South

Haitian-American Nurse Advocates for Protection of All Farmworkers
When Myrto Cesaire left the instability of her native Haiti in 1980, she took the first job she could find when she arrived in Florida. She became a cabbage picker. Although she only worked in the field for a few months, she found a lifelong calling… Read More

No Field Workers Means No Food — and No Food Security, Says Agriculture Exec
In 45 years in the agriculture business, Frank Gasperini, former CEO of the National Council of Agricultural Employers (NCAE), has seen the phenomenon time and again: U.S. farms scrapping crops because they don’t have enough workers for harvest. “When farmers realize their labor is going to be really late, they’ll… Read More

Louisiana Crawfish Industry Needs Foreign-Born Workers, Says Local Mayor
Sherbin Collette is the mayor of the Henderson, Louisiana, a small town in the heart of Louisiana crawfish country. He is a commercial fisherman who also serves on the Louisiana Seafood Marketing and Promotion Board. And he has deep concerns about the sustainability of the crawfish… Read More

FOIA Lawsuit on H-1B Lottery Policies and Procedures
On behalf of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), the Council, in cooperation with Hughes Socol Piers Resnick & Dym, Ltd., filed a lawsuit against USCIS and DHS seeking the public release of records relating to the policies and procedures USCIS follows when administering the annual H-1B random selection process… Read More

Practice Tip: Mandamus May Get Results When Nothing Else Works
This Practice Tip demystifies mandamus by explaining how and when to ask a court for this remedy when a client has been waiting too long for USCIS to make a decision.

Preserving the One-Year Filing Deadline for Asylum Cases Stuck in the Immigration Court Backlog
The immigration courts’ unprecedented backlogs are creating procedural and substantive challenges for attorneys trying to comply with the One-Year Filing Deadline (OYFD) in asylum cases. This Practice Advisory discusses strategies and procedures for complying with the OYFD. Read More

Return to the United States After Prevailing on a Petition for Review or Motion to Reopen
This Practice Advisory contains practical and legal suggestions for individuals seeking to return to the United States after they have prevailed on a petition for review or an administrative motion to reopen or reconsider to the immigration court or Board of Immigration Appeals. Read More

Visa Programs for High-Skilled Workers
Valorem, an IT consulting company, petitioned to employ a software developer for three years in H-1B status as part of a project development team at its office. Initially, USCIS denied the petition, but later – after Valorem, represented by AILA member Susan Bond, filed suit – approved it for one year. Read More

FOIA Lawsuit on Use of Expedited Removal Against Families
On October 21, 2014, the American Immigration Council, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, with co-counsel, the National Immigration Law Center and Jenner & Block LLP, filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act to compel the release of government documents regarding the use of the expedited removal process against families with children, including those detained by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in Artesia, New Mexico. The suit was filed in the federal district court for the Southern District of New York. Read More

New Report Reveals Scale of Deaths Along U.S.-Mexico Border
Nothing illustrates the high stakes of the immigration reform debate now taking place in the Senate quite as powerfully as the growing body count along the U.S.-Mexico border. Despite the U.S. government’s decades-long effort to stop unauthorized immigration through an “enforcement first” strategy, unauthorized migrants continue to cross the border—and scores die before completing the journey. In fact, the Tucson sector alone witnessed 2,238 migrant deaths between Fiscal Year (FY) 1990 and FY 2012. That is one of the central findings of a new report from the Binational Migration Institute at the University of Arizona, entitled A Continued Humanitarian Crisis at the Border. The report examines data from the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner to shed light on trends in border fatalities over time, as well as the demographic characteristics of those who died. Read More
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