LAC News Room

The Legal Action Center puts outs press releases about ongoing developments in immigration law, posts on the Immigration Impact blog, the Immigration Slip Opinion blog, and we also compile links to news clips that feature Legal Action Center staff.

Lawsuit Filed Against DHS and USCIS Seeks Transparency Promised by Obama Administration

The American Immigration Council's Legal Action Center filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on behalf of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) seeking the public release of records concerning agency policies and procedures for the "H-1B" visa program - a program which allows U.S. businesses to temporarily employ highly-skilled foreign workers. Read more . . .

Supreme Court Injects Reason into Immigration Felony Definition

On June 14, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court voted unanimously in Carachuri-Rosendo v. Holder that a lawful permanent resident who is convicted of minor drug possession offenses does not warrant classification as having been convicted of an "aggravated felony." As a result, the Court held that Mr. Carachuri-Rosendo cannot be deported without an opportunity to make a case for why he should be allowed to remain in the United States. Please view the press release, and you can also read about this case on our Supreme Court Update page.

Class Action Challenging Arizona Law Reveals Depth of Constitutional Rights at Stake

On May 17th, a diverse group of individuals and organizations filed a class action challenging Arizona’s harsh immigration enforcement law SB 1070, scheduled to go into effect on July 28, 2010. This law, among other things requires state and local law enforcement to check the immigration status of individuals it encounters, and makes it a state crime to be without proper immigration documentation. The lawsuit offers a compelling look at the egregiousness of the law, the variety of constitutional rights at stake, and the diverse group of individuals and organizations who will be adversely affected if the law goes into effect. Read more . . .

DHS Reverses Decision on Deportation Time Frame

In a sudden about-face last week, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reversed its position on an interpretation of law which drastically increased immigrants’ vulnerability to deportation. In a brief filed on April 21, DHS urged the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) to modify an existing precedent decision in a pending BIA case, Matter of Alyazji. The modification, suggested by respondent’s attorney, Wayne Sachs and amicus curiae, the American Immigration Council’s Legal Action Center, limits when an immigrant could be ordered deported for certain past crimes. Read more . . .

Supreme Court Decision Protects Right to Immigration Advice

The American Immigration Council applauds today's Supreme Court decision on the right to counsel for noncitizens charged with committing a crime. The Court held that criminal defense lawyers must advise their noncitizen clients about the risk of deportation if they accept a guilty plea. The Court recognized that current immigration laws impose harsh and mandatory deportation consequences onto criminal convictions, and that Congress eliminated from these laws the Attorney General's discretionary authority to cancel removal in meritorious cases. The Court said, "These changes to our immigration law have dramatically raised the stakes of a noncitizen's criminal conviction. The importance of accurate legal advice for noncitizens accused of crimes has never been more important." Read our press release and our Immigration Impact blog post on this topic.

BIA Round Up: Looking Ahead, Cases to Watch

In this post, the Immigration Slip Opinion blog concentrates on issues presently before the BIA that could be resolved by precedent decisions. The BIA has been very busy of late. In addition to an increase in precedent decisions (7 already in 2010; 34 in 2009), it is hearing oral arguments in more cases now than in the past. Recently, it also requested supplemental briefing on specific issues in a number of cases, providing insight into some of its concerns. Read more . . .

Court of Appeals Agrees with the Legal Action Center that USCIS Imposed Arbitrary Requirements for Workers

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals adopted the arguments of the Legal Action Center (LAC), of the American Immigration Council, that the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) unlawfully imposed extra-regulatory requirements on a petition for a worker of "extraordinary ability" (EB-1). Read our press release and our Immigration Impact blog post on this topic.

New Report on Asylum Work Authorization “Clock” Released

Penn State Law’s Center for Immigrants’ Rights and the American Immigration Council’s Legal Action Center released a new study, "Up Against the Clock: Fixing the Broken Employment Authorization Asylum Clock." The report examines the laws, policy, and practice of the “Employment Authorization Document (EAD) asylum clock”— a clock which measures the number of days after an applicant files an asylum application before the applicant is eligible for work authorization. Read "Up Against the Clock", our press release about the report's release on February 12, 2010, and our Immigration Impact blog post on this topic.

Immigration Judges Given Needed Discretion in Deportation of Employment-Based Visa Holders

The American Immigration Council (AIC) applauds a decision issued today by the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) in Matter of Neto, which empowers immigration judges who are considering deportation of individuals with approved work-related visa petitions and pending permanent residence applications. The issue at stake is whether an immigration judge has the authority to decide whether the approved visa petition - issued for one job - remains valid when the individual changes jobs. Without a valid visa petition, the individual will not be eligible for permanent residence. Read more . . .

New ABA Study Documents Serious System-Wide Problems in the Removal Process, February 9, 2010

For over a year, the American Bar Association’s Commission on Immigration and the law firm of Arnold & Porter LLP engaged in a comprehensive review of the current removal process. The law firm poured over hundreds of articles, reports, legislative materials, and other documents, and interviewed scores of participants in the system, including lawyers, judges, advocacy groups, and academics. Read more . . .

Supreme Court Protects Immigrants' Access to Court Review, January 21, 2010 (blog post)

Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision ensuring that immigrants facing deportation have fair process in the review of their cases. The Court ruled that individuals who seek to reopen their deportation orders have the right to appeal to the federal courts if the immigration court refuses to reopen the case. The Court’s decision protects immigrants’ access to federal court review and affirms the role of the courts in our system of checks and balances on government power. Read more . . .

Supreme Court Protects Immigrants' Access to Court Review (press release)

The American Immigration Council applauds today's U.S. Supreme Court decision ensuring that immigrants facing deportation have fair process in the review of their cases. The Court ruled that individuals who seek to reopen their deportation orders have the right to appeal to the federal courts if the immigration court refuses to hear the appeal. The Court's decision protects immigrants' access to federal court review and affirms the role of the courts in our system of checks and balances on government power. Read more . . .

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