Articles Posted in Immigration News

Beginning on Monday, February 24^th, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will start to implement the final rule on the public charge ground of inadmissibility. The USCIS has revised its forms to be consistent with the final rule on public charge. Starting on the Monday applicants and petitioners must use new editions of the forms except in Illinois, where the rule remains enjoined by the federal court. Links to the revised forms are listed below:

• Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker
• Form I-129CW, Petition for a CNMI-Only Nonimmigrant Worker

The Trump Administration has made many changes to the legal immigration system that will take effect in 2020. These changes will impact the lives of millions of legal immigrants already living in the United States. This Miami Herald news article listed five that they feel will affect legal immigrant’s lives the most!

Here are the five changes highlighted by the article:

1. Cost hikes for key immigration processes

Six House Democrats, all Chairman or Vice Chairs of relative congressional committees have sent a letter to the Acting Secretary of Homeland Security, Chad Wolf, the Acting Commissioner of the CBP, Mark Morgan and Port Director, Kenneth Williams demanding to know why 200 Iranian-Americans were delayed for up to 12 hours at the Canadian border over the first weekend of 2020.

The letter sent to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), stated, “Many impacted individuals were U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents, including seniors and children,”. The letter goes on to state, “CBP held a family of four U.S. citizens of Iranian descent – who were pre-screened for expedited processing as Nexus pass holder – for nearly five hours.” All the delays in question were at the Peace Arch Border Crossing in Blaine, Washington!

For further details please review The Hill news article, “House Dems demand answers regarding holding of Iranian-Americans at border”.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has announced the start of a Pilot Program to collect DNA from certain individuals taken into their custody in two locations. The two locations selected for the 90-day Pilot Program are:

• The U.S. Border Patrol in the Detroit Sector
• The Office of Field Operations at the Eagle Pass Port of Entry in southwestern Texas

USCIS YouTube Video: Hello, I’m Emma. How may I help you?

The USCIS web site has a Virtual Assistant to help you with USCIS site specific searches. “Emma” is the name of the Virtual Assistant and she is located in the upper right corner of the USCIS website, right beside the normal search function.

Emma can answer your questions and even take you right to what you are looking for. Just click, “Ask a Question” or Emma’s picture and a text box will appear. Next, type in your question and hit the “Send” button to get your results.

USCIS has released a new YouTube video documentary entitled, “USCIS and the Legacy of Ellis Island”. This documentary describes the operational history of USCIS at Ellis Island and is told from their employees’ point of view!

Ellis Island operated as the nations’ busiest Immigration inspection station from 1892 until 1954. They processed over 12 million immigrants in its 62 years of operation.

For a more detailed history of Ellis Island view the following:

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is proposing using facial-recognition technology at all points of entrance and exit from the United States, including on U.S. citizens. DHS has proposed changing regulations to allow them to do just that. Facial recognition technology matches an image of a person from a photo or video with a still image of them in a database.

Michael Hardin, director of exit/entry policy for DHS, stated that the rule was in the “final stages of clearance.” If the rule is approved, it would have to be published for public comments for a period.

For further details please review the CNN News Article, “Homeland Security wants to use facial recognition on traveling US citizens, too”.

USCIS announced November 12^th on their Twitter Account (@USCIS) that they are looking for help shaping the future design and features of their official web site. How can you help? USCIS is looking for users to register for Website Feature Testing using the following link to their web page, “Help Us Test Website Features”. After submitting your email address, a new window will indicate that you have successfully subscribed and that they have received your information. If you want to have an input, here is your chance.

Source of Information:

USCIS Twitter Account – @USCIS / November 12, 2019 at 11:45am: Help Us Test Website Features