On October 23, 2023, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the component within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) charged with the adjudication of applications for immigration benefits and naturalization, proposed in a 94-page, single-spaced, three-column document to “modernize” the H-1B nonimmigrant visa category for noncitizen workers in specialty occupations. The comment period for this
Fraud Detection & National Security (FDNS)
Big-Picture, Clean-Slate Immigration Reforms for the Biden-Harris Administration
Big-Picture, Clean-Slate Immigration Reforms
for the Biden-Harris Administration
By Angelo A. Paparelli and Stephen Yale-Loehr
As a new administration takes office on January 20, and the tantalizing prospect of enlightened immigration reforms looms on the horizon, an intriguing question has surfaced on Twitter:
“Is there a progressive version of Stephen Miller? Someone who has (1)…
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 grizzled immigration lawyers who persistently suffer battle fatigue from the culture of virtually never. On that day the President released a double album, each with artfully penned liner notes:
…
California Can Revive the Immigrant Worker Protection Act by Challenging the Authority of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ “FDNS” Enforcement Officers
The State of California won and lost bigly last July 4th. But what if the state’s biggest loss could be salvaged because the primary federal immigration enforcement agency performing worksite visits – the Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate (FDNS) in U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) – has never been lawfully authorized…
The Known and Unknown Future of the EB-5 Immigrant Investment Program at USCIS and the USCIS Ombudsman
Memes, apocrypha, obfuscation, head feints, hand-wringing, and supposition: These are the misleading and unreliable stuff of the Interweb. To a great extent, alas, they also infect the EB-5 ecospace. This article will avoid conjecture and look at the few hard facts we know about Trump Administration appointees and the positions they will hold, while encouraging…
All Checks but No Balances — The Systemic Failure to Protect EB-5 Investors
Several widely-publicized actions by the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), and the inevitable litigation that has piled on in consequence, have pressure-tested the EB-5 ecosystem and found it defective. Simply stated, the system too likely and too often fails. Sadly, many EB-5 investors, after writing half-million-dollar or greater checks, ultimately have learned that no balances remain…
Immigration on a Clean Slate: Game-Changing Proposals on Visa Modernization
Terabytes of text have already been generated in the course of extolling or excoriating President Obama for his November 20 Executive Actions on Immigration. The prolific foaming of bloviating mouths has mostly been prompted by the promise of deferred action and work permits for undocumented immigrants under the DACA and DAPA programs. Surprisingly, however, his…
L-1 Petitioners Beware: USCIS Confirms Plans to Expand FDNS Site Visit Program
L-1 Petitioners Beware:
USCIS Confirms Plans to Expand FDNS Site Visit Program
By Maura K. Travers and Angelo A. Paparelli
History is about to repeat itself. Fraud Detection and National Security (FDNS), a directorate of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), is set to embark on another foray of surprise visits to Corporate America,…
The Immigration Scandal at DHS — Just as Bad as at IRS
Immigration law and tax law, although at first glance strikingly different, share much in common. Each rivals the other in complexity. Each permeates every nook and cranny of human behavior — from commerce and criminality to love and divorce, from mental illness to extraordinary brilliance, from birth to death and everything in between. Though each…
Memo to GCs: If Ever There Is a Time for Immigration Portfolio Management, It’s Now.
Much has been written since April 17 when the bipartisan Gang of Eight senators introduced S. 744, a brobdingnagian immigration reform bill that overlays 844 pages of turgid text on top of the already gargantuan and complex Immigration and Nationality Act. The Migration Policy Institute, the National Immigration Law Center, and the American…