On October 5, 2017, Stephen Dinan of The Washington Times reported that more than 75-percent of those eligible to renew their Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) benefits by the deadline on the same day had done so.
On September 18, 2017, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that the acting Secretary of Homeland Security, Elaine C. Duke, has decided not to re-designate Sudan for Temporary Protected Status (TPS). DHS opted to extend benefits to beneficiaries of Sudan TPS for twelve months as part of the wind-down process. The benefits for beneficiaries of Sudan TPS will expire on November 2, 2018. Current beneficiaries of Sudan TPS must re-register within the re-registration window to extend their benefits through November 2, 2018. Beneficiaries of Sudan TPS who re-register and request a new employment authorization document (EAD) will have their expiring EADs automatically extended for 180 days.
On October 5, 2017, the United States Senate confirmed Lee Francis Cissna as the new Director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) by a vote of 54-43.
On October 2, 2017, the U.S. Department of State issued a notice reminding adoption service providers and adoptive parents of Ukrainian children to comply with Ukraine’s post-adoption reporting requirements.
On September 26, 2017, the U.S. Department of State issued an alert explaining that it has been informed by the Latvian Ministry of Welfare that it is still missing post-adoption reports from U.S. families who adopted children from Latvia. The Latvian government asked the DOS to “stress the importance of post-adoption report submission to adoption service providers and adoptive families.”
Thanks to a new information-sharing agreement between the USCIS and the Social Security Administration (SSA), certain foreign nationals in specific categories or classifications may apply for employment authorization and a Social Security Number all on the updated Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization.
In Executive Order 13767, President Donald Trump directed the U.S. Attorney General to assign immigration judges to detention facilities. The DOJ began to implement this provision of Executive Order 13767 shortly after its issuance on January 25, 2017. In the press release, the DOJ states that its Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) has released statistics on the impact of the immigration judge surge.
On March 3, 2017, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) temporarily suspended premium processing for all H1B petitions. Over the next few months, the USCIS gradually resumed premium processing for certain types of H1B petitions. On October 3, 2017, the USCIS resumed premium processing for H1B extension of stay petitions and by effect, premium processing for all H1B petitions. This post includes all of the articles we published about the suspension of H1B premium processing.
On September 28, 2017, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued a press release on the result of its “Operation Safe City.” The ICE explains that Operation Safe City was a four-day operation that “focused on cities and regions where ICE deportation officers are denied access to jails and prisons to interview suspected immigration violators or jurisdictions where ICE detainers are not honored.” The four-day operation resulted in 498 arrests of individuals in 42 counties for violations of the Federal immigration laws. The ICE stated that it prioritized aliens with criminal convictions. It added that individuals with active Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) were not targeted for arrest.
On September 19, 2017, the Department of Justice (DOJ) published a press release titled “United States Files Denaturalization Complaints in Florida, Connecticut and New Jersey Against Three Individuals Who Fraudulently Naturalized After Having Been Ordered Deported Under Different Identities.” All three cases in the press release concern individuals who are alleged to have procured naturalization by concealing that they had previously been deported under different identities. The DOJ explains that the cases were referred to it by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) as a part of “Operation Janus.”
