Category Archive

USCIS To Abide by Previous Filing Fee Amounts Under Preliminary Injunction U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will continue to abide by previous filing fee amounts because of preliminary injunctions in ILRC v. Wolf and Nw. Immigrant Rts. Project v. USCIS. USCIS said it is complying with the terms of these orders and “is not enforcing the regulatory changes set …

Trump Extends the Visa Bans! After successfully beating back the Department of Labor initial illegal regulation on how prevailing wages are calculated for labor certification and H-1B process, the DOL has just published its updated wage regulation. It is just like a repackaged Christmas gift you really did not want. Essentially nothing has changed, its still as awful as it …

DACA is BACK—For Good Now! It took three years of fighting, but DACA is not back in its original form. So, if you entered the US before 15 years of age, AND before June 12, 2007, and you were in the US on June 12, 2012, AND, you are currently enrolled in school (of any kind), or have a GED …

DACA is Back, Again Federal Judge Rules New Policy Limiting DACA Is Invalid Because ‘Acting Secretary’ Wolf Was Appointed Unlawfully On November 14, 2020, a federal judge ruled that a new policy limiting Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) applications and renewals is invalid because Chad Wolf was not legally serving as Acting Secretary of Homeland Security when he signed …

Litigation Works! One thing that our clients have learned over the time of the Trump administration is that Litigation Works! Here at Kuck Baxter, we have been litigating in federal court against every administration since George H.W. Bush, to fight for saving and expanding the rights of our clients to due process, justice, fairness, and even forcing the various administrations …

There has been, as always, a drumbeat of news on Immigration over the last two weeks. Perhaps the biggest surprise was Friday’s arrival of new H-1B “selections” for this year’s H-1B cap Lottery, which, apparently, ended up up not reaching the cap. USCIS has been exceptionally silent in telling the public how many “new” selectees were notified, or if yet …

GAO Says Appointments of Wolf and Cuccinelli to Acting DHS Leadership Roles Were Invalid The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a decision concluding that after Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resigned in April 2019, the official who assumed the title of Acting Secretary, Kevin McAleenan, had not been designated in the order of succession to serve …

DHS to Raise Fees Significantly for Many Immigration Benefits The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a final rule, to be published on August 3, 2020, and take effect 60 days later, that will increase significantly many immigration and naturalization fees charged by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and reduce some others. It also removes certain fee exemptions; changes …

Well, that did not take long. Just as quickly as the Trump administration issued a new “policy” essentially barring all foreign students from being in the United States, the Trump administration caved in front of a federal court judge and withdrew the policy announcement. So, the memos of March 2020 remain in affect, allowing students to temporary attend online classes …