Articles Discussing Asylum And Employment.

Approaching the three-year anniversary of the issuance of President Donald Trump’s “Executive Order Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States,” on January 31, 2020, Trump added six new countries to the list of affected countries: Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar (Burma), Nigeria, Sudan, and Tanzania.

In the spring of 2019, the Social Security Administration (SSA) renewed its practice of sending employment eligibility correction request notices (known as “no-match letters”) to employers. The SSA had discontinued the practice of sending no-match letters between 2012 and 2018, but has issued more than half a million notices so far in 2019. Against the backdrop of a tight labor market, these letters particularly affect businesses in industries that rely on immigrant workers, including employers in the hospitality, construction, and agricultural industries.

The Fairness for High-Skilled Workers Act has passed the House of Representatives, and is pending before the Senate where it may pass by unanimous consent (i.e., with no actual vote or hearing).

Having focused on enforcement and illegal immigration, the Trump Administration has recently turned to legal immigration. The new Public Charge rule which will go into effect on October 15, 2019, absent court action, will make it harder for some foreign nationals to obtain green cards or even to secure or extend temporary non-immigrant status. What has been something that primarily affected family-based immigration may now affect some employers and their employees as well. Any workers with a family of four and an income of less than $64,000 (or 250% of the federal poverty guidelines) could be subject to the Public Charge Rule.

USCIS is on its way to revising and updating the Naturalization Test. It will start with a pilot test involving about 1,400 volunteers this fall, then a second field testing pilot in spring 2020.

DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipients have been in limbo and at the center of various political debates ever since President Donald Trump attempted to end the program in 2017. Put in place by the Obama Administration in 2012, DACA protects from deportation individuals who were brought to the United States by their parents as undocumented children. Individuals who have received DACA protection are granted work authorization, but currently have no pathway to lawful permanent residence in the United States. The 800,000 DACA recipients are known as “Dreamers,” and are generally considered to be model residents of the United States.

President Donald Trump issued a Memorandum on April 22, 2019 aimed at reducing visa overstays – people who stay in the U.S. beyond the time authorized by their visas. Assertions set forth in the Memorandum include:

The U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision has held that President Donald Trump’s Proclamation No. 9645, known as “Travel Ban 3.0,” can stand. Trump, et al. v. Hawaii, et al., No. 17-965 (June 26, 2018). Certain individuals from Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen will continue to be subject to the ban.

The DOJ and the DHS have made clear on numerous occasions that they intend to rescind employment authorization documents (EADs) for H-4 visa status holders and it appears that rescission may be just around the corner. Family members of an H-1B worker are admitted in the H-4 category.

The DHS is giving with one hand and taking with the other. In response to the December 1, 2017 federal court ruling in National Venture Capital v. Duke, the DHS is complying and implementing the International Entrepreneur Rule parole program (IER). At the same time, the DHS is in the final stages of publishing a notice of proposed rulemaking to eliminate the program.

On September 6, 2017, the day after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the rescission of DACA, 15 states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s DACA rescission. The states included in the lawsuit are Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.

DHS Secretary Kelly has rescinded DAPA (Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanents). DAPA was meant to 1) provide undocumented parents of U.S. citizens or Green Card holders with a way to remain in the U.S. with work authorization and 2) expand DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) by encompassing a wider range of ages and arrival dates and lengthening the duration of deferred action and work authorization per application from two to three years. Created by President Obama by an executive order, DAPA was quickly enjoined by the courts as an unacceptable expansion of executive power. The Obama administration appealed to the Supreme Court, and just one year ago, the lower court ruling was affirmed by default as a result of the Supreme Court deadlocking at 4 to 4. The case has since been stalled.

A federal citizenship statute setting different residency requirements for U.S. citizen fathers and mothers seeking to transmit birthright citizenship to their non-marital children born outside the U.S. violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled. Sessions v. Morales-Santana, No. 15-1191 (June 12, 2017).

Joining the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and using President Donald Trump’s tweets to support its decision, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Hawaii v. Trump has continued to block the revised travel ban.

In a series of cables sent in mid-March, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had ordered Consulates abroad to begin preparing for “extreme vetting.” Then, the court in Hawaii v. Trump enjoined the President’s revised travel ban, and Tillerson issued another cable that suspended enforcement on the six countries in the Executive Order: Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. The Secretary also indicated that Consulates could not request information until additional collection was approved by the Office of Management and Budget after a notice-and-comment period.