On July 18, 2016, the Obama administration filed a petition for rehearing the United States v. Texas. Specifically, the administration “respectfully petitions for rehearing of this case before a full nine-member court.” In so doing, the administration is asking for the Supreme Court to rehear the case rather than waiting for the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas to decide the case on the merits. In this post, I will discuss the petition and its prospects for being granted by a full nine-member Supreme Court.
After much speculation, the presumptive Republican nominee for President, Donald Trump, selected Indiana Governor Mike Pence of Indiana as his running mate. While it is impossible to say what effect Governor Pence will have, if any, on the positions that Trump adopts during the election, Pence’s time in government provides a window into his positions on immigration. In this post, I will examine Pence’s record on immigration and compare it to the positions taken by Donald Trump during his campaign.
On July 11, 2016, the Department of State (DOS) released the Visa Bulletin for August 2016. The Visa Bulletin contains application final action dates and dates for filing adjustment of status applications in the family sponsored and employment-based preference categories. On July 13, 2016, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) determined that applicants for adjustment of status to lawful permanent residency in the family-sponsored and employment-based preference categories must use the application final action dates from the DOS Visa Bulletin rather than the Dates for Filing. In this article, we will examine and reproduce the application final action date charts from the Visa Bulletin for August 2016.
On December 13, 2016 the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it would extend its parole program for the immediate relatives of U.S. citizens and certain stateless individuals in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). The program, which was originally slated to expire on December 31, 2016, will now be extended until December 31, 2018. In this article, we will examine the rules for seeking an extension of parole in the CNMI under the rules of this program, the background of the program, and what the extension means going forward.
The Supreme Court issued numerous high profile decisions in the final days of its October term 2015 (ending on June 27, 2016). Several of the Supreme Court’s decisions are either about immigration law or may have a tangential effect on aspects of immigration law. We have written five articles about the actions of the Supreme Court in the final weeks of October term 2015 and how they relate to immigration law and policy. In this post, I will list the decisions that we have articles about on this website along with brief summaries and links to the full articles.
On June 27, 2016, the Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR) announced the investiture of 15 new immigration judges. Acting Chief Immigration Judge Michael C. McGoings presided over the investiture ceremony on June 17, 2016. Judge McGoings stated at the investiture ceremeony for the new immigration judges that “[t]heir arrival brings our immigration judge corps to 273 adjudicators, our highest level to date.”
On June 23, 2016, the an equally-divided Supreme Court affirmed the Fifth Circuit’s judgment that uphold a preliminary injunction issued by a federal District Court against the Deferred Action for Parents and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) Program and the expansion of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Program in United States v. Texas, 579 U.S. ___ (2016). I discuss the background of the decision and what it means in this post.
On June 23, 2016, the Supreme Court issued its much-anticipated decision regarding the Deferred Action for Parents and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) Program and the expansion of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Program. In United States v. Texas, 579 U.S. ___ (2016), an equally divided Supreme Court (4-4) affirmed the judgment of the Fifth Circuit that left in place a district court injunction against the implementation of the President’s initiatives. In this post, I will discuss the background of the case and what the Supreme Court’s decision means going forward.
On February 11, 2016, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services’ Immigrant Investor Program Office released an updated EB5 processing time report. It includes a chart that shows the timeframe, measured in months, “representing the average processing time” as of December 31, 2015, for the Form I-526, Form I-829, and Form I-924.
