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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced two changes related to the treatment of Venezuelans seeking refuge in the U.S. One will provide for their rapid expulsion at the U.S. border. Previously Mexico would not allow Venezuelans to be returned to Mexico from the U.S. border so the U.S. could not expel them. The U.S. can now (after negotiating an agreement with Mexico) remove Venezuelans under Title 42, a Read More

Most people are extremely sympathetic about helping young people who were brought to the U.S. as young children and grew up here without legal status. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) was implemented by executive action by President Obama in 2012. To qualify, the applicant must have arrived in the U.S. before they turned 16 and before June 15, 2007. The program has been the subject of much litigation Read More

Writing a blog is an exercise in conveying useful or interesting information without making it too long or going too much into the weeds. This blog is especially challenging because I will attempt to do a “survey” of the ways that immigration issues are affected by military service. This blog will be long and incomplete but hopefully will be useful or interesting to my readers. Eligibility for Military Service Read More

People with legal status in the U.S. do not think about immigration consequences when it comes to tragedies such as Uvalde, but immigration issues are a part of this. DHS which encompasses CBP, ICE, and USCIS)  has issued two statements relating to the shooting. Before I discuss these statements, I would like to explain the separate roles of USCIS, CBP, and ICE. All of these are in the DHS areas of Read More

Late last year, DHS Secretary Mayorkas issued a memorandum providing guidelines for the enforcement of civil immigration law. The memo in part stated:  “It is estimated that there are more than 11 million undocumented or otherwise removable noncitizens in the United States. We do not have the resources to apprehend and seek the removal of every one of these noncitizens. Therefore, we need to exercise our Read More

I have received many inquiries about asylum for Ukrainian citizens this past week so thought that I would explain the terminology relating to available U.S. humanitarian relief. I hope that this provides information that will allow my readers to understand what is happening at this time. Refugee A refugee is a person who has been forced to flee their home country due to persecution because of their race, religion, Read More

It is not difficult to find loud voices warning about the dangers of immigration to the US economy and our way of life. It is almost impossible to not hear this hate-filled and misleading rhetoric. As an immigration attorney for more years than I want to mention, I have seen the opposite – hard working honest people who fill jobs that citizens cannot do or do not want to do and immigrants who create businesses that Read More

When a U.S. company petitions for a non-immigrant (temporary) visa for a prospective employee, it is a two-step process. First, they file a petition with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and request that the approval be sent to a specific U.S. Consulate which is usually the country of residence or country of citizenship of the employee. Second, they must obtain the visa at a U.S. Consulate after Read More

In September, the Washington Post published an article that I saved to include in my Thanksgiving blog. It was about residents at a long-term care facility in Northern Virginia – the Goodwin House. As the article mentions, one of every four workers in long-term care facilities are immigrants. Immigrants make up about 17% of the entire medical workforce in the U.S. More are needed as we continue to deal with the Read More

Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently issued new guidelines for the apprehension and removal of noncitizens who are physically present in the U.S. The guidelines state that there are an estimated 11 million undocumented or otherwise removable noncitizens in the U.S. and that DHS does not have the resources to apprehend and seek the removal of all 11 million. The Read More