Nearly 2 million Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs) are set to expire at the end of 2019 as the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) continues to urge affected taxpayers to submit their renewal applications early to avoid refund delays next year.

ITINs that have not been used on a federal tax return at least once in the last three consecutive years will expire Dec. 31, 2019.

In addition, ITINs with middle digits 83, 84, 85, 86 or 87 that have not already been renewed will also expire at the end of the year. These affected taxpayers who expect to file a tax return in 2020 must submit a renewal application as soon as possible.

• Taxpayers whose ITIN is expiring and who expect to have a filing requirement in 2020 must submit a renewal application. Others do not need to take any action. ITINs with the middle digits 83, 84, 85 or 86, 87 (For example: 9NN-83-NNNN) need to be renewed even if the taxpayer has used it in the last three years.
• ITINs with middle digits of 70 through 82 have previously expired. Taxpayers with these ITINs can still renew at any time, if they have not renewed already.

The Supreme Court on Thursday in a vote of 5-4 (June 27, 2019) rejected the Trump administration’s stated reason for adding a question on citizenship to the 2020 census.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the majority, said the explanation offered by the Trump administration for adding the question “appears to have been contrived.”

Executive branch officials must “offer genuine justifications for important decisions, reasons that can be scrutinized by courts and the interested public,” the chief justice wrote.

“Accepting contrived reasons would defeat the purpose of the enterprise. If judicial review is to be more than an empty ritual, it must demand something better than the explanation offered for the action taken in this case.

The recent protests against a controversial proposal that would allow extradition to China of people in Hong Kong has caused an uptick in interest in resident status in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and the U.K.

Taiwan is also drawing interest with an affordable investor visa program.

Concerns over Beijing’s growing influence in Hong Kong has generated political pressure on Hong Kong citizens and has activated them to consider immigration overseas.

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling by the end of this month (June) in time for the U.S. government to start printing the 2020 census forms. The decision will affect political representation for millions of people, business decisions in one of the world’s largest consumer markets, and billions of dollars of federal spending.

A federal judge previously ruled that the U.S. Commerce Secretary has violated both the law and the “public trust” in adding the question.

The question about citizenship first appeared in the U.S. Census in 1820 and was removed in 1950.

The Board of Immigration Appeals held on May 31, 2019 that an immigration judge (IJ) has the authority to dismiss removal proceedings upon a finding that it is an abuse of the asylum process to file a meritless asylum application with USCIS for the sole purpose of seeking cancellation of removal in the immigration court.

On May 22, the House Judiciary Committee took a huge step towards protecting Dreamers and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) recipients by passing two bills out of committee : the Dream Act of 2019 the American Promise Act of 2019.

These bills will be combined as H.R. 6, the Dream and Promise Act of 2019, and would offer Dreamers and TPS/DED recipients permanent protections and a path to citizenship.

The House of Representatives is expected to vote on H.R. 6 early this week.

This bill would offer permanent protections and a path to citizenship to Dreamers and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) recipients.