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Tag: USCIS

  • Trump administration moves to overhaul how H-1B visas are granted, ending lottery system

    The Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday it was replacing its longstanding lottery system for H-1B work visas with a new approach that prioritizes skilled, higher-paid foreign workers.The change follows a series of actions by the Trump administration aimed at reshaping a visa program that critics say has become a pipeline for overseas workers willing to work for lower pay, but supporters say drives innovation.”The existing random selection process of H-1B registrations was exploited and abused by U.S. employers who were primarily seeking to import foreign workers at lower wages than they would pay American workers,” said U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman Matthew Tragesser.Earlier this year, President Donald Trump signed a proclamation imposing a $100,000 annual H-1B visa fee on highly skilled workers, which is being challenged in court. The president also rolled out a $1 million “gold card” visa as a pathway to U.S. citizenship for wealthy individuals.A press release announcing the new rule says it is “in line with other key changes the administration has made, such as the Presidential Proclamation that requires employers to pay an additional $100,000 per visa as a condition of eligibility.” Historically, H-1B visas have been awarded through a lottery system. This year, Amazon was by far the top recipient, with more than 10,000 visas approved, followed by Tata Consultancy Services, Microsoft, Apple and Google. California has the highest concentration of H-1B workers.The new system will “implement a weighted selection process that will increase the probability that H-1B visas are allocated to higher-skilled and higher-paid” foreign workers, according to Tuesday’s press release. It will go into effect Feb. 27, 2026, and will apply to the upcoming H-1B cap registration season.Supporters of the H-1B program say it is an important pathway to hiring healthcare workers and educators. They say it drives innovation and economic growth in the U.S. and allows employers to fill jobs in specialized fields.Critics argue that the visas often go to entry-level positions rather than senior roles requiring specialized skills. While the program is intended to prevent wage suppression or the displacement of U.S. workers, critics say companies can pay lower wages by classifying jobs at the lowest skill levels, even when the workers hired have more experience.The number of new visas issued annually is capped at 65,000, plus an additional 20,000 for people with a master’s degree or higher.

    WASHINGTON —

    The Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday it was replacing its longstanding lottery system for H-1B work visas with a new approach that prioritizes skilled, higher-paid foreign workers.

    The change follows a series of actions by the Trump administration aimed at reshaping a visa program that critics say has become a pipeline for overseas workers willing to work for lower pay, but supporters say drives innovation.

    “The existing random selection process of H-1B registrations was exploited and abused by U.S. employers who were primarily seeking to import foreign workers at lower wages than they would pay American workers,” said U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman Matthew Tragesser.

    Earlier this year, President Donald Trump signed a proclamation imposing a $100,000 annual H-1B visa fee on highly skilled workers, which is being challenged in court. The president also rolled out a $1 million “gold card” visa as a pathway to U.S. citizenship for wealthy individuals.

    A press release announcing the new rule says it is “in line with other key changes the administration has made, such as the Presidential Proclamation that requires employers to pay an additional $100,000 per visa as a condition of eligibility.”

    Historically, H-1B visas have been awarded through a lottery system. This year, Amazon was by far the top recipient, with more than 10,000 visas approved, followed by Tata Consultancy Services, Microsoft, Apple and Google. California has the highest concentration of H-1B workers.

    The new system will “implement a weighted selection process that will increase the probability that H-1B visas are allocated to higher-skilled and higher-paid” foreign workers, according to Tuesday’s press release. It will go into effect Feb. 27, 2026, and will apply to the upcoming H-1B cap registration season.

    Supporters of the H-1B program say it is an important pathway to hiring healthcare workers and educators. They say it drives innovation and economic growth in the U.S. and allows employers to fill jobs in specialized fields.

    Critics argue that the visas often go to entry-level positions rather than senior roles requiring specialized skills. While the program is intended to prevent wage suppression or the displacement of U.S. workers, critics say companies can pay lower wages by classifying jobs at the lowest skill levels, even when the workers hired have more experience.

    The number of new visas issued annually is capped at 65,000, plus an additional 20,000 for people with a master’s degree or higher.

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  • After National Guard shooting, administration cracks down on legal immigration

    WASHINGTON — Sophia Nyazi’s husband, Milad, shook her awake at 8 a.m. “ICE is here,” he told her.

    Three uniformed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were downstairs at the family’s home on Long Island, N.Y., on Tuesday, according to a video reviewed by The Times that she captured from atop the staircase.

    Nyazi said the agents asked whether her husband was applying for a green card. They told her they would have to detain him because of the shooting of two National Guard members a week earlier in Washington, D.C.

    “He has nothing to do with that shooting,” Nyazi, 27, recalled answering. “We don’t even know that person.”

    Her protests didn’t matter. The Trump administration has put into motion a broad and unprecedented set of policy changes aimed at substantially limiting legal immigration avenues, including for immigrants long considered the most vulnerable.

    Unfortunately, I think the administration took this one very tragic incident and politicized it as a way to shut down even legal immigration

    — Sharvari Dalal-Dheini, of the American Immigration Lawyers Assn.

    Milad Nyazi, 28, was detained because, like the man charged in the shooting which left one National Guard member dead, he is from Afghanistan.

    The administration has paused decisions on all applications filed with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS, by people seeking asylum. The visa and immigration applications of Afghans, whom the U.S. had welcomed in 2021 as it pulled all troops from the country, have been halted.

    Officials also froze the processing of immigration cases of people from 19 countries the administration considers “high-risk” and will conduct case-by-case reviews of green cards and other immigration benefits given to people from those countries since former President Biden took office in 2021.

    Immigration lawyers say they learned that dozens of naturalization ceremonies and interviews for green cards are being canceled for immigrants from Haiti, Iran, Guinea and other countries on the list.

    In a couple of cases, immigration officers told immigrants that they had been prepared to grant a green card, but were unable to do so because of the new guidance, said Gregory Chen, government relations director at American Immigration Lawyers Assn.

    Although it is unclear exactly how many people could be affected by the new rules, 1.5 million immigrants have asylum cases pending with USCIS.

    “These are sweeping changes that exact collective punishment on a wide swath of people who are trying to do things the right way,” said Amanda Baran, former chief of policy and strategy at USCIS under the Biden administration. “I worry about all the people who have dutifully filed applications and whose lives are now on hold.”

    Administration officials called the Nov. 26 shooting a “terrorist attack” and defended the changes as necessary to protect the country. Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, faces charges stemming from the shooting that killed Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and critically wounded Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24.

    “The protection of this country and of the American people remains paramount, and the American people will not bear the cost of the prior administration’s reckless resettlement policies,” Joseph Edlow, director of USCIS, said in a message posted Nov. 27 on X. “American safety is non-negotiable.”

    Lakanwal pleaded not guilty last week and his motive remains under investigation. In Afghanistan, he served in a counterterrorism unit operated by the CIA.

    Lakanwal entered the U.S. in 2021 through a Biden administration program that resettled nearly 200,000 Afghans in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal, officials said. He applied for asylum in December 2024 and it was approved under the Trump administration in April, according to a statement by the nonprofit #AfghanEvac.

    Afghans who worked with U.S. troops were believed to face danger if left behind under the Taliban-run government. Along with undergoing routine security screening, they submitted to additional “rigorous” vetting, which included biometric and biographic checks by counterterrorism and intelligence professionals, the Department of Homeland Security said at the time.

    Two federal reports from 2024 and this year pointed to some failings of the screening, including data inaccuracies and the presence of 55 evacuees who were later identified on terrorism watch lists, though the latter report noted that the FBI had then followed all required processes to mitigate any potential threat.

    It’s unclear exactly how the administration will carry out reviews of thousands of people who already live legally in the U.S. The federal government can’t easily strip people of permanent legal status. The threat of reopening cases, however, has sparked alarm in immigrant communities across the country.

    About 58,600 Afghan immigrants call California home as of 2023, far more than any other state, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Interviews with a dozen local community advocates, immigration attorneys and family members of those detained paint an aggressive effort by the federal government to round up recent Afghan immigrants in the wake of the D.C. shooting.

    “Unfortunately, I think the administration took this one very tragic incident and politicized it as a way to shut down even legal immigration. And it’s definitely gone much broader than the Afghan community,” said Sharvari Dalal-Dheini, the director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Assn.

    Trump administration officials cited the shooting in a spate of policy changes last week.

    On Friday, USCIS announced it had established a new center to strengthen screening with supplemental reviews of immigration applications, in part using artificial intelligence. The USCIS Vetting Center, based in Atlanta, will “centralize enhanced vetting of aliens and allow the agency to respond more nimbly to changes in a shifting threat landscape,” the agency said.

    On Thursday, USCIS said work permits granted to immigrants would expire after 18 months, not five years. The change includes work permits for those admitted as refugees, with pending green card applications and with pending asylum applications.

    In a memorandum Tuesday outlining the pause on asylum applications and the immigration cases of people from the 19 countries also subject to a travel ban, USCIS acknowledged that the changes could result in processing delays but had determined it was “necessary and appropriate” when weighed “against the agency’s obligation to protect and preserve national security.”

    Immigrants already had been on high alert as the Trump administration canceled temporary humanitarian programs, cut back refugee admissions — except for a limited number of white South African Afrikaners — and increased attempts to send those with deportation orders to countries where they have no personal connection.

    Before the Washington shooting, a Nov. 21 memo showed that the administration planned to review the cases of more than 200,000 refugees admitted under the Biden administration. Although asylum seekers apply after arriving in the U.S., refugees apply for admission from outside the country.

    Nyazi questioned why Afghans are being singled out, noting that a white person allegedly assassinated Charlie Kirk, but “I don’t see any ICE agents going into white people’s houses.”

    Asked why Milad Nyazi was detained, Tricia McLaughlin, assistant public affairs secretary for Homeland Security, called him a criminal, citing two arrests on suspicion of domestic violence.

    “Under Secretary [Kristi] Noem, DHS has been going full throttle on identifying and arresting known or suspected terrorists and criminal illegal aliens that came in through Biden’s fraudulent parole programs and working to get the criminals and public safety threats OUT of our country,” McLaughlin said in a statement.

    Nyazi said the charges, which did not stem from incidents of physical violence, were dropped and his record was later expunged.

    She and her husband got engaged in 2019 in Afghanistan and applied for a fiance visa, because Nyazi is a U.S. citizen. Their application was approved in 2021. Soon after, with the Taliban takeover in full force, the U.S. government allowed Milad Nyazi to fly to the U.S. He has a pending green card application, Nyazi said.

    On Tuesday, the couple’s 3-year-old daughter screamed and cried as her father was handcuffed and taken away. He has a court hearing this week.

    Zahra Billoo, executive director of the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and others say Afghans in various stages of their legal immigration process — not only those with deportation orders — have been targeted. She said at least 17 Afghans in the Bay Area have been detained since Monday.

    Lawyers said many of the Afghans detained last week had arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border, where they had sought asylum.

    Paris Etemadi Scott, legal director of the Pars Equality Center in San José, said three of her clients, an Afghan mother and her two sons who are both in their early 20s, were detained Dec. 1 during a routine check-in with ICE. All have pending asylum applications, she said.

    Rebecca Olszewski, managing attorney at the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, said her Afghan client, who also has a pending asylum case, reported for his monthly virtual check-in Friday and was told to show up in person the next day, where he was detained.

    Since the shooting, administration officials and the president have used dehumanizing language to describe immigrants. In announcing the 19-country travel ban Dec. 1, Noem posted on X that she was recommending a “a full travel ban on every damn country that’s been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies.”

    In a Cabinet meeting the next day, Trump referred to Somali immigrants as “garbage” who “contribute nothing.” (A few days later, Noem said the administration would expand the travel ban to more than 30 countries.)

    On Thanksgiving Day, Trump had said on his social media platform that he intends to “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries” and deport those who are “non-compatible with Western Civilization.”

    In recent days, a ghostly quiet has overtaken Shafiullah Hotak’s regular haunts in North Sacramento, where the Afghan population in the city is especially dense. Hotak, 38, is an Afghan immigrant who served as a program manager at refugee resettlement organization Lao Family Community Development until layoffs due to federal cuts forced him out of work in May.

    On Thursday, immigration agents banged on doors at an apartment complex on Marconi Avenue, where hundreds of Afghans have resettled. Just one employee sat in an Afghan-owned tax and bookkeeping business that was typically buzzing with clients. A nearby park, where teenagers kick around soccer balls and giggling packs of children roam after school, was empty. And the lines at a halal market known for its sesame-topped Afghan bread had disappeared.

    “The situation we have in our community reminds me of when we used to go to work in Afghanistan,” Hotak said. “We had to take different routes every day because people who were against the U.S. mission in Afghanistan were targeting people. There were bombings and shootings.”

    Hotak said “Kill the eyes,” is what the enemies of the U.S. in Afghanistan used to advise as to how to deal with local Afghans aiding the military, in order to blind their operations.

    “But nowadays those ‘eyes’ are here in the U.S. and the U.S. government is looking to pick them up and put them in jail,” Hotak said.

    Times staff writers Castillo reported from Washington and Hussain and Uranga from Los Angeles.

    Suhauna Hussain, Andrea Castillo, Rachel Uranga

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  • Afghan refugees in Fort Worth face feds’ scrutiny after Guard members shot in DC

    Afghans who fled the Taliban to resettle in Fort Worth face uncertainty as the Trump administration promises an immigration crackdown after this week’s shooting of two members of the National Guard in Washington, D.C.

    The suspected shooter, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, is from Afghanistan and worked with the CIA during the U.S. war in that country. Hours after the shooting, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services posted on X that the agency will indefinitely stop “all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals.”

    Many of the Afghans in Fort Worth are still waiting for their cases to be processed.

    Angie Kraus, the founder of a nonprofit organization that assists refugees in Fort Worth, said she was shopping with an Afghan friend Friday morning when the woman learned about the USCIS announcement.

    “She started crying in the store,” Kraus said Friday.

    The woman has been in the U.S. since 2021 but still hasn’t received her permanent resident card, according to Kraus. Now it’s uncertain when that will happen.

    Nearly 200,000 Afghans have sought safety in the U.S. since the Taliban returned to power in 2021. More than 1,000 of the new arrivals call Fort Worth home. The U.S. military and intelligence agencies relied on Afghans as translators and in other crucial roles during the 20-year war that made them targets after the Taliban takeover.

    Refugees walk through Dulles International Airport in Virginia on Aug. 31, 2021, after being evacuated from Kabul following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.
    Refugees walk through Dulles International Airport in Virginia on Aug. 31, 2021, after being evacuated from Kabul following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. Anna Moneymaker Getty Images

    John Stettler told the Star-Telegram on Friday he’s “deeply concerned” over the impact the fallout from the shooting could have on these refugees. Stettler was giving a driving lesson to an Afghan when reached by phone Friday.

    Stettler hasn’t heard much yet from local Afghans about Wednesday’s events, but he said many of them have been living in “very deep fear” since President Trump took office in January. In addition to cracking down on illegal immigration, Trump’s administration has revoked the legal status of thousands of migrants, including Afghans with Temporary Protected Status.

    Stettler pointed to statistics which indicate that native-born Americans are much more prone to commit serious crimes than immigrants. Refugees and immigrants are more likely to become victims of violent crime, Stettler said. He’s concerned the response to Wednesday’s shooting will drive this vulnerable population further into the shadows.

    “This will have the immigrant community even more scared of cooperating with police,” he said.

    The D.C. shooter faces a murder charge after one of the victims, 20-year-old Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, died on Thanksgiving Day from her injuries. The other guardsman, 24-year-old Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, remains in critical condition. Both of them are from West Virginia and were deployed to the nation’s capital as part of Trump’s crackdown on crime.

    The shooter’s motives still aren’t clear. Investigators believe he drove from Washington state for the attack.

    AfghanEvac, a group of American veterans and Afghan allies, issued a statement Wednesday saying they were deeply saddened by the attack and called for the shooter to be held accountable.

    “This individual alone is responsible for his actions,” the statement reads. “This individual’s isolated and violent act should not be used as an excuse to define or diminish an entire community.”

    Related Stories from Fort Worth Star-Telegram

    Harriet Ramos

    Fort Worth Star-Telegram

    Harriet Ramos covers crime and other breaking news for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

    Harriet Ramos

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  • National Guard shooting halts immigration processing for Afghan nationals

    The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced late Wednesday that it has stopped processing all immigration requests from Afghan nationals following the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C.

    The suspect in the shooting, identified by multiple media outlets as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, is an Afghan national who came to the U.S. in 2021 during the administration of former President Joe Biden under a program called Operation Allies Welcome.

    President Donald Trump backed those reports in a video statement released by the White House on X Wednesday night, saying, “The suspect in custody is a foreigner who entered our country from Afghanistan, a hellhole on earth. He was floated by the Biden administration in September 2021 for those infamous flights that everybody was talking about.”

    In a post on X late Wednesday, USCIS said, “Effective immediately, processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals is stopped indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols.

    “The protection and safety of our homeland and of the American people remains our singular focus and mission.”

    In June, the Trump administration placed Afghanistan on a travel ban list, with the exception of people with Afghan Special Immigrant Visas, given to Afghans who helped the U.S. government during the war there.

    Why It Matters

    The shooting of two West Virginia National Guard members deployed to Washington, D.C., has reignited concerns about security and the vetting of Afghan refugees, especially after the withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 led to rapid resettlement of tens of thousands of Afghans in the United States.

    Trump linked the incident to his wider immigration policy and criticized the prior administration, calling for a “reexamining” of all Afghan nationals brought in under the program during the Biden administration.

    The decision is expected to impact Afghan nationals seeking asylum, resettlement or other immigration benefits, while raising questions on U.S. commitments to wartime allies and national security priorities.

    What To Know

    USCIS announced in a post to X that all processing of immigration requests from Afghan nationals are “stopped indefinitely.” The statement came hours after a suspect in the shooting of the Guard members near the White House was identified as an Afghan national. The duration of the suspension is undefined, and the review process is ongoing.

    Authorities identified the suspect as Lakanwal, who arrived in the U.S. in 2021 under the Operation Allies Welcome program after the Taliban recaptured Kabul.

    The victims, two members of the West Virginia National Guard deployed to Washington, D.C., for the Trump administration’s crackdown on crime in the nation’s capital, were critically injured.

    The suspect was shot, injured and arrested. Officials have not determined a motive, but Trump described the shootings as “an act of terror.”

    Lakanwal reportedly served with U.S. forces in Afghanistan for 10 years and arrived in the United States as part of an effort to protect Afghan allies, according to family members who spoke to NBC News.

    The U.S. government allowed around 76,000 Afghans entry under Operation Allies Welcome, designed to assist those at risk after the American withdrawal from Afghanistan.

    Following the attack, Trump announced the deployment of an additional 500 federal troops to Washington, D.C., supplementing the over 2,000 National Guard soldiers already stationed there for what the administration calls a public safety initiative.

    The shooting and the administration’s response have drawn renewed scrutiny to the legal status and operational role of the National Guard in the nation’s capital.

    Advocacy groups and some lawmakers have also raised concerns about the vetting process for Afghan refugees.

    While human rights advocates argue that arrivals face significant scrutiny, government audits have found flaws and data inaccuracies in records. The Biden-era program granted temporary parole, not permanent status, to most evacuees. The Trump administration recently moved to end Afghanistan’s temporary protected status designation.

    What People Are Saying

    President Trump: “We must now reexamine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan under Biden, and we must take all necessary measures to ensure the removal of any alien from any country who does not belong here, or add benefit to our country. If they can’t love our country, we don’t want them.”

    Shawn VanDiver, president of AfghanEvac, to NBC News Wednesday night: “This individual’s isolated and violent act should not be used as an excuse to define or diminish an entire community.”

    Republican West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey, on Wednesday: “Our prayers are with these brave service members, their families, and the entire Guard community.”

    Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, on X Wednesday night: “The suspect who shot our brave National Guardsmen is an Afghan national who was one of the many unvetted, mass paroled into the United States under Operation Allies Welcome on September 8, 2021, under the Biden Administration. I will not utter this depraved individual’s name. He should be starved of the glory he so desperately wants. These men and women of the National Guard are mothers, fathers, sisters, daughters, children of God, carrying out the same basic public safety and immigration laws enshrined in law for decades. The politicians and media who continue to vilify our men and women in uniform need to take a long hard look in the mirror. Bryon and I will be praying hard for these two National Guardsmen, their families, and every American who puts on uniform to defend our freedom.”

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  • Asylum seekers face deportation over failure to pay new fees — before being notified

    WASHINGTON — Late last month, an immigrant seeking asylum in the U.S. came across social media posts urging her to pay a new fee imposed by the Trump administration before Oct. 1, or else risk her case being dismissed.

    Paula, a 40-year-old Los Angeles-area immigrant from Mexico, whose full name The Times is withholding because she fears retribution, applied for asylum in 2021 and her case is now on appeal.

    But when Paula tried to pay the $100 annual fee, she couldn’t find an option on the immigration court’s website that accepted fees for pending asylum cases. Afraid of deportation — and with just five hours before the payment deadline — she selected the closest approximation she could find, $110 for an appeal filed before July 7.

    She knew it was likely incorrect. Still, she felt it was better to pay for something, rather than nothing at all, as a show of good faith. Unable to come up with the money on such short notice, Paula, who works in a warehouse repairing purses, paid the fee with a credit card.

    “I hope that money isn’t wasted,” she said.

    That remains unclear because of confusion and misinformation surrounding the rollout of a host of new fees or fee increases for a variety of immigration services. The fees are part of the sweeping budget bill President Trump signed into law in July.

    Paula was one of thousands of asylum seekers across the country who panicked after seeing messages on social media urging them to pay the new fee before the start of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1.

    But government messaging about the fees has sometimes been chaotic and contradictory, immigration attorneys say. Some asylum seekers have received notice about the fees, while others have not. Misinformation surged as immigrants scrambled to figure out whether, and how, to pay.

    Advocates worry the confusion serves as a way for immigration officials to dismiss more asylum cases, which would render the applicants deportable.

    The fees vary. For those seeking asylum, there is a $100 fee for new applications, as well as a yearly fee of $100 for pending applications. The fee for an initial work permit is $550 and work permit renewals can be as much as $795.

    Amy Grenier, associate director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Assn., said that not having a clear way to pay a fee might seem like a small government misstep, but the legal consequences are substantial.

    For new asylum applications, she said, some immigration judges set a payment deadline of Sept. 30, even though the Executive Office for Immigration Review only updated the payment portal in the last week of September.

    “The lack of coherent guidance and structure to pay the fee only compounded the inefficiency of our immigration courts,” Grenier said. “There are very real consequences for asylum-seekers navigating this completely unnecessary bureaucratic mess.”

    Two agencies collect the asylum fees: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), under the Department of Homeland Security, and the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), under the Department of Justice, which operates immigration courts.

    Both agencies initially released different instructions regarding the fees, and only USCIS has provided an avenue for payment.

    The departments of Homeland Security and Justice didn’t respond to a request for comment. The White House deferred to USCIS.

    USCIS spokesman Matthew J. Tragesser said the asylum fee is being implemented consistent with the law.

    “The real losers in this are the unscrupulous and incompetent immigration attorneys who exploit their clients and bog down the system with baseless asylum claims,” he said.

    The Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project (ASAP), a national membership organization, sued the Trump administration earlier this month after thousands of members shared their confusion over the new fees, arguing that the federal agencies involved “threaten to deprive asylum seekers of full and fair consideration of their claims.”

    The organization also argued the fees shouldn’t apply to people whose cases were pending before Trump signed the budget package into law.

    In a U.S. district court filing Monday, Justice Department lawyers defended the fees, saying, “Congress made clear that these new asylum fees were long overdue and necessary to recover the growing costs of adjudicating the millions of pending asylum applications.”

    Some of the confusion resulted from contradictory information.

    A notice by USCIS in the July 22 Federal Register confused immigrants and legal practitioners alike because of a reference to Sept. 30. Anyone who had applied for asylum as of Oct. 1, 2024, and whose application was still pending by Sept. 30, was instructed to pay a fee. Some thought the notice meant that Sept. 30 was the deadline to pay the yearly asylum fee.

    By this month, USCIS clarified on its website that it will “issue personal notices” alerting asylum applicants when their annual fee is due, how to pay it and the consequences for failing to do so.

    The agency created a payment portal and began sending out notices Oct. 1, instructing recipients to pay within 30 days.

    But many asylum seekers are still waiting to be notified by USCIS, according to ASAP, the advocacy organization. Some have received texts or physical mail telling them to check their USCIS account, while others have resorted to checking their accounts daily.

    Meanwhile the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) didn’t add a mechanism for paying the $100 fee for pending asylum cases — the one Paula hoped to pay — until Thursday.

    In its Oct. 3 complaint, lawyers for ASAP wrote: “Troublingly, ASAP has received reports that some immigration judges at EOIR are already requiring applicants to have paid the annual asylum fee, and in at least one case even rejected an asylum application and ordered an asylum seeker removed for non-payment of the annual asylum fee, despite the agency providing no way to pay this fee.”

    An immigration lawyer in San Diego, who asked not to be named out of fear of retribution, said an immigration judge denied his client’s asylum petition because the client had not paid the new fee, even though there was no way to pay it.

    The judge issued an order, which was shared with The Times, that read, “Despite this mandatory requirement, to date the respondents have not filed proof of payment for the annual asylum fee.”

    The lawyer called the decision a due process violation. He said he now plans to appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals, though another fee increase under Trump’s spending package raised that cost from $110 to $1,010. He is litigating the case pro bono.

    Justice Department lawyers said Monday that EOIR had eliminated the initial inconsistency by revising its position to reflect that of USCIS and will soon send out official notices to applicants, giving them 30 days to make the payment.

    “There was no unreasonable delay here in EOIR’s implementation,” the filing said. “…The record shows several steps were required to finalize EOIR’s process, including coordination with USCIS. Regardless, Plaintiff’s request is now moot.”

    Immigrants like Paula, who is a member of ASAP, recently got some reassurance. In a court declaration, EOIR Director Daren Margolin wrote that for anyone who made anticipatory or advance payments for the annual asylum fee, “those payments will be applied to the alien’s owed fees, as appropriate.”

    Andrea Castillo

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  • America’s path to citizenship has an updated exam – WTOP News

    The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has updated the exam for those who hope to become American citizens, expanding the possible questions to 128, and in some cases, asking for more detail on the test.

    Civics teachers have long included questions from the U.S. citizenship test in classroom lessons to spur conversation among students.

    Now, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has updated the exam for those who hope to become American citizens, expanding the possible questions to 128, and in some cases, asking for more detail on the test. The updated test is being administered to applicants who filed for naturalization on or before Oct. 20.

    Applicants have to answer 20 questions, and in order to pass, they must get 12 of those questions correct. In the past, getting six correct answers out of 10 was required.

    On Thursday, the Washington Post included 10 questions from the updated exam so that readers could test their knowledge.

    WTOP reached out to Maryland State Education Association president and Howard County teacher of American government and law Paul Lemle to ask about the new version of the test.

    So, how did he do?

    Out of 10 questions, “I got 10,” Lemle said, quickly adding, “It was luck, in part.”

    Lemle admitted to guessing on two questions: The one that asked what James Madison was famous for (the answer: D. President during the War of 1812); and the other on what year that women got the right to vote (the answer: B. 1920 — we’re adding bonus points if you knew that was the 19th Amendment).

    But Lemle said he wouldn’t focus on dates or places, necessarily.

    “Who knows the year of a particular passage of a constitutional amendment?” Lemle argued. “You don’t need to know whether Yorktown was an important Revolutionary War battle.”

    “You do need to know — and you should know — what the compact is between you and your government,” he added. “The real lesson of the Revolutionary War is what it was fought for — freedom from a faraway oppressive government — and who got left out of that.”

    Parents often complain that civics isn’t taught in schools anymore.

    “We still teach civics, but we just call it ‘American Government,’” Lemle said.

    Lemle said many of the students he’s taught are the sons and daughters of immigrants or are immigrants themselves.

    “Often, our recent arrivals come without a real understanding of what a democracy is,” he said.

    Noting President Donald Trump’s administration’s challenge to birthright citizenship, Lemle said, “It surprised me that the clause in the Constitution that ensures citizenship for everyone born in the United States” in his words “made the cut as a test question.”

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    Kate Ryan

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  • Can I still get a passport or driver’s license during the government shutdown?

    U.S. congressional lawmakers have failed to agree on a spending package for the new fiscal year, which triggered a federal government shutdown on Wednesday.Many Americans are wondering how the shutdown will impact travel, and, specifically, how it will affect passport applications and driver’s license services. Here’s what we know.Are passports still being processed?Yes. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency responsible for overseeing the naturalization process, is primarily funded by application fees, meaning a lapse in funding at the federal government has minimal impacts on most passport and visa processing.What if I have a passport appointment with the United States Postal Service?The U.S. Postal Service is unaffected by a government shutdown. It’s an independent entity funded through the sale of its products and services, not by tax dollars. You can still make appointments for new passport applications, passport renewals and photo services on the USPS website.Can I still get a driver’s license or REAL ID?You can still get a driver’s license or REAL ID during a government shutdown.That’s because motor vehicle departments are primarily funded and operated through state budgets.This means you can also make an appointment or visit one of your state’s driver’s license centers to receive a REAL ID with proper paperwork. The shutdown will not stop Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees from enforcing the REAL ID Act in U.S. airports and other federal facilities.TSA officers are typically deemed essential and must remain on the job, though they are not paid. What about visas?Agency spokesperson Matthew Tragesser said in a statement, however, that the shutdown does temporarily shutter the agency’s E-Verify program, a free online system that employers can use to confirm their new employees are authorized to work in the U.S.The Associated Press and CNN contributed to this report.

    U.S. congressional lawmakers have failed to agree on a spending package for the new fiscal year, which triggered a federal government shutdown on Wednesday.

    Many Americans are wondering how the shutdown will impact travel, and, specifically, how it will affect passport applications and driver’s license services.

    Here’s what we know.

    Are passports still being processed?

    Yes. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency responsible for overseeing the naturalization process, is primarily funded by application fees, meaning a lapse in funding at the federal government has minimal impacts on most passport and visa processing.

    What if I have a passport appointment with the United States Postal Service?

    The U.S. Postal Service is unaffected by a government shutdown. It’s an independent entity funded through the sale of its products and services, not by tax dollars. You can still make appointments for new passport applications, passport renewals and photo services on the USPS website.

    Can I still get a driver’s license or REAL ID?

    You can still get a driver’s license or REAL ID during a government shutdown.

    That’s because motor vehicle departments are primarily funded and operated through state budgets.

    This means you can also make an appointment or visit one of your state’s driver’s license centers to receive a REAL ID with proper paperwork.

    The shutdown will not stop Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees from enforcing the REAL ID Act in U.S. airports and other federal facilities.

    TSA officers are typically deemed essential and must remain on the job, though they are not paid.

    What about visas?

    Agency spokesperson Matthew Tragesser said in a statement, however, that the shutdown does temporarily shutter the agency’s E-Verify program, a free online system that employers can use to confirm their new employees are authorized to work in the U.S.

    The Associated Press and CNN contributed to this report.

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  • Future of citizenship applications, USCIS reinstates decades-old policy to vet immigrants

    The landscape around immigration is shifting again under the Trump administration.Last week, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services released a memo bringing back “neighborhood investigations,” a method once used to evaluate an immigrant’s moral character. The practice dates back to the 1980s and was discontinued in 1991.See the report in the video aboveNow, immigration attorneys are working to understand what its return could mean for their clients.”It’s not well-defined, like, what the discretion is,” said Brian Blackford, an immigration attorney in Omaha, Nebraska. “Even with this policy memo, we don’t exactly know all the considerations.”According to the USCIS memo, investigators are permitted to talk with people living near an applicant’s residence and place of employment. Blackford said that raises concerns.”Is that going to result in them being denied citizenship because a neighbor doesn’t like them? We don’t know, like, what this entails,” Blackford said.The memo states the practice is meant to improve background checks during citizenship applications. Blackford said it is something he has never seen in his decades-long career.”They would do that to make sure there’s no marriage fraud, but that would be the extent of USCIS investigators looking into somebody that has a pending application before the agency,” he said.The agency memo said neighborhood investigations began in 1981 to better determine a person’s moral character and eligibility for citizenship. The practice stopped in 1991.”They just made the decision to stop doing that and to instead just go off of people’s biometrics, and run their background that way to make the process more streamlined,” Blackford said.Blackford said reinstating the practice could discourage immigrants from applying.”This can have some really chilling effects on speech and on applying for citizenship altogether,” he said.He added that the policy is impacting immigrants seeking status through legal means.”These are people that have been lawful permanent residents for either 3 or 5 years minimum,” Blackford said. In a statement to KETV, USCIS said the agency is ensuring “aliens are being properly vetted” and added the directive will “enhance these statutorily required investigations.”

    The landscape around immigration is shifting again under the Trump administration.

    Last week, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services released a memo bringing back “neighborhood investigations,” a method once used to evaluate an immigrant’s moral character. The practice dates back to the 1980s and was discontinued in 1991.

    See the report in the video above

    Now, immigration attorneys are working to understand what its return could mean for their clients.

    “It’s not well-defined, like, what the discretion is,” said Brian Blackford, an immigration attorney in Omaha, Nebraska. “Even with this policy memo, we don’t exactly know all the considerations.”

    According to the USCIS memo, investigators are permitted to talk with people living near an applicant’s residence and place of employment. Blackford said that raises concerns.

    “Is that going to result in them being denied citizenship because a neighbor doesn’t like them? We don’t know, like, what this entails,” Blackford said.

    The memo states the practice is meant to improve background checks during citizenship applications. Blackford said it is something he has never seen in his decades-long career.

    “They would do that to make sure there’s no marriage fraud, but that would be the extent of USCIS investigators looking into somebody that has a pending application before the agency,” he said.

    The agency memo said neighborhood investigations began in 1981 to better determine a person’s moral character and eligibility for citizenship. The practice stopped in 1991.

    “They just made the decision to stop doing that and to instead just go off of people’s biometrics, and run their background that way to make the process more streamlined,” Blackford said.

    Blackford said reinstating the practice could discourage immigrants from applying.

    “This can have some really chilling effects on speech and on applying for citizenship altogether,” he said.

    He added that the policy is impacting immigrants seeking status through legal means.

    “These are people that have been lawful permanent residents for either 3 or 5 years minimum,” Blackford said.

    In a statement to KETV, USCIS said the agency is ensuring “aliens are being properly vetted” and added the directive will “enhance these statutorily required investigations.”

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  • More human-trafficking survivors are seeking visas but face longer waits and risk deportation

    The T visa, an underutilized lifeline for immigrant survivors of human trafficking, is experiencing a sharp rise in applications, despite increasing processing times and deportation risks.

    Also known as T nonimmigrant status, the visa allows people who have experienced severe forms of human trafficking to remain in the country for up to four years if they are helpful to law enforcement in the investigation and prosecution of their trafficker. Approved applicants can work in the U.S., are eligible for certain state and federal benefits, and can apply for a green card after three years on the visa (or earlier if the criminal case is closed).

    Julie Dahlstrom, founder and director of the Human Trafficking Clinic at Boston University, said increased awareness of the visa and the courts’ expanding definitions of trafficking may have contributed to the increase, along with mounting barriers to other pathways for immigrant relief.

    Congress created the T visa in 2000 as part of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act, intending to bolster law enforcement agencies’ capabilities to prosecute human trafficking crimes while offering protections to survivors. The same law also established the U visa, which provides legal status for victims who have suffered substantial abuse as a result of serious crimes including trafficking, domestic violence and sexual assault. U visa applicants must also be willing to assist law enforcement in their investigation of these crimes.

    “Many [applicants] are eligible for the U visa as well, but they’re taking now over 20 years for an individual to get access … so I think that has influenced lawyers and survivors, if they are eligible for the T visa … to go ahead and also file T visa applications,” Dahlstrom said. “Especially under the Trump administration, we’ve seen more barriers to asylum access, special immigrant juvenile status access, so I expect we’ll continue to see that move.”

    USCIS updated the T visa rules in August 2024 with a process called called bona fide determination that gave survivors earlier access to benefits while their application is pending approval. It also granted them deferred action, which places individuals on a lower priority for removal proceedings.

    Erika Gonzalez, training and technical assistance managing attorney from the Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking, explained that although early access to benefits had existed in the federal statute, it was never implemented because applications were processing fast enough to not need it.

    “They have updated the [bona fide determination] process to now have a formal process to engage with, and it does parallel with the sharp increases in filing,” Gonzalez said.

    As T visa applications rose, so too did approvals. Last year, the number of approvals broke 3,000 for the first time though it still fell short of the 5,000 cap.

    Processing times for T visas have also increased, jumping from a median of 5.9 months in 2014 to 19.9 months this fiscal year.

    Denial rates for T visas, meanwhile, have fluctuated.

    “We were seeing increased denial rates under the prior Trump administration and then improved rates under Biden,” Dahlstrom said.

    Denials can leave T visa applicants vulnerable to deportation. In 2018, USCIS began allowing removal proceedings if an application was rejected with a notice to appear (NTA).

    According to a 2022 report co-written by Dahlstrom, which obtained USCIS data through Freedom of Information Act litigation, USCIS issued a total of 236 NTAs to denied T visa applicants from 2019 to 2021. President Biden rescinded this policy with a January 2021 executive order, but last February, USCIS published new guidance once more expanding the circumstances where the agency could issue NTAs.

    These policies, alongside escalated coordination between law enforcement and other agencies, have heightened fear among survivors applying for the T visa, Dahlstrom explained.

    “We are seeing in real time the results of including requirements around law enforcement engagement, especially when there’s greater cooperation with ICE and greater concerns about deportation,” Dahlstrom said. “These programs are being politicized and, in some ways, weaponized if you’re denied and you’re placed in proceedings.”

    Since February’s policy update, at least one person has self-deported after Immigration and Customs Enforcement denied her stay despite her pending T visa application.

    So far in the fiscal year 2025, USCIS has approved 1,035 T-visas and rejected 693, which surpasses the number rejected in each of the last four years.

    “It’s too early to tell what we’re going to see, but if we continue to see these numbers, it’s both going to mean a rise in denials and very few cases adjudicated amidst more and more applications being filed, which is really troubling,” Dahlstrom said. “These are statutorily protected programs, but what they can do is really slow them down, make them ineffective just in the way that they’re processing applications.”

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  • USAIA Launches to Remedy American Workforce Deficiencies and Aid Legal Immigration Efforts

    USAIA Launches to Remedy American Workforce Deficiencies and Aid Legal Immigration Efforts


    CHEYENNE, Wyo., October 5, 2023 (Newswire.com)
    –
    In a methodical move to revitalize America’s workforce and empower legal immigrants, U.S.A. Immigration Assistance (USAIA) announces its official launch. USAIA, a nonpartisan L3C organization, relies on donations and strategic partnerships to provide financial aid to eligible, indigent immigrants amid the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) process. Through these contributions, USAIA ensures that these individuals have access to adequate legal representation and language support services they desperately need but are often unable to afford. In supporting these individuals, they can settle legally and permanently in the U.S. and join the labor market, which has gravely declined in recent years.

    American author Mark Twain once famously said, “Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.” 

    “Today, our workforce is depleted, inflation rates are rising, our borders are wide open, our immigration process is flawed, and our nation is divided, as internal strife continually hinders governmental operations. We, the people, must unite to overcome these adversities and support our country to ensure a prosperous future for America,” says Mr. Alain J. Roy, Founder of USAIA and a U.S. immigrant himself.

    “Of the many obstacles that lie ahead,” Roy goes on, “immigration continues to be one of the most divisive, but USAIA believes in honoring the laws of our land and our history. Our country was built on the backs of hopeful, hardworking immigrants. They contributed greatly to all industries and notably built our bridges, railways, and roads, but it’s their stories, characters and ambitions that have constructed the narrative of our great nation. Today, the immigration conversation has skewed from these inspirational stories to tales of illegal border crossings, criminal smugglers, and inadequate resources within our cities while our labor force continues to diminish.”

    USAIA is on a mission to restore the American workforce to its former glory by giving law-abiding, ambitious immigrants their stories and their opportunities back. By providing financial support throughout the complex and costly USCIS process, we can allow these upstanding individuals to embark on their American dreams while investing in the future of our country.  

    “We do not support open borders, illegal immigration, the migration of illegal or immoral people. The current U.S. immigration system is flawed in many ways, but following the law is critical in avoiding pure chaos and ensuring the safety of the American people. By covering a portion of the costs associated with the USCIS process, we can give well-meaning immigrants a chance to thrive. In turn, they become integral parts of our communities and fill labor deficits created by the retirement of the baby boomer generation, the Covid-19 pandemic, and other factors,” reports Roy.

    Because many immigrants face challenging economic climates and limited employment opportunities in their native countries, this initial support is life-changing for them and for our economy moving forward. In addition to individual donors, USAIA is actively seeking corporate sponsors and legal network partners to aid in transforming barriers into pathways to rebuild America’s workforce. Those who wish to learn more about USAIA, inquire about a partnership or donate to the cause can do so at https://usaimmigrationassistance.org/ or by reaching out directly to USAIA’s Outreach and Fundraising Director, Mr. Patrick J. Kosch, at patrick@usa-ia.org. 

    About U.S.A. Immigration Assistance (USAIA) 

    U.S.A. Immigration Assistance (USAIA) is a nonpartisan, low-profit limited liability company (L3C) dedicated to rebuilding America’s workforce by providing financial aid to well-meaning, indigent immigrants throughout the USCIS immigration process. USAIA was formed by Mr. Alain J. Roy, a U.S. immigrant and CEO of ASTA-USA Translation Services, Inc.  

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