Immigration Benefits and Relief
The immigration laws and regulations provide some avenues to apply for lawful status from within the U.S. or to seek relief from deportation. The eligibility requirements for these benefits and relief can be stringent, and the immigration agencies often adopt overly restrictive interpretations of the requirements. Learn about advocacy and litigation that has been and can be undertaken to ensure that noncitizens have a fair chance to apply for the benefits and relief for which they are eligible. Providing avenues for legal status, protection, and family reunification is vital to ensuring humanitarian protection for immigrants. We are leading policy changes that open more opportunities like asylum, visas for victims of crime or human trafficking, and relief for long-term residents. Explore the resources below to learn more.
The Invisible Wall That President Trump Has Already Built
Legal immigration and the number of foreigners visiting the United States has taken a serious hit within the last year, as the Trump administration makes changes to policies and procedures without any Congressional action or approval. These actions have already had a disturbing, cumulative effect as the administration begins to… Read More
Long-Residing Liberians Are at Risk of Losing Protection from Deportation by the End of March
While much of the national immigration conversation has focused on the fate of Dreamers and those with Temporary Protected Status, a little-known protection provided to Liberians is on the brink of expiration. This rarely-applied protection is known as Deferred Enforced Departure, a designation made by the president to provide… Read More
The March 5 DACA Deadline Is Here—What Does It Mean for Dreamers?
When President Trump terminated the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative last fall, he only allowed those whose DACA was due to expire before March 5 an opportunity to renew. March 5, 2018 then became the de facto deadline that the president and Congress said… Read More
Supreme Court Rejects the Government’s Premature Request to Hear DACA Case
The Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration’s request to hear an emergency appeal of a lower court’s January decision that prevents the government from fully ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative. Now that the Supreme Court has rejected their request, the government must… Read More
USCIS Changes to Asylum Interview Scheduling Allows Long-Pending Cases to Languish
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) made abrupt and sweeping changes to how the agency will schedule interviews for affirmative asylum applications. Rather than interviewing those who have been waiting months or years for their interview, asylum offices will now prioritize brand new filings ahead of all others waiting in… Read More
Class Action Suit Challenges Government’s Denial of TPS Holders’ Green Cards
In violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act, USCIS denies the green card applications of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders who first entered the United States without going through an inspection process at a port of entry, ignoring the fact that they subsequently were inspected and admitted when they were granted TPS. Read More
Lawsuit Asks Government to Stop Blocking Temporary Protected Status Holders from Applying for Green Cards
Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is an important humanitarian protection for people who are in the United States when certain natural disasters or civil conflict strike their home countries, making it unsafe for them to return. Despite the fact that conditions in many of these countries have not improved since their… Read More
AG Jeff Sessions is unfit to decide immigration case, say immigration groups
The American Immigration Council, joined by several other immigration groups, submitted an amicus brief that argues that due process requires an impartial adjudicator and that Sessions’ anti-immigrant statements and actions prevent him from acting as one. The brief lays out Sessions’ decades-long public record of anti-immigrant statements, including specific statements evidencing prejudgment of issues in the case, and urges Sessions to either vacate the referral order or recuse himself from the case. Read More
Brief Argues Attorney General Lacks Impartiality Necessary to Decide Immigration Cases
In a rare move, Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently referred an immigration case to himself, utilizing a regulation that gives attorney generals the power to reconsider cases previously decided by the Board of Immigration Appeals. But Sessions’ hostile anti-immigrant public statements, made over the course of his entire career, make him unfit to rule in an immigration case. Read More
The Senate Fails to Find a Way Forward for Dreamers
The United States Senate had a golden opportunity this week to legislate a permanent solution for Dreamers—however a week that began full of hope ended as a dud, with no bill passing and the president’s immigration proposal receiving a strong rebuke from Democrats and Republicans alike. The week began with… Read More
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