On March 4, 2015, President Obama signed into law a bill that funds the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for the rest of the fiscal year. The law prevented a partial government shutdown and represented a win for Democrats, who defeated efforts by House Republicans to block the President’s executive actions protecting undocumented migrants. The […]
The Department of State and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently established a new program to provide a safe and legal route for children living in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to travel to the United States. Through the Central American Minors (CAM) Refugee/Parole Program, qualifying parents who are lawfully present in the United […]
A federal Judge in Brownsville, Texas has ordered a temporary injunction to President Obama’s executive actions on immigration. While U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen of Texas did not rule on the specific legality of the executive action he stated that there was enough merit to warrant an injunction while the case is properly adjudicated. Last […]
In November 2014, the Secretary of Homeland Security announced two new memorandum clarifying priorities on prosecutorial discretion and enforcement priorities. These policies are to be implemented by all DHS agencies, including USCIS, when deciding which aliens to arrest, detain, and remove from the US and when and how to exercise prosecutorial discretion. What follows is […]
Huang v. Holder is an Eleventh Circuit case on appeal from a Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) denying Huang’s application for asylum after finding that the abuse he suffered in his native country of China did not constitute religious persecution. The Eleventh Circuit vacated and remanded to the BIA because it was unclear from the […]
Do you have a bachelor’s degree or the equivalent? Will you be working in a specialty occupation? Will you be earning a wage? The H-1B visa has an annual numerical limit, or cap, of 65,000 visas each fiscal year. Cap numbers are often used up very quickly, so it is important to plan in advance […]
On January 14th, the House of Representatives voted to try and block President Obama’s Executive Order relating to Immigration announced last November. In a 236-191 vote, the House of Representatives passed a spending bill aimed to defund major parts of President’ Obama’s plan. The vote triggers negotiations with the House and the Senate over the funding […]
President Obama stressed the importance of family unity in his Executive Action on November 20th, however that may pertain only to families within the United States and does not allow families divided between the United States and their home-states to be reunited. For Immigrants all over the world, a main priority of theirs is the […]
A recent report released by the humanitarian advocacy group, No More Deaths states that of the 400,000 people deported from the United States during the fiscal year 2013, nearly one third were deported without their personal belongings and money. This is a serious issue that often goes unreported and continues under the radar, since these […]
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has already approved the statutory maximum of 10,000 petitions for U-1 Nonimmigrant Status (U-Visas) for the 2015 fiscal year that began on October 1, 2014. The cap was reached almost immediately due to the applicants who were on the wait list from the 2014 fiscal year. Unfortunately, this means […]
