Reuters – Trump extends immigration bans despite opposition from U.S. business groups

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday extended a pair of immigration bans that block many “green card” applicants and temporary foreign workers from entering the country, measures he says are needed to protect U.S. workers amid the pandemic-battered economy.

The bans, which were issued in April and June, were set to expire on Dec. 31, but will be extended until March 31, 2021, the latest in a series of last-gasp immigration moves by the outgoing Trump administration. A broad range of businesses oppose the ban on certain foreign workers. Continue reading “Reuters – Trump extends immigration bans despite opposition from U.S. business groups”

Tampa Partner Maria Ramos Presents at the 34th Annual Central Florida Immigration Law Conference

The 2020 AILA Central Florida Chapter’s Annual Conference was held virtually on December 1st and 2nd, 2020 and was a true virtual learning experience. AILA CFC provided a “Conference in a Box” format with two tracks. The first track covered topics such as analyzing crimes for removal, naturalization and what to do when things go wrong, waivers, lessons in particular social group matter of A-B. Track two covered employment, entrepreneurs/investors, H-1B and PERM, prevailing wages, a practical guide to J-1, PERM from start to finish, alternatives to the PERM, worksite compliance audits and LCA compliance, visa bulletin-priority dates-IVP or AOS, and EB2 to EB3 Downgrades.

Tampa Partner Maria Ramos along with Richard Green gave a presentation entitled “EB-2 & EB-3 India, To Amend or Not to Amend?  That is the Question.” To learn more visit AILA CFC’s website found here.

West Law Today (Reuters) – Lawyers for Chamber, Trump administration spar over need for H-1B restrictions

The U.S. Department of Justice building is bathed in morning light at sunrise in Washington, U.S., February 14, 2020. REUTERS/Mary F. Calvert

(Reuters) – A lawyer for the Trump administration on Monday told a federal judge in California that the “unprecedented economic emergency” triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic justified the adoption of rules limiting the H-1B visa program without first calling for public input.

At a hearing conducted via Zoom, Alexandra Saslaw of the U.S. Department of Justice told U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White in Oakland that the administration believed the restrictions on foreign labor would make it easier for American workers left unemployed amid the pandemic to find new jobs.
And that provides the “good cause” necessary to circumvent the Administrative Procedure Act’s requirement that agencies solicit and review public comments before adopting final rules, Saslaw said.

Continue reading “West Law Today (Reuters) – Lawyers for Chamber, Trump administration spar over need for H-1B restrictions”

Maria Ramos Participates in AILA University’s “Ask BIRT: AILA’s Business Immigration Response Team Addresses Members’ Most Pressing Questions – Live”

Tampa Partner Maria Ramos participated as a discussion leader in this past week’s AILA University. Maria and members of AILA’s Business Immigration Response Team (BIRT) addressed AILA members’ most pressing business immigration questions.

Topics covered include:

  • What tips can the discussion leaders provide regarding filing EB-2 to EB-3 downgrades?
  • Please comment on DOL’s new prevailing wages and provide recent experiences/advice using private wage surveys.
  • How should I respond to a USCIS RFE that requests a Form I-944 that was not legally required at the time the adjustment of status was filed?
  • An O-1 visa holder stuck in London since the travel restrictions were imposed by PP 9996 has an urgent need to obtain a National Interest Exception. What are the O-1 visa holder’s options?

 

Forbes – New Lawsuit And Glaring Problems Threaten DOL H-1B Visa Rule

A new lawsuit and economic research have exposed problems with the Department of Labor’s (DOL) new H-1B wage rule. The lawsuit seeks a preliminary and permanent injunction against the new rule, which analysts have concluded was designed to price out of the U.S. labor market H-1B visa holders and employment-based immigrants by raising the required minimum wage to employ them. The research explains why the rule is likely unlawful, harmful to the U.S. economy and will make it difficult for international students to be employed in the United States after graduation.

“On October 8, 2020, without providing prior notice and without affording plaintiffs or the general public an opportunity to comment, the Department of Labor dramatically altered the manner in which it calculates prevailing wage rates for the H-1B program,” according to a complaint filed on October 16, 2020, by the Wasden Banias law firm on behalf of ITServe Alliance, Dots Technologies, Iflowsoft Solutions, Kolla Soft, NAM Info, Precision Technologies, Smart Works and Zenith Services in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

“Plaintiffs bring this civil action challenging the Department of Labor’s decision to set dramatically higher wage rates without following the notice and comment rulemaking procedures required under the Administrative Procedure Act,” reads the complaint. “Plaintiffs also challenge the agency’s new wage rates as a violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended, because the new wage rates are set under a novel standard that conflicts with the governing statutory criteria. The Department of Labor’s new wage rule is also arbitrary and capricious because the agency relied on outdated, incorrect, or limited empirical data, failed to consider readily available, relevant data and empirical studies, and engaged in reasoning that conflicts with basic economic theory.”

Visit Forbes for full article.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) – Premium Processing Fee Increase Effective Oct. 19, 2020

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) today announced it will increase fees for premium processing, effective Oct. 19, as required by the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2021 and Other Extensions Act, Pub. L. No. 116-159, signed into law on Oct. 1. The USCIS premium processing service allows petitioners to pay an additional filing fee to expedite the adjudication of certain forms, generally within 15 days. The Act included the Emergency Stopgap USCIS Stabilization Act, which requires USCIS to establish and collect additional premium processing fees, and to use those additional funds for expanded purposes.

Pub. L. No. 116-159 increases the fee for Form I-907, Request for Premium Processing, from $1,440 to $2,500, for all filings except those from petitioners filing Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker, requesting H-2B or R-1 nonimmigrant status. The premium processing fee for petitioners filing Form I-129 requesting H-2B or R-1 nonimmigrant status is increasing from $1,440 to $1,500.

Any Form I-907 postmarked on or after Oct. 19 must include the new fee amount. If USCIS receives a Form I-907 postmarked on or after Oct. 19 with the incorrect filing fee, we will reject the Form I-907 and return the filing fee. For filings sent by commercial courier (such as UPS, FedEx and DHL), the postmark date is the date reflected on the courier receipt.

Pub. L. No. 116-159 also gives USCIS the ability to expand premium processing to additional forms and benefit requests, but USCIS is not yet taking that action. Any expansion of premium processing to other forms will be implemented as provided in the legislation.

For more information visit USCIS here.

The Wall Street Journal – Trump Administration Announces Overhaul of H-1B Visa Program

WASHINGTON—The Trump administration announced an overhaul of the H-1B visa program for high-skilled foreign workers that will require employers to pay H-1B workers significantly higher wages, narrow the types of degrees that could qualify an applicant and shorten the length of visas for certain contract workers.

The changes, introduced by the Departments of Labor and Homeland Security on Tuesday, will likely make it tougher to qualify for one of the coveted visas.

Ken Cuccinelli, the No. 2 official at DHS, said on a news conference call Tuesday that he expects about one-third of H-1B visa applications would be rejected under the new set of rules.

Mr. Cuccinelli and Patrick Pizzella, the deputy secretary of labor, said the changes were necessary to protect American workers, whom the administration believes are being undercut by foreign workers on H-1B visas who are paid lower wages to perform similar jobs.

“America’s immigration laws should put American workers first,” Mr. Pizzella said, pointing to what he described as insufficiently stringent wage requirements on foreign workers in the H-1B visa program. “The result is U.S. workers are being ousted from good-paying, middle-class jobs and being replaced by foreign workers,” he said.

To read this article in its entirety, visit The Wall Street Journal.

USCIS permits use of approval notices as evidence of work authorization due to COVID-19 delays

Without a doubt, COVID-19 has had a disruptive effect on almost every aspect of our lives. The extraordinary and unprecedented public health emergency COVID-19 created has caused different businesses and government agencies to unexpectedly shutter their operations in order to minimize the spread of this virus. One unintended consequence is that COVID-19 has forced U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) processing of cases to come to a virtual standstill.  As a result, the production of certain Employment Authorization Documents (Form I-766, EAD), among other things, has been delayed. Because failure to receive an EAD document can result in a foreign national not being able to continue to work (and ultimately) a termination, a lawsuit has been brought against USCIS in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio (Easter Division) challenging the delay in issuance of the employment authorization document (EAD) following approval of the I-765 application.

Today, USCIS announced that employees may use Form I-797, Notice of Action, with a Notice date on or after December 1, 2019 through and including August 20, 2020 informing an applicant of approval of an Application for Employment Authorization (Form I-765) as a Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, List C #7 document to establish employment authorization issued by the Department of Homeland Security pursuant to 8 C.F.R. 274a.2(b)(1)(v)(C)(7), even though the Notice states it is not evidence of employment authorization.  This newly created exception to the Form I-9 rules will expire on December 1, 2020.  Additionally, please note that employees will still be required to present a List B document to establish their identity. Continue reading “USCIS permits use of approval notices as evidence of work authorization due to COVID-19 delays”

Forbes – USCIS Staff Furloughs Will Grind Legal Immigration To A Halt

The Trump administration is about to achieve what many see as its long-held objective of bringing the U.S. legal immigration system to a halt. While the administration would not be allowed to stop processing immigration applications without incurring legal action, critics say that through policy choices and mismanagement of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) it may accomplish the same goal.

“The federal agency tasked with offering citizenship, green cards and visas to immigrants is planning to furlough about two-thirds of its workers at the end of the month after Congress failed to reach a deal on a coronavirus stimulus package,” reported USA Today. “U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services notified about 13,400 of its 20,000 employees that they would be furloughed Aug. 30 because of budget shortfalls.”

To better understand the impact of a USCIS staff furlough, I interviewed Doug Rand, who worked on immigration policy in the Obama White House as assistant director for entrepreneurship and is the co-founder of Boundless Immigration, a technology company that helps immigrants obtain green cards and citizenship. He is also a senior fellow and director of the Technology and Innovation Initiative at the Federation of American Scientists. Continue reading “Forbes – USCIS Staff Furloughs Will Grind Legal Immigration To A Halt”

CBS News – Trump administration can enforce green card wealth test in most states, court rules

A federal appellate court on Wednesday limited an order that had blocked the nationwide implementation of a controversial wealth test for green cards and immigrant visas, allowing the Trump administration to continue the policy in every state except New York, Connecticut and Vermont.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit partially set aside last month’s ruling from a federal judge in New York, who said the so-called “public charge” test was hindering nationwide efforts to contain the coronavirus by discouraging immigrants from requesting public assistance, including medical treatment, during the pandemic.

U.S. Circuit Judge Peter Hall did not provide a reason in his one-paragraph order, which set aside the lower court injunction in every state but New York, Connecticut and Vermont. All three of those states had sued the Trump administration over the public charge rule. Continue reading “CBS News – Trump administration can enforce green card wealth test in most states, court rules”