Law Offices of Brian D. Lerner
Deportation Lawyers & Immigration Attorneys Helping Families Nationwide
Two Central American men were staying at a camp run by a humanitarian group in Arizona. This lead to the arrest of Scott Warren, the activist running the camp, for allegedly illegally harboring immigrants. After a long battle in court, including a mistrial last year, he was acquitted on Wednesday. The prosecutor argued that Warren was helping …
The EB-5 visa allows foreign nationals who make a significant investment in a U.S. company and help create jobs to immigrate to the United States. For the last 30 years, the amount of investment required was $500,000. On November 21, the amount required was raised to $900,000. The program has been criticized by some for corruption and …
The Trump administration issued a rule in mid-July that required asylum seekers who traveled through other countries on the way to the U.S. border to first seek asylum in those countries. In practice, this meant that those arriving in Mexico would need to seek asylum in Mexico first. Asylum seekers who had already presented at …
Up until now, the U.S. has been crafting “safe third country”-like agreements with countries like Guatemala, requiring asylum seekers to apply for asylum in those countries if they pass through them on the way to the U.S. The Trump administration published a rule in the Federal Register on November 19 that makes it possible for the U.S. …
USCIS has issued guidance on the Special Immigrant Juvenile classification. On October 11, USCIS issued 3 adopted Administrative Appeals Office decisions that clarified the requirements for a Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) classification. On November 19, USCIS updated its policy manual to reflect those decisions. The three clarifications are that 1) the petitioner must have been a juvenile …
On November 21, USCIS published new versions of Form G-1450, Authorization for Credit Card Transactions; Form I-694, Notice of Appeal of Decision Under Sections 245A or 210 of the Immigration and Nationality Act; Form I-824, Application for Action on an Approved Application or Petition; and Form I-817, Application for Family Unity Benefits. For forms G-1450 and I-694, the previous …
On Wednesday, Democrats in Congress introduced HR 2169, the Protect Our Workers from Exploitation and Retaliation Act. The bill aims to expand a visa program for victims and whistleblowers, and give protection for undocumented workers in labor disputes. The bill would remove the 10,000 visa per year cap on the U visa program, lower the application expenses, …
The Trump administration is planning on using eminent domain to acquire private land in Texas to use for the border wall. On Thursday, the government sent Right of Entry letters to dozens of landowners informing them that it will be surveying the land. The owners must sign the letters for the government to be able to come …
The U.S. and Guatemala made an agreement to send asylum seekers at the U.S. border to Guatemala instead. On Thursday, the first Honduran asylum seeker was sent to Guatemala under the agreement. He had arrived at the border near El Paso, Texas, but was flown to Guatemala. This policy has been criticized, since Guatemala suffers from many …
When immigrants get green cards through marriage, they are first conditional, and when enough time is passed they must apply to remove the conditions. However, in many cases this does not happen, either because of divorce or other reasons. In these cases, because the conditions were not removed and because a judge has not officially …
Officially called the Migrant Protection Protocols, the “Remain in Mexico” program has kept many asylum seekers in border cities and tent camps near the U.S.-Mexican border while they wait for their immigration court dates in the U.S. The policy has been criticized as endangering the asylum seekers by forcing them to face both possible violence …
69,550 children were held in detention in 2019, a number higher than any other country. The U.S. has acknowledged detaining children is psychologically harmful, but increased the number of detained children by 42% between just 2018 and 2019. Because the federal government was aware of the risks of family detention when it implemented it, on November …
District Judge Denise Casper ruled on Tuesday that border agents need reasonable suspicion to search through travelers’ phones and laptops at airports and other ports of entry. Current ICE and CBP policies allow for routine searches of electronics with no suspicion. The number of electronic searches at U.S. ports of entry has increased greatly during the …
President Trump announced the end of DACA more than two years ago. Due to litigation, it is still in effect, and now the Supreme Court will have the final word. The Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday on 1) whether federal judges are able to review DACA, and 2) whether the way Trump went about ending DACA violated …
USCIS announced a proposed rule that would deny work authorization to asylum seekers who entered the U.S. outside of a port of entry. The proposed rule also seeks to automatically end work authorization for asylum seekers whose application is denied and administratively final. Additionally, all asylum seekers who did not file asylum applications within 1 year …