removal proceedings

Warning: USCIS Will Place More People In Removal Proceedings

On June 28, 2018, USCIS released “Updated Guidance for the Referral of Cases and Issuance of Notices to Appear (NTAs) in Cases Involving Inadmissible and Deportable Aliens, where it laid out new policies to determine whom to place in removal proceedings. USCIS began implementing the PM for denied Forms I-485 and I-539 on October 1, 2018. Beginning November 19, 2018, USCIS may use its discretion to put people in removal proceedings...

Attorney General Usurps Ability of Immigration Judges to Terminate Proceedings

Continuing his assault on due process and the over-burdened immigration court system, Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued two new Board of Immigration Appeals decisions today that further curtail the power of immigration judges to terminate court proceedings. In S-O-G- & F-D-B-, 27 I&N Dec. 462 (A.G. 2018), the Attorney General dictated that immigration judges (who are under his purview as part of the Department of Justice) have no inherent authority to...

USCIS Issues New Memo Expanding Power to Initiate Removal Proceedings

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released a new policy on June 28, 2018, expanding the reasons that they will issue an I-862 “Notice to Appear” (NTA) to individuals to initiate removal proceedings against them. The new memo is available here and lists every instance in which individuals will be placed into removal proceedings. It supersedes an Obama-era memo governing the issuance of an NTA by the same...

BIA Issues Worrisome Decision Regarding Unlawful Voting

In a precedential decision, Matter of Fitzpatrick, the Board of Immigrations Appeals (BIA) determined that unlawful voting by a lawful permanent resident could render the individual removable from the United States under section 237(a)(6)(A), even if the individual did not know she was committing an unlawful act by voting. In this case, Ms. Fitzpatrick, a newly minted lawful permanent resident, registered to vote at a local DMV in 2005 and accidentally selected...