NBC News: Applications for Immigration Action Could Begin in Mid-February

As reported by NBC News, USCIS Director Leon Rodriguez told Spanish-speaking reporters in a conference call that immigrants should be able to start applying for deportation relief and work permits early next year. First up will be those applying for expanded DACA, most likely in February. Parents of U.S. citizens and legal resident children should be able to begin applying for DAPA in May.

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Reagan-Bush Family Fairness: A Chronological History

Today, the American Immigration Council releases Reagan-Bush Family Fairness: A Chronological History. From 1987 to 1990, Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush, Sr. used their executive authority to protect from deportation a group that Congress left out of its 1986 immigration reform legislation—the spouses and children of individuals who were in the process of legalizing. These “Family Fairness” actions were taken to avoid separating families in which one spouse or parent was eligible for legalization, but the other spouse or children living in the United States were not—and thus could be deported, even though they would one day be eligible for legal status when the spouse or parent legalized. Publicly available estimates at the time were that “Family Fairness” could cover as many as 1.5 million family members, which was approximately 40 percent of the then-unauthorized population. After Reagan and Bush acted, Congress later protected the family members.






This fact sheet provides a chronological history of the executive actions and legislative debate surrounding Family Fairness.

Stop Notario Fraud - How AILA Members Can Help

Michelle Mendez, co-chair of the AILA National Consumer Protection & UPL Action Committee, shares information about combating notario fraud related to the new deferred action for parental accountability (DAPA) initiative.



For more information, visit stopnotariofraud.org.

Law Professors Affirm Obama’s Immigration Action Within Legal Authority

Today, more than a hundred legal scholars released a letter after reviewing the President Obama’s announced executive actions on immigration, that confirms that his plan for immigration action is “within the legal authority of the executive branch” of the United States.

The letter, spearheaded by Hiroshi Motomura of University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law, Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia of Dickinson School of Law, and Stephen H. Legomsky of the Washington University School of Law, and was signed by many law professors from the nation’s top law schools.  They conclude that “the expansion of the DACA program and the establishment of Deferred Action for Parental Accountability are legal exercises of prosecutorial discretion. Both executive actions are well within the legal authority of the executive branch of the government of the United States.”

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Changes to U and T Nonimmigrant Visa Categories as part of President Obama’s Action Initiative.

The Obama administration has included two important changes with respect to U and T visas for victims of crime in the workplace and trafficking as part of its administrative reform, by expanding the DOL’s U visa certification protocol to include three additional qualifying criminal activities, and committing to certification of T visas. It has also established an interagency task force to protect immigrant workers from employers who exploit their immigration status when they seek to exercise their workplace rights.

The DOL has posted a fact sheet here:  http://www.dol.gov/dol/fact-sheet/immigration/u-t-visa.htm. The fact sheet specifies that these changes will be enacted in 2015.

Among the DOL’s changes include:
•         Expand its existing U visa certification program by certifying requests that include: extortion, fraud in foreign labor contracting, and forced labor. (Although forced labor is not specifically enumerated in the U visa statute, it should be considered substantially similar to involuntary servitude. See, e.g. United States v. Bradley, 390 F.3d 145 (1st Cir. 2004)).
•         Certify applications for trafficking victims seeking T visas when human trafficking activity is detected in the course of the Wage and Hour Division’s workplace investigations. The DOL will publish a Federal Register notice delegating authority to issue T visa certifications and will amend procedures and protocol to reflect these changes.

The Obama administration has also announced the establishment of an interagency working group addressing consistent enforcement of federal labor, employment, and labor laws, which will seek to ensure that federal enforcement authorities are not used to undermine worker protections through the use of immigration authorities in labor disputes, and strengthening processes for staying the removal and providing temporary work authorization for undocumented workers asserting workplace claims. See: http://www.dol.gov/dol/fact-sheet/immigration/interagency-working-group.htm.

Expanded Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals.

On November 20, 2014 Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Charles Johnson issued

a memorandum significantly expanding the number of individuals eligible for deferred action for

childhood arrivals (“DACA”).

Note that the Secretary has directed that CIS begin accepting applications under the new DACA

standards no later than February 18, 2015.  If you may be eligible under the expanded criteria,

please contact our office as soon as possible, so that the application might be timely filed.

To be eligible for DACA under the new standards, individuals must meet the following criteria:

•  have entered the United States before the age of 16

• have entered the United States before January 1, 2010 and have continuously resided in the United States since that time; 

• are physically present in the United States on the date of the memorandum, and at the time of making a request for consideration of deferred action with USCIS; 

• are currently in school, have graduated or obtained a certificate of completion from high school, have obtained a general education development (GED) certificate, or are an honorably discharged veteran of the Coast Guard or Armed Forces of the United States; have not been convicted of a felony, significant misdemeanor, or three or more other misdemeanors, and do not otherwise pose a threat to national security or public safety.  

The biggest changes from the previous DACA policy, enacted in 2012, are: (1) the age

restriction previously excluding individuals over the age of 31 has been rescinded; (2) DACA

will be granted in three year increments, rather than two-year increments; and (3) the eligibility

cut-off date by which a DACA applicant must have been in the United States has been adjusted

from June 15, 2007 to January 1, 2010.


All fees and biometrics requirements outlined in the initial DACA program remain in effect.

As was the case with the initial DACA program, this action confers no substantive right,

immigration status or pathway to citizenship.  Only an Act of Congress can confer these rights.

However, the expansion of the DACA program will allow more individuals to obtain work

authorization and live normal lives in the United States.

Overview of President Obama's Executive Action

The President asked Secretary Johnson and Attorney General Eric Holder to undertake a rigorous and inclusive review to inform recommendations on reforming our broken immigration system through executive action. This review sought the advice and input from the men and women charged with implementing the policies, as well as the ideas of a broad range of stakeholders and Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle. Our assessment identified the following ten areas where we, within the confines of the law, could take action to increase border security, focus enforcement resources, and ensure accountability in our immigration system.

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