Immigration - General

On June 19, 2018, unannounced ICE raids resulted in the arrest of more than 140 workers at four meat processing plants in Ohio. ICE calls this its largest workplace raid in recent history.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s former acting Director, Thomas Homan, indicated last fall that he wanted to quadruple worksite enforcement, and ICE is on track to do so. ICE recently announced it performed 3,510 worksite enforcement actions between October 1, 2017 and May 4, 2018. During

ICE announced its enforcements investigations in the last seven months have already doubled last year’s total.

USCIS and the Department of Justice are teaming up and collaborating to “better detect and eliminate fraud, abuse, and discrimination by employers bringing foreign visa workers to the United States.” They have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that will increase their ability to share

Could you imagine losing your workers overnight for immigration reasons due to an unrelated investigation? Recent headlines about an April 5 immigration raid of a meat processing plant in Tennessee announced the biggest employment crackdown under the Trump administration. U.S. Immigration and Custom

The Immigration and Nationality Act provides that any alien convicted of an “aggravated felony” after entering the United States is subject to deportation. The Supreme Court has decided, 5-4, that the statute’s defining an aggravated felony as “a crime of violence” is unconstitutionally vague. Sessi

In what appears to be the largest worksite enforcement raid under the current administration, ICE arrested 97 immigrants at a meatpacking plant in Tennessee. Eighty-six of the people apprehended were arrested on immigration charges. According to reports, ICE has detained 54 individuals.

Since 2011, government processing of green card applications has taken longer and longer. Concerns expressed by lawmakers, immigration advocates, and the public prompted Senator and Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Claire McCaskill (D-MO) in late-2

The Washington Post has reported that USCIS is establishing an internal oversight division. The new division’s purpose, in part, would be to monitor more closely officers who are too lenient in assessing applications for permanent residence and citizenship, including overlooking negative factors suc

News outlet Reuters has reported that during the first month of Travel Ban 3.0, 8,400 individuals from Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Syria, Somalia, Yemen, and Venezuela applied for visas, while only an estimated 100 waivers were granted.

On March 6, 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit challenging California’s Immigrant Worker Protection Act (Assembly Bill 450), among other laws designed to limit the extent state law enforcement and prisons may cooperate with the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and

If foreign national employees have recently experienced trouble scheduling INFOPASS appointments, it may be because USCIS is preparing for an expected rollout of a new pilot program over the next couple of months.

The Trump administration announced that it intends to file a notice of proposed rulemaking rescinding the Obama Administrations’ H-4 Employment Authorization Document (“EAD”) rule.

The new USCIS mission statement, issued on February 22, 2018, by Director L. Francis Cissna, no longer emphasizes customer satisfaction, i.e., the satisfaction of petitioners and beneficiaries. Instead, it focuses on serving the American people and making sure that benefits are not provided to those

Following California Governor Jerry Brown’s signing of sanctuary laws in October 2017, the state has been targeted for a major ICE sweep to arrest undocumented individuals. ICE Director Thomas Homan stated that because California’s sanctuary laws nearly eliminate all cooperation with state law enfor

California seems to be at odds with the Trump Administration over many subjects, including the legalization of marijuana, the expansion of off-shore drilling, the elimination of state and local tax deductions, and immigration.

Following January’s ruling by Judge William Alsup in San Francisco, a second federal court has issued a nationwide injunction ordering the government to keep DACA in place. Judge Nicolas G. Garaufis of the US District Court in Brooklyn, New York ruled that the rescission of DACA was “arbitrary and c

The Trump Administration has released a new framework containing components of proposed immigration reform.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruling that a federal citizenship statute setting different residency requirements for U.S. citizen fathers and mothers violates the Equal Protection Clause will apply only to individuals born on or after June 12, 2017, according to the updated Foreign Affairs Manual (FAM). It

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the enforcement arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. ICE’s mission is to protect the country from cross-border crime and illegal immigration. The agency focuses on illegal trade, prevention of terrorism, and even repatriation of stolen art. IC