On May 14, 2018, the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detailed recent worksite enforcement investigations. It stated that in accordance with a new directive from ICE Deputy Director Thomas Homan, ICE’s Homeland Securities Investigations (HSI), ICE “has already doubled the amount of ongoing worksite cases this fiscal year compared to the last fully completed fiscal year.”
On May 11, 2018, the American Immigration Lawyers Association noted a potentially significant development in the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) interpretation of regulations regarding the types of employment arrangements that are permissible for STEM OPT students. The regulations at issue pertain to whether F1 students engaging in employment under the STEM OPT program may ever engage in work at his or her employer's client's business or worksite. The current language on the USCIS website indicates that this would not be permissible, but AILA argues that this reading is overreaching with respect to the applicable regulations.
On May 15, 2018, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) stated that it completed data entry for all fiscal year 2019 H1B cap-subject petitions that were selected through the H1B lottery. The USCIS will now begin returning all H1B cap-subject petitions that were not selected in the fiscal year 2019 H1B lottery. Due to the large number of H1B petitions that were filed for fiscal year 2019, the USCIS stated that it cannot provide a “definitive time frame” for the return of unselected petitions.
On May 14, 2018, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it will begin recalling approximately 8,543 Green Cards due to a production error. Because of the production error, the affected Green Cards were printed with incorrect “Resident Since” dates. The affected Green Cards were mailed between February and April of 2018.
On May 1, 2018, Texas filed a motion in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas seeking a preliminary nationwide injunction against the U.S. Government’s implementation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Texas was joined in its motion by the States of Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina, and West Virginia. The motion will be considered by Judge Andrew Hanen. In the motion, Texas seeks to enjoin the Government from renewing DACA permits or granting new DACA permits in winding down the program. Texas is not seeking a court order invalidating existing DACA permits.
On May 9, 2018, the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) released immigration court statistics for the first two quarters of fiscal year 2018. The publication of these statistics is part of the EOIR’s new transparency initiative, which will involve “releasing immigration court data on a recurring basis.” In this post, we will discuss some of the highlights from the statistics that were noted by the EOIR.
On May 14, 2018, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced that his office had filed charges against a non-U.S. citizen for two counts of election fraud related to the November 2016 presidential election. In this post, we discuss the criminal charges and how unlawful voting can also be a civil immigration violation.
On May 4, 2018, Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen announced her determination to terminate the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation for Honduras. Honduras initial TPS designation date was January 5, 1999. The current TPS designation for Honduras runs through July 5, 2018. However, instead of immediately terminating Honduras TPS on July 5, 2018, Secretary Nielsen opted to delay the termination for 18 months to ensure an orderly transition, meaning the termination of TPS for Honduras will occur on January 5, 2020.
In a May 7 speech, Attorney General Sessions made an important announcement regarding a new DHS policy for making criminal referrals: “[T]he Department of Homeland Security is now referring 100 percent of illegal Southwest Border crossings to the Department of Justice for prosecution. And the Department of Justice will take up those cases.” In our initial post on the Zero Tolerance policy, we noted that the DOJ relies on the DHS to refer arrestees for criminal prosecution. In the alternative, the DHS can opt to pursue only civil immigration charges and not refer an individual for criminal prosecution. While we explained that there were signs that DHS would increase referrals, there was no policy announcement. Now, Attorney General Sessions has announced referenced the DHS’s new referral policy.
On April 26, 2018, Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen announced the termination of the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation for Nepal. Nepal’s current TPS designation began on June 24, 2015. Nepal’s current TPS extension runs through June 24, 2018. In order to ensure an orderly transition for Nepal TPS beneficiaries, Secretary Nielsen determined that the termination of Nepal TPS would be delayed for 12 months. Accordingly, the TPS designation for Nepal will terminate on June 24, 2019.
