Palmer Polaski Blog

Click Here

The following additional items may be of interest to our readers: DACA Update: In November, a myriad of advocates took to the phones, Facebook, and Twitter to contact members of Congress in support of DACA. Scheduled to expire in March, the legislative branch has not yet come up with a solution for recipients and does […]

For over 10 years, USCIS has taken the approach that, when adjudicating extension petitions involving the same employer, the same beneficiary, and the same underlying facts, its adjudicators would defer to prior approval determinations. USCIS has now reversed this policy, interpreting it as placing an extra burden on the agency to find and compare an […]

The following is an update and roundup of the current status of TPS for some 10 countries. As of August 2017, an estimated 325,000 TPS beneficiaries live in the United States. More than 90 percent of individuals with TPS are nationals of El Salvador (195,000), Honduras (57,000), or Haiti (50,000). The remaining beneficiaries come from […]

On December 4, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court issued two orders staying the preliminary injunctions issued against President Trump’s September 24, 2017, Presidential Proclamation, or “Travel Ban,” pending disposition of appeals still pending in the courts. The ban restricts nationals of Chad, North Korea, Iran, Libya, Venezuela, Syria, Yemen, and Somalia from entering the United […]

All new employees are required to complete a Form I-9 when they are hired. While many new employees do so with little thought, the consequences for foreign nationals of improperly completing the form can be disastrous, leading to serious immigration consequences. Some USCIS districts have been scouring I-9 forms to see if there are any […]

The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) released new data showing that the odds of obtaining representation in immigration deportation proceedings varies widely, depending upon the community in which an immigrant lives. According to the report, if you happen to live in Honolulu, then the odds are good that if an ICE agent comes knocking at […]

On July 11, 2017, USCIS released a final rule delaying the effective date of the International Entrepreneur Rule from July 17, 2017, to March 14, 2018. The final rule would have allowed international entrepreneurs to use the parole program to stay temporarily in the United States to grow their start-up businesses and create U.S. jobs. […]

Despite strong opinions from the Fourth and Ninth Courts of Appeal, the U.S. Supreme Court lifted the injunction on President Trump’s travel ban and allowed a version of it to go into effect. The Supreme Court will hear the arguments for the case in October, shortly after the ban is set to expire for nationals […]

Several reform proposals have been introduced in recent weeks, but the RAISE Act, introduced in the Senate with strong support from Trump, has garnered much public attention. Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy (RAISE) Act (S.354) seeks to cut legal immigration numbers in half. The bill would: create a “points-based” system that, however, does […]