On April 19, 2018, the New York Times published an interesting article titled “A Marriage Used to Prevent Deportation. Not Anymore.” The article discusses situations in which individuals with outstanding final orders of removal seek immigrant visas based on bona fide marriages to U.S. citizens. The article suggests, based on individual accounts and testimony from immigration attorneys, that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been arresting an increasing number of such individuals when they appear for interviews related to their immigrant visa petitions with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
On April 20, 2018, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published a news release detailing how its Los Angeles Fraud Detection and National Security (FDNS) unit assisted in the investigation and ultimately successful prosecution of two immigration fraud perpetrators. In this post, we will examine both of the immigration fraud cases discussed in the news release.
On April 22, 2018, the Washington Post published an interesting article titled “Frustrated at visa holdup, Russians give up on American vacations.” The article quotes several prospective Russian visitors to the United States who are struggling to procure tourist visas. Due to the closure of the U.S. Consulate in St. Petersburg and consular staff reductions throughout Russia, the article explains that the next available visa appointment at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow “is in 250 days’ time.” This is compared to the situation one year ago, where the article noted that “obtaining a U.S. tourist visa could take less than a week.”
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported a sharp rise in March of 2018 in both the number of individuals apprehended along the Southwest border and the number of individuals determined by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to be inadmissible at the Southwest border. The numbers in both categories were higher than in previous months of the current fiscal year and the combined numbers were more than triple the number of apprehensions/inadmissibles in March 2017. We will review the relevant statistics in this post.
On April 13, 2017, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) stated that it is currently reviewing Japanese law regarding the transfer of custody of a child without a court order. The DOS stated that the transfer of custody of a child without a court order “may affect a child’s eligibility for an adoption-based visa under the Immigration and Nationality Act.”
On April 17, 2018, the Supreme Court of the United States issued its much anticipated decision in Sessions v. Dimaya, 584 U.S. __ (2018). The question before the Supreme Court was whether 18 U.S.C. 16(b), as incorporated into the INA, is unconstitutionally “void for vagueness.” In Sessions v. Dimaya, the Supreme Court held by a 5-4 margin that 18 U.S.C. 16(b) is void for vagueness, affirming the Ninth Circuit. The opinion of the Court was authored by Justice Elena Kagan, and joined in full regarding the vagueness analysis by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Neil Gorsuch.
On April 10, 2018, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) published a news release titled “Nicaragua becomes the latest partner in ICE’s eTD system.” The news release explains that the eTD system is intended to streamline the process of determining citizenship and obtaining travel documents for individuals subject to immigration detention in the United States. It electronically provides “biographic and biometric information used to determine citizenship and/or nationality for individuals.” The news release states that Nicaragua is one of the first countries to become partners in the eTD system.
On April 11, 2018, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions delivered remarks on immigration enforcement in Las Cruces, New Mexico. In his remarks, Sessions commented on the recent uptick in illegal border crossings, on some of the new initiatives being undertaken by his own Department of Justice (DOJ), and on the broader Trump Administration to curtail illegal immigration. We will review some of the interesting points in his remarks with reference to relevant articles on our site.
On April 4, 2018, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it had filed civil denaturalization lawsuits against two convicted war criminals of the former.Yugoslavia. The two individuals who were charged – Edin Dezko, 46, and Rasema Yetisen, 45 – are alleged to have been “part of an elite unit of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina that attacked the village of Trusina on April 16, 1993, in what is known as the Trusina massacre.”
On April 10, 2018, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced the launch of its new E-Verify website, E-Verify.gov. The new E-Verify.gov website promises to be more user friendly than previous versions. The USCIS explains that it will provide information about both E-Verify and Form I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification.
