News

What the Government Shutdown Means for Your Immigration Case

The current government shutdown has caused both grief and confusion, especially those who are employed by the federal government or receiving government aid. Although the cause of the shutdown involves immigration (i.e. building a wall on the southern U.S. border), many immigration processes are still ongoing. This blog post provides answers to the most frequently asked question about the ...

DHS Says Asylum Seekers Must Wait in Mexico throughout Legal Proceedings

Immigrants who illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border to seek asylum will no longer be released into the United States, but rather be returned to Mexico while they way for their claim to be processed, announced the U.S. Department of Homeland Security last Thursday. This new policy is effective immediately and immigrants are still able to obtain an interview with a U.S. asylum officer Last ...

Supreme Court Blocks Trump Administration's Asylum Ban

In a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court ruled to continue blocking the Trump administration from enforcing its asylum ban for illegal immigrants who cross the southern U.S. border. Chief Justice John Roberts joined the other four liberal justices in the ruling today, while new Justice Brett Kavanaugh and his three other conservative colleagues were part of the dissenting vote. Federal law has allowed ...

Democrat-Led House Means Oversight of Trump's Immigration Agenda

At the end of the midterm elections, the Democratic Party is now the majority in the House of Representatives. Although the new-look Congress cannot completely stop President Donald Trump’s efforts to curb illegal immigration and restrict legal immigration, Democrats can make it more difficult for him to carry out his plans. When the new Congress convenes in January, the Democrat-led House are ...

Trump Administration Aims to Reject New Green Cards & Visas for Those Using Public Aid

A month ago, the Trump administration proposed a new regulation which can deny green cards and temporary visas to immigrants who primarily depend on public benefits such as food assistance, federal housing, and Medicaid by expanding the meaning of a “public charge”. According to Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen, government officials have enforced a long-established federal rule ...

Federal Judge Blocks Trump Administration from Ending TPS Protections

A federal judge in California ordered the Trump administration earlier this month to temporarily stop its plan to terminate the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program which has enabled hundreds of thousands of immigrants to live and work in the United States. Over 300,000 immigrants from Haiti, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Sudan were facing deportation if the program was terminated. TPS was ...

DACA Continues After Ruling by Texas Judge

At the end of last month, a Texas federal judge decided not to end DACA, which shields young undocumented immigrants from deportation. Established by the Obama administration six years ago, nearly 700,000 recipients currently have DACA status--with almost 80 percent coming from Mexico illegally as small children. Judge Andrew Hanen of the Houston Federal District Court declared that the program ...

U.S. to Limit Refugee Cap to 30,000 Next Year

Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the number of refugees allowed into the country for the fiscal year 2019 will be capped at 30,000, which is 15,000 less than this year’s limit (45,000). Pompeo explained that the new cap was part of the Trump administration’s plan for having refugees settle near their home countries. He also added that security concerns were part of the ...

Immigration Judges Rejecting More Asylum Seekers

Asylum cases based on an immigrant’s credible fear of persecution has significantly declined due to the Trump administration’s pressures on immigration judges to deport more people and limit immigration in general. In a report by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), immigration judges determined asylum seekers had present adequate evidence to establish their credible fear in only ...

Filling Job Openings is More Difficult due to U.S. Immigration Policies

According to immigration and talent experts, the Trump administration’s immigration policies are making it harder for U.S.-based employers to fill job openings. Since the government has increased the restrictions on visa applications, designed to curb legal immigration, its actions have led to delays and higher costs for hiring workers outside the country. For example. The U.S. Citizenship and ...

U.S. Judge Suspends Deportation of Reunited Immigrant Families

A federal judge in San Diego issued an order on July 16 to suspend the deportation of newly reunited immigrant families for up to one week. This recent ruling was the latest step in the legal battle over the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy, under which immigrant parents are charged with criminal violations for illegally entering the United States are separated from their children. ...

Sessions Rules Domestic & Gang Violence No Longer Qualify for Asylum

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered immigration judges on Monday that victims of domestic abuse and gang violence generally will not qualify for asylum under federal law. His recent ruling overturned a 2016 decision which granted asylum to an El Salvadorian woman who had suffered abuse at the hands of her husband. Sessions’ decision establishes a high bar for victims of crime to qualify ...

Attorney Solomon Kanu Helps Immigrants Succeed with His Book The Immigrant's Manual for Success In America

Are you an immigrant that has recently come to the United States? At Kanu & Associates, P.C., we understand the challenges and many different cultural and social obstacles that you will have to face. As an immigration law firm with nearly 20 years of experience, we have helped numerous clients overcome their immigration-related legal disputes as they try to navigate and adjust to life in the U.S. ...

Trump Administration Increases Worksite Investigations to Combat Illegal Immigration

On Monday, the Trump administration announced that has drastically increased the number of worksite investigations and audits to ensure that U.S. businesses do not employ individuals who are in the country unlawfully. According to immigration officials, they have launched over 3,500 worksite investigations, which is already double the amount of cases in comparison to the prior fiscal year. ...

U.S. Must Keep DACA and Accept New Application, According to Federal Judge

Last month, a D.C. federal judge ruled that the federal government must continue the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and reopen it to new applicants. This decision has been the most resounding rejection yet of the Trump administration’s efforts to end deportation protections for young undocumented immigrants. Judge John D. Bates of Federal District Court for the District of ...

USCIS Reaches H-1B Cap for FY 2019

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has reached the congressionally-mandated H-1B visa cap of 65,000 for the fiscal year 2019. In addition, the agency has also received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to fulfill the 20,000-visa U.S. advanced degree exemption, which is known as the “master’s cap.” Keep in mind, petitions filed for current H-1B workers who have been counted ...

DACA Deadline Just Passed: What's Next?

Six months ago, when he announced he was ending the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, President Donald Trump chose March 5 as the deadline for Congress to figure out a solution to avoid deporting DACA recipients, who are also known as Dreamers. However, the program—which protects roughly 700,000 young, undocumented immigrants—remains in place for the time being after ...

USCIS No Longer Says America is a 'Nation of Immigrants'

Late last month, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) changed its mission statement to remove a passage that describes the U.S. as a “nation of immigrants.” The following is the new mission statement as it appears on the agency’s website: “U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services administers the nation’s lawful immigration system, safeguarding its integrity and promise ...

DACA Deadline Approaching

When President Donald Trump ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, he created a March 5th deadline to signal the end of protections, in an attempt to give Congress enough time to propose a solution. With the deadline less than a month away, there is still no such agreement in sight. There currently is no date when protections will actually expire for the nearly 700,000 ...

No Deal Has Been Reached on DACA...Yet

The White House on Thursday said that no deal has been reached to protect DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipients. There are currently nearly 800,000 young people who are currently under the DACA program, which is an American immigration policy that allowed those who entered the country as minors, and had either entered or remained in the country illegally, to receive a renewable ...

DACA is Ending, But Congress Can Save It

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, also known as DACA, is an Obama-administration program which offered protection to nearly 800,000 undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children. Unfortunately, this program is at risk of coming to an end, and it is up to Congress to put a stop to it. They have until April 2018 to decide the program’s future, as well as that of its ...

Immigration Under President Trump So Far

Building a wall was at the forefront of Donald Trump’s campaign and has been a major topic of discussion since the inauguration. But what has actually been done and what impact has President Trump had on immigration? Decline of Illegal Immigration According to The Washington Times , illegal immigration to this country from the southwest border is down more than 60 percent since President Trump ...

Will Local Law Enforcement Comply with Trump's Immigration Policies?

One of President Donald Trump’s key promises of his campaign is the removal of up to three million undocumented immigrants from the United States, mainly those who have criminal records. However, Trump appears to face not only public opposition to his immigration plans, but possibly obstruction by local and state law enforcement, who would have to implement any new policies. In many cases, federal ...

9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Rules Against Trump, Travel Ban Remains Suspended

A Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel, consisting of three judges, unanimously upheld a restraining order blocking the Trump administration from enforcing the president’s immigration and refugee order targeting Muslim-majority countries. “We hold that the Government has not shown a likelihood of success on the merits of its appeal, nor has it shown that failure to enter a stay would cause ...