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The @AILANational annual conference begins this morning (all virtual this year - no surprise). As I have in years past, I will be tweeting interesting things I hear over the next four days.
My reports for today will be in this thread. Exec Director Ben Johnson is speaking first and introducing my friend @marketalindt. Noting as well the lawsuit challenging the 4/22 and 6/22 visa bans. 2
Side note - I just want to congratulate @marketalindt, outgoing president, on ably steering us through one terrible year. The pandemic is bad enough, but the Administration's relentless anti-immigration campaign has made being the @ailanational president no easy task.
Marketa is talking about AILA's new litigation department. @ailanational is now filing high impact cases - the health insurance ban, the visa bans, the public charge rule. 4
@JenniferMinear, the new @AILANational is being introduced by Sarah Peterson. I've known Jennifer over the years because she's been a great volunteer for @GraduateMedical. She's the right person for this time (proud to say I was on the nominating committee that recommended her).
@JenniferMinear is the 1st @ailanational I can remember who has a practice focusing mainly on physician immigration(sorry if I'm forgetting anyone). I'm hoping her depth of experience in this area proves helpful at a time when the healthcare needs of Americans are paramount. 6
Next up is Senator @timkaine delivering the keynote address. 7
Tim Kaine now up. Didn't know he & his wife both had COVID. He's now talking about his year working in Central America & his work as a civil rights lawyer and how it connected him with immigrant communities. He was the 1st member of Congress to speak from the floor in Spanish. 8
Sen. Kaine is talking about immigration reform giving the US economy a big positive jolt. That will likely be the message in early 2021 if Biden wins and immigration reform is one of the early agenda items. 9
Now for a hot topics panel with Jeff Joseph, Gaylor Oshrin, Ira Kurzban, Dre Collopy and Dagmar Butte. Jeff is starting off talking about the 4/22 and 6/22 visa bans. Jeff is co-counsel with me on the Aker v Trump case BTW. 10
Jeff is also the new Secretary of @AILANational. He's talking about last weekend's new State Dept memo on exceptions including expanded health care exemption. You can find that information at https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/News/visas-news/exceptions-to-p-p-10014-10052-suspending-entry-of-immigrants-non-immigrants-presenting-risk-to-us-labor-market-during-economic-recovery.html 11
Dagmar Butte is up and talking about students. Talking about the Harvard case. Noting problems for students needing visa appointments. 12
Gayle Oshrin talking about consulate appointment resumptions. Es, Os, Ps, Is, Fs getting priority. Rome, Bern, Singapore & London have made announcements. Check consulate web pages for instructions. Expect backlogs. Consulates getting a lot of national interest requests. 13
Gayle's talking about the Hong Kong news. They're now getting Mainland China quotas. Devastating for a lot of Hong Kongers. EB-1 and EB-5 backlogs for them. 14
Ira Kurzban talking about northern and southern border travel restrictions. Land borders shut down for all but essential employees. Tourists generally not allowed in. Flying in is okay. Order extended to 8/21 & will likely get extended again. 15
Kurzban: CBP saying that their inability to detain people safely is why they're now violating various laws on refugees and trafficking victims. It's all a pretext to shut down the border (the southern one, in particular). 16
Dagmar is talking about USCIS furloughs. @AILANational urging Congress to make sure the funds being provided to @uscis come with strings attached regarding accountability. 17
Dagmar: A lot of wrongful rejections of USCIS filings happening now. Failing to put "n/a" in blank fields is a new & big problem. Receipts are very delayed (layoffs at contractors part of the problem). Check being cashed is usually a reliable indicator of when receipt is sent. 18
USCIS examiners are getting scans of applications because of remote work and they're issuing Requests For Evidence for documents that aren't making it into the scan. 19
USCIS field offices starting to issue biometrics appointments for I-539s. Limited naturalization interviews. Limited adjustment of status interviews. Varies from office to office. 20
USCIS encouraging people to waive right to a lawyer (seriously). Rescheduling swearing in ceremonies without telling lawyer. 21
Dree Collopy updating on asylum law. A lot of bad news. Ending with talking about the proposed asylum rule. @AILANational submitted a 22-page comment. I submitted a comment as did 1000s of others. 22
Ending on good news regarding court striking down asylum ban for people who didn't request asylum in a 3rd country. Shows litigation works. 23
Ira Kurzban giving Supreme Court update. Busy year for immigration- 10 cases. Mixed results. DACA important. But a big case was the last case of the year against DHS. Sri Lankan crossed border without inspection & was apprehended. He made a credible fear claim which was denied.24
Claim denied by Imm Judge. Filed a habeas action in te District Court.Dist Ct said no judicial review of IJ. 9th Cir said no habeas review, but still have constitutional review under the suspension clause.Sup Ct said no (Alito wrote it). Will have a big negative future impact. 25
Jeff Joseph - 500+ Immigration Judges appointed by AG Barr. Most recently was the appointment of an IJ who is a member of a hate group. The new IJs all come from enforcement backgrounds. @ailanational pushing for judges to have to be confirmed by Congress. 26
Union of the immigration judges have been pushing back and DOJ is trying to de-certify the union. 27
Jeff moving on to talking about lawsuits @AILANational and members have filed. #Banzilla case filed last Friday. Mentioning challenge of specialty occupation H-1B class action case. 28
Dagmar talking about @crampell story on green cards/EAD cards not being produced and she's telling AILA members to provide examples to AILA. 29
Dagmar talking abt H-1Bs. Processing times slowing. New RFE trend pressing to show maintaining status especially in premium processing cases. IT Serve settlement on 3rd party placements. Big USCIS loss on employer-employee relationship & itineraries. 30
If you're hearing a common theme, it's litigation is where all the positive news is happening. Trump loses A LOT. 31
Jeff Joseph now talking about DACA (another example where litigation works). Sup Ct said Trump can't unilaterally rescind DACA without notice. Future unclear. Trump could rescind properly or try to add DACA to a bill (likely unacceptable to Ds). 32
In one of the DACA cases, 4th Cir has held USCIS must accept new DACA cases and it should apply nationally. USCIS hasn't announced they're accepting, but people should start filing. Advance parole also should be returning, but not 100% clear. 33
