July 02, 2024

White House Extends DED for Liberians (Advance Copy)

This document is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on 07/03/2024 "MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE [and] THE SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY SUBJECT: Extending Eligibility for Deferred Enforced Departure for Liberians ... I hereby direct the Secretary of Homeland Security to take the necessary steps to implement for eligible Liberians: (1) a deferral of enforced departure from the United...

July 02, 2024

ETA Updates H-2A AEWR for Non-Range Occupations

DOL, July 2, 2024 "The Employment and Training Administration published an FRN on June 24, 2024 updating the AEWRs under the H-2A temporary agricultural employment program that apply to a limited set of H-2A job opportunities for which the AEWR is determined using the Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS survey. These changes will go into effect, as stated in the FRN, on July 8, 2024. The Department is also making available...

July 01, 2024

Judge Gee Partially Ends Flores Agreement

Jaimie Ding, Associated Press, June 28, 2024 "A federal judge on Friday approved the Biden administration’s request to partially end a nearly three-decade-old agreement to provide court oversight of how the government cares for migrant children in its custody. U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee ruled that special court supervision may end at the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, which takes custody...

July 01, 2024

OFLC Issues Technical Release Notes for the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics Update for the July 2024 through June 2025 Wage Year

OFLC, July 1, 2024 "The Office of Foreign Labor Certification has published the latest prevailing wage data from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) as generated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the new wage year from July 2024 through June 2025, effective July 1, 2024. Prevailing wage determinations issued from the National Prevailing Wage Center reflect the 2018 SOC codes. View the...

July 01, 2024

Federal Court Blocks OK Immigration Law

USA v. Oklahoma "Oklahoma “may have understandable frustrations with the problems caused by illegal immigration . . . , but the State may not pursue policies that undermine federal law.” Arizona, 567 U.S. at 416. Should more explicit guidance foreclose that conclusion, this Court will listen. But until then, for the reasons set forth herein, the United States’ motion for a preliminary injunction...

July 01, 2024

Diversity Visa 2020 and 2021 Update

State Department, June 27, 2024 "On June 25, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit reversed the district courts’ decisions in Gomez v. Biden , Rai v. Biden , Goodluck v. Biden, and Goh v. Biden , which had ordered the State Department to reserve and adjudicate diversity visa (“DV”) cases from the DV-2020 and DV-2021 program years. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the...

June 28, 2024

TPS for Haiti Extended, Redesignated

DHS, June 28, 2024 "Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas today announced the extension and redesignation of Haiti for Temporary Protected Status for 18 months, from Aug. 4, 2024, to Feb. 3, 2026, due to extraordinary and temporary conditions in Haiti. The corresponding Federal Register Notice provides information about registering for TPS as a new or current beneficiary under Haiti’s extension...

June 28, 2024

R.I.P. Chevron

Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo What will it mean for immigration litigation? Superlitigator Brian Green says, "The overruling of Chevron opens the door to U.S. federal judges scrutinizing USCIS, DOL, State Department, ICE and CBP decisions and policies. Many courts should now be inclined to be less deferential to U.S. immigration agency decisions than in the past."

June 26, 2024

OFLC Updates Appendix A

OFLC, June 26, 2024 "On November 15, 2021, the Employment and Training Administration issued a Federal Register notice (FRN) informing the public that the Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) was updating Appendix A to the Preamble–Education and Training Categories by Occupational Information Network (O*NET)–Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) Occupations. Appendix A is a list of professional...

June 26, 2024

The Uncertain Path of the D-3 Waiver for DACA Recipients under Biden’s New Immigration Initiative

Cyrus D. Mehta and Kaitlyn Box, June 25, 2024 "On June 18, 2024, the Biden administration announced two new immigration initiatives aimed at keeping families together. The first is a “parole in place” program which will provide a pathway for undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens to become lawful permanent residents (LPRs). In order to be eligible, the noncitizen spouse must have entered the U.S. without...

June 25, 2024

CA9 on One Central Reason: Alfaro Manzano v. Garland

Alfaro Manzano v. Garland "Petitioner Gerson Eduardo Alfaro Manzano, a native and citizen of El Salvador, preached to the youth of his hometown to convince them to embrace religion instead of joining gangs. The gangs did not like this. They attacked him, threatened him, and even tried to kill him. Alfaro Manzano fled to the United States. An immigration judge (“IJ”) granted withholding of removal but...

June 25, 2024

Ravi v. US: Fake University Lawsuit Revived

Ravi v. US "Starting in March 2018, Ravi Teja Tiyagurra paid thousands of dollars to the “University of Farmington” to enroll as a student, expecting to take classes. At the time of his enrollment, Mr. Ravi was unaware that the University was not a university at all but had been formed and advertised to offer educational services for money—though not actually provide them—as an undercover...

June 25, 2024

CADC: District Courts Cannot Order DOS to Issue Visas

Goodluck v. Biden "In these four consolidated appeals, district courts held that the Department of State had unlawfully suspended, deprioritized, and delayed the processing of applications for diversity visas for fiscal years 2020 and 2021, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a remedy, the courts ordered the Department to continue processing applications and issuing visas after the statutory deadlines for...

June 25, 2024

USCIS Policy Alert: Customer Service Options for Refugee/Asylee Relative Petition (Form I-730)

USCIS, June 25, 2024 "USCIS is updating guidance in the Policy Manual on USCIS Contact Center inquiries for Form I-730 petitions to clarify the available customer service options and explain that USCIS Contact Center personnel may respond to inquiries after identity and authorization verification is completed consistent with 8 CFR 208.6 confidentiality protections."

June 21, 2024

SCOTUS on Consular Nonreviewability: DOS v. MUÑOZ (6-3)

DOS v. MUÑOZ (6-3) 50 F. 4th 906, reversed and remanded. BARRETT, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which ROBERTS, C. J., and THOMAS, ALITO, and KAVANAUGH, JJ., joined. GORSUCH, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment. SOTOMAYOR, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which KAGAN and JACKSON, JJ., joined. Majority: "Like the Din plurality, we hold that a citizen does not have a fundamental...

June 20, 2024

USCIS Extends Employment Authorization Documents under Temporary Protected Status Designations of El Salvador, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, and Sudan

USCIS, June 20, 2024 "We are extending the validity of certain Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) issued to Temporary Protected Status (TPS) beneficiaries under the designations of El Salvador, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua and Sudan through March 9, 2025. We will send a Form I-797, Notice of Action , notifying you if you are affected by this extension. If you are a current TPS beneficiary under one of these...

June 20, 2024

BIA on Credibility, CAT: Matter of H-C-R-C-

Matter of H-C-R-C- (1) Applicants bear the burden of establishing their own credibility, and no statute or legal precedent compels an Immigration Judge to conclude that an applicant’s testimony is credible. (2) Rape is sufficiently severe to constitute torture and can never be a lawful sanction under the Convention Against Torture. "Because we conclude that the Immigration Judge’s credibility determination...

June 20, 2024

Easing the Nonimmigrant Visa Process for U.S. College Graduates: DOS

State Department, June 18, 2024 " On June 18, 2024, the Biden-Harris Administration announced actions to more efficiently facilitate employment-based nonimmigrant visas for those who have graduated from college in the United States and have a job offer. This initiative will allow certain individuals to more quickly receive nonimmigrant work visas if they are deemed eligible. As part of this initiative, the...

June 19, 2024

"Keeping Families Together" Resources

Wednesday, June 19, 2024: We are waiting for the official Federal Register notice for all the details of President Biden's immigration initiatives. Meanwhile some resources are here: 1. AILA Doc. No. 24061831, New Actions to Promote Family Unity 2. AILA President Kelli Stump video 3. Immigration Impact summary 4. USCIS website: Process to Promote the Unity and Stability of Families

June 17, 2024

CA4 on Credibility, Evidence: Garcia Cortes v. Garland

Garcia Cortes v. Garland "Virginia Garcia Cortes petitions for review of a Board of Immigration Appeals decision affirming an Immigration Judge’s denial of her application for cancellation of removal. The Immigration Judge and Board of Immigration Appeals denied Garcia Cortes’s application on the basis that she failed to make the requisite showing under 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(b)(1)(D) that her removal...

June 15, 2024

Emami Litigation - Notice to Class Members

State Department, June 13, 2024 " THIS NOTICE WILL BE UPDATED AS MORE INFORMATION COMES AVAILABLE. PLEASE CHECK BACK FOR FINAL INSTRUCTIONS NO LATER THAN AUGUST 2, 2024. NOTICE OF CLASS-WIDE RELIEF The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has certified a class in the consolidated cases Farangis Emami, et al. v. Alejandro Mayorkas, et al., No. 18-cv-01587-JD, and Pars Equality Center,...

June 14, 2024

Supreme Court (5-4) on Defective NTA: Campos-Chavez v. Garland

Campos-Chavez v. Garland No. 22–674, 54 F. 4th 314, affirmed; No. 22–884, 24 F. 4th 1315, reversed (Mendez- Colín) and vacated and remanded (Singh). ALITO, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which ROBERTS, C. J., and THOMAS, KAVANAUGH, and BARRETT, JJ., joined. JACKSON, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which SOTOMAYOR, KAGAN, and GORSUCH, JJ., joined. Majority : "We hold that, to...

June 13, 2024

Invalid NTA Remand (Unpub. BIA)

Hats off to Ana Maria Portela (Arocha) for scoring this victory on June 5, 2024!

June 13, 2024

USCIS Issues Policy Guidance on Customer Service and Confidentiality Protections for Certain Naturalized U.S. Citizens

USCIS, June 12, 2024 "USCIS is issuing guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual that interprets that the confidentiality protections under 8 U.S.C. 1367 end at naturalization, which will allow naturalized U.S. citizens previously protected under 8 U.S.C. 1367 (specifically, Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) self-petitioners and those seeking or with approved T and U nonimmigrant status) the ability to fully access e...

June 11, 2024

Visa Bulletin for July 2024

Visa Bulletin for July 2024 Notes D & E: D. RETROGRESSION IN THE EMPLOYMENT-BASED THIRD (EB-3) PREFERENCE CATEGORY As readers were informed was possible in Item D of the June 2024 Visa Bulletin , it has become necessary to retrogress the worldwide EB-3 final action date (including Mexico and Philippines) effective in July. Given continued high demand and number use in this category, it will likely be necessary...