Immigration Benefits and Relief

Recent Features

  • Fact Sheet

The Dream Act, DACA, and Other Policies Designed to Protect Dreamers

This fact sheet provides an overview of the Dream Act  and other similar legislative proposals, explains changes made to DACA on March 13, 2019, and provides information about policies at the state level that support Dreamers.

  • Practice Advisories

"Arriving Aliens" and Adjustment of Status

This Practice Advisory discusses the impact of an interim rule repealing two former regulations which barred all “arriving aliens” from adjusting status if they are in removal proceedings.

All Immigration Benefits and Relief Content

  • Fact Sheet

The Dream Act, DACA, and Other Policies Designed to Protect Dreamers

September 3, 2019
This fact sheet provides an overview of the Dream Act and other similar legislative proposals, explains changes made to DACA on March 13, 2019, and provides information about policies at the state...
  • Fact Sheet

How USCIS Estimates Application and Petition Processing Times

July 18, 2018
This fact sheet provides an overview of how USCIS calculates processing times and the concerns over the accuracy of these estimates.
  • Fact Sheet

The Three- and Ten-Year Bars

October 28, 2016
This Fact Sheet provides background on the three- and ten-year bars and waivers, and explains the recent regulatory changes.
  • Fact Sheet

Understanding the Legal Challenges to Executive Action

June 28, 2016
This fact sheet provides an overview of the lawsuits that have challenged expanded DACA and DAPA. It explains the legal claims, the court decisions, and the process.
  • Special Report

Defending DAPA and Expanded DACA Before the Supreme Court

April 11, 2016
This guide provides brief answers to common questions about United States v. Texas, including what is at stake in the case, how the litigation began, what the contested issues are, and the impact the...
  • Special Report

DACA at Year Three: Challenges and Opportunities in Accessing Higher Education and Employment

February 1, 2016
DACA has helped its beneficiaries find employment and increase their earnings. But, even with better jobs, not all DACA beneficiaries in our study were able to afford tuition at four-year...
  • Special Report

The President’s Discretion, Immigration Enforcement, and the Rule of Law

August 26, 2014
The President has the legal authority to make a significant number of unauthorized migrants eligible for temporary relief from deportation that would be similar to the relief available under the...
  • Special Report

Two Years and Counting: Assessing the Growing Power of DACA

June 16, 2014
This week marks the two-year anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Program, first initiated by President Obama on June 15, 2012. This research brief presents current...
  • Special Report

How DACA is Impacting the Lives of Those Who are Now DACAmented

August 15, 2013

As Congress continues to debate immigration reform, August 15th marks the one-year anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)...

  • Special Report

Crafting a Successful Legalization Program: Lessons From the Past

June 19, 2013
One of the themes that emerged from the Senate Judiciary Committee mark up of the 2013 Senate immigration bill was the necessity of avoiding the mistakes of the past. In the context of legalization...
  • Advocacy

Council and WilmerHale File Administrative Challenge to Burdensome Records Requirement for Employment Authorization

May 12, 2020

The Council and the law firm WilmerHale filed a petition with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) challenging the requirement that asylum seekers...

  • Advocacy

Comments on U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ Proposed Fee Schedule and Changes to Other Immigration Benefit Request Requirements

January 3, 2020

The American Immigration Lawyers Association and American Immigration Council submitted the following comments in response to the above-referenced Notice and Request for Comments on the Department...

  • Advocacy

Comments Opposing Removal of 30-Day Processing Provision of Asylum Application-Related Form I-765 Employment Authorization Applications

November 12, 2019

Under current U.S. immigration law, the immigration service must make a decision on work permit applications filed by asylum seekers within 30 days of their application. The Trump administration...

  • Advocacy

Statement for the House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship Hearing “Policy Changes and Processing Delays at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.”

July 16, 2019
The statement highlights the Council’s concerns regarding systemic U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services delays in responding to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
  • FOIA Litigation

Lawsuit Challenges Systemic USCIS and ICE FOIA Delays

This nationwide class action lawsuit challenges systemic delays in providing immigration files.
  • Advocacy

Comments Opposing "Public Charge" Plan

December 11, 2018
The American Immigration Council, with the American Immigration Lawyers Association, filed comments because a financial litmus test should never serve as a measure for who we welcome into our country.
  • Litigation

Ending Obstacles for Temporary Protected Status Recipients Seeking Legal Permanent Residence

The American Immigration Council has filed a class action lawsuit against officials at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and U.S. Department of Homeland Security in a federal district court in New York, challenging the government’s unlawful practice of depriving certain Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders with close family relationships or employment in the United States from becoming lawful permanent residents.
  • Amicus Briefs

Matter of Castro-Tum

February 19, 2018
In the case, Attorney General Jeff Sessions referred to himself questions related to administrative closure. This move by Sessions could signal an attempt to end administrative closure altogether—which could force over 350,000 immigrants back into immigration court, exacerbating the challenges of an already overburdened immigration court system.
  • Litigation

Challenging "Extreme Vetting" of Immigration Benefits Applicants

The Controlled Application Review and Resolution Program (CAARP) is a secret and unlawful government vetting program that targets thousands of applicants who are Muslim or from certain Muslim-majority countries for delay or denial of immigration benefits.
  • Litigation & Advocacy

Statement for the Senate Judiciary Committee on "The Long-Term Impact of Immigration: Exploring Reforms to our Nation's Guest Worker Programs and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, and Their Potential Impact on the Economy and Local Communities"

September 13, 2017
The statement addresses the impact of the President's decision to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), as well as shares our analysis and research on how immigrants play a vital role in our nation's economy.
  • Practice Advisories

New Rule Eliminating 30 Day Processing Deadline for Adjudication of Employment Applications Filed by Initial Asylum Applicants

July 1, 2020

On June 22, 2020, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a rule that removes the 30 day processing deadline for the adjudication of employment authorization document (EAD)...

  • Practice Advisories

Adjustment Eligibility of Temporary Protected Status Holders After Return with Advance Parole, Even When Initial Entry Without Inspection

December 13, 2019
This Practice Advisory provides immigration attorneys with arguments as to why USCIS’ and ICE trial attorneys’ interpretation of the relevance of MTINA is wrong.
  • Practice Advisories

Administrative Closure Post-Castro-Tum

October 22, 2019
This practice advisory provides a brief overview of administrative closure and explains the impact of that decision on the future availability of administrative closure, as well as on cases that are currently administratively closed.
  • Practice Advisories

Agency Delay Litigation: Opposing a Motion to Dismiss

October 4, 2019
This practice advisory summarizes the most common grounds raised by the government in motions to dismiss federal court agency adjudication delay lawsuits and outlines arguments, with supporting authority, that can be made in response.
  • Practice Advisories

Court Decision Ensures Timely Adjudication of Employment Applications Filed by Initial Asylum Applicants

March 15, 2019
This Frequently Asked Questions document addresses the status of the case and explains options for first time asylum seekers applying for employment authorization.
  • Practice Advisories

Motions for a Continuance

September 10, 2018
This Practice Advisory provides a practitioner-focused overview of motions to continue a case in removal proceedings, from the basics of making the motion to advanced issues of jurisdictional bars to appellate review of continuances.
  • Practice Advisories

USCIS v. EOIR: Jurisdiction over Asylum Applications for Individuals Who Were in Expedited Removal Proceedings or Issued Notices to Appear

December 20, 2017
This practice advisory describes USCIS’ position and offers practical suggestions for filing asylum applications that USCIS is likely to reject for lack of jurisdiction.
  • Practice Advisories

Screening Potential DACA Requestors for Other Forms of Relief

September 5, 2017
This Practice Advisory is designed to assist attorneys in determining whether individuals seeking Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals might be eligible for immigration benefits.
  • Practice Advisories

Motions to Suppress in Removal Proceedings: Fighting Back Against Unlawful Conduct by U.S. Customs and Border Protection

August 1, 2017
This Practice Advisory addresses some of the legal issues that may arise when noncitizens in removal proceedings seek to suppress evidence unlawfully obtained by Customs and Border Protection officers.
  • Practice Advisories

Mandamus Actions: Avoiding Dismissal and Proving the Case

March 8, 2017
This Practice Advisory provides basic information about filing an immigration-related mandamus action in federal district court. It discusses the required elements of a successful mandamus action as well as jurisdictional concerns that may arise.
  • Blog

DHS Suggests Asylum Seekers Should Get Used to ‘Homelessness’ After Stripping Work Permits

June 24, 2020

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will finalize a new regulation on June 26 which will strip most asylum seekers of the right to seek work authorization. The rule imposes sweeping new...

  • Blog

The Supreme Court Gave DACA a Lifeline. Now Trump and Congress Need to Create a Path to Citizenship for Dreamers.  

June 18, 2020

The Supreme Court issued its long-anticipated decision in DHS v. Regents of the University of California—the case challenging the administration’s attempt to dismantle the Deferred Action for...

  • Blog

DACA Made It Possible For Me to Fight Against COVID-19. The Supreme Court May Soon Make That Impossible.

June 15, 2020

My name is Sonia Martinez. I am a Certified Nursing Assistant working to help treat patients with COVID-19 at University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora, Colorado. I am also one of the 650,000...

  • Blog

If the Supreme Court Terminates DACA, President Trump Can Still Fix It

May 14, 2020

The coronavirus has disrupted all our lives. Native-born Americans and noncitizens across the United States are experiencing many of the same challenges—the disruptions to day-to-day life, the...

  • Blog

Supreme Court Makes It Harder for Green Card Holders to Get Relief From Deportation

April 24, 2020

In a 5-4 decision on April 23, the U.S. Supreme Court expanded the types of criminal offenses that bar green card holders from seeking a form of relief from deportation. The case, Barton v. Barr,...

  • Blog

How the Coronavirus Is Disrupting USCIS Processing of Immigration Applications

March 25, 2020

The coronavirus outbreak has significantly disrupted the operations of government agencies around the country, including U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). USCIS is the agency that...

  • Blog

USCIS’ Change to How ‘Unlawful Presence’ Is Calculated Is Defeated in Court

February 12, 2020

A federal district court stopped U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) from drastically changing how the agency determines when a foreign student or exchange visitor is “unlawfully...

  • Blog

Student’s Deportation Shows a Pattern of US Government Targeting Iranians

January 22, 2020

Iranian students coming to the United States are being stopped at airports, having their visas revoked, and are being deported. Advocates warn this trend is emerging less than a month after...

  • Blog

Defense Spending Act Allows Thousands of Liberians to Apply for Permanent Residency

January 2, 2020

The defense spending package for the fiscal year 2020 will allow thousands of Liberians living in the United States to gain green cards. The $738-billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)...

  • Blog

The Supreme Court Heard a Major Case on DACA. Here’s What You Need to Know.

November 13, 2019

The Supreme Court heard arguments on November 12 in three cases challenging President Trump’s attempted rescission of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative. The Court’s...

  • Press Release

U.S. Supreme Court on DACA: Blocks Trump’s Cruel Attempt to Upend the Lives of 650,000 Community Members Across America

June 18, 2020
The U.S. Supreme Court today blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a critical initiative that has offered deportation protection and work authorization to hundreds of thousands of young people who arrived in the United States as children.
  • Press Release

New Report Reveals the Impact of COVID-19 Across the US Immigration System

May 27, 2020
The American Immigration Council's latest report examines major changes to the U.S. immigration system in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the unique challenges the pandemic has created for noncitizens and government agencies.
  • Press Release

Class Action Lawsuit Seeks to Challenge USCIS’ Unlawful Denial of H-1B Petitions Filed by American Businesses

April 16, 2020
The American Immigration Council, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, and the law firms Van Der Hout, LLP, Joseph & Hall P.C., and Kuck Baxter Immigration LLC filed a nationwide class action lawsuit today challenging U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ pattern and practice of arbitrarily denying H-1B nonimmigrant employment-based petitions for market research analysts positions filed by businesses in the United States.
  • Press Release

Judge Grants Class-Action Status to Thousands of Immigrants Waiting for Access to Their Immigration Records

October 15, 2019
A federal court in San Francisco certified two nationwide classes of immigrants and attorneys claiming that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have a systemic pattern and practice of failing to provide access to immigration case records within deadlines set by the Freedom of Information Act. The case records, known as A-files, contain information about individuals’ immigration history in the United States. This is the first time a court has certified a class in a lawsuit alleging a pattern and practice of violating FOIA
  • Press Release

ICE Data Reveals the Impact of Immigration Enforcement Under the Trump Administration

July 1, 2019
A report on interior immigration enforcement by the American Immigration Council examines newly disclosed government data on the Trump administration’s aggressive enforcement agenda. The report, “Changing Patterns of Interior Immigration Enforcement in the United States, 2016–2018,” reveals that U.S. citizens and immigrant women have become increasingly vulnerable to immigration enforcement actions under the administration.
  • Press Release

Lawsuit Demands Government to Disclose Information About Unjust Deportations

February 28, 2019
The Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies have increased immigrants’ vulnerability to swift deportation, making the ability to access safeguard more important than ever. The American Immigration Council and the Kathryn O. Greenberg Immigration Justice Clinic at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law filed a lawsuit to disclose critical information about how the Board of Immigration Appeals interprets legal safeguards that would allow these individuals to seek reopening or reconsidering of their immigration cases, and prevent the irreparable harms that can result from deportation.
  • Press Release

Judge Rules USCIS Must Adjudicate Employment Authorization for Asylum Seekers Within 30-Days

August 2, 2018
A judge ordered last week that United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) must adjudicate work authorization applications for asylum seekers within the prescribed 30-day deadline.
  • Press Release

Class Action Suit Challenges Government’s Denial of TPS Holders’ Green Cards

February 22, 2018
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.
  • Press Release

AG Jeff Sessions is unfit to decide immigration case, say immigration groups

February 21, 2018
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.
  • Press Release

American Immigration Council's Statement on President Trump's Immigration Principles

October 8, 2017
The White House released its long anticipated, "Immigration Principles and Policies," which lay out many of the already-stated aspirations of the Trump administration on immigration. The laundry list represents a wholesale attack on immigration and immigrants. It includes not only limits on immigration generally, but enables mass deportations and envisions bypassing necessary procedures that protect children and asylum seekers.
  • Practice Advisories

New Rule Eliminating 30 Day Processing Deadline for Adjudication of Employment Applications Filed by Initial Asylum Applicants

July 1, 2020

On June 22, 2020, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a rule that removes the 30 day processing deadline for the adjudication of employment authorization document (EAD)...

  • Blog

DHS Suggests Asylum Seekers Should Get Used to ‘Homelessness’ After Stripping Work Permits

June 24, 2020

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will finalize a new regulation on June 26 which will strip most asylum seekers of the right to seek work authorization. The rule imposes sweeping new...

  • Blog

The Supreme Court Gave DACA a Lifeline. Now Trump and Congress Need to Create a Path to Citizenship for Dreamers.  

June 18, 2020

The Supreme Court issued its long-anticipated decision in DHS v. Regents of the University of California—the case challenging the administration’s attempt to dismantle the Deferred Action for...

  • Press Release

U.S. Supreme Court on DACA: Blocks Trump’s Cruel Attempt to Upend the Lives of 650,000 Community Members Across America

June 18, 2020
The U.S. Supreme Court today blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a critical initiative that has offered deportation protection and work authorization to hundreds of thousands of young people who arrived in the United States as children.
  • Blog

DACA Made It Possible For Me to Fight Against COVID-19. The Supreme Court May Soon Make That Impossible.

June 15, 2020

My name is Sonia Martinez. I am a Certified Nursing Assistant working to help treat patients with COVID-19 at University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora, Colorado. I am also one of the 650,000...

  • Press Release

New Report Reveals the Impact of COVID-19 Across the US Immigration System

May 27, 2020
The American Immigration Council's latest report examines major changes to the U.S. immigration system in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the unique challenges the pandemic has created for noncitizens and government agencies.
  • Blog

If the Supreme Court Terminates DACA, President Trump Can Still Fix It

May 14, 2020

The coronavirus has disrupted all our lives. Native-born Americans and noncitizens across the United States are experiencing many of the same challenges—the disruptions to day-to-day life, the...

  • Advocacy

Council and WilmerHale File Administrative Challenge to Burdensome Records Requirement for Employment Authorization

May 12, 2020

The Council and the law firm WilmerHale filed a petition with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) challenging the requirement that asylum seekers...

  • Blog

Supreme Court Makes It Harder for Green Card Holders to Get Relief From Deportation

April 24, 2020

In a 5-4 decision on April 23, the U.S. Supreme Court expanded the types of criminal offenses that bar green card holders from seeking a form of relief from deportation. The case, Barton v. Barr,...

  • Press Release

Class Action Lawsuit Seeks to Challenge USCIS’ Unlawful Denial of H-1B Petitions Filed by American Businesses

April 16, 2020
The American Immigration Council, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, and the law firms Van Der Hout, LLP, Joseph & Hall P.C., and Kuck Baxter Immigration LLC filed a nationwide class action lawsuit today challenging U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ pattern and practice of arbitrarily denying H-1B nonimmigrant employment-based petitions for market research analysts positions filed by businesses in the United States.

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