On April 27, 2017, the Senate confirmed Alexander Acosta as Secretary of Labor by a vote of 60-38. Secretary Acosta was sworn into office one day later. The confirmation completed President Donald Trump's cabinet.
On May 3, 2017, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it has completed data entry of all fiscal year 2018 H1B cap-subject petitions selected in the H1B lottery. Accordingly, the USCIS will begin returning H1B cap-subject petitions that were not selected in the H1B lottery.
President Donald Trump told the Washington Times in an interview that in the event another Supreme Court seat opens, he would pick a nominee from his campaign list of potential nominees. Twenty potential nominees remain on his list after one of the potential nominees – now Justice Neil Gorsuch – was confirmed to the Supreme Court last month. In explaining why he would refer to his list for the next Supreme Court vacancy, President Trump stated “[t]hat list was a big thing.”
The non-minister special immigrant program for certain religious workers was allowed to expire on at midnight on April 27, 2017. However, Congress has agreed on legislation to fund the government for the rest of fiscal year 2017. This legislation, if approved as expected, would extend authorization for the non-minister special immigrant program for certain religious workers as well as the EB5 program through September 2017.
On April 26, 2017, the Department of Homeland Security announced the launching of a new office for victims of crimes committed by criminal aliens. In this post, I analyze the announcement of the VOICE office and explain its purpose and limitations.
On April 26, 2017, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released an important alert titled “Scam Alert: DHS OIG Hotline Telephone Number Used in Scam to Obtain Personal Information.” The USCIS issued the alert to provide additional information concerning a fraud alert that was issued on April 19, 2017, by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG). The DHS OIG fraud alert warned the public about a telephone scam where scammers have altered their caller ID to make it appear that they were calling from the DHS OIG hotline (1-800-323-8603) and identified themselves to unsuspecting individuals as “U.S. Immigration” employees.
On April 25, 2017, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released an interesting news post titled “USCIS Assists in Investigation Leading to Conviction of Imposter Attorney in Marriage Fraud Scheme.” The news release explains that the USCIS had assisted in an investigation that led to a jury convicting a man named Jason Shiao for his role in a marriage fraud scheme. Shiao had posed as an attorney when he accepted payments from at least 87 foreign nationals to help them enter into fraudulent marriages with United States citizens for the purpose of circumventing the immigration laws. Shiao was sentenced to two years in federal prison.
On April 25, 2017, President Donald Trump nominated Randolph D. “Tex” Alles to be the new Director of the United States Secret Service. Alles was serving as the Acting Deputy Commissioner of the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the number two position in the CBP, at the time of the appointment. In addition to Alles' departure from the CBP, the Senate will soon take action on the nomination of Kevin K. McAleenan, the current Acting Commissioner of CBP, for Commissioner of CBP.
On April 25, 2017, the United States Senate confirmed Rod Rosenstein as the new Deputy Attorney General by a vote of 94-6. Rosenstein will replace Dana Boente, who had been serving as Acting Deputy Attorney General, as the number two official in the Department of Justice.
On April 24, 2017, Olivia Beavers of The Hill reported that the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit granted C-SPAN permission to broadcast live coverage of arguments in Hawaii v. Trump, No. 17-15589. This promises to make the oral arguments, which will take place on May 15, more accessible to the general public. In Hawaii v. Trump, the Ninth Circuit will hear the Trump Administration’s appeal from a District Court decision to block enforcement of key portions of President Trump’s Executive Order 13780 titled “Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States”.
