On June 28, 2019, the Supreme Court of the United States granted a petition for certiorari in Shular v. United States, 18-6662. Shular concerns the Armed Career Criminals Act (ACCA), a Federal sentence-enhancement statute. Although the ACCA is a criminal law rather than a civil immigration law, several Supreme Court decisions on how to interpret the ACCA have been influential in the immigration context.
The U.S. Department of State (DOS) released its Visa Bulletin for July 2019 on June 6, 2019. The Visa Bulletin for July 2019 contains the final action dates and dates for filing for the family-sponsored and employment-based preferences for the month. The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) determined that most family-sponsored adjustment of status applicants – with the exception of one case – must use the dates for filing chart from the Visa Bulletin for July 2017, while employment-based adjustment applications must use the less favorable final action dates.
The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) reported that that the Office of Management of and Budget (OMB) has completed its review of the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program Modernization final regulation. With this step completed, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may move to publish the Final Rule in the Federal Register (FR), after which it would likely become effective within 30 to 60 days of publication.
On June 27, 2019, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan announced a reshuffling of the leadership at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Acting Secretary McAleenan announced that Mark Morgan, who had been serving as the Acting Director of ICE since late May, would take over as the Chief Operating Officer and Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Commissioner of CBP.
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has made it a tradition to hold a large number of naturalization ceremonies on the week of Independence Day. 2019 will be no exception to the rule, with USCIS planning to welcome nearly 7,500 new citizens between July 1 and July 5.
All adoptions between Honduras and the United States after July 1, 2019, must meet the requirements of both the Hague Convention and U.S. laws. The DOS does not know at this time whether Honduras will continue to process intercountry adoption cases in which a U.S. citizen filed a Form I-600A, Application for Advance Processing of an Orphan Petition, or a Form I-600, Petition to Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative, prior to July 1, 2019, with the USCIS, or in which a final adoption was completed in Honduras prior to that date.
On June 28, 2019, the Supreme Court of the United States granted the Government’s request to review three lower court decisions blocking its efforts to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The Supreme Court consolidated the three cases for review and will consider them together.
On June 18, 2019, the U.S. Department of Defense announced that Acting Secretary Patrick M. Shanahan – who had been slated to be nominated for the position permanently by President Donald Trump – will step down on June 23, 2019. He will be replaced as Acting Secretary of Defense by the Secretary of the Army, Mark T. Esper. Deputy Secretary of Defense David Norquist will remain in his position.
On June 25, 2019, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced the expansion of its digital Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) System (FIRST).
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that beginning on July 1, 2019, it will no longer accept the Form I-407, Record of Abandonment of Lawful Permanent Resident Status, at international field offices. This prohibition applies both to submissions by mail and in person.
