Articles Posted in Immigration News

USCIS announced on Friday, May 24^th that L. Francis Cissna had resigned as Director effective June 1^st. L. Francis Cissna wrote, “At the request of the President, I submitted my resignation today effective June 1, 2019,”! He has been the Director of USCIS since October 8, 2017 and was appointed by President Trump. This seems to be part of last month’s leadership removals at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in which former Sec. of DHS, Kirstjen Nielsen was forced to resign along with others.

For more detailed information about this subject please review the CNN News Article, “Trump’s Citizenship and Immigration Services director out“.

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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that Mark Koumans will be the next Deputy Director of USCIS, as of Monday, May 13, 2019. He will replace Acting Deputy Director Tracy Renaud who has been in that position since March 2018. Deputy Director Koumans is described as a career federal employee and that he has held a number of executive positions within the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and many other positions within the federal government over the last 29 years.

Please review USCIS News Release, “USCIS Names New Deputy Director” for more details.

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USCIS has launched a new searchable H-1B Employer database, entitled “H-1B Employer Data Hub” and a new Web Page, entitled “Understanding Our H-1B Employer Data Hub” to explain the new Data Hub’s capabilities. The H-1B Employer Data Hub will allow the public to search H-1B petitioners by different important parameters such as fiscal year, employer name and others. USCIS will be updating the data used by the H-1B Employer Data Hub on a quarterly basis.

Please review USCIS News Alert, “USCIS Launches H-1B Employer Data Hub” for more details.

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On Sunday night, April 7^th, Kirstjen M. Nielsen announced that she had resigned as Secretary of Homeland Security! Nielsen has enforced some of President Trump’s most controversial border policies; a proposed wall at the Mexican Border and the separation of migrant families at the Mexican Border. It is being reported that she resigned or was forced out because she did not want to start separating migrant families again and the President is considering re-starting his  policy.

President Trump has appointed the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Kevin K. McAleenan as Acting Secretary of Homeland Security!

Please review DHS News Release, “Message from Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen M. Nielsen” for more details.

USCIS has launched a new searchable H-1B Employer database, entitled “H-1B Employer Data Hub” and a new Web Page, entitled “Understanding Our H-1B Employer Data Hub” to explain the new Data Hub’s capabilities. The H-1B Employer Data Hub will allow the public to search H-1B petitioners by different important parameters such as fiscal year, employer name and others. USCIS will be updating the data used by the H-1B Employer Data Hub on a quarterly basis.

Please review USCIS News Alert, “USCIS Launches H-1B Employer Data Hub” for more details.

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Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Ronald Vitiello announced that ICE has trained more than 1,500 local and state (Police) authorities to help enforce federal immigration law. ICE is using the 287(g) program which is named for Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). This program allows state and local police officers to work together with federal law enforcement to implement federal immigration laws.

Acting Director Vitiello stated, “We’re establishing new, stronger partnerships between [Enforcement and Removal Operations] and many state and local law enforcement agencies through 287(g) agreements that will train and empower them to enforce federal immigration laws…”

Please review The Hill (thehill.com) News Article, “ICE trained 1,500 local authorities to help enforce immigration law” for more details.