President Donald Trump has Tweeted that he announce his Supreme Court nominee on February 2, 2017. In this short post, I discuss the big news in brief.
During his Presidential campaign, now-President Donald Trump stated that he would end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Program and the currently enjoined Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) Program on his first day in office. However, President Trump’s first day in office has come and gone, and his administration has yet to make any moves toward terminating DACA or rescinding the DAPA Memorandum. In this article, I examine what has happened and what this may mean going forward.
On February 1, 2016, I posted a blog addressing concerns presented by Doug Ducey, the Governor of Arizona, about his state being in the appellate jurisdiction of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Nearly one year later, The Hill reports that Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona plans to propose legislation in Congress to break up the Ninth Circuit.
President Donald Trump is expected to reveal his nominee for the current Supreme Court vacancy in the coming weeks. CBS Chief Legal Correspondent Jan Crawford stated that her sources have indicated that the current frontrunner for the vacancy is Judge Neil Gorsuch of the Tenth Circuit. In this article, we will examine Judge Gorsuch's views on Chevron deference through a couple of his immigration decisions.
Shortly after President Donald Trump was sworn into office on January 20, 2017, the United States Senate voted to confirm John F. Kelly as the fifth Secretary of Homeland Security by a vote of 88-11. Now-Secretary Kelly was sworn into office later on the same day. In his new capacity, Secretary Kelly will oversee the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
On January 16, 2017, Secretary of State John Kerry criticized President-Elect Donald Trump’s criticisms of German Prime Minister Angela Merkel’s refugee and migrant policies. Secretary Kerry's remarks turned out to be quite unintentionally ironic.
In significant news, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina introduced legislation in the U.S. Senate to cut off funding to the United Nations until it reverses the recent anti-Israel Security Council vote. You may read the text of the “Safeguard Israel Act” here. The text of the legislation includes several poignant critiques of the United Nations resolution along with an appropriately severe response.
On January 9, 2017, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) issued an Amicus Invitation No. 17-01-09. This means that the Board is asking for amicus – “friend of the court” – briefs on a specific issue. Amicus Invitation No. 17-01-09 is about the “material support bar.” Briefs are due by February 8, 2017.
On January 5, 2017, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) issued Amicus Invitation No. 17-01-05, asking for briefs on the issue of whether the federal offense of misprision of a felony under 18 U.S.C. 4 is categorically a crime involving moral turpitude (CIMT) under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and on the collateral issue of the possible retroactive effect of a ruling. Briefs are due by February 6, 2017. In this article we will offer a brief overview of the issues and what the Board wants interested members of the public to address in amicus curiae (“friends of the court”) briefs.
On December 23, 2016, the new fee schedule for United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) forms went into effect. In accordance with the new fee schedule, the USCIS released new editions of affected USCIS forms. On December 29, 2016, the USCIS announced that it would accept prior versions of the affected forms, with the exception of the Form N-400, Application for Naturalization, until February 21, 2017. However, if an application is filed on an older version of the form, the application must still be filed with the new filing fee. The USCIS nevertheless encourages applicants to use the new editions of the affected forms even if filing prior to February 21, 2017. Forms that were filed or postmarked before December 23, 2016, are unaffected.
