USCIS, Dec. 8, 2023 "The employment-based (EB) annual limit for fiscal year (FY) 2024 will be higher than was typical before the pandemic, though lower than in FY 2021-2023. We are dedicated to...
Elliot Spagat, Associated Press, Dec. 8, 2023 "A federal judge was poised Friday to prohibit separation of families at the border for purposes of deterring immigration for eight years, preemptively...
In an unpublished decision dated Dec. 4, 2023 a panel of the Ninth Circuit remanded for a new hearing. The facts are stunning...unless you practice immigration law: "Because Lead Petitioner credibly...
This document is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on 12/07/2023 "The Department of State (“Department”) is amending its regulation governing immigrant visas by removing...
On July 10, 2023, a Fifth Circuit panel dismissed Mr. Argueta-Hernandez' petition for review for lack of jurisdiction, 73 F.4th 300. On Dec. 5, 2023 the panel (Higginbotham, Graves, and Douglas)...
Shazi v. Wilkinson
"The BIA adopted its categorical ban on mental health evidence in Matter of G-G-S-, 26 I. & N. Dec. 339 (BIA 2014). ... [W]e join the Ninth Circuit and find the BIA’s conclusion “to be unreasonable.” ... [W]e find that the BIA’s categorical bar of consideration of mental health evidence, as contemplated in Matter of G-G-S-, is an arbitrary and capricious construction of 8 U.S.C. § 1231, and we reject such a categorical evidentiary bar in the particularly serious crime analysis. ... For the foregoing reasons, we grant the petition for review for further consideration of Shazi’s mental health evidence in determining whether he is barred from withholding of removal based on a particularly serious crime; otherwise we deny the petition. Accordingly, we vacate and remand to the BIA for further proceedings consistent with this decision."
[Hats off to Herbert A. Igbanugo and Jason A. Nielson!]