The INS published a rule on June 1, 2001 to implement the amnesty provision of the Legal Immigration and Family Equity Act ("LIFE") of 2000. Affecting some 400,000 "illegal immigrants" in the US, the LIFE Amnesty law should bring closure to an enormous class of individuals who have resided in the United States since at […]
Over the past 18 months, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been stepping-up arrest and detention levels of immigrants in the US to unprecedented levels. Many of these arrests have come about as a result of well-publicized "worksite raids," where ICE has been targeting manufacturing, construction and food service industries for large-scale assaults designed […]
As the immigration debate begins to heat up once again in the US Congress, some Republicans are taking a scrutinizing look at the Fourteenth Amendment. CBS reports that Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has called the 14th Amendment's guarantee of birthright citizenship "a mistake," saying he may introduce a constitutional amendment to eliminate automatic. Additionally, Senator […]
The processing times for some applications pending at the US Citizenship & Immigration Services ("USCIS") are longer than ever before. The USCIS holds a monopoly over all immigrants applying for green cards, citizenship and other applications, since the USCIS is the only agency authorized to adjudicate requests for immigration benefits. The USCIS cannot, however, force […]
Perhaps due to a perceived lack of legitimate need for certain employees in the economic downturn, or lack of case load in new filings for the same reason, the US Department of Labor has recently increased the number of PERM labor certification cases selected for audit. Since March 2005, the US Department of Labor (DOL) […]
The past two years have seen an increase in the rate of denial of applications for adjustment of status. With the denial of these applications, particularly employment-based adjustment of status, the USCIS is almost immediately issuing a Notice to Appear (NTA) in removal proceedings. With the USCIS sending almost all employment cases to the Nebraska […]
In keeping with an INS directive earlier this year to improve productivity at the four INS regional processing centers, the California Service Center announced some rather sweeping reforms. The Service Center has been plagued with delay problems, such as I-140 Petitions for Immigrant Workers taking as long as 15 months to adjudicate. The recent announcement […]
On December 21, 2000 President Clinton signed the Legal Immigration and Family Equity Act ("LIFE") into law. LIFE extends the "grandfathering deadline" of Section 245(i) of the Immigration & Nationality Act ("INA") until April 30, 2001. Section 245(i), which allowed many otherwise ineligible applicants for adjustment of status to apply for and receive green cards […]
Each year, I consult with hundreds of individuals who have been ordered to leave the US by Immigration Judges. In the vast majority of these cases, the person had applied for some form of relief from removal, such as asylum, and the Immigration Judge denied the claim and either granted the person voluntary departure or […]
The USCIS has finally issued a rule allowing holders of “T” and “U” visa status to apply for “adjustment of status” to green card. Based on the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act Congress passed in 2000, the new rule will work to further protect the humanitarian interests of victims of trafficking and serious […]
