Litigator, Immigration Lawyer, and Advocate for Human Rights.
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Nov 6 • 33 tweets • 6 min read
America has handed Trump a dark mandate on immigration; there is no way to escape the conclusion.
If you are a non-citizen without a green card in hand and are still thinking there are sunny days ahead, well, think again!
Buckle up, it will be a depressing 🧵
I'll try to cover 3 things the way I see it:
A. the real-life immediate impact to admissions, adjudications, and removal proceedings that will start to trickle down on day one of Trump 2.0
B. the likely long-term efforts to bring to life his campaign promises
C. what undocumented people, and especially mixed status families and people in removal proceedings, could do to protect their rights under the INA (for as long as they are on the books)
Nothing in this thread is intended or constitutes legal advice. These are my musings and way to blow off steam this morning.
Oct 15 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
UPDATE on the #PIP (keeping families together parole program): Judge is doing his own research (or his clerk is doing a global search for "parole" in statutory text, I should say) and just issued an order inviting the parties to address "the effect" of 6 U.S.C. § 202(4)’s reference to parole as a “form[] of permission . . . to enter the United States”....
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
This is noteworthy for two reasons: 1. the parties have not yet filed their dispositive papers & arguments (due Friday the 18th) .... But considering the short schedule he set, not surprising he is trying to educate himself on the matter. 2. depending on what he focuses on in this text, it may be an indication of where he is going. On one hand, this is an unambiguous grant of gap-filling authority to DHS Sec to promulgate rules and regulations regarding parole. But what he more likely will focus on is that it refers to and bundles parole with visas & and other permissions "to enter". Remember, TX is arguing that nothing in INA allows parole in place i.e. for ppl who are already here and have effected an "entry".
Sep 25 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Not that it is a surprise but we have the first (that I know) **official** statement from Trump that he will revoke the paroles granted under the various Biden Admin parole initiatives, including CBPOne & CHNV, and the standard 212d5 granted by CBP mostly in 2021 and early 2022. ⬇️
That could be a trully "day-one" stroke of the pen executive action and there will be no recourse for it. None!
The only ones that could possibly be challenged in court would be the U4U and Afghan parole programs as these two have statutory authorisations or sorta.
Sep 12 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
NEW DEVELOPMENTS in the #PIP (keeping families together parole program) litigation.
Soooo, that excitement that we will have an initial decision soon (18 September merits hearing), well forget about it. 18 September 2024 hearing is vacated.
Why you ask?
well, you see the intervenors filed an appeal after their motion was denied and asked for a quick decision before the 18th. 5th Cir said "not so fast".
1. 5th Cir "expedited" the appeal all right but will not hear the orals until October 10th. 2. Ergo, they stayed the district court proceedings but 3. also kept the admin stay against the PIP in place.
It means that we are not likely to get a decision on whether PIP is able to proceed at all until after the new admin takes office.
Lemme explain.
If 5th is going to hear arguments on the 10th of October -- even if they rush the decision mandate will not be issued until probably the end of November at the earliest. Until then district court can do diddly. So until mandate nothing is done and PIP paroles cannot be granted.
Even if intervenors win, it only means that they should be allowed to participate. Ergo, district court will have to set a new briefing schedule regardless of the outcome which will place us in holidays season at best. And that is if the losing party does not appeal to SCOTUS.
Aug 23 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
🚨 BREAKING: Texas and 15 other GOP states filed a complaint in ED of Texas seeking to halt the #PIP (Keeping Families Together Parole in Place Program.
State of Texas;
State of Idaho;
State of Alabama;
State of Arkansas;
State of Florida;
State of Georgia
State of Iowa;
State of Kansas;
State of Louisiana;
State of Missouri;
State of North Dakota;
State of Ohio;
State of South Carolina;
State of South Dakota;
State of Tennessee;
State of Wyoming,
Jun 15 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
My first experience with Biden's new Asylum Ban and if this is anything par for the course, this is beyond Kafquesque and deliberately punitive to bona fide asylum applicants as we expected but so much worse. A thread ...
Disclosure: This is not my case, and I got involved in helping a colleague who has now done the impossible. A a true rock star guerilla immigration lawyer.
I have permission to report some of the backstory but will keep all facts out for obvious reasons.
Jun 4 • 17 tweets • 6 min read
BREAKING: Biden Admin has indeed taken official action to pause asylum at whim and in violation of section 208 of the Immigration and Nationality Act: their FACT SHEET on New Actions to Secure the Border via @whitehousewhitehouse.gov/briefing-room/…
Anyone has the actual executive order/proclamation or whatever they are calling this sh*t.
1. Govt has completed the IT "updates" so they will be ready to process reserved visas in Gomez/Goh/Rai/Goodluck/Filazapovich IF APPEALS are SUCCESSFUL ....
2. As we all suspected the updates were minor. It appears that it involved the ability to re-upload DV cases from prior years and be able to differentiate between "active" (meaning #DV2022) and "inactive" (#DV2021 and #DV2020). Running of the script at posts will take minutes.
Jul 19, 2022 • 13 tweets • 4 min read
I got 3 DMs/emails <5 min from #DV2022 asking to "confirm that the 55K cap could be exceeded" NO it can't.
I suppose either there was some group misunderstanding on social media or some of the DV YouTube 'experts' is striking again.
A short #DV2022 🧵
The DV statutory cap is established by the statute and is 55K (minus adjustments for NACARA) per year. There are no roll-overs and no special stash @TravelGov can reach into to grant more than the 54850 (I think is the #) DV visas allowed for FY 2022.
Apr 30, 2021 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
Since DOS is trying to do everything in its power to destroy #DV2021, we will open round 2 of our "Problem Consulates" litigation to add additional plaintiffs to our Nepal v DOS pending case. If you are interested, fill the Eligibility Questionnaire: forms.office.com/Pages/Response…
Nepal v DOS is a lawsuit challenging DOS denial of meaningful participation in the #DV2021 at select over-burdened consulates [statutory claims] combined with equitable claims to preserve visa eligibility beyond 30 Sept.
Apr 30, 2021 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
BREAKING: The bad news #DV2021 Friday continues!
State Department has posted a new public-facing "explanation of prioritization of visa processing" and sure enough #DV2021 is in the last tier!
travel.state.gov/content/travel…
Here are the tiers:
Tier One: IR intercountry adoption visas, age-out cases (SQ and SI for Afghan/Iraq
Tier Two: Immediate relative; fiancé(e); returning resident visas
Tier Three: Family preference immigrant visas
Tier Four: All other including employment & diversity visas
Apr 29, 2021 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
NEW: Ok! I’m mystified by the 9th Circuit’s new Appellate Case Management System (ACMS) for immigration petition for review. This will be mandatory for any PFR filed on or after 1 May 2021. What is the point?
For post 5-1 PFR filing in ACMS is mandatory but only for (and available) for attorneys.
Apr 29, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
BREAKING: Niz-Chavez is out! “A notice to appear sufficient to trigger the IIRIRA’s stop-time rule is a single document containing all the information about an individ- ual’s removal hearing specified in §1229(a)(1).“ Boom.dot.com!
BREAKING: Ok #Noban tweeps, DOS has completed the review of the processes affected by the revocation of the #MuslimBan (PP9645 & 9983). Here is the half-a*s path forward
1/ If your immigrant visa (IV) was refused on or after 20 Jan '20 due #MuslimBan *YOU MAY* seek re-adjudication without resubmitting DS260 or paying any additional fees, provided the underlying visa petitions remain valid. You'll get priority adjudication. AWSOME news!
Mar 7, 2021 • 29 tweets • 6 min read
I have been delaying reading the #FOIA case from SCOTUS from 3-4. So nothing like spending your Sunday morning reading a decision you know is going to f*ck up a lot of your pending litigation & heck! Admin law practice as a whole, right? Well I did and shiiish a 🧵
Here is the link to the FWS v Sierra Club case supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf…
and yes! it is all about exemption 5 & specifically the deliberative process privilege. If you’ve done any immigration related FOIA, this is your “b5” stamped on blackouts on ~ 85% of the docs you received.
Mar 7, 2021 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
The Senate passed the $1.9 trillion #AmericanRescuePlan but with very few provisions applicable to mixed-status families and undocumented non-citizens. Yes, the appalling Ted Cruz amendment was defeated but little headway appears to have been made to provide relief to the ...
... hundreds of thousands of undocumented essential workers who since day one of the pandemic have kept us fed and provided for. This is a shameful failure.
This bill is a monster but it seems like the "premium assistance credit" for ACA bene were limited yet again to
Mar 5, 2021 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
Wow! The latest report from Govt on Immigrant Visa backlog as of 2-8-2021, courtesy of @ckuck.
* 188,390 documentarily qualified (DQ) applicants in immediate relative IV categories
* 284,614 DQ applicants in family preference IV categories awaiting appointments.
Now, these numbers include only documentary qualified applicants and ONLY in the IR and family priority categories. It does not include the EB and DV cases. Adding the cases in the pipeline at NVC that are not yet DQed, we are looking at ~1Million cases!
JFC!
Mar 4, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
#PP10014 is gone and the period for DOS to review & adjust any implementation, guidance, etc arising from the awful #entryban was supposed to have been completed. I have not seen anything specific posted but KCC has made some improvements - MOSTLY SYMBOLIC- but 🧵
... to show good faith they have processed some #DV2021 cases and interviews may be coming for as early as April but the number of interviews will be minuscule. It appears that the shift has been made to process family-based backlog and clear the deck for those cases.
Feb 11, 2021 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
Ooof. 1st Cir finds that in civil action, "warrantless electronic device searches are essential to the border search exception's purpose of ensuring that the exec branch can adequately protect the border" and no prb cause needed to search ED at border ... media.ca1.uscourts.gov/pdf.opinions/2…
Although after Riley, crim cases have gone this direction, this was a civil w USC & LPR plaintiffs and covered "basic" & "advanced" searches under the CBP search guidances.
Feb 11, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
OMG! President Biden has now TERMINATED the national emergency decl on the southern border, clearing the way for the repeal of CDC Title 42 expulsion order.
Somehow the Title 42 order and the #entrybans were seen by the Admin as a “package”. Let’s get rid of both TODAY, @POTUS!!!
Feb 11, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Whoooo. 1st "blanket" NIE for the EU COVID-19 entry bans: "those applicants who are found to be otherwise qualified for an F-1 or M-1 visa will automatically be considered for a national interest exception to travel." travel.state.gov/content/travel…
This could be encouraging, #noban tweeps!!! All that @TravelGov need to do is POST one of these bloody notices and #DV2020VisaHolders with valid visas will have their dreams turn to reality!
