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1 -USCIS announced today it will no longer stand behind earlier decisions and could deny cases previously approved. The effects could be bad
2- The announcement can be found at uscis.gov/news/news-rele….
3 - This is a reversal of the longtime deference policy where USCIS won't re-adjudicate a prior determination of nonimmigrant eligibility...
4 - Unless there is evidence of fraud, facts previously unknown, or a serious change justifying a fresh look.
5 - This is the 1st major policy decision from new USCIS Director Francis Cissna, BTW. Not encouraging.
6 - There are a few reasons to be very concerned. First, workers in green card backlog categories face a serious threat.
7 - Under AC21, a person running out of H-1B time can get extensions if they have a green card petition that's pending at least a year.
8 - But that's not going to help if their H-1B extensions R denied because a cranky examiner decides they disagree with the last 10 renewals
9 - O-1 petitions were the original cases that gave rise to the deference policy. These are cases for extraordinary ability ppl (arts, etc)
10- The determinations R very subjective.The problem would come when an examiner decided they didn't think the person was all that talented.
11 -This is obviously extremely disruptive for employers who have invested major time (often years) and serious money.
12 - In some cases, these immigrants are actually the business owners and US workers could lose their jobs. O-1 business owners for example.
13 - Like just about all of these other new ridiculous policies, this is going to end up with lots of lawsuits. Lawyers already discussing.
14 - This is part of a relentless attack by Stephen Miller and friends on legal immigration programs. It won't work.
15 - The Administration is trying to bypass the Immigration and Nationality Act and Congress. USCIS is going to go to court over and over.
16 - The policies are written by zealots to play to an anti-immigration base, not be bright legal scholars.
17- Related subject. But even more serious. How the new I-140/I-485 interview requirement could affect future elections.
18 - New requirement to interview 10s of 1000s of I-140 folks (and eventually 100s of thousands of other cases) is coming with ZERO funding.
19- USCIS insiders tell me this will mean naturalization applications put aside because of need to adjudicate I-140s in same fiscal year.
20- Guess what that means? A lot fewer naturalized citizens eligible to vote in the 2018 and 2020 elections. A lot fewer Democratic votes.
21-Was this requirement added to put a thumb on the scale for Republicans next year? Who knows. But that's what this means.
22- That's it for this thread. Just wanted to let people know since most of media is missing this. But it's very serious.
Just additional reminder here - about 500,000 people naturalize a year. So the impact on elections is not trivial.
