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November 2, 2020
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Immigration law is at the forefront of public dialogue these days. Womble Bond Dickinson’s Immigration Solutions team helps employers navigate high-stakes, constantly shifting immigration challenges to avoid potential problems and secure the talent they need to make their companies thrive. The following newsletter, drafted by Womble Bond Dickinson Immigration Solutions attorneys, covers some of the recent and most important developments in immigration law.
- October 29, 2020 The House Judiciary Committee released a report on the Trump administration's family separation policy. It found that the policy was chaotically planned in February 2017 and has failed to reunite families.
- October 28, 2020 The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) reports that despite the partial shutdown of the immigration courts due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in FY2020 immigration judges made the second highest number of asylum adjudications in the past twenty years. The rate of denial rose to a record high of 71.6%, compared to 54.6% in FY2016.
- October 26, 2020 USCIS provided an H-2B cap count and announced that it has received 23,171 beneficiaries toward the 33,000 cap for the first half of FY2021. Of those, 20,326 have been approved and 2,845 are pending.
- October 23, 2020 Seventeen individual and organizational plaintiffs, represented by the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and members of AILA’s Board of Governors, filed a lawsuit requesting an injunction to prevent the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) final rule changing prevailing wage rates.
- October 23, 2020 The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, and other organizations and universities sued DHS and DOL in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to request that the final rules the agencies published in the Federal Register on October 8, 2020 be vacated and set aside. The rules at issue are the DHS rule restricting the H-1B visa category by constricting the definition of specialty occupation and further limiting the validity period for H-1B workers placed at third party job sites,
and the DOL rule raising the minimum wages employers must pay H-1B workers.
- October 23,2020 USCIS invites stakeholder to listen to an E-Verify Account Management Listening Session on November 5, 2020 from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. ET. Attendees must register here.
- October 22, 2020 www.HoldCBPAccountable.org has posted updates to its efforts to hold CBP accountable. These updates include reaching a final settlement regarding First Amendment violations, suing to challenge Border Patrol’s illegal operation of interior checkpoints in northern New England, and winning a preliminary injunction guaranteeing access to counsel.
- October 22, 2020 CBP announced a continuation of temporary travel restrictions limiting travel of individuals from Canada into the U.S. at land ports of entry along the U.S.-Canada border, and from Mexico into the U.S. at land ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border, through November 21, 2020 due to COVID-19.
- October 21, 2020 ICE announced that it can expedite the removal of certain individuals pursuant to the July 23, 2019 Designation of Aliens for Expedited Removal. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued an order on September 30, 2020 removing the preliminary injunction against this practice.
- October 16, 2020 USCIS announced it was increasing premium processing filing fees beginning October 19, 2020. Premium processing requests for most petitions are increased from $1,440 to $2,500.
- October 21, 2020 USCIS and EOIR announced a final rule adding seven additional mandatory bars to asylum eligibility, effective November 20, 2020. (85 FR 67202, 10/21/20)
- October 21, 2020 DOS issued a notice of proposed rulemaking ending the “B-1 in lieu of H” policy. Comments are due December 21, 2020. (85 FR 66878, 10/21/20)
- October 16, 2020 IT and computer servicing companies that hire U.S. workers and H-1B skilled nonimmigrant workers in computer occupations sued to request a preliminary and permanent injunction to stop the DOL interim final rule imposing changes to prevailing wages published on October 8, 2020. (ITServe Alliance, Inc. et al. v. Scalia, et al. 10/16/20)
- October 9, 2020 DOS announced that, due to the federal district court's injunction in National Association of Manufacturers v. DHS, any J-1, H-1B, H-2B, or L-1 applicant who is either sponsored (as an exchange visitor) by, petitioned by, or whose petitioner is a member of, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit is no longer subject to PP 10052’s entry restrictions. The named plaintiffs include: National Association of Manufacturers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Retail Federation, TechNet, and Intrax, Inc.
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