Gen.

Madrid-Mancia v. Atty. Gen. "This case returns to us for reconsideration in light of Campos-Chaves v. Garland, 144 S. Ct. 1637 (2024), so we again address Edin Donelsy Madrid-Mancia’s petition for review of the denial of her motion to reopen proceedings and to rescind the Immigration Judge’s in absentia removal order. Because the Board of Immigration Appeals erred in failing to weigh Madrid-Mancia’s...

January 03, 2025

January 2025 PERM Tip: The Problem of Evolving Job Descriptions

BIB Daily presents bimonthly PERM practice tips from Ron Wada , member of the Editorial Board for Bender’s Immigration Bulletin and author of the 10+ year series of BALCA review articles, “Shaping the Future of PERM.” Questions or comments may be sent to Ron at ron.wada@tandslaw.com. A fundamental reality of modern jobs is that they are constantly evolving. This can be a problem for a PERM process...

January 03, 2025

ICE Final Rule: Immigration Bond Notifications (Advance Copy)

This document is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on 01/06/2025 "On August 8, 2023, DHS issued an interim final rule which amended the regulations to authorize ICE to serve bond-related notices to obligors electronically. The rule allowed DHS to electronically serve demand and other immigration bond notices for delivery, order of supervision, or voluntary departure bonds to obligors who consent...

January 03, 2025

CBP Notice: CNMI EVS-TAP (Advance Copy)

This document is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on 01/06/2025 "This document announces the implementation of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) Economic Vitality & Security Travel Authorization Program (EVS-TAP). The CNMI EVS-TAP is a restricted sub-program of the Guam-CNMI Visa Waiver Program and allows prescreened nationals of the People’s Republic of China to...

January 02, 2025

Habeas Victory in Florida: Semelik v. Miami ICE

Semelik v. ICE Miami FOD "[W]e hereby ORDER and ADJUDGE as follows: 1. The Petitioner will undergo a bond hearing before an immigration judge on or before January 10, 2025. It will be the Petitioner’s burden to prove that his release will not pose a danger to property or persons, that he is likely to appear for future immigration proceedings, and that he does not pose a danger to national security. 2. The...

December 30, 2024

OFLC Reminder: H-2B Application Filing Timelines for 2025 Peak Filing Season

OFLC, Dec. 30, 2024 "The Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) reminds employers and other interested stakeholders that the filing window to submit an H-2B Application for Temporary Employment Certification (Form ETA-9142B and appendices) requesting work start dates of April 1, 2025, or later, will open on January 1, 2025, at 12:00 a.m. Eastern Time. Following OFLC's standard operating procedures,...

December 30, 2024

EOIR Pulls Two Proposed Rules

This document is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on 12/31/2024 "The Executive Office for Immigration Review (“EOIR”) is withdrawing two of its Notices of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRMs”): (1) Motions To Reopen and Reconsider; Effect of Departure; Stay of Removal, and (2) Good Cause for a Continuance in Immigration Proceedings, both published on November 27, 2020, and is providing...

December 27, 2024

Termination of Trial Testing of Redesigned Naturalization Test for Naturalization Applications

This document is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on 12/30/2024 "On December 15, 2022, DHS published a Federal Register Notice entitled “Trial Testing of Redesigned Naturalization Test for Naturalization Applications,” which announced it intended to conduct a nationwide trial of planned changes to the naturalization test, including a standardized English-speaking test, as part of the...

December 27, 2024

EOIR Final Rules

1. Clarification Regarding Bars to Eligibility During Credible Fear and Reasonable Fear Review AGENCY: Executive Office for Immigration Review, Department of Justice. ACTION: Interim final rule; request for comment. SUMMARY: This interim final rule (‘‘IFR’’) makes a technical amendment to Department of Justice (‘‘Department’’) regulations to clarify that immigration judges’...

December 24, 2024

CA9 on Credibility: Singh v. Garland

Singh v. Garland "Can lips which once lied ever utter truths? In immigration cases, it depends upon who answers that question and upon what was said. In the Ninth Circuit, we recognize that immigration judges (“IJs”)—but not the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”)—have the prerogative to answer that question by using the maxim falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus (“false in...