The United States uses detention as a means of dealing with undocumented or otherwise removable immigrants after their arrest. When a friend or loved one has been placed in detention, it can be confusing and scary. This immigration blog aims to explain the detention process and how to help a friend or family member who has been detained. An individual may be detained because he or she is in the United States illegally and it is…
Read MorePosted onA new USCIS Policy, which actually serves as an amendment to the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), expands eligibility for employment authorization to battered/abused spouses of certain non-immigrants. The nonimmigrant visas applicable to INA section 106 employment authorization eligibility are: A-1, A-2, and A-3: Foreign government diplomats and officials and immediate family members and their attendants, servants, and personal employees; E-3: Australian specialty occupation workers; G-1, G-2, G-3, G-4, and G-5: Employees of foreign governments and…
Read MorePosted onA New Jersey lab technician, employed at a Little Falls State Police Laboratory, has been suspended, pending an investigation over potential falsification of drug reports. Indeed, the technician reportedly faked results in a suspected drug case which has drawn into question 7,827 criminal cases on which he worked, according to state officials. Specifically, it was alleged that the technician spent an insufficient amount of time analyzing a substance to determine if it was marijuana and reported a…
Read MorePosted onThe Priority-2 (P-2) Direct Access Program for Iraqi and Syrian beneficiaries of I-130 Petitions is an avenue for Iraqis and Syrians to apply for refugee resettlement in the United States through the U.S Refugee Admissions Program, known as USRAP. It is available to approved I-130 beneficiaries of Iraqi or Syrian nationality and their derivatives. Derivatives are spouses and unmarried children who were less than 21 years of age on the date the beneficiary’s I-130 petition was…
Read MorePosted onThe United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has begun implementing changes to its visa policies that will make it harder for some travelers to enter the country under the Visa Waiver Program (VWP). This essentially means that the nationals of certain countries are no longer eligible to enter the United States under the VWP, with particular focus on their recent travel histories. The VWP allows eligible nationals of 38 countries to travel temporarily, for up to 90 days,…
Read MorePosted onImmigration reform advocates have been forwarding the hypothesis that the more strident the Republican candidates remain against immigration reform, the more it may actually backfire. The idea is that the longer candidates like Trump and Cruz spend talking in extremist terms about borders, walls, immigration raids, and deportation, the more Latinos and other minority groups will be galvanized to vote for pro-immigration candidates during the upcoming 2016 Presidential Election. "The more these candidates continue attacking and…
Read MorePosted onThe Supreme Court of the United States, which is this nation's highest court, has decided to review President Obama's controversial case regarding executive actions on immigration that he initially set forth back in November of 2014. These executive actions, which would shield approximately 5 million immigrants from deportation, were stalled when a Texas Judge ruled that the president had overstepped his legal authority when he issued these immigration-related executive orders. The suit was spearheaded by Texas…
Read MorePosted onThe United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently installed a new computer-generated, voice-activated assistant program, called "Emma" to provide the public with a new process for asking and obtaining answers to immigration-related questions. In order to operate "Emma," all you need to do is to click the “Ask a Question link in the upper right corner of the USCIS home page or type the following into your search engine bar: https://www.uscis.gov/emma. "Emma" will always type…
Read MorePosted onApproximately 120 undocumented individuals from Central America were arrested this past weekend and are currently in the process of being deported to their home countries, the Department of Homeland Security announced yesterday. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said the undocumented immigrants were primarily arrested in the States of Georgia, Texas, and North Carolina. Reportedly, the weekend raids focused on those who arrived recently, mainly from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Immigration advocates and activists are trying to educate the public…
Read MorePosted onU.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has approved the maximum of 10,000 petitions for U-1 nonimmigrant status (U visas) for the fiscal year 2016. This marks the seventh straight year that USCIS has reached the statutory maximum since it began issuing U visas in 2009. U visas are available for victims of certain qualifying crimes who have suffered substantial mental or physical abuse and are willing to help law enforcement authorities investigate or prosecute those crimes.…
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