11/18/2020
IMMIGRATION NEWS:
Neil A. Weinrib & Associates (NawLaw)
BREAKING NEWS
It Just Got Harder for Immigrants: The U.S. Naturalization Test Is About to Change
Starting December 1, 2020, U.S. legal permanent residents who apply for US citizenship will face a much harder naturalization test. Immigrants will be required to prove they can read, write, and speak basic English, and have essential knowledge of U.S. history and government. Of course, it is possible that the incoming Biden administration may decide not to alter the current test requirements.
Biden's New Plan For H-1B Visas, Green Cards Likely to Benefit Thousands of Foreign Nationals
US President-elect Joe Biden plans to increase the number of high-skilled visas, including the H-1B, and eliminate the limit on employment-based visas by country. These changes are expected to benefit tens of thousands of foreign professionals affected by some immigration policies, many of whom hail from India, implemented by the Trump administration. Biden is also planning to reverse the Trump administration's attempt to revoke work permits given to the spouses of H-1B visas which had negatively impacted a large number of Indian families in the US.
All of Biden’s plans will be part of comprehensive immigration reform that the Biden administration plans to work on, either in one go or in separate pieces. We are following this very closely.
Senate Democrats Call on DHS Inspector General to Investigate ICE Abuses Against Black Immigrants
Top Senate Democrats and immigrant rights advocates have joined together in calling for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to investigate claims that federal immigration agents and private prison officers have physically assaulted eight Black immigrants in efforts to force them to sign their deportation papers, leaving one man with broken fingers. “This pattern of coercion and unwarranted use of physical force by ICE officers is abusive, unlawful, and tantamount to torture,” said a group led by Freedom for Immigrants.
A Wave of US Deportations Has Left the Fate of African Asylum Seekers In the Balance
Human rights advocates are condemning a recent increase of deportations of African asylum seekers from the US in the last weeks. Last month, 57 asylum seekers who were being held in different detention facilities across the US were transported back to Cameroon. Some said they were brutally forced to sign or append their fingerprints on their deportation orders.
The chair of the US House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Africa, congresswoman Karen Bass, and her colleagues, have described the move as “unjust deportation” and insist “the deportations should be halted until the new administration of president-elect Joe Biden is sworn in and able to carefully re-examine their cases.”
President-Elect Joe Biden to Make Some Dramatic Moves on Immigration, Including Border Wall
Other major changes are expected to take place in the early days of the Biden administration, such as the use of executive orders to reverse some of President Trump's most controversial actions on immigration.
The Biden administration plans to reinstate protection for people brought to the U.S. illegally as minors and stop using Pentagon funds to build a border wall.
Biden has a detailed immigration plan, but it will take time to undo many of Trumps’ actions and multiple executive orders.
Lawyers Can't Find the Parents of 666 Migrant Kids, a Higher Number Than Previously Reported
Many migrant families, children, and their parents, separated by the Trump administration’s "zero tolerance" policy at the border continue to be ununited. However, the number of these children has gone up to 666, a higher number than reported last month. Nearly 20 percent, or 129, of those children, were under 5 at the time of the separation.
Steven Herzog, the attorney leading efforts to reunite the families, states the number has increased because the new group includes those "for whom the government did not provide any phone number." Previously, the lawyers said they could not find the parents of 545 children after trying to make contact but had been unsuccessful.
Even As Trump Cut Immigration, Immigrants Transformed U.S.
The city of Grand Island, Nebraska is made up of more than 60 percent of public school students being nonwhite, and their families collectively speaking 55 languages. The students of the public schools are the children of foreign-born workers who came to this city of 51,000 in the 1990s and 2000s to work in the area’s meatpacking plants, where speaking English was not necessary to have a job. “You wouldn’t expect to see so many languages spoken in a school district of 10,000,” said Tawana Grover, the school’s superintendent. “When you hear Nebraska, you don’t think diversity. We’ve got the world right here in rural America.” In the past four years, the U.S. has seen one of the biggest declines in immigration, but at the same time, the country is on course to becoming more diverse.
Client Query
Question:
“I would like to visit a friend for a couple of weeks during Christmas and I would like to go to France for a couple of weeks at Christmas and New Year’s. If I don’t get my U.S. passport before then can I still leave the U.S. and come back with my French passport? Will they know I am also American or I can I not leave the U.S. until I have the actual US passport?
(A newly naturalized client from France)
Answer:
Now that you are naturalized, you must apply for a US passport and travel using the same. We certainly don’t recommend that you seek to return to the US claiming to be a visitor using ESTA as this could create significant problems at the port of entry.
Client Recommendation
“As you know well, this path has been arduous to say the least. You and your team have been second to none. Your personal involvement and care also meant so much to me personally. The relief is wonderful.”
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U.S. legal permanent residents who apply for citizenship through naturalization on or after Dec. 1, 2020, will face a more challenging test — in which immigrants must prove they can read, write and speak basic English, and have essential knowledge of U.S. history and government.
