On September 27, 2017, President Donald Trump set the annual refugee admissions cap for fiscal year (FY) 2018 at 45,000. In this blog, I will examine two interesting reports about the deliberations on the refugee admissions caps.
Submitted by Eliza Grinberg on September 29, 2017 - 5:20pm
On September 28, 2017, Andrew Restuccia and Eliana Johnson published a report at Politico stating that U.S. Representative Michael McCaul of Texas is no longer in contention to be the next Secretary of Homeland Security. McCaul, the Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, was believed to be a leading candidate for the post.
In the early months of the Trump Administration, there have been reports of dramatic increases of individuals crossing the U.S.-Canada border to seek asylum in Canada. On September 27, 2017, Brian Freeman of Newsmax reported that “some 7,000 asylum seekers from the U.S. have reached Canada in the last two months alone…” In response to the surge of asylum seekers from the United States crossing the border to Canada, the Canadian government is, according to Freeman’s report, attempting to send the message that those who cross the U.S.-Canada border in this manner may face deportation to their countries of nationality. Furthermore, the Canadian government made clear that “someone who has been denied asylum in the U.S. … is unlikely to receive it in Canada.”
On September 27, 2017, Politico Magazine posted an interesting title on the progress of the Department of Justice (DOJ) initiative to reallocate Immigration Judges to the U.S.-Mexico border. Since the issuance of President Donald Trump’s January 25, 2017 Executive Orders, the DOJ has sent immigration judges on projected short-term assignments to the border. The purpose of this reallocation of judicial resources was to process cases at the border expeditiously, ostensibly, to reduce the significant backlog of cases in the immigration court system that originate at border crossings. The Politico story suggests that the results of the new program have thus far been suspect.
On September 26, 2017, Sophia Tareen of the Associated Press reported that the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) had upheld a decision granting asylum in the United States to Amos Yee, a teenage blogger and a national and citizen of Singapore. Yee, now 19, had been a political blogger in Singapore. Yee’s commentary on Islam and Christianity was derided by some in Singapore as being offensive. Furthermore, Yee also posted blogs and videos that were critical of political figures in Singapore. Yee was arrested for his political commentary in 2015 after making a video that was harshly critical of former Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew shortly after he had died.
On September 19, 2017, Noel Francisco was confirmed by the United States Senate by a vote of 50-47 to serve as the Solicitor General of the United States. As Solicitor General, Noel Francisco will be the government’s lead lawyer in arguments before the Supreme Court of the United States.
On September 11, 2017, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) released the Visa Bulletin for October 2017. The October 2017 Visa Bulletin is the first Visa Bulletin of Fiscal Year (FY) 2018. On September 15, 2017, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) determined that family-sponsored adjustment of status applicants may rely on the dates for filing chart for October 2017, but that employment-based applicants must use the less generous final action date chart. The USCIS’s determination that employment-based adjustment of status applicants must use the final action dates is a shift from both October of FY 2015 and October of FY 2016, when employment-based applicants were permitted to use the dates for filing chart.
On September 5, 2017, acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine C. Duke rescinded the 2012 memorandum authorizing Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). We explain the reasoning behind the decision and its implementation in a full article. This is an archived article on the eligibility requirements for DACA prior to the rescission of the DACA memo. Please continue to follow our website for updates on the immigration situation for DACA beneficiaries.
On September 13, 2017, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a simple chart explaining what the rescission of DACA means for those who have DACA and those who were considering applying or in the process of applying on September 5, 2017. In this blog, we have reproduced the charts for your convenience.
