This week two temporary restraining orders from the U.S. District Courts in Hawaii and Maryland, halted the implementation of key parts of President Trump’s revised Executive Order, issued March 6, 2017, which would temporarily ban Muslims and refugees from 6 countries from traveling to the U.S. The judges determined that it is likely that the travel bans are unconstitutional. The federal judge in Hawaii was unmoved by the changes to the original ban and found that there is a ‘dearth of evidence indicating a national security purpose,’ and significant evidence of discriminatory intent that violates the First Amendment.

The Trump Administration still is unable to justify the need for the policy and has failed to present any evidence for why it must ban refugees or people from these countries.

3-17-17

Starting April 3, 2017, USCIS will temporarily suspend premium processing for all H-1B petitions.

This suspension may last up to 6 months.

While H-1B premium processing is suspended, petitioners will not be able to file Form I-907, Request for Premium Processing Service for a Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker which requests the H-1B nonimmigrant classification.

https://www.uscis.gov/news/alerts/uscis-will-temporarily-suspend-premium-processing-all-h-1b-petitions

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced Friday that it is going to suspend expedited processing for all H-1B visas for up to six months beginning in early April, saying the move will allow it to process long-pending petitions and prioritize H-1B extension of status cases.

The White House has issued a new (and improved in that it is more detailed than the first one) Executive Order banning entry from six (6) Muslim majority countries listed in the prior ban except for Iraq which has been removed from the list. The Executive Order also halts refugee admissions for 120 days. The new Executive Order becomes effective on March 16, 2017 and rescinds the prior executive order of January 2017. The bottom line is that America’s door is closed to refugees and to many Muslims.