Posts From July, 2020

By Suzanne Monyak, Law 360, July 29, 2020 A New York federal judge on Wednesday blocked the Trump administration from implementing its controversial wealth test for immigrants during the national health emergency stemming from the coronavirus pandemic. A New York federal judge on Wednesday blocked the Trump administration’s “public charge” rule, which allows the government […]

By Nora Flaherty on Maine Public, June 28 2020 A new rule that will further curtail the ability of asylum seekers in the United States to work becomes official Friday. If it is not held up by legal challenges, the policy will go into effect on August 25, 2020. It makes most asylum-seekers who don’t cross into […]

By Alecs Cook, originally published on Immigration Impact The Trump administration has justified major changes to citizenship processing to “safeguard” the U.S. immigration system from application fraud. Yet the increased vetting has not lowered the number of approvals over the last few years, indicating an absence of fraud. The time it takes to approve those applications, however, […]

By Camila DeChalus, published on Roll Call U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced Friday it would postpone for a month its plans to furlough more than 13,000 employees, giving Congress more time to act on the agency’s $1.2 billion emergency funding request. “Recent assurances from Congress, and an uptick in application and petition receipts, have allowed […]

Published by the American Immigration Council The Individual Identification Number (ITIN) is a tax processing number issued by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to ensure that people–including undocumented immigrants–pay taxes even if they do not have a Social Security number and regardless of their immigration status. ITINs allow the IRS to bring in billions of […]

Published with the American Immigration Council by Jorge Loweree, Aaron Reichlin-Melnick and Walter Ewing, PhD The COVID-19 (the novel coronavirus) pandemic, and the federal government’s response, has disrupted virtually every aspect of the U.S. immigration system. Visa processing overseas by the Department of State, as well as the processing of some immigration benefits within the […]

Originally published by Immigration Impact by Walter Ewing U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) expects, by the end of July, to have worked through nearly the entire backlog of naturalization oath ceremonies put on hold in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The agency is now providing new ways to take the oath, including drive-thru naturalization ceremonies. […]

Originally published by Immigration Impact by Jorge Loweree The Trump administration’s full-on assault on the U.S. immigration system has continued despite the COVID-19 pandemic. The president has not only pursued his agenda during the outbreak—he has, in several instances, used the pandemic as a pretext to reduce the number of noncitizens who can come to […]

On Monday, the State Department announced that U.S. embassies will soon resume visa services, though it did not give details on when each location would reopen. Routine visa services have been suspended in all U.S. missions since March 20. Even after visa services resume, President Trump’s restriction on many types of visas will continue through the end […]

On July 6, ICE announced that, despite the coronavirus pandemic, international students would have to attend at least one in-person course in the fall in order to enter or stay in the U.S. That rule was rescinded on July 13. However, in the week it was in effect, some international students were already denied entry into […]