DHS Obtains Another Judicial Victory on Implementing Public Charge Inadmissibility Rule

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Department of Homeland Security obtained a pivotal judicial victory today after the U.S. Supreme Court stayed a nationwide injunction that prevented the agency from enforcing its regulatory interpretation of section 212(a)(4) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, a long-standing law that makes an alien inadmissible if the alien is likely at any time to become a public charge.

The high court granted DHS’s motion for a stay of the preliminary injunction issued by a single judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, and recently upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Read more at: https://www.uscis.gov/news/news-releases/dhs-obtains-another-judicial-victory-implementing-public-charge-inadmissibility-rule

Contact Darren Heyman, immigration attorney, for more information www.greencardadvice.com.

Here are five USCIS changes that will impact legal immigrants in the U.S. in 2020

The U.S. immigration system saw many changes ordered by the Trump administration during 2019, including some that will take effect in 2020.

The changes by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will have a significant impact on the lives of millions of immigrants living legally in the United States.

Designed to slow legal immigration and strengthen the Department of Homeland Security’s ability to enforce immigration laws, some of the changes create obstacles in the immigration process. Others streamline the path to obtain immigration benefits. Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/immigration/article239058173.html

Contact Darren Heyman, immigration attorney, for more information www.greencardadvice.com.

USCIS Announces Countries Eligible for H-2A and H-2B Visa Programs

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in consultation with the Department of State (DOS), have announced the list of countries whose nationals are eligible to participate in the H-2A and H-2B visa programs in 2020. The notice listing the eligible countries will be published in the Federal Register on Jan. 17, 2020.

For 2020, the acting secretary of Homeland Security has determined, with the concurrence of the Office of the Secretary of State, that the countries designated as eligible in 2019 will remain unchanged. 

DHS maintains its authority to add countries to the eligible countries list at any time, and to remove any country whenever DHS and DOS determine that a country fails to meet the requirements for continued designation. Examples of factors that could result in the exclusion of a country or the removal of a country from the list include fraud, abuse, denial rates, overstay rates, human trafficking concerns, and other forms of noncompliance with the terms and conditions of the H-2 visa programs by nationals of that country. Read more at: https://www.uscis.gov/news/alerts/uscis-announces-countries-eligible-h-2a-and-h-2b-visa-programs-1

Contact Darren Heyman, immigration attorney, for more information www.greencardadvice.com.

USCIS Formally Announces Implementation of Electronic H-1B Registration Process and the Registration Timeframe

On Jan. 9, 2020, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services published a Federal Register notice formally announcing the implementation of the H-1B registration process for fiscal year 2021 H‑1B cap-subject petitions. This notice is required for the initial implementation of the registration process, as stated in the Jan. 31, 2019, H-1B registration final rule.

USCIS will open an initial registration period from March 1 through March 20, 2020, for the FY 2021 H-1B numerical allocations.  

• During this timeframe, H-1B cap-subject petitioners, including those eligible for the advanced degree exemption, seeking to file a FY 2021 H-1B cap petition will be required to first register electronically with USCIS and pay the associated $10 H-1B registration fee for each submission.
• Prospective petitioners or their authorized representatives must electronically submit a separate registration naming each alien for whom they seek to file an H-1B cap-subject petition. Duplicate registrations are prohibited. Read more at: https://www.uscis.gov/news/alerts/uscis-formally-announces-implementation-electronic-h-1b-registration-process-and-registration-timeframe

Contact Darren Heyman, immigration attorney, for more information www.greencardadvice.com.

USCIS Begins Accepting Green Card Applications under Liberian Refugee Immigration Fairness

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that it will begin accepting applications to adjust status to lawful permanent resident from certain Liberian nationals under Section 7611 of the National Defense Authorization Act (PDF) for Fiscal Year 2020, Liberian Refugee Immigration Fairness (LRIF), signed into law on Dec. 20, 2019.

To be eligible for permanent residence (a Green Card) under LRIF, a Liberian national must have been continuously physically present in the United States from Nov. 20, 2014, to the date they properly file an application for adjustment of status. USCIS will accept properly filed applications until Dec. 20, 2020, one year from the enactment of the LRIF. Read more at: https://www.uscis.gov/news/alerts/uscis-begins-accepting-green-card-applications-under-liberian-refugee-immigration-fairness

Contact Darren Heyman, immigration attorney, for more information www.greencardadvice.com.

To Produce Citizenship Data, Homeland Security To Share Records With Census

The Department of Homeland Security has agreed to share certain government records from its databases to help the Census Bureau produce data about the U.S. citizenship status of every person living in the country.

DHS quietly announced the data-sharing agreement in a regulatory document posted on its website on Dec. 27. It marks the latest development in the Trump administration's ongoing effort to carry out the executive order President Trump issued in July after courts blocked the administration from adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census.

Two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year to keep the citizenship question off, President Trump said in the executive order that releasing citizenship data based on existing records would allow states to redraw voting districts using the number of eligible voters rather than all residents in an area — a method of redistricting that a prominent GOP strategist concluded would politically benefit Republicans and non-Hispanic white people. Read more at: https://www.npr.org/2020/01/04/793325772/to-produce-citizenship-data-homeland-security-to-share-records-with-census

Contact Darren Heyman, immigration attorney, for more information www.greencardadvice.com.

ICE lodges detainer against Mexican illegal alien arrested in South Carolina for sexual abuse of a child

CHARLESTON, S.C. – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) lodged an immigration detainer Tuesday against an unlawfully present Mexican man arrested in North Charleston earlier this month for sexual abuse of a child.

Carlos Bartolo-Rios was arrested December 19 by the U.S. Marshals Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force, of which ICE and the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office are members, after executing a state criminal warrant at Bartolo-Rios’s North Charleston residence for first degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor.

Mr. Bartolo-Rios is currently being held by the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office while awaiting trial for the state criminal charges he faces. ICE has lodged an immigration detainer against Mr. Bartolo-Rios and will seek to take him into immigration custody for removal proceedings at whatever point he may be released from criminal custody for the crimes he faces in South Carolina. Read more at: https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/ice-lodges-detainer-against-mexican-illegal-alien-arrested-south-carolina-sexual-abuse

Contact Darren Heyman, immigration attorney, for more information www.greencardadvice.com.