Letter to Atty. Gen. Sessions, Aug. 14, 2018 - "We are scholars and teachers of immigration law and of administrative law. We write to express our alarm about the Department of Justice’s new performance metrics for immigration judges. We believe the Department’s performance metrics are unacceptable and fear they are a part of larger goal to undermine the independence of the immigration courts. ... &q...

Lanuza v. Love - Court staff summary: "The panel reversed the district court’s order declining to extend a Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Fed. Bureau of Narcotics, 403 U.S. 388 (1971), remedy to an immigrant pursuing lawful permanent resident status where a government immigration attorney intentionally submitted a forged document in an immigration proceeding to completely bar that immigrant from pursuing...

Jaen v. Sessions - "Levy Alberto Jaen petitions for review of the May 2, 2017 decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals ordering him removed from the United States pursuant to 8 U.S.C. §§ 1227(a)(1)(B) and 1227(a)(2)(B)(i). We agree with Jaen that he acquired citizenship at birth through his parent, Jorge Boreland, and that the 2 government had no authority to detain him for an immigration violation...

Angelina Chapin, Huffington Post, Aug. 9, 2018 - "The American Civil Liberties Union told HuffPost that the government finally handed over phone numbers this week for the more than 400 migrant parents who were separated from their children and then deported under the Trump administration’s zero tolerance policy on immigration. But the organization believes that Immigration and Customs Enforcement deliberately...

Vasquez-Valle v. Sessions - "Orlando Vasquez-Valle (“Vasquez-Valle”) is a native and citizen of Mexico. He was convicted of witness tampering in violation of Oregon Revised Statutes § 162.285 and was referred for immigration proceedings. VasquezValle conceded removability but argued that he was eligible for cancellation of removal. The Immigration Judge (“IJ”) held, and the Board of Immigration...

CLINIC, Aug. 9, 2018 - "In April 2018, the Trump Administration began a “Zero Tolerance” policy that led to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) separating asylum-seeking parents from their children. This policy affected both families who presented themselves at a port of entry and those who entered unlawfully between ports of entry. Much confusion ensued as advocates tried to understand how DHS...

Migratory Notes 77 (Aug. 9, 2018) - Trying to pass the buck on reunification, fathers on hunger strike, limiting the path to citizenship...and much, much more!

University of Houston Law Center, Aug. 7, 2018 - "University of Houston Law Center faculty, students and alumni working through the school's Immigration Clinic helped convince a federal judge to order an immigration court to review the case of a legal immigrant, ultimately resulting in the immigration court granting relief from deportation. The 34-year-old Somali refugee had been held in federal detention for...

Julian Aguilar, Texas Tribune, Aug. 8, 2018 - "The state of Texas will continue to incur irreparable financial harm if an Obama-era immigration program isn't halted immediately, attorneys for the state argued in Houston on Wednesday. But lawyers representing nearly two dozen recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program countered by saying Texas sat back for six years and did nothing, and its...

Grace v. Sessions - "Plaintiffs’ counsel informed the Court that, despite the representations made by Defendants, Plaintiffs “Carmen” and her daughter had been removed from their place of detention and could be in the process of being removed from the United States. In an email to this Court’s Courtroom Deputy following the hearing, government counsel confirmed that “Carmen” and...

Gonzalez-Rosario v. USCIS - "Plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment is GRANTED and Defendants’ cross-motion for summary judgment is DENIED. (Order (Dkt. # 127).) The court FINDS that Defendants are in violation of 8 C.F.R. § 208.7(a)(1) and ENJOINS Defendants from further failing to adhere to the 30-day deadline for adjudicating employment authorization document applications, as set out by 8 C.F...

MARTHA MENDOZA and GARANCE BURKE, Associated Press, Aug. 9, 2018 - "The U.S. Army has stopped discharging immigrant recruits who enlisted seeking a path to citizenship — at least temporarily. A memo shared with The Associated Press spells out orders to high-ranking Army officials to stop processing discharges of men and women who enlisted in the special immigrant program. ... The Army has reversed one discharge...

September 2018 Visa Bulletin [See especially Notes F, G and H.]

Alvarez-Cerriteno v. Sessions - "Today we must determine whether Nevada’s child neglect statute is broader—that is, makes criminal more conduct—than does the federal Immigration and Nationality Act’s (“INA”) generic “crime of child abuse.” If so, the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) erred in finding Petitioner, a native and citizen of Mexico and a legal...

"Judges’ Union Files Grievance Over DOJ’s Interference with Judicial Independence and Violation of the Due Process Rights of Those Appearing before the Immigration Courts; Guatemalan Youth Ordered Deported Despite Philadelphia-based Federal Judge’s Decision to Delay Hearing" Press Release, Aug. 8, 2018 - "The National Association of Immigration Judges, the union that represents the nation’s...

Martinez v. Nielsen - "Mr. and Ms. Martinez began the provisional waiver process in 2016. USCIS scheduled them for an interview on their I-130 application to confirm the bona fides of their marriage. On April 27, 2018, together with their lawyer, Mr. and Ms. Martinez appeared for an interview in Manhattan, New York. At the conclusion of the interview, two Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) agents...

See this link for the Aug. 3, 2018 letter to Dream Defenders from Holland & Knight, lawyers for GEO Group, and then scroll down for the Aug. 6, 2018 reply by the Dream Defenders!

ACLU, Aug. 7, 2018 - "The American Civil Liberties Union and Center for Gender & Refugee Studies filed a federal lawsuit today challenging the Trump administration’s gutting of asylum protections for immigrants fleeing domestic violence and gang brutality. At issue are new “expedited removal” policies put forth by Attorney General Jeff Sessions that instruct asylum officers to “generally”...

Angelo A. Paparelli, Aug. 7, 2018 - California Can Revive the Immigrant Worker Protection Act by Challenging the Authority of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ “FDNS” Enforcement Officers "The State of California won and lost bigly last July 4th. But what if the state’s biggest loss could be salvaged because the primary federal immigration enforcement agency performing worksite...

Sophia Genovese, Aug. 6, 2018 - "The Trump Administration is seeking to create and implement a safe third country agreement with Mexico . Under this agreement, asylum seekers arriving at the US border who have travelled through Mexico would be denied the ability to file their asylum claims in the US. Such an agreement would trample on the rights of asylum-seekers, violating both international and US asylum law. In...

Rodriguez v. Swartz - "A U.S. Border Patrol agent standing on American soil shot and killed a teenage Mexican citizen who was walking down a street in Mexico. We address whether that agent has qualified immunity and whether he can be sued for violating the Fourth Amendment. Based on the facts alleged in the complaint, we hold that the agent violated a clearly established constitutional right and is thus not immune...

Matter of Medina-Jimenez, 27 I&N Dec. 399 (BIA 2018) - The categorical approach does not govern whether violating a protection order under 237(a)(2)(E)(ii) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(E)(ii) (2012), renders an alien ineligible for cancellation of removal under section 240A(b)(1)(C) of the Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(b)(1)(C) (2012); instead, Immigration Judges need only decide...

Matter of Ortega-Lopez II - (1) The offense of sponsoring or exhibiting an animal in an animal fighting venture in violation of 7 U.S.C. § 2156(a)(1) (2006) is categorically a crime involving moral turpitude. Matter of Ortega-Lopez, 26 I&N Dec. 99 (BIA 2013), reaffirmed. (2) An alien is ineligible for cancellation of removal under section 240A(b)(1)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1229b...

APM Reports and the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History - "President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 just months after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. Some 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry were forced from their homes on the West Coast and sent to one of ten “relocation” camps, where they were imprisoned behind barbed wire for the length of the war. Two-thirds of them...