A woman tossed a lit Molotov cocktail into the lobby of a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Oakland Park, Florida. No major injuries were reported...The woman walked into the office Friday afternoon and hurled a bottle filled with gasoline and a lit fuse. But the fuse disconnected from the bottle and didn’t ignite, according to the report. Law enforcement officials believe she intended to cause harm but the incident wasn’t related to other incidents where Homeland Security agencies were targeted. - TIME
USCIS is issuing policy guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual to better define residence in certain situations involving acquisition and transmission of citizenship, and clarify the distinction between U.S. residence and physical presence. In addition, USCIS is updating its policy regarding children of U.S. government employees and U.S. armed forces members employed or stationed outside the United States to explain that they are not considered to be “residing in the United States” for purposes of acquiring citizenship under INA 320. The Policy Alert is available here. - USCIS
CBP offers a suite of tools to monitor land border wait times, which can be very helpful if you are planning a trip into the United States.
The never ending question: Do immigrants commit more crimes than U.S. citizens, or less?
The Trump administration is making changes to the agency that operates the nation's immigration court system, a move immediately denounced by the immigration judges union as a power grab.
The agency is called the Executive Office for Immigration Review and it is an arm of the Justice Department. Under the interim rule announced Friday, the agency's director will have the power to issue appellate decisions in immigration cases that have not been decided within an allotted timeframe. It also creates a new office of policy within EOIR to implement the administration's immigration policies. - NPR
"We're looking at that very seriously," Trump told reporters as he left the White House for Kentucky. "Birthright citizenship, where you have a baby on our land — you walk over the border, have a baby, congratulations, the baby's now a U.S. citizen. We're looking at it very, very seriously ...It’s, frankly, ridiculous."
During his campaign and again last year, Trump suggested he might use an executive order to end birthright citizenship, saying it encourages illegal immigration and "anchor babies." Democrats, who command an overwhelming share of the immigrant vote, immediately called the idea unconstitutional. - Fox
Net immigration to Britain sank to its lowest since 2013 during the year to the end of March, driven by a sustained fall in the number of immigrants from the European Union since 2016’s Brexit referendum, official figures showed on Thursday.
Rising immigration was a major public concern when Britain voted to leave the EU, though it has since dropped down people’s list of worries. Nonetheless, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government plans to introduce restrictions on EU migration as after Britain leaves the bloc on Oct. 31. - Reuters
"This is a game-changer... Because of the current Flores settlement agreement, everybody knows... you grab a kid, that's your U.S. passport into the United States because we can't hold you more than 20 days...That's not long enough to go through the immigration proceedings. That's catch and release... This new rule is going to address this." - Fox News
According to court documents and statements made in court, Stephenson operated Stephenson Immigration and Legal Services, LLC, in Bridgeport. Between 2011 and 2017, Stephenson conspired with others to arrange 28 sham marriages between U.S. citizens and non-citizens residing in the U.S. for the purpose of the non-citizens’ applying for and obtaining “lawful permanent residence” (“LPR”) status, also known as a “green card.”
Stephenson typically charged between $17,000 and $20,000 to complete this process for a non-citizen, and the non-citizen spouse received between $2,000 and $4,000 for his or her participation. - DOJ
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is issuing policy guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual to address USCIS’ discretion to grant employment authorization to foreign nationals paroled into the United States, including those who are otherwise inadmissible.
USCIS has determined that it is necessary to issue this guidance at this time because there is a national emergency at the U.S. southern border where foreign nationals are entering the U.S. illegally. - USCIS
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced today, in partnership with the Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada, the implementation of an agreement to improve mutual security and expedite lawful travel through preclearance for travelers and their accompanying baggage on certain transports...Preclearance is the process by which officers stationed abroad inspect and make admissibility decisions about travelers and their accompanying baggage before they leave a foreign port, simultaneously increasing efficiency and security. The LRMA provides the legal framework and reciprocal authorities necessary for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Canada Border Services Agency to carry out security, facilitation, and inspection processes in the other country. - DHS
President Trump made his name on the world’s most famous island. Now he wants to buy the world’s biggest. The idea of the U.S. purchasing Greenland has captured the former real-estate developer’s imagination, according to people familiar with the discussion, who said Mr. Trump has, with varying degrees of seriousness, repeatedly expressed interest in buying the ice-covered autonomous Danish territory between the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans. - WSJ
The Department of State has released the Visa Bulletin for September 2019. The table below shows "Final Action (Approval)" cut-off dates and movement from the previous month, for all major employment-based categories. To see filing cut-off dates or family-sponsored categories please go to the Visa Bulletin page linked above. For our unique Visa Bulletin Graphical Tracker, cutoff date predictions and more information please refer to the Visa Bulletin Toolbox.
| Chargeability | Preference | Cut-off Date (Y-M-D) | Movement (Days) |
|---|---|---|---|
| China | Second (EB2) | 2017-01-01 | 0 |
| India | Second (EB2) | 2009-05-08 | 6 |
| ROW | Third (EB3) | 2016-07-01 | 0 |
| China | Third (EB3) | 2014-01-01 | -912 |
| India | Third (EB3) | 2005-07-01 | -184 |
| Mexico | Third (EB3) | 2016-07-01 | 0 |
| Philippines | Third (EB3) | 2016-07-01 | 0 |
The lawsuit, filed by Santa Clara and San Francisco Counties in U.S. District Court, is the first of numerous court challenges advocacy groups and Democratic-led jurisdictions have vowed to mount against the so-called "public charge" regulation, which they believe will penalize low-income immigrants and their U.S. citizen children. The final version of the regulation — a key item on the administration's hard-line immigration agenda — was revealed on Monday and is slated to go into effect in mid October. - CBS
“Though ICE has had the authority to make site visits since regulations governing the STEM OPT program were revised in May 2016, the agency has not begun to conduct inspections until now,” according to the Fragomen law firm. “The inspection may include individual interviews with company personnel, a review and discussion of the foreign national’s training plan and its implementation, and a review of his or her skills and degree in relation to the STEM degree. ICE may also request to view F-1 trainee workspaces or receive a tour of the premises.” - Forbes
Today, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a final rule that clearly defines long-standing law to better ensure that aliens seeking to enter and remain in the United States — either temporarily or permanently — are self-sufficient and rely on their own capabilities and the resources of family members, sponsors, and private organizations rather than on public resources.
This final rule amends DHS regulations by prescribing how DHS will determine whether an alien is inadmissible to the United States based on his or her likelihood of becoming a public charge at any time in the future, as set forth in the Immigration and Nationality Act. The final rule addresses U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) authority to permit an alien to submit a public charge bond in the context of adjustment of status applications. The rule also makes nonimmigrant aliens who have received certain public benefits above a specific threshold generally ineligible for extension of stay and change of status. - USCIS
USCIS acting director Ken Cuccinelli announced that USCIS will keep seven international offices open in Beijing and Guangzhou, China; San Salvador, El Salvador; Guatemala City, Guatemala; New Delhi, India; Nairobi, Kenya; and Mexico City, Mexico.
The Department of State is expected to release September's Visa Bulletin soon. It could be tomorrow, or more likely, next Monday. Since September is the last month of FY-2019, it's common for DOS to apply some last-minute adjustment to cutoff dates. You are welcome to sign up for our Visa Bulletin Alert, and we'll send you an email as soon as it's published.
The Department of State is expected to release September's Visa Bulletin soon. It could be tomorrow, or more likely, next Monday. Since September is the last month of FY-2019, it's common for DOS to apply some last-minute adjustment to cutoff dates. You are welcome to sign up for our Visa Bulletin Alert, and we'll send you an email as soon as it's published.
Abhijit Prasad, 52, received multiple convictions Tuesday, including 21 counts of visa fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft from a federal jury. Prasad was previously indicted on related charges during 2016.
According to the evidence at trial, Prasad filed 19 petitions for H-1B nonimmigrant visas containing false statements, made under penalty of perjury, as to purported work projects to be performed at locations in California, including Cisco Systems. The evidence at trial showed that Cisco had no expectation that the foreign workers who were the beneficiaries of the visa petitions would actually work at Cisco on an existing work project. The evidence at trial further showed that the defendant knowingly submitted forged Cisco documents to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services in support of his claims that the beneficiaries would work at Cisco. - ICE
As a result of today’s operation, approximately 680 aliens were detained by HSI special agents. Some are being identified as being eligible for an alternative to detention based on humanitarian reasons. These individuals will be physically returned by HSI to their original place of detention and will still be required to appear before a federal immigration judge who will ultimately determine whether or not they will be deported. Currently, all cases are being handled via administrative law procedures at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. - DOJ
USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub has been updated with data as of March, 2019. You can also click here to check out latest H-1B visa statistics.
As previously announced, on August 5, USCIS will begin rejecting Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker, petitions that do not include the petitioner’s or applicant’s name and primary U.S. office address in Part 1 of the form. USCIS will subject all requests for nonimmigrant classifications filed on Form I-129 to this rejection criteria, including the time-sensitive H-2A visa classification for temporary agricultural workers.
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