WHY
CHOOSE US
CHOOSE US
Today, the US Supreme Court reached a split, 4-4 decision on whether President Obama has the authority to institute DAPA and Extended DACA to foreign nationals currently present in the United States. Due to the vacancy in the Supreme Court left by the death of Justice Scalia, the Court reached a tie of 4-4. In the event a tie, the decision of the lower court stands. Therefore, the injunction upheld by the Fifth Circuit stands. On this sad day, 4 million hard working people in our country will not be able to come out of the shadows. The Court’s inability to reach a decision is also caused by many Republican Congressman who refuse to meet President Obama’s nominee for the US Supreme Court. If we had a full court of nine Justices, we would at least have a SCOTUS decision in this matter. This is a sad day for our country on many fronts. To learn more about Extended DACA and DAPA, see this article
The United States Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether President Obama’s DAPA and Extended DACA Programs will go forward. DAPA (Deferred Action for Parental Accountability) and DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) are program for persons who have resided in the United States for five (5) years and currently do not have a lawful immigration status, but who the government does not want to deport. President Obama announced these programs in November of 2014 and they were meant to begin in 2015, but a 26 States filed a lawsuit in District Court seeking an injunction to stop the programs. A federal court judge granted the injunction and the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the ruling, which prompted the Obama Administration to seek review in by the highest court of the land.
The Supreme Court will hear the case and a decision will be rendered by June of 2016. This means that eligible persons will have a chance to apply for deferred action before the President leaves office. The following undocumented persons will be eligible for deferred action, a social security number and driver’s license:
Expanded DACA:
DAPA:
Call Hykel Law today to find out if you may be eligible for DAPA or Extended DACA: 215 246-9400.
Check out this recent article from The Atlantic, which details how a large immigrant population has strengthened the city of Nashville, Tennessee.
On November 20, 2014, President Obama announced a series of immigration reform plans to be implemented in 2015. This plan came after Congress failed to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill, despite its passage through the Senate. The President’s new plan has three objectives:
1) Crack down on illegal immigration at the border;
2) Deport felons – not families; and
3) Accountability for persons residing in the United States with US citizen or lawful permanent resident children through payment of taxes and background checks.
The President’s plan has two components – 1) deporting criminals and – 2) reforming existing programs to provide accountability, tax revenues and efficiency for persons who have long awaited lawful status and citizenship.
Immigration reform is needed to strengthen our society and our financial well -being. Something all Americans need to understand is that we cannot afford to deport 11 million people currently living in the United States without lawful status. AnImmigration reform update is needed for financial reasons as well as humanitarian reasons. Implementation of the President’s plan is predicted by a conservative think tank to reduce the deficit by 2.5 trillion dollars, strengthen the GDP and stimulate the economy.
Many people who do not have lawful immigration status come to our country to flee unstable, dangerous places and pursue a better life for their families. They have U.S. citizen children, they enrich our communities with an exceptional work ethic and strong family values. These people have no criminal infractions and often have been victims of crimes themselves.
Deporting Criminals, Not Families
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) has long exercised discretion as to who it should focus time and resources on deporting. This means that if ICE is aware of a convicted felon who lacks status and a mother of three US Citizen children who has no arrests, it will use resources to deport the convicted felon before it may ever contact the mother.
This is referred to as the exercise of prosecutorial discretion (“PD”). PD has been going on for decades as ICE has long recognized that resources are limited.
Contrary to what many think, President Obama has deported more people than any President in American history as can be seen by Pew Research here.
President Obama’s immigration reform detailed three types of people that are enforcement priorities, recorded here.
Here is a brief summary of the immigration plan:
strong>Priority 1 High Level Criminals
Priority 2 Lower Level Criminals and Illegal Entrants
Priority 3 Foreign Nationals with Final Orders for Deportation
The President has prioritized criminals for deportation from the United States by directing ICE to remove such persons. Hard-working, law abiding families are not prioritized by Obama on immigration reform plans.
Reforming Existing Programs
President Obama has made provisions for other existing programs and published detailed guidelines outlining the new program available here:
1) Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) will now include people who have been living in the United States as of January 1, 2010, before reaching the age of 16, and will no longer have an upper age restriction of 31 years of age. Additionally, DACA recipients will get work authorization for a period of three (3) years, not two (2) years. This program is currently subject to a temporary restraining order issued by a Texas District Court Judge. The Obama Administration appealed the order to the Fifth Circuit. Until a decision is made, the program is on hold.
2) Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA) is a new program that will allow persons who were parents of U.S. citizens or Lawful Permanent Residents (green card holders) as of 11/20/2014 who have resided continuously in the United States since January 1, 2010 and have not committed certain criminal offenses to obtain employment authorization. This too is on hold pending the Fifth Circuit’s decision.
3) Provisional Waivers of Unlawful Presence will now be available for undocumented persons who have lived in the United States for at least 180 days who are the sons and daughters of U.S. citizens or the spouses, sons or daughters of Lawful Permanent Residents (green card holders). This means that persons can ask for a waiver of unlawful presence from the United States without going abroad and waiting for a consular post to adjudicate the waiver request for several months outside the country.
4) Pre-registration for foreign nationals who have approved I-140 Petitions and are waiting for a visa number to file for adjustment of status (green card). This will be a huge benefit for persons who have an approved visa petition but cannot file for Employment Authorization (“EAD”) due to the waiting line for visas. The persons will be able to apply for a travel document and EAD.
5) H-4 Employment Authorization will become available for certain spouses of H1-B employees who have an approved visa petition but cannot file for adjustment of status because they are waiting for a visa to become available.
6) U.S. Citizenship Application Fees may be able to be paid with a credit card to encourage individuals to apply for U.S. citizenship.
The President’s Executive Action is estimated to provide relief to 5 million people.
The latest immigration reform news available from USCIS can be viewed here.
Criminal Background Checks and Taxes
In order to qualify for DACA, or DAPA persons must first pass a background check. If it is discovered that the applicant committed certain crimes, he/she will not be granted DAPA and will likely be referred to deportation proceedings before an Immigration Judge. Additionally, DACA and DAPA recipients will be required to pay taxes. In reality, these individuals are likely already working, but Uncle Sam receives no revenue from them. We will all benefit from the latest on immigration reform.
What is Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)?
DACA is a program implemented by President Obama on June 12, 2014 to help foreign nationals without lawful US immigration status come out of the shadows. Many persons who are eligible for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals first arrived in the United States with a lawful immigration status – some were lawful children of visitors, diplomats, foreign workers and foreign students. Many of them came at such a young age that they know no other home but the United States and are quintessentially American but for lack of immigration status. For many of these childhood arrivals, due to no fault of their own, they lack a lawful immigration status in the United States.
Contrary to what many believe, deferred action is not a new practice by the US Government. For decades the government has exercised discretion to prioritize the allocation of limited resources for deportation of undocumented immigrants. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”), the agency charged with apprehension and removal of illegal aliens, focuses their efforts on finding and deporting criminals, not families.
Original DACA Program
President Obama’s DACA program identified specific individuals – childhood arrivals – for deferred action. The eligibility criteria included the following:
DACA Application Process
In order to apply for DACA, persons must submit USCIS Forms I-821D, I-765, I-765W, filing fees and supporting documentation to prove eligibility. For many, proof of residency can be the hardest part because a lack of a social security number makes it difficult to create the kind of paper trail the government wants to see, such as W2s, bank statements and utility bills.
If approved, a DACA recipient receives a work permit that allows them to obtain a social security number and in most states, a Driver’s License. DACA provides deferred action for a period of 2 years, and approximately 5 months before the expiration date.
Individuals need to apply for deferred action renewal, otherwise, they will accrue unlawful presence in the United States upon the expiration.
Expanded DACA Program
On November 20, 2014, President Obama announced several immigration reform program, one of which included an expansion of the DACA program. The expanded DACA program included the following basic criteria:
Another major change to the program was that the approval period is extended to 3 years instead of 2. DACA renewal requests would also need to be submitted every 3 years.
The Expanded DACA program was meant to begin on February 17, 2015, but a few days before the program started, pursuant to a lawsuit filed by 26 states in a U.S. District Court in Texas, Judge Andrew Hanen issued an injunction against the implementation of expanded DACA. Though many did not believe the judge had the power to issue a country-wide injunction, the Obama administration honored the decision andaggressively appealed the decision to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. On April 17, 2015, oral arguments were heard by a panel of the Fifth Circuit and a decision has not yet been given. For now, the expanded DACA program is on hold.
For persons eligible for DACA, USCIS is still accepting applications for the original DACA program while many childhood arrivals are currently filing for DACA renewals. According to Pew Research, approximately 611,000 DACA applications have been granted out of 702,000 applications. The program has generated tax revenues while allowing many childhood arrivals to come out of the shadows.
Who are undocumented, or illegal, immigrants? Politicians, news media, and others seem opinionated, but often ill-informed about who these people are, where they came from, and how they fit into American society. Recent changes to the U.S. immigration policy have been proposed, and in some cases passed into law, by the Obama administration.
Who are undocumented immigrants?
An undocumented immigrant and an illegal alien both refer to foreign nationals who do not currently possess a lawful immigration status in the United States. The term “illegal alien” or “illegal immigrant” is a bit disparaging; it sounds like a UFO landed and dumped out foreign creatures that are less than human. These are people; many of them are hard-working people with strong family values simply seeking a better life. The term “undocumented immigrant” though not entirely accurate, is at least not derogatory. Some people come to the United States pursuant to a lawful non-immigrant status such as visitor, student or temporary worker, but stay longer than they are authorized. These people do have immigration documents, therefore, they aren’t exactly “undocumented,” their documents are just expired. These foreign nationals are often referred to as “overstays.”
Many of these people came to the USA with a lawful non-immigrant status such as visitor, temporary worker, student, diplomat or spouse/child of a lawful non-immigrant, but remained in the United States after the expiration of their period of authorized stay.
Penalties For Unlawful Immigration
The Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”), the federal statute which governs immigration throughout the United States, provides harsh penalties for foreign nationals who sneak across the United States border as opposed to those who are lawfully admitted to the United States after inspection from a US immigration officer.
The biggest penalty is that, generally, persons who sneak over the US border are not eligible to later adjust their status to a lawful permanent resident (green card holder) whereas, in some circumstances, people who are admitted and inspected but overstay their non-immigrant status can. This becomes particularly important for people who have accrued more than 6 months or 1 year of unlawful presence in the United States because once such persons depart, they are banned from re-entry for periods of 3 years and 10 years, respectively.
Amnesty Programs
Since 1986, there have been several “amnesty” programs for persons without a lawful immigration status residing in the USA. Amnesty is a broad term used to refer to laws that allow otherwise ineligible foreign nationals to regularize their status in the United States. The most recent bill to be passed through Congress was pursuant to the LIFE Act, passed in December 2000, which allowed foreign nationals who were present in the United States as of December 21, 2000 and who had an immigrant visa petition filed on their behalf to obtain lawful permanent resident status (green cards) if they paid a penalty of $1000.00. This is codified in Section 245(i) of the INA.
In 2013, another attempt was made to offer amnesty to additional people with a long physical presence in the United States who passed background checks and paid a $1000 fine. The bill passed the Senate, but not the House of Representatives. In response to Congress’ inability to pass a bill, President Obama issued executive ordersto defer action for childhood arrivals and parents of US citizen children who passed background checks. Some of the Presidents’ measures, including the Expanded Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA) have been stopped by a federal court judge in Texas, though the case is on appeal in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Lacking Lawful Immigration Status
Many immigrants who lack current status – especially children – lack status through no fault of their own. Many childhood arrivals do not learn until they become teenagers and attempt to apply for driver’s licenses, apply to college or seek employment, that they do not have a lawful status. Many of them know no other home besides the United States and speak no other language besides English.
Though rare, a small number of adults are living in the United States without a lawful immigration status and they may not even know it. This comes up in the case of children of diplomats who are born in the United States. Most diplomats are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, therefore, under the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, they are not U.S. citizens at birth because they too are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. Unfortunately, these families do not know this and in the case of children who break residence in the United States and later return thinking they are US citizens, in fact, they are not.
Cost of Deportation
Recent studies on illegal immigration statistics estimate approximately 11 million immigrants lack documentation. Why doesn’t the US government simply deport them? The most practical reason is that it is too expensive. Illegal immigration statistics show that it costs approximately $18,000 to apprehend a person, and $3,300 to detain a person for 30 days. Some estimate that it would cost over $200 billion to deport every undocumented immigrant, and the entire requested agency budget for the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) for fiscal year 2016 is $41.2 billion.
To put that number in perspective, DHS includes many sub-agencies: the immigration and citizenship agency (USCIS), Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), airport security (TSA), the Secret Service, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), emergency response (FEMA) and the US. Coast Guard. Funding DHS even for this amount proved challenging this year as political debates over immigration nearly resulted in Congressional failure to fund the agency.
Well aware of its limited resources, DHS focuses it efforts of deportation of criminal aliens and persons apprehended at the border. As of January 1, 2015, DHS has clear directives to first deport convicted felons and terrorists, then those convicted of three significant misdemeanors, then those who are apprehended at the border or have a final order of deportation after Jan. 1, 2014. DHS is also directed to disregard or “defer action” of deportation for those who have US citizen children, or may qualify for an immigration benefit and have no criminal infractions.
Immigration law is always changing, as is the social and cultural response to immigration. Undocumented immigrants are afforded certain rights in America, and deportation or going to jail is not typical for non-criminals. Proposed changes to immigration law may allow people to more easily immigrate to America, but the topic remains complex and politically charged.
Are you an international athlete or coach who needs U.S. immigration status to work, train or reside in the United States?
Check out an article by Hykel Law client and international athlete, David Ziegler, featuring a contribution by Renee Hykel Cuddy, Esq. David Ziegler is a Canadian Equestrian Athlete who was recently granted P-1 (international athlete) status in the United States with our assistance. The article addresses several US immigration options for athletes and coaches, including B1/B2 visitors, H-3 trainees, P-1 athletes, coaches, and support personnel, O-1 extraordinary ability athletes and coaches, and green cards. Renee Hykel Cuddy, Esq. is very well-suited to prepare immigration applications for athletes and coaches because she was an Olympic Athlete for the US Rowing team for 6 years before entering the legal profession.
To have Renee personally evaluate your case, call 215-246-9400 or email: info@hykellaw.com
Article Link: http://eventingnation.com/home/visas-and-immigration-for-canadian-riders/
As part of President Obama’s Executive Action on Immigration Reform, H-4 spouses will be eligible for work authorization in the United States beginning on May 26, 2015.
Here is who will be eligible for work permits:
Spouses in H-4 Status, whose H1-B husband or wife has an approved I-140 Petition (visa petition for an employment based green card) but cannot file for a green card because of the waiting line for a visa. An immigration law known as “AC21” authorizes the extension of H1-B status indefinitely for H1-B workers who have an approved I-140 but cannot file for permanent residence due the limited number of visas available each year. President Obama’s executive action will now allow the spouses of such persons to obtain work authorization while the family waits for permanent residence status. The immigration reform of President Obama will provide significant relief to what is often many years of waiting for high level workers.
Therefore, if you are in H-4 status and your spouse has an approved I-140, you will be eligible for a work permit.
Call Hykel Law today to file your H-4 work authorization, or if need be your spouse’s I-140 petition (employment based green card).
Earlier this month, a federal court judge in Texas issued a preliminary injunction which has delayed the implementation of the expanded DACA program meant to begin on February 18, 2015. The program is not cancelled; it is only temporarily delayed as confirmed by the President, who has aggressively appealed the Texas judge’s ruling. The judge’s order is likely to be overturned on appeal.
President Obama has encouraged all persons who are eligible for the expanded DACA program to continue to gather their documents and prepare to file because as soon as the legal battle is over, USICS will accept DACA applications.
The expanded DACA program opened the program to individuals who are over the age of 31 and who have been physically present in the United States since 2010. The original DACA program was only available to persons under the age of 31, who entered the country before age 16 and earned or were pursuing a high school diploma or GED.
Call Hykel Law today to find out if you qualify for the expanded DACA, DAPA or original DACA program, 215-246-9400.
We look forward to helping you with your immigration case. We have the experience, knowledge and staff to handle your matter swiftly. Reach out today to discuss your needs for representation.