Early last week, the President addressed immigration reform from the Rose Garden of the White House. Clearly frustrated by Congressional inaction, the President indicated that he would move forward using his existing legal authorities, to “fix as much of our immigration system” as possible. The White House was informed in late-June that the Speaker of the House of Representatives would not move immigration reform legislation to the floor of the House...

USCIS announced the renewal program for those who have received deferred action under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (“DACA”) program, which began in 2012. USCIS is prepared to accept DACA renewals immediately. To renew, a requestor must continue to be eligible for the program and have not committed any disqualifying crimes. Any new evidence should also be submitted but requestors will not, in most cases, need to send in evidence...

US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it is extending the reregistration period for those Haitian nationals who have been granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS) from May 2, 2014 to July 22, 2014. Those persons wishing to reregister may have their TPS period extended for an additional 18 months. Employment authorization cards with an expiration date of July 22, 2014 are also automatically extended through January 22, 2015, while their...

This week, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) launched a new webpage where non-immigrant visitors can access not only their most recent Form I-94 Arrival/Departure record, but also their last five years of travel history. Until now, visitors had to file requests under the Freedom of Information Act to access their travel histories. These requests would frequently take months to yield results. Now, more recent entry and exit information is available at...

With Congress in a standstill in recent months on comprehensive immigration reform, the White House has asked the Secretary of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson, to review current enforcement priorities in Washington. Secretary Johnson is reported to be in the midst of a thorough review of immigration law and agency memoranda regarding current practices by the Department of Homeland Security. Many immigration practitioners expect DHS to implement a new discretionary program, similar...

USCIS released its first quarterly report for Fiscal Year 2014 on statistics for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The numbers demonstrate not only the need for immigration reform laws, but also the need for interim relief for otherwise law-abiding undocumented people currently present in the United States. Through December 31, 2014, a total of 610,694 requests for DACA were accepted by USCIS at their lockbox facility. Of those,...

The Department of State has announced to immigration attorneys, through the liaison efforts of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), that some GLBT immigrants may seek to process their immigrant visas in safer third-countries. Last year, when the Supreme Court struck the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in Windsor v. United States, federal government agencies began recognizing same-sex marriages for federal benefits, including immigration. United States citizens may now seek immigrant...

On March 18, 2014, USCIS announced that, on its own motion, it would reopen and review I-601A waivers that were denied prior to January 24, 2014 and review the reasons for denial. This affects spouses of United States citizens who have had their provisional waivers denied. The I-601A provisional waiver went into effect in early 2013, allowing those who required a waiver for unlawful presence only to have their inadmissibility waiver...