On October 8, 2021, President Biden officially set an annual ceiling of 125,000 for refugee admissions to the United States during Fiscal Year (FY) 2022. This number represents the maximum number of refugees that may be admitted to the United States through September 30, 2022. The President set the annual refugee ceiling after consulting with members of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees.
Continue Reading White House Raises the Cap on Refugee Admissions to 125,000
On Thursday, August 8, 2019, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it will hold a public workshop on September 23 to discuss “the role of antitrust enforcement in labor markets and promoting robust competition for the American worker.” This workshop marks another step in the government’s ongoing efforts to address what it sees
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) has planned a series of nationwide raids this weekend to detain and remove thousands of undocumented immigrants, according to multiple national media reports. ICE officials have confirmed that agents will target at least 2,000 undocumented immigrants in at least 10 US cities for removal. In our Legal Update, we
As the longest federal government shutdown in United States history endures, Law360 discusses how the lack of government funding has impacted the field of business immigration. Although most business immigration processes remain largely unaffected, US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the State Department, the Department of Labor, Customs and Border Protection, and US immigration courts have
The federal government has entered its fourth week of a partial shutdown since December 22, 2018 because of a budget impasse between Congress and the White House. This shutdown is the longest since 1995-1996, when the federal government was closed for 21 days, and now represents the longest lapse in federal funding in recent history.
Many agencies and departments continue operations through this shutdown because of previously approved funding bills or the essential nature of their personnel. The information below summarizes the operating status of agencies responsible for immigration-related activities most relevant to employers.
Continue Reading US Government Shutdown Impact on Immigration-Related Services
In a recent Bloomberg Law article discussing what 2019 has in store on the immigration front, Liz Stern remarks on the changing landscape of business immigration as USCIS challenges and narrows the definition of the H-1B specialty occupation visa category. Although comprehensive immigration reform is not likely, Stern anticipates more litigation as businesses become increasingly
In a 5-4 decision issued on Tuesday, June 26, 2018, the US Supreme Court upheld the president’s broad statutory authority to suspend the issuance of visas to nationals of certain countries in the interests of national security. Finding the September 24, 2017, Proclamation 9645 (“Proclamation”) to be neutral on its face, the Court rejected the arguments of the State of Hawaii that the ban was a thinly veiled attempt to ban Muslims from the United States in violation of the Establishment Clause of the US Constitution and the Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”).
“By its plain language, [the INA] grants the president broad discretion to suspend the entry of aliens into the United States,” the majority opinion, authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, states. “The president lawfully exercised that discretion based on his findings—following a worldwide, multiagency review—that entry of the covered aliens would be detrimental to the national interest. And plaintiffs’ attempts to identify a conflict with other provisions in the INA, and their appeal to the statute’s purposes and legislative history, fail to overcome the clear statutory language.”Continue Reading Supreme Court Upholds Trump’s Third Travel Ban
An article in Law360 outlines the key items addressed in the Trump administration’s spring 2018 regulatory agenda, which was made available to the public in early May 2018. Topics on the list include structural changes to the Executive Office for Immigration Review, the office within the US Department of Justice that oversees US immigration
On April 24, 2018, Judge John D. Bates of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia ruled against the Trump Administration’s “unlawful” rescission of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (“DACA”) program. Arguing that the decision to end DACA was “arbitrary and capricious because the department failed adequately to explain its conclusion that