Court Catastrophe

The U.S. immigration system is in one of the worst states in our history, with court dates being backlogged to as late as 2022. Even for simple proceedings, the immigration courts simply do not have the capacity to keep up with the volume, mostly due to a lack of judges. For families and individuals, this creates immense turmoil and uncertainty regarding their future. For more information, click here. 

Timothy R. Bakken
Founder

A dose of sanity from the Denver City Council to help combat anti-immigrant hysteria.

Thank you to the Denver City Council for unanimously approving changes to the city municipal code that will reduce the maximum possible penalties for certain criminal convictions. Read the full Denver Post article here.  

These changes will reduce the chances of deportation for immigrants, whether documented or not, convicted of relatively minor crimes. 
 

Timothy R. Bakken

Deportation efforts increasing dramatically under new regime.

As reported in USA Today, ICE has arrested 38% percent more undocumented immigrants so far this year as compared to last year.  More disturbing, though, is the fact that arrests of those with no criminal record increased 156%!

Timothy R. Bakken.

Trump’s aggressive deportation actions are ripping apart families.

Despite Trump’s assertions that he is focusing on deporting immigrants with serious criminal convictions and those who pose risks to national security, the reality is starkly different.  As this article in The Guardian describes, Trump’s immigration policies are being enforced by ICE agents who are arresting, and placing in removal proceedings, people with very minor, or no, criminal records.  

A recent poll shows that a large majority of Americans favor immigration rules that do not punish those who have been in the U.S. illegally if they have been working, paying taxes, and have not been convicted of serious crimes. 

Clearly, the Trump administration’s immigration proposals and its current actions related to deportation policy are out-of-step with the views of most Americans.

Timothy R. Bakken

USCIS Reaches FY 2015 H-1B Cap

USCIS: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it has received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap for fiscal year (FY) 2015.  USCIS has also received more than the limit of 20,000 H-1B petitions filed under the U. S. advanced degree exemption.   

Before running a random selection process, USCIS will complete initial intake for all filings received during the filing period which ended today. Due to the high number of petitions, USCIS is not yet able to announce the date on which it will conduct the random selection process.

A computer-generated process will randomly select the number of petitions needed to meet the caps of 65,000 visas for the general category and 20,000 under the advanced degree exemption. USCIS will reject and return filing fees for all cap-subject petitions that are not selected, unless found to be a duplicate filing. 

The agency will conduct the selection process for the advanced degree exemption first. All advanced degree petitions not selected will become part of the random selection process for the 65,000 limit.

USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions that are otherwise exempt from the cap. Petitions filed on behalf of current H-1B workers who have been counted previously against the cap will not be counted towards the congressionally mandated FY 2015 H-1B cap. USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions filed to:

• Extend the amount of time a current H-1B worker may remain in the United States;
• Change the terms of employment for current H-1B workers;
• Allow current H-1B workers to change employers; and
• Allow current H-1B workers to work concurrently in a second H-1B position.

U.S. businesses use the H-1B program to employ foreign workers in occupations that require highly specialized knowledge in fields such as science, engineering and computer programming.

By USCIS, 7. April 2014.

SEE ALSO: 
Immigration lottery limits U.S. employers.
The H-1B programs impact on wages jobs and the economy.
Tech flips the script on immigration foes.
How immigration reform - or lack thereof - is hurting our economic competitiveness.