Another Border Surge

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Border Surge: Increase of Central Americans Seeking Asylum at US Border

Another surge of migrants is occurring at the United States border. The United States witnessed a tremendous surge in the number of unaccompanied children crossing the border into the United States in the summer of 2014. The majority of these minor unaccompanied children came from Southern American countries that are beleaguered by violence, gang warfare, and lawlessness.

The article notes that the US is making extra efforts to discourage “irregular” migration. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson made a trip to Central American countries to warn people that the United States is not welcoming to it. A public relations campaign is underway in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador to discourage future asylum seekers from entering the country. That is in addition to the detention centers that the government houses migrants in, which have received attention for subpar conditions.

Asylum is a difficult proposition for the majority of recent Central American arrivals, whose claims are often based on gangs. The US stresses that its message is “Don’t come. If you do and your asylum claims are denied, we will remove you.”

H-1B Lottery Lawsuit

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Lawsuit Against H-1B Lottery: Case Seeks Information on the Lottery Process

H1b 2016

The American Immigration Council has filed a lawsuit against USCIS, demanding transparency in the lottery process that affects the lives of hundreds of thousands of individuals and thousands of companies. With a statutory cap of 65,000 visas in the regular cap and 20,000 visas in the US Master’s cap, the over 230,000 applications that are submitted in the first week of April are subject to a lottery. However, there is no information on how that lottery works. Applications are submitted in early April and then receipt notices and lottery rejections trickle in over the next months.

In some years, the cap is not reached and there is no need for a lottery. However, for the past few years, the number of applications has been over 200,000 and the cap is reached in the first week of April. As this has become consistent, the need for lottery transparency has become urgent for the American Immigration Council. All that is known about the process is that it is random and computer generated. The lawsuit seeks to elicit more information from USCIS in how this process is conducted.

Green Card Lawsuit Dismissed

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Green Card Lawsuit Dismissed

EB-5 pilot program

A federal judge in Seattle has dismissed the Visa Bulletin lawsuit that ensued from the Department of State rescission of filing dates. Back in September 2015, it seemed that the Department of State had made enormous progress in modernizing the Visa Bulletin system, so that individuals (especially in the EB-2 and EB-3 categories and some FB categories) were finally able to file for their Green Cards after years of waiting. Their anticipation lasted about two weeks when the Department suddenly rescinded its October Visa bulletin posting and superseded it with a new October Visa Bulletin.

A class-action lawsuit was filed seeking a temporary injunction, but that was rejected. This most recent rejection occurred because the judge found that the original Visa Bulletin did not confer any rights upon the immigrants. Although the announcement caused a reliance for intending applicants by undergoing medical exams and paying expenses for green card applications, that was not enough. The two week blip on the radar was an inconvenience, but nothing that could create relief for the class. June’s Visa Bulletin contains severe retrogression in many employment and family categories.

Demand to Speed Up U Visas

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Organizations Demand U Visa Applications Speed Up

U Visa processing times have stalled for a year. Since June 2015, U visa applications have essentially not been adjudicated. Congress has mandated 10,000 U visas are available per year. That means once 10,000 U visas are granted, the other approvable U visas are waitlisted and backlogged. USCIS has a practice of placing U visa candidates on a wait list, so at least they can obtain an employment card while waiting for U visa approval.

The U visa is partly a humanitarian safe haven for immigration. It allows an applicant to overcome many grounds to inadmissibility, though a waiver can be required. The U visa is a grant of legal nonimmigrant status to someone who has been the victim of a qualifying crime. It requires certification from a government agency, such as the police department that handled the crime. The applicant must have also been willing to or actually have helped in the prosecution of the perpetrator. There is the potential for adjustment to Permanent Residence for U visa applicants and their derivative family members.

USCIS has had some dismal processing times recently affecting all swathes of the immigration spectrum. H-1B and L-1 processing times have been abnormally lengthy. This has caused issues for employees with driver’s licenses, college tuition, and travel. It has caused employers to pay the $1,225 premium processing fee for occasions that should not require it. U visa applications are at a standstill. Employment authorization applications are taking triple the amount of time that they mandated to take for first time asylum applications, and they are pushing against their regulatory period for all other types of applications. Green Card applications through employment-based petitions are beyond processing times. O and P visa petitions are 5xs beyond normal processing of two weeks. If you look at processing times for the service centers, you will see that they are well beyond their stated goals for processing times. USCIS has blamed the slow processing on a lack of resources, as evidenced in its proposed comment for increasing filing fees by 21%.

Kansas Voting Law Blocked

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Federal Judge Blocks Kansas Citizenship Requirement for Voting

 

A federal judge has blocked a Kansas law that demands Kansans who are registering to vote furnish proof of US citizenship. Many states over the past six years have focused legislative and financial resources on enshrining laws that increase the requirements that an individual has before she can vote. Voting is romantically seen as the right of every American, but states have strategically attempted to craft “voter ID” laws that disproportionately affect certain classes of people. Kris Kobach is the Secretary of State in Kansas and also one of the authors of SB 1070, the Arizona law that caused a furor and was struck down at the Supreme Court. The ruling means that he is not permitted to enforce the law. The judge ruled that minuscule impact of citizen voter dilution by non-citizen voting is outweighed by the disenfranchisement of US voters. At the time of this ruling, over a thousand Kansans were waiting for their voting verification.

As far as non-immigrant and permanent resident concerns go, the law would have no effect. Nonimmigrants and Permanent Residents are not allowed to vote in the United States (save for very few municipal exceptions for Permanent Residents). This is crucial, especially in an election year. Voting is a right of US citizens only. Only US citizens should register to vote. Many immigrants who obtain their driver’s licenses at the DMV may concurrently be given a voter registration form and may even be persuaded that they are permitted to vote and register to vote. That is not the case. Whether it is heard at a government agency or on a college campus, only US citizens are allowed to register to vote. Only US citizens can vote in US elections. Permanent Residence brings about the legal ability to travel, work, and sponsor certain family members for Permanent Residence. It does not enable you to vote. In Pennsylvania, you must be a citizen for 30 days before you can register to vote.