Weekly Immigration News Recap (January 9-15)
DHS Announces Process Enhancements for Supporting Labor Enforcement Investigations
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced that noncitizen employees can now access a streamlined and expedited deferred action request procedure if they are labor rights violators or witnesses to such violations. Deferred action shields noncitizen employees from exploitative employers’ threats of immigration-related reprisal. With immediate effect, this procedure will enhance DHS’s long-standing practice of using its discretionary power to evaluate requests for deferred action related to labor and employment agencies on an individual basis. Workers can submit requests and obtain more information on DHS.gov in both English and Spanish.
Source: USCIS
USCIS Announces Final Phase of Premium Processing Expansion for EB-1 and EB-2 Form I-140 Petitions and Future Expansion for F-1 Students Seeking OPT and Certain Student and Exchange Visitors
The last stage of the premium processing expansion for Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers, under EB-1 and EB-2 classifications is being implemented by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. In addition to all previously submitted Form I-140 petitions under the E13 multinational executive and manager classification or the E21 classification as a member of professions with advanced degrees or exceptional ability asking for a national interest waiver, this phase applies to new (initial) petitions (NIW). Petitioners must submit Form I-907, Request for Premium Processing Service, if they want to request premium processing.
USCIS will accept Form I-907 requests for the following starting on January 30, 2023:
- All E13 multinational executive and manager petitions that are still pending as well as all E21 NIW petitions
- All E13 multinational executive and manager petitions that have just been filed.
Source: USCIS
Courts Set to Shape US Immigration Policy in 2023
In 2023, substantial decisions on immigration will be made by U.S. judges, which will have a big impact on how the country handles immigration.
Since 1990, Congress has not made significant changes to the nation’s immigration rules, and according to Stephen Yale-Loehr of Cornell Law School, efforts by succeeding administrations to change the immigration system through executive orders are hampered by legal disputes.
Source: VOA
Supreme Court Rejects Trump Administration Public Charge Appeal
A coalition of Republican-led states appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate the Trump administration’s public charge policy, but they were once again denied. If they used public benefits, the public charge requirement made it more difficult for low-income immigrants to get a green card. The Biden administration’s choice to overturn the rule was followed by the filing of the lawsuit by Texas and the other 12 states.
Source: Boundless
