On June 15, 2017 the U.S. Department of Homeland Security by issuance of a memorandum rescinded the November 20, 2014 DAPA memorandum. The DAPA memorandum directed U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) “to establish a process, similar to DACA, for exercising prosecutorial discretion through the use of deferred action, on a case-by-case basis,” to certain…

Texas’ New Immigration Crackdown Appears to Be Headed Straight to Court HuffPost reports that the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) plans to file a lawsuit in the coming months that could block Texas Senate Bill 4’s implementation in September. The lawsuit will be based on pre-emption issues regarding immigration policy. On Monday, the League of…

DHS OIG, Apr. 19, 2017 – The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) has issued a fraud alert to warn citizens of reports that the DHS OIG Hotline telephone number has been used recently as part of a telephone spoofing scam targeting individuals throughout the country. The perpetrators of the scam…

(Release Date: April 19, 2017) WASHINGTON – U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services today announced a redesign to the Permanent Resident Card (also known as a Green Card) and the Employment Authorization Document (EAD) as part of the Next Generation Secure Identification Document Project. USCIS will begin issuing the new cards on May 1, 2017. These redesigns…

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced on Monday April 17, 2017 that the agency received 199,000 petitions for its H-1B visa program during the first week of April 2017. This is a significant and sharp drop in the number of H-1B petitions filed with USCIS over the last two years

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…

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…

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…

Release Date: February 4, 2017 For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary Contact: 202-282-8010 WASHINGTON – In accordance with the judge’s ruling, DHS has suspended any and all actions implementing the affected section of the Executive Order entitled, “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States.” This includes actions to suspend passenger…