According to McClatchy, the Trump Administration is trying to decrease the number of Treaty NAFTA (TN) visas and limit the number of eligible professions under NAFTA negotiations with Canada and Mexico. Although the visa term for eligible professions – e.g., accountants, hotel managers, land surveyors, engineers and computer analysts -- is limited to three years, it may be renewed indefinitely.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions directed immigration judges on Thursday to stop delaying removal cases for illegal aliens through administrative closure. Under the Obama administration, immigration judges used administrative closure to indefinitely delay hundreds of thousands of removal cases, allowing illegal aliens to be released into the United States.
Social Security Administration (SSA) Acting Commissioner Nancy Berryhill urged Congress, in a statement today at a House hearing on Social Security fraud, to pass immigration legislation that requires mandatory use of E-Verify for all employers. Berryhill said that mandating E-Verify, an Internet-based system operated by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), would combat identity theft by reducing the fraudulent use of Social Security numbers (SSN) by illegal aliens.
House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) said on Tuesday that he and the Freedom Caucus are considering leveraging their votes for the upcoming farm bill in an effort to block an amnesty Discharge Petition to force a vote on Rep. Jeff Denham's (R-Calif.) H.Res. 774. He said that their group will likely pressure GOP House leadership to vote on Rep Bob Goodlatte's (R-Va.) H.R. 4760, the Securing America's Future Act.
DHS reported yesterday that it made almost four times the number of worksite arrests and conducted more than double the number of investigations within the first six months of FY2018 than it did for all of FY2017. Worksite enforcement reports show that the agency carried out 3,510 worksite investigations, 2,282 audits, 594 criminal arrests and 610 administrative arrests -- significantly more than annual totals for the year before.
USCIS and DOJ announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) last week that formalizes their joint effort to identify, investigate, and eliminate employer fraud and abuse, and to prosecute employers who discriminate against Americans by favoring foreign workers. The memorandum will improve methods of sharing information and collaboration between the agencies and implement better ways for them to training each other's investigators.
Last week U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services changed how it calculates unlawful presence for students and exchange visitors in F, J, and M nonimmigrant status who overstay a visa. Under a new memorandum, they will begin to accumulate "unlawful presence" days starting on the date their F, J, or M immigrant status expires. Under the old policy, they started accruing unlawful presence on the day USCIS discovered the violation.
Nearly 1.5 million foreign graduates of U.S. universities received work permits through the Optional Training Program (OPT) between 2004 and 2016, according to Pew Research. OPT allows foreign students who graduate with degrees in science, technology, engineering, and/or mathematics to stay and work in the United States for up to 36 months after graduation and compete with American workers.
A group of Disney tech workers have dropped their lawsuit against the company after a years-long effort to hold the company accountable for replacing them with foreign workers and forcing them to train them. The workers' attorney, Sara Blackwell, said it was difficult to challenge Disney for using a lawful program to replace the American workers.
The Santa Clarita City Council voted this week to join the Trump Administration's effort to overturn California laws that block or interfere with federal immigration enforcement. In addition to supporting the Administration's lawsuit, the council publicly condemned California's sanctuary policy, in a 5-0 vote against SB54.
House Speaker Paul Ryan spoke against Rep. Carlos Curbelo's (R-Fla.) decision to file a Discharge Petition for Rep. Jeff Denham's (R-Calif.) resolution (H.Res. 774), which could force a vote in the House on DACA amnesty legislation. Though he would prefer to vote on DACA "before midterms," Ryan said that there's no use in forcing a floor vote on amnesty legislation that Pres. Trump will most likely veto.