Immigration News
Jewell Stewart Pratt Beckerson & Carr PC
Issuing two separate orders (here and here) on the Trump Administration’s Travel Ban today, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the third iteration of the ban, issued via Presidential Proclamation on September 24, 2017, to take full immediate effect. We detailed the ban in our post here. The ban is pending litigation, but the Supreme Court’s ruling allows the ban to be implemented while the litigation is ongoing.
© Jewell Stewart & Pratt PC 2017
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today issued an order reinstating the Trump Administration’s third version of a travel ban. The ban was announced in President Trump’s September 24, 2017 proclamation and is now in effect; affected are nationals of Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria and Yemen as well as some Venezuelan government officials and their families. The Court preserved an exception to the ban for applicants who can meet a “bona fide relationship test” (to certain family members or entities) similar to the test described by the U.S. Supreme Court regarding Travel Ban 2.0. The Court will hear substantive arguments on December 6, 2017.
© Jewell Stewart & Pratt PC 2017
In two separate Federal Court decisions issued on October 17, 2017, the majority of the travel restrictions set forth in President Trump’s September 24, 2017 proclamation titled “Enhancing Vetting Capabilities and Processes for Detecting Attempted Entry into the United States by Terrorists or other Public-Safety Threats” were blocked. As a result, nationals of Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia and Chad will not be restricted from traveling to the United States. However, all immigrants and nonimmigrants from North Korea and certain government officials and their family members from Venezuela traveling on business or tourist visas (B-1/B-2) will continue to be restricted from travel to the U.S. The U.S. Department of Justice has stated that it will appeal these rulings.
© Jewell Stewart & Pratt PC 2017
As discussed in an earlier post, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on August 28, 2017 that it will cease waiving interviews of applicants applying for “adjustment of status” (AOS) to U.S. permanent residence (green card) based on employment. As part of the Trump administration’s plan to apply “extreme vetting” to would-be immigrants (and others), employment-based AOS applicants will be required to undergo an in-person interview at a USCIS field office. Approximately 130,000 applicants are expected to be affected per year.
On September 24, 2017 President Trump announced an extended and enhanced version of the travel ban that was previously in place under Executive Order 13780 (EO-2). The Presidential Proclamation titled “Enhancing Vetting Capabilities and Processes for Detecting Attempted Entry into the United States by Terrorists or other Public-Safety Threats,” a related Fact Sheet, and FAQs for the new ban are available on the White House website. As with EO-2, the ban affects immigrant and nonimmigrant visa issuance only. Therefore, nationals from the affected countries who already hold visas will not have those revoked. The U.S. Department of State has also announced that previously scheduled visa appointments will not be cancelled.
As noted in our prior blog post, the U.S. Supreme Court has partially reinstated the Trump Administration’s second Executive Order regarding travel and refugee admissions (“EO-2”), after several lower court orders impeded its implementation. However, the Supreme Court did exempt from EO-2’s reach nationals of the six affected countries with a “credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States,” such as a “close familial relationship.
Executive Order 13780 (EO-2), signed by President Trump on March 6, 2017, ordered the suspension of entry by citizens and nationals of six countries – Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen – for at least 90 days from its effective date of March 16, 2017. Litigation in U.S. federal courts temporarily prevented the ban from being carried out. The Trump Administration appealed these courts’ decisions and, on June 26, 2017, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) decided to hear the Trump Administration’s appeals. Pending its full review and decision, SCOTUS partially reinstated EO-2.
On June 26, 2017, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) decided to hear the Trump Administration’s appeals from the decisions of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, related to the administration’s second Executive Order regarding travel and refugee admissions (“EO-2”). SCOTUS will hear arguments from the parties in October 2017.
News Release from Jewell Stewart & Pratt PC
On June 12, 2017 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued an order upholding the District Court’s decision to block President Trump’s second Executive Order regarding travel and refugee admissions (i.e., “Travel Ban 2.0”).
The Ninth Circuit’s order states that “the President, in issuing the Executive Order, exceeded the scope of the authority delegated to him by Congress” and that “the Order runs afoul of other provisions of the INA that prohibit nationality-based discrimination.” The court affirmed the lower court’s decision to enjoin the travel ban and prevent suspension or limitations to the refugee program. However, the court also vacated the lower court’s decision to prevent the government’s internal reviews of visa issuance procedures.
The Ninth Circuit’s decision follows on the heels of the Fourth Circuit’s May 25, 2017 decision also blocking the ban. The administration is already seeing U.S. Supreme Court review of the Fourth Circuit decision.
© Jewell Stewart & Pratt PC 2017
News Release from Jewell Stewart & Pratt – April 18, 2017 An Executive Order signed by President Trump on April 18, 2017 directs the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Labor, and the Secretary of Homeland Security to, among other items, (1) suggest reforms to help “promote the proper functioning of the H-1B visa program", including ensuring that H-1B visas are awarded to the most-skilled or highest-paid beneficiaries; and (2) propose new rules and issue new guidance to protect the interests of U.S. workers in the administration of the U.S. immigration system, "including through the prevention of fraud or abuse." However, the Executive Order makes no immediate changes to any nonimmigrant visa programs, including the H-1B program. It also does not provide a deadline for the agencies to produce their proposals, guidance, and suggested reforms.
© Jewell Stewart & Pratt PC 2017
