By MOLLY O’TOOLE, GIULIA MCDONNELL NIETO DEL RIO

AUG. 12, 2019 6:01 PM - LA TIMES

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration took one of its most aggressive steps yet on Monday to target legal immigration, publishing new rules that could deny green cards to immigrants who use Medicaid, food stamps, housing vouchers or other forms of public assistance, and potentially making it more difficult for some to get legal status in the U.S.

Federal law already requires those seeking green cards and legal status to prove they will not become a “public charge,” or a burden on the U.S. But the new rules, made public Monday, outline a broader range of programs that could disqualify them. Officers at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will now weigh public assistance along with other factors such as education, household income and health to determine whether to grant legal status.

Author: Jeffrey S. Chase, Aug. 11, 2019

In June 2018, the Attorney General issued his precedent decision in Matter of A-B-. The AG intended his decision to lead to the denial of asylum claims based on domestic violence and gang violence by asylum officers, immigration judges, the BIA, and the circuit courts. The decision also aimed to compel asylum officers to find those arriving at the southern border to lack the credible fear necessary for entry into the court system, allowing for their immediate deportation.

The purpose of this advisory is to provide service providers with an update on the status of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and how to counsel clients now.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW DACA UPDATE ADVISORY

The designation of El Salvador for temporary protected status (TPS) was set to expire on March 9, 2018. The Secretary of Homeland Security has determined that conditions in El Salvador no longer support its designation for TPS and that termination of the TPS designation of El Salvador is required. The Secretary therefore is terminating the designation effective September 9, 2019, which is 18 months following the end of the current designation. The 60-day re-registration period began January 18, 2018, and runs through March 19, 2018

USCIS Automatically Extends EAD Validity for Certain Haitians With TPS; Re-Registration Period Now Open

The designation of Haiti for TPS will expire on July 22, 2019. Current beneficiaries of TPS under Haiti's designation who want to maintain that status through the program's termination date must re-register by March 19, 2018. USCIS has automatically extended the validity of EADs for certain individuals with TPS from Haiti.

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals: Response to January 2018 Preliminary Injunction

Due to a federal court order, USCIS has resumed accepting requests to renew a grant of deferred action under DACA. Until further notice, and unless otherwise provided in this guidance, the DACA policy will be operated on the terms in place before it was rescinded on Sept. 5, 2017.

Individuals who were previously granted deferred action under DACA may request renewal by filing Form I-821D (PDF), Form I-765 (PDF), and Form I-765 Worksheet (PDF), with the appropriate fee or approved fee exemption request, at the USCIS designated filing location, and in accordance with the instructions to the Form I-821D (PDF) and Form I-765 (PDF). USCIS is not accepting requests from individuals who have never before been granted deferred action under DACA. USCIS will not accept or approve advance parole requests from DACA recipients.

If you previously received DACA and your DACA expired on or after Sept. 5, 2016, you may still file your DACA request as a renewal request.

Matter of Siniauskas, 27 I&N Dec. 207 (BIA 2018)

(1) In deciding whether to set a bond, an Immigration Judge should consider the nature and circumstances of the alien’s criminal activity, including any arrests and convictions, to determine if the alien is a danger to the community, but family and community ties generally do not mitigate an alien’s dangerousness.

(2) Driving under the influence is a significant adverse consideration in determining whether an alien is a danger to the community in bond proceedings.

"...In a decision dated May 15, 2017, an Immigration Judge granted the respondent’s request for a change in custody status and ordered him released on bond in the amount of $25,000. The Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) has appealed from that decision. The appeal will be sustained, and the respondent will be ordered detained without bond."

USCIS, Jan. 31, 2018 - "U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that the agency will schedule asylum interviews for recent applications ahead of older filings, in an attempt to stem the growth of the agency’s asylum backlog.

USCIS is responsible for overseeing the nation’s legal immigration system, which includes adjudicating asylum claims. The agency currently faces a crisis-level backlog of 311,000 pending asylum cases as of Jan. 21, 2018, making the asylum system increasingly vulnerable to fraud and abuse. This backlog has grown by more than 1750 percent over the last five years, and the rate of new asylum applications has more than tripled.

Today marks one week since we learned that Donald Trump will become the 45th president of the United States. Most of us did not expect this result, and many of us feared it. Over the past year, Mr. Trump has said many hurtful and aggressive things against immigrants. He has talked about building a wall, banning Muslims, deporting millions of people, further limiting the already unworkable employment-based visa system, and cancelling DACA. As the Chair of the Colorado Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), I am concerned for the futures of my clients, their families, and their employers, but I also see the incredible talent and heart of the immigration lawyers and community activists I work with in Colorado and across the country. In this time of insecurity, this is my message of hope and unity.

Prof. Francine J. Lipman, Sept. 24, 2016 - "Among the many amazing opportunities I have had as a law professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas is continuing my work with immigrants on their tax issues. As I have written about at length unauthorized immigrants pay many tens of billions of dollars a year in taxes including federal (about 4.4 million ITIN tax returns were filed in 2015 paying over $23 billion including $18.1 in federal income taxes and $5.5 in self-employment taxes), state, and local income, property, sales, excise, etc. ($12 billion annually), and payroll taxes (about $12 billion a year in net Social Security and Medicare taxes for which they currently receive no current or future benefit). ...

David Isaacson, Sept. 26, 2016- "On July 29, 2016, USCIS published in the Federal Register the final version of a previously-proposed ruleexpanding the provisional waiver program.  The new rule, Expansion of Provisional Unlawful Presence Waivers of Inadmissibility, 81 Fed. Reg. 50,244, was effective August 29, 2016, so the newly expanded program is now available.

Author: Laura Lichter on 01/04/2013

Starting March 4, 2013, certain relatives of American citizens who are in the country illegally and need a waiver of unlawful presence before being eligible for a green card can get a decision on their case before leaving the United States.

For those who can take advantage of the new rule, this means peace of mind, knowing that their loved one is likely to successfully complete the immigration process and not be stranded in a foreign country for an unknown length of time. For some, however, the new rule will do nothing to resolve their immigration issues.

From Jan 2, by Mary Giovagnoli

Some families facing long separations from their loved ones because of U.S. immigration laws will have an easier time of it in 2013. Thanks to a new regulation from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), immediate relatives of U.S. citizens will be able to complete part of the processing of their immigration cases without leaving the country. The “Provisional Unlawful Presence Waiver of Inadmissibility for Certain Immediate Relatives” rule, often referred to as the new family unity rule, will be published tomorrow (January 3, 2013) and become effective on March 4.