Recent Blog Posts

New York City Council Changes Law on ICE Immigration Detainers
Last week the New York City Council passed two pieces of legislation which will tighten the controls in place for detainers requested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Whenever local officials have an undocumented immigrant in custody, ICE routinely requests local officials to hold the person for 48 hours so that the person… Read More »

MA’s GEIR Helps Foreign Entrepreneurs Stay in the U.S.
For highly-skilled foreigners, the H-1B visa is the best and most popular option for working and living in the United States. However, it has an annual quota of 85,000, except for those who are sponsored by a nonprofit research institution. This fall, Massachusetts launches the Global Entrepreneur in Residence (GEIR) program to keep talented… Read More »

Should the Guatemalan Refugees be Granted Temporary Protected Status?
There are currently about 57,000 children in the United States from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador who have illegally crossed over the U.S.-Mexican border since 2011. This massive influx has overwhelmed immigration centers and created a humanitarian crisis in the country while also igniting a firestorm of debate about the nation’s immigration laws, border… Read More »

Supreme Court rules that children who “age out” can lose their place in line for a family-based visa
Citizens and lawful permanent residents of the United States may petition to bring over certain family members by sponsoring them for a family visa, and any minor children of those family members may also be included through derivative visas. Visa applications are generally processed on a first-come, first-served basis, but due to immigration backlogs… Read More »

Deferred Action Renews Dream for Young Immigrants
On June 5th, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced renewal of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). DACA grants temporary legal status to certain undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. before they turned 16 years old. Individuals granted deferred action will not be subject to deportation for a two-year period, during which… Read More »

H-1B Cap for FY 2015 Reached After One Week
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced in a press release on April 7th that it had already received enough H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap for Fiscal Year 2015, which doesn’t even start until October 1st, 2014, six months from now. The number of petitions received exceeds the number needed… Read More »

New York City ID Cards Could Help Immigrants Access City Services
The New York City Council is considering legislation that would allow the City to issue municipal identification cards to all city residents. An ID card would be a boon to the half a million illegal immigrants currently residing in New York City, who despite living and working in the City are shut out from… Read More »