By: Randy Johnson and Walt Mullon

Trump Taps Brett Kavanaugh for Supreme Court Vacancy. On Monday evening, President Trump nominated D.C. Circuit Judge Brett Kavanaugh to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court. Judge Kavanaugh is considered a reliable member of the Republican legal establishment with a solid record on issues from free speech, to religious liberty, to the Second Amendment. His credentials include clerking with Justice Anthony Kennedy, working for Kenneth Starr’s Whitewater investigation, and spending six years in the George W. Bush White House as a lawyer and eventually staff secretary to the president.

In his 12 years on the D.C. Circuit, Kavanaugh has cast dozens of votes to roll back rules and regulations. He has often concluded that agencies stretched their power too far and frequently found himself at odds with the Obama administration, including in dissents he wrote opposing net-neutrality rules and greenhouse-gas restrictions.

Continue Reading Seyfarth Shaw Policy Matters Newsletter – July 12, 2018

By: Angelo A. Paparelli

The familiar lines were drawn. Combatants clashed in a war of words, competing governance philosophies, conflicting laws, and judicial challenges – all in an age-old constitutional battle of federal power versus states’ rights.

This time around, however, the roles were reversed. Version 2018 is unlike the 1960s when extreme-right southern conservatives, claiming to champion states’ rights, defied but ultimately failed to stop federal efforts to protect civil rights. This time, the state of California passed three statutes under its police powers with the avowed purpose of promoting public safety and protecting undocumented state residents against a determined army of newly-unshackled federal immigration enforcement officers. And this time, the state mostly won.

Continue Reading From the Jails to the Streets, Courthouses and Worksites: California Takes on the Federal Immigration Police

Seyfarth Synopsis. The Supreme Court affirmed President Trump’s authority to ban certain foreign nationals from entering the country, finding that such travel restrictions are justified based on national security concerns.

On June 26, a deeply divided Supreme Court issued a 5-4 ruling upholding the latest iteration of the “Travel Ban” or “Travel Ban 3.0.”  The Court held that the September 2017 order, which created the Ban and targeted individuals from mainly Muslim countries, was a lawful exercise of presidential authority (Trump vs. Hawaii).  Employers with employees from Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen will now need to review travel-related risks in order to ensure continuity of business operations.  Individuals will also need to be familiar with the specific visa and entry permissions for each country while universities will need to consider foreign student-related issues.

Continue Reading The Anatomy of the Travel Ban

By: Dawn M. Lurie and Greg Morano*

Seyfarth Synopsis: The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) rules concerning auto extensions of employment authorization and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) can be confusing, and it is important employers know how to update Forms I-9 for TPS beneficiaries.  We have previously reported on USCIS terminating TPS for El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Haiti while initially deferring a decision for Honduras.  Since then, the government terminated TPS for Nepal on 05/22/2018 and for Honduras on 06/05/2018.  The decision affects approximately 9,000 Nepalese foreign nationals and approximately 57,000 Honduran foreign nationals.

What Happened?

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has terminated TPS for Nepal and Honduras with delayed effective dates.  For Honduras, TPS will terminate on January 5, 2020.  For Nepal, TPS will terminate on June 24, 2019.  This means that TPS recipients of the respective countries have until the above-mentioned dates to continue to live, and, if so authorized, work in the United States.

Continue Reading TPS Terminations and the Form I-9

By: Randy Johnson and Walt Mullon

Seyfarth Shaw’s new, leading Government Relations and Policy Group, which has already won the attention of national media outlets, is excited to offer regular updates to clients regarding the actions of Congress, administrative agencies, and other lawmakers at the federal, state, and local levels. Comprised of Seyfarth attorneys with government relations and policy experience, the team will develop solutions for clients and provide ongoing education and advocacy on policy issues.  Below is our round-up from what happened this week in Washington.

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House to Vote on Two Immigration Proposals Next Week. Speaker Paul Ryan defused a moderate Republican rebellion with a promise to hold high-stakes votes on two DACA related immigration bills next week. The floor votes will effectively stop the effort to bring up legislation through the discharge petition; Republican moderates reportedly fell two signatures short of the 218 needed to force votes.

The House will consider H.R. 4760, the “Securing America’s Future Act of 2018,” a bill drafted by Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), as well as a second compromise package, the “Border Security and Immigration Reform Act of 2018” (still in draft form), which was assembled by Speaker Ryan in consultation with conservatives and moderates. House Leadership circulated this summary of the draft compromise bill. There are no guarantees that either bill will pass.

Continue Reading Seyfarth Shaw Policy Matters Newsletter – June 14, 2018

The 2018 edition of The Legal 500 United States recommends Seyfarth Shaw’s Immigration group as one of the best in the country. Nationally, for the fourth consecutive year, our Immigration practice earned Top Tier.

Based on feedback from corporate counsel, Seyfarth partners Jim King, Russell Swapp, and Angelo Paparelli were ranked in the editorial’s “Leading Lawyers” list, Gabriel Mozes was named a Next Generation Lawyer, and 3 other Seyfarth Immigration attorneys were also recommended in the editorial.

The Legal 500 United States is an independent guide providing comprehensive coverage on legal services and is widely referenced for its definitive judgment of law firm capabilities. The Legal 500 United States recognizes and rewards the best in-house and private practice teams and individuals over the past 12 months. The awards are given to the elite legal practitioners, based on comprehensive research into the U.S. legal market.

By Dawn M. Lurie and Greg Morano

In mid-April, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) introduced long awaited enhancements to the program as part of the new “modernized E-Verify system”. In fact, the overhaul is enormous in scope, the new system is entirely separate from the previous itineration of E-Verify. From a data storage location shift to reinforcement of the old infrastructure, the bones of the system are being reinforced.  Employers will continue to maintain access to their old data while being able to open cases in the new system. The updates demonstrate USCIS’ continued focus on improving the system, which makes perfect sense in the face of a possible, nationwide, E-Verify mandate.

What is E-Verify

E-Verify is an internet based system that compares information from an employee’s Form I-9 to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Social Security Administration (SSA) records to confirm employment eligibility. Continuously improving, but not perfect, the system struggles with cracks in its armor especially when it comes to ensuring identity. However, one of the key benefits of E-Verify is that employers are provided a rebuttable presumption that there has been no violation of the statute, with regard to the knowing hiring of an unauthorized worker, if the employee’s information has been confirmed by the system. This is important in the context of a Form I-9 inspection.

Continue Reading More than a Makeover: E-Verify Boast a New, Modernized Look Inside and Out

Trivia: On May 10, 1877, U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes had which common piece of technology first installed into the White House?

Where are we this month?

Advancements

Employment

  • Chinese nationals advance approximately one month in the EB-2 and Other Workers categories while Indian nationals see a slightly more significant advancement of 3 months in both the EB-3 and Other Workers categories.
  • Mexican nationals advanced nearly 11 weeks in the EB-4 category.
  • Of particular importance, filing dates for Certain Religious Workers are current for all nationals excluding Mexican, El Salvadorian, Guatemalan, and Honduran nationals while the 5th Non-Regional and Regional Center categories are current for all individuals except Chinese and Vietnamese nationals

Continue Reading MAY 2018 VISA BULLETIN

Seyfarth Synopsis: USCIS completes the lottery process and received 190,098 H-1B cap petitions.

On April 12, 2018, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it received 190,098 H-1B petitions to meet both the Master’s and regular H-1B quotas (or “caps”) for Fiscal Year 2019, which begins on October 1, 2018.  This means that USCIS received more than double the number of available H-1B petitions in the first week of filing, and that more than 20,000 of these petitions were filed under the Master’s cap.  The number of petitions decreased slightly again this year, down from more than 199,000 petitions filed for Fiscal Year 2018.

In addition, USCIS announced that they completed a computer-generated random selection process — the lottery — for all cap-subject filings received from Monday, April 2 through Friday, April 6, 2018 to determine which filings to adjudicate.  USCIS first conducted the lottery process for H-1B petitions subject to the Master’s cap, which sets aside 20,000 H-1B visas for holders of U.S. Master’s degrees or higher degrees.  Any Master’s cap petitions not selected in the Master’s lottery were eligible for selection in the regular H-1B lottery, effectively providing two opportunities for an H-1B visa.  USCIS will now begin the process of sending Receipt Notices for petitions selected in the lottery while rejecting and returning petitions, together with the associated filing fees, that were not selected in the lottery.

By Mark Katzoff

The omnibus spending bill signed into law by President Trump on March 23, 2018 included a six month extension of the EB-5 regional center program to September 30. This marks the latest in a series of short-term extensions over the last few years while Congress has attempted to agree upon legislation providing more substantive changes to the EB-5 program in general.

Continue Reading Regional Center Program Extended Six Months