On March 27, 2018, the Associated Press published an interesting report on a new lawsuit involving birthright citizenship. A group of plaintiffs led by John Fitisemanu, an American Samoan noncitizen national of the United States residing in Utah, filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of Utah arguing that American Samoans living in Utah derived citizenship at birth through the citizenship clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.
On March 26, 2017, Stephen Dinan of The Washington Times reported that the Trump administration has resettled just over 10,000 refugees during the current fiscal year, which began on October 1, 2017. With the fiscal year half-over, this is on pace to be the lowest number of refugees resettled in any year since the current refugee resettlement system was established in 1980. The record lowest number of refugees resettled in any full fiscal year since 1980 is 27,070 in 2002.
On March 19, 2018, the Supreme Court of the United States granted certiorari in Nielsen v. Preap, Docket No. 16-1363. The case is on appeal by the Government from the decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Preap v. Johnson, 831 F.3d 1193 (9th Cir. 2016). The Supreme Court will consider whether an alien who has been released from criminal custody but who was then was not immediately taken into immigration custody by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)is exempt from mandatory detention under section 236(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). In this article, we will briefly examine the Ninth Circuit decision and what the Supreme Court’s decision to take the case may mean going forward.
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released the new edition of the Form I-864P, HHS Poverty Guidelines for Affidavit of Support. The new edition of the Form I-864P is dated 03/01/18. The HHS poverty guidelines took effect for immigration purposes on that same day.
In the Visa Bulletin for April 2018, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) explained that the Vietnam Employment Fifth preference (EB5) category will become oversubscribed in May 2018. This will result in the establishment of a final action date for Vietnam EB5.
On March 27, 2018, President Donald Trump issued a Presidential Memorandum for the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security. The Memorandum ends Deferred Enforced Departure for nationals of Liberia effective March 31, 2019. DED has allowed certain Liberian nationals to remain in the United States when they would have otherwise been removable. In this post, we will briefly examine President Trump’s reasoning and what the decision means going forward.
On March 9, 2018, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) published the Visa Bulletin for April 2018. The April 2018 Visa Bulletin contains filing dates and final action dates for the family-sponsored and employment-based preference categories in April 2018. On March 13, 2018, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) determined that those seeking adjustment of status in the family-sponsored preference categories must use the filing dates, whereas those seeking adjustment of status in the employment-based preference categories must use the final action dates. In this article, we will examine the relevant charts and news found in the April 2018 Visa Bulletin.
Beginning on April 1, 2018, the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi will no longer process IR5, IR1, IR2, CR1, and CR2 cases. Interviews in these cases will now be scheduled at the U.S. Consulate General in Mumbai.
On March 22, 2018, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it had “launched a pilot to test a redesigned processing times webpage.” In this post, we will examine the pilot and how the USCIS plans to proceed going forward.
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a reminder that it will begin accepting petitions under the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI)-Only Transitional Worker (CW1) program subject to the fiscal year 2019 CW1 cap on April 2, 2018.
