The Trump administration, in response to a lawsuit filed by Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as several other suits, agreed to rescind its surprise Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) directive. We previously blogged about ICE’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) July 6th announcement, prohibiting foreign students from studying in the United States where their colleges and universities had canceled in-person class instruction.
Continue Reading Trump Administration Defrosts ICE’s International Student Directive
The Trump Administration Releases a New Hymnal to Curb the Administrative State; Immigration Lawyers Erupt in Rapturous Song
President Trump’s October 9, 2019 overtures landed as music to the ears of many a grizzled immigration lawyer who persistently suffers battle fatigue from the culture of virtually never. On that day the President released a double album, each with artfully penned liner notes:
- Executive Order on Promoting the Rule of Law Through Transparency and Fairness in Civil Administrative Enforcement and Adjudication (which I dub, “TAFCAEA”).
- Executive Order on Promoting the Rule of Law Through Improved Agency Guidance Documents (dubbed by me as, “IAGD” [with an ironic hats off to the Islamic Association of Greater Detroit] for the prior use of the abbreviation, and a consolation prize to Iron Butterfly for In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida]).
The songs of TAFCAEA and IAGD, resonating beautifully, and soothing frazzled heartstrings, make clear that in adjudicating and enforcing federal laws all covered Executive-Branch agencies must:
- publish clear guidance rules that spell out permissible and prohibited conduct by regulated parties;
- eliminate instances of “unfair surprise” so that members of the public (the regulated community) are not blindsided by unforeseen changes in how the agencies interpret federal laws;
- place any purportedly binding agency rules not published in the Federal Register (known as sub-regulatory guidance) into an indexed and searchable section of each agency’s website (or else, the “rules” go away); and
- soon announce rules of procedure governing administrative inspections and then be held accountable to comply with the published ground rules.