BREAKING NEWS, UPDATES FOR IMMIGRATION LAW- MARCH 2017

URGENT REMINDER: YOU STILL HAVE TIME TO FILE FOR YOUR H-1B VISA!

The time for filing cap-subject H-1B working visa is shrinking. We head towards the April 2017 lottery week from Monday, April 3rd, 2017 to Friday, April 7, 2017. As it was last year, the demand for H-1B visas this year is also expected to be high.
We are ready to file you H-1B applications!

BREAKING NEWS!

TRUMP SIGNED NEW TRAVEL BAN EXECUTIVE ORDER ON MARCH 6TH, 2017.

The Executive Order signed today on March 6th, 2017, imposes a 90-day suspension of entry to the United States of nationals of certain designated countries. For the next 90 days, foreign nationals from Sudan, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen who are outside the United States on the effective date of the order, do not currently have a valid visa on the effective date of this order, and did not have a valid visa at 5:00 Eastern Standard Time on January 27th, 2017, are not eligible to travel to the United States.

USCIS TO SUSPEND PREMIUM PROCESSING FOR H-1B PETITIONS
Starting on April 3rd, 2017, the USCIS temporarily suspended premium processing for all H-1B petitions. This suspension may last up to 6 months. While H-1B premium processing is suspended, petitioners will not be able to file Form I-907, Request for Premium Processing Service for Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker, which requests the H-1B nonimmigrant classification.

SECRETARY KELLY’S NEW GUIDELINES FOR REMOVING / DEPORTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS.

Two guidance memoranda were signed On February 21st, 2017, by Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly implementing the President’s Executive Orders on immigration enforcement. Although much attention has been focused on the building of the border wall, these new memos direct the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to escalate harsh immigration enforcement nationwide. The memoranda reveal that DHS intends to take a more “enforcement-oriented” position with regard to U.S. Immigration law.

CUSTOMS AGENTS CHECKED IDENTIFICATION DOCUMENTS OF DOMESTIC FLIGHT PASSENGERS AT JFK
As reported on February 24th, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents met domestic flight Delta 1583 from San Francisco at John F. Kennedy Airport and checked the IDs of every passenger on board.
in Virginia, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents waited outside a church shelter where undocumented immigrants had gone to stay warm, as well as in Texas and in Colorado where agents went into courthouses looking for foreigners who had arrived for hearings on other matters.

TWO INDIAN ENGINEERS ARE SHOT IN KANSAS: HATE CRIME IS SOARED!
Two immigrants from India, Srinivas Kuchibhotla and Alok Madasani, were shot this past week at Austin’s Bar and Grill in Kansas during after-work hours by an enraged patron who slurred ethnic insults at the two men.

MUHAMMAD ALI’S SON IS DETAINED AT FLORIDA AIRPORT AND QUESTIONED ABOUT HIS RELIGION
As reported in the Los Angeles Times, Muhammad Ali Jr., son of the boxing legend was recently detained at a Florida airport as he and his mother returned from a trip to Jamaica. According to his lawyer, border agents pulled the 44-year-old Ali Jr. and questioned for an hour and 45 minutes with agents repeatedly asking, “where were you born?,” “are you Muslim?,” and “where did you get your name from?” Ali Jr., a Muslim, is a U.S. citizen who was born in Philadelphia in 1972.
U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION OFFICERS CHECKING OF TRAVELERS’ PHONES AND DEVICES
There have been repeated reports of U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers asking travelers to unlock their cell phones so the officers could scroll through the contacts, photos, apps, and social media accounts.
IMMIGRATION AGENTS ARRESTED OVER 600 PEOPLE ACROSS THE U.S. IN ONE WEEK

As reported in the New York Times, in February 2017, immigration officials recently arrested more than 600 people across the US. Those detained include 41 in New York, 161 in California, 190 in Georgia, 51 in Texas, and 235 in six Midwestern states according to an ICE fact sheet.
N.Y. JUDGE ORDERS TRUMP TO PROVIDE LIST OF DETAINED REFUGEES
Judge Carol Bagley Amon, a New York federal judge has recently stated that the federal government must comply with a court order to give up information about people detained in connection with Trump’s January 27th immigration ban. She said that the Trump administration must disclose who was held for questioning and who was processed in connection with the executive order in the few days following the ban’s implementation.