Immigration News and Updates for August 2019

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Here is the Immigration News You NEED to Know Now

IMMIGRATION NEWS IN BRIEF:

Matter of H-G-G-, Adopted Decision on TPS – Matter of H-G-G- affects TPS recipients and their eligibility to adjust their status under section 245 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, reaffirming the DHS position that TPS recipients are considered as being in and maintaining lawful nonimmigrant status only during the period TPS is in effect.

USCIS Announces Citizenship and Assimilation Grant Opportunities – USCIS announces two new funding opportunities under the Citizenship and Assimilation Grant Program, potentially providing $10 million in grants for citizenship preparation programs.

Expedited Removal Expands to Interior of United States – With immediate effect, DHS issued a notice to dramatically expand the process of expedited removal. The ACLU has promised to file a suit challenging the action.

USCIS Amends EB-5 Regulations, Raising Minimum Investment Amounts and Modifying TEA Designations – A long-anticipated final rule provides priority date retention for certain EB-5 investors, increases the required minimum investment amounts, changes the targeted employment area (TEA) designation process, and clarifies USCIS procedures for the removal of conditions on permanent residence.

Judges Rule on Third-Country Asylum Ban – Following a joint interim rule issued by DOJ and DHS that restricted asylum, with some exceptions, for migrants traveling through third countries to reach the United States (most notably for many Central Americans passing through Mexico), two judges issued rulings in separate cases.

ABIL Global: Canada – The Entry/Exit Program is a significant development that has been many years in the making.

Matter of H-G-G-, Adopted Decision on TPS

USCIS Updates Filing Addresses for Some I-129 Petitions

USCIS Announces Citizenship and Assimilation Grant Opportunities

• The Citizenship Instruction and Naturalization Application Services grant opportunity will fund up to 36 organizations offering both citizenship instruction and naturalization application services to lawful permanent residents.
• The Refugee and Asylee Assimilation Program grant opportunity will fund up to four organizations to provide individualized services to lawful permanent residents who entered the United States under the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program or were granted asylum. These services will assist these individuals in acquiring knowledge and skills leading The grant aims to promote long-term assimilation through the education of lawful permanent residents who strive for naturalization but lack the instruction, information, and services necessary to attain it.

Expedited Removal Expands to Interior of United States

• Currently, immigration officers can apply expedited removal “to aliens encountered anywhere in the United States for up to two years after the alien arrived in the United States, provided that the alien arrived by sea and the other conditions for expedited removal are satisfied.”
• For those who entered the United States by crossing a land border, DHS permits the use of expedited removal “if the aliens were encountered by an immigration officer within 100 air miles of the U.S. international land border and were continuously present in the United States for less than 14 days immediately prior to that encounter.”
• The DHS Secretary has the “sole and unreviewable discretion” under the Immigration and Nationality Act “to modify at any time the discretionary limits on the scope of the expedited removal designation.”
• The Acting DHS Secretary is exercising his statutory authority to designate several categories of aliens not previously designated for expedited removal:

1. Aliens who did not arrive by sea who are encountered anywhere in the United States more than 100 air miles from a U.S. international land border, and who have been continuously present in the United States for less than two years; and
2. Aliens who did not arrive by sea who are encountered within 100 air miles from a U.S. international and border and who have been continuously presenting the United States for at least 14 days but for less than two years.

• Aliens otherwise subject to expedited removal who indicate either an intention to apply for asylum or a fear of persecution or torture will be given further review by an asylum officer, including an opportunity to establish “credible fear” and thus potential eligibility for asylum.
• An alien otherwise subject to expedited removal is given a “reasonable opportunity to establish to the satisfaction of the examining immigration officer that he or she was admitted or paroled into the United States.” Aliens determined by immigration officers to be subject to expedited removal nonetheless “will receive prompt review of that determination if they claim under oath, after being warned of the penalties for perjury, that they have been admitted for permanent residence, admitted as a refugee, granted asylum, or are a U.S. citizen.”

USCIS Amends EB-5 Regulations, Raising Minimum Investment Amounts and Modifying TEA Designations

• Clarifies that the priority date of a petition for classification as an investor is the date the petition is properly filed
• Clarifies that a petitioner with multiple approved immigrant petitions for classification as an investor is entitled to the earliest qualifying priority date
• Retains the 50 percent minimum investment differential between a TEA and a non-TEA instead of changing the differential to 25 percent as proposed, thereby increasing the minimum investment amount in a TEA from $500,000 to $900,000 rather than $1.35 million, as DHS initially proposed (the minimum non-TEA investment will be $1.8 million)
• Bases future inflation adjustments on the initial investment amount set by Congress in 1990 rather than on the most recent inflation adjustment
• Modifies the original proposal that any city or town with a population of 20,000 or more may qualify as a TEA, to provide that only cities and towns with a population of 20,000 or more outside of metropolitan statistical areas may qualify as a TEA, eliminates a state’s ability to designate certain geographic and political subdivisions as high unemployment areas, and gives the Department of Homeland Security responsibility for directly making TEA designations “based on revised requirements in the regulation limiting the composition of census tract-based TEAs”

Judges Rule on Third-Country Asylum Ban

• Judge Timothy Kelly, of the U.S. District Court in Washington, DC, declined to issue a temporary order to block the asylum ban.
• Judge Jon Tigar, of the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, California, issued a preliminary injunction to block the ban until the arguments can be considered and a final decision can be issued.

New Publications and Items of Interest

Kuck Baxter Immigration — In The News