Visa Regression: Department of State Tries to Turn Back the Clock on Central American Juvenile Refugees, but Just Turns its Back
The United States Department of State last month issued their May 2016 Visa Bulletin indicating that the yearly EB4 visa limits have been reached for applicants from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. The EB4 visa allows certain immigrants including “Special Immigrant Juveniles,” who are unaccompanied minor who have been designated by a family court to be dependents or wards of the state as a result of parental abandonment or abuse. As a result of the “visa retrogression,” applicants from Central American countries who sought to obtain legal status through the filing of a self-petition (Form I-360) after January 1, 2010
EOIR: How We Got Here
The backlog of immigration cases pending before judges nationally is currently hovering at around 500,000. In Houston, Texas alone that number is around 40,000. There are enough reasons to go around for those high tallies, including a lack of resources, an inefficient bureaucracy, and understaffed positions. It also doesn’t help, though, that Immigration Judges like Mimi Schooley Yam were exacerbating each one of these shortcomings. Houston faces the third largest backlog of immigration cases in the country after Los Angeles and New York. The metropolis sits near the Mexican border, so it stands to reason that it would face a high volume of
A Three-Year Old Immigration Lawyer?
Anyone who has ever interacted with a three-year old child is aware that they are dealing with a child, legally and morally unaccountable as a result of their young and underdeveloped brain. Nearly everyone that is, because senior Immigration Judge Jack H. Weil of the Executive Office for Immigration Review, the Department of Justice agency which overseas the Immigration Courts, apparently disagrees. The longtime immigration judge, who trains other immigration judges, asserted during a deposition in federal court that three and four-year old children can learn immigration law well enough to represent themselves in court. The judge was testifying in a case
Immigration Reform Bill
Comprehensive Immigration Reform Proposal A so-called comprehensive immigration reform bill has been proposed. It is over 800-pages long and, if passed, will drastically alter the legal and human landscape of the U.S. From the first reports, it seems like there is a lot to like in the bill, but it still comes up woefully short of providing a humane, equitable, and fair immigration system. Remember, this is just the proposed bill. Contrary to rumors in some communities, no bill has passed and it will be at least months (if at all) before anything passes. We will post a more detailed summary