On November 2, 2020, the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Illinois ruled that DHS’s Public Charge Rule, 84 Fed. Reg. 41,292 (Aug. 14, 2019) violates the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”). The district court specifically ruled that (1) the public charge exceeds DHS’s authority under the public charge provision of the INA, (2)…

ACLU attorneys say that the parents of 545 children can not be found after they were separated from their children by the Trump Administration. Trump claimed last night that the children were “ well taken care of”. The children were kept in a former 250,000 square foot Walmart where they were held in “cages”. According…

On September 29, 2020, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White of the Northern District of California granted a preliminary injunction of the “USCIS Fee Schedule & Changes to Certain Other Immigration Benefit Requests Requirements” Final Rule which would have increased USCIS fees by a weighted average increase of 20 percent on October 02, 2020. The…

USCIS announced that following the September 11, 2020, Second Circuit decision, it will apply the public charge final rule and related guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual to all applications and petitions postmarked (or submitted electronically) on or after February 24, 2020. Per USCIS: “If you filed your Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence…

USCIS published a temporary final rule providing that, from today, September 23, 2020, through March 22, 2021, asylum applicants who cannot proceed with the asylum interview in English must ordinarily use DHS-provided telephonic interpreters, due to COVID-19. Previously, if the asylum seeker didn’t bring an interpreter and couldn’t speak English, the affirmative asylum hearing was…

The current active court case backlog as of the end of August 2020 has grown to 1,246,164—up 11 percent from the beginning of March when the backlog was 1,122,824. Monthly case completions before the March shutdown were running over 40,000. In August just 6,113 cases were completed. Roughly half (52%) of these were ordered deported…

On October 2, 2020, USCIS will change the premium processing timeframe from 15 calendar days to 15 business days. USCIS may adjust the additional fee for this service for inflation according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) by notice in the Federal Register.

USCIS announced on September 4, 2020 that submissions postmarked on or after October 2, 2020 must comply with the 10/02/20 edition of the following new or existing forms: • Form I-129H1 • Forms I-129H2A and I-129H2B • Form I-129L • Form I-129O • Form I-129E&TN • Form I-129MISC •Form I-600/I-600A, Supplement 3 •Form I-765 •…

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced Tuesday, September 1, 2020, that more than 2,000 individuals have been arrested during the period of July 13 to Aug. 20, 2020. About 85 percent of those arrested by ICE on immigration charges also had criminal convictions or pending criminal charges.

On August 25, 2020 Secretary Pompeo, in consultation with the Department of Homeland Security, has temporarily expanded the ability of consular officers to waive the in-person interview requirement for individuals applying for a nonimmigrant visa in the same classification. Previously, only those applicants whose nonimmigrant visa expired within 12 months were eligible for an interview…