Immigration and Firm News

It's a historic day in Washington State. Thanks to the voters who approved Referendum 74, same sex couples can legally marry starting today. The referendum went into effect on December 6, when couples started applying for marriage licenses. Along with the eight other states that permit same sex marriage, what does this new historic opportunity mean for couples where one or both spouses are foreign nationals? This blog post looks at the current status of options for foreign nationals to legally … [Read more...]

During the last month since President Obama announced the new Deferred Action program for Certain Young People, I have mulled over the commentary by media, politicians, and immigrant advocates. There is plenty of information out there about the eligibility requirements or how they should be interpreted, but little discussion about whether people should apply in the first place. is this program all it's hyped up to be and should people apply if qualified? After all, Deferred Action is not a visa, … [Read more...]

School's out just in time for the Obama Administration to announce today in an interesting political move that it will grant deferred action status for would-be DREAM Act students. (See Spanish version of the announcement.) I say "would-be" DREAM Act students because Congress never did pass the DREAM Act. Various versions of the DREAM Act would have provided a path to legal status and citizenship for many young people whose parents brought them to the US illegally at a young age (or they … [Read more...]

Washington State appears poised in the next few days to be the seventh state in the nation to legalize same-sex marriage. It would go into effect on June 7, 2012. Assuming expected legal and referendum challenges fail, what would that mean for immigrant couples? Visas and Green Cards for Binational Couples Unfortunately, it will still be impossible to obtain a green card or permanent residence through sponsorship by a gay or lesbian US citizen or permanent resident spouse until Congress … [Read more...]

In an earlier post, Prosecutorial Discretion: "Backdoor Amnesty"? 9 Myths Debunked, I discussed the latest announcement from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), that it will work with the Immigration Courts to cull from its docket "low priority" cases. The August 18, 2011 announcement by Homeland Secretary, Janet Napolitano, makes reference to two June 17, 2011 memos from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) discussing the criteria ICE should be using to determine if and when it … [Read more...]

On August 18, 2011, Secretary Janet Napolitano, announced that her office, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), will work with the Immigration Courts in the Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR), to review over 300,000 pending court cases to determine which ones are "low priority" and can be closed or terminated. This will enable DHS and EOIR to focus scarce resources on dangerous criminals and terrorists. Locally, DHS has already been reviewing the detention status of … [Read more...]