Visa Lawyer Blog

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Citing security concerns, the U.S. Consulate General in Ciudad Juarez is closed on July 30, 2010 and has cancelled all scheduled appointments and services for that date. Information on date of reopening will be announced by warden notice and posting on their web page.

American citizens with appointments for passport or other services may make a new appointment via the Consulate website below. For non-immigrant visa applicants, the call center will call or e-mail applicants to reschedule appointments. Alternatively, applicants may re-schedule non-immigrant visa appointments without being charged by calling 01-800-719-2525. Immigrant visa applicants should be advised that the medical clinics where they will receive their medical exams may also close on short notice. Immigrant visa applicants will be rescheduled for their interviews at a later date.

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Yesterday we reported on the court blocking parts of the AZ law, today AZ fired back. Arizona asked an appeals court Thursday to lift a judge’s order blocking most of the state’s immigration law as the city of Phoenix filled with protesters, including about 50 who were arrested for confronting officers in riot gear.

Republican Gov. Jan Brewer called U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton’s Wednesday’s decision halting the law “a bump in the road,” and the state appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Thursday.

Outside the state Capitol, hundreds of protesters began marching at dawn, gathering in front of the federal courthouse where Bolton issued her ruling on Wednesday. They marched on to the office of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who has made a crackdown on illegal immigration one of his signature issues.

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Earlier today, a federal judge blocked key portions of Arizona’s controversial immigration enforcement law from going into effect. In her ruling, United States District Court Judge Susan Bolton stated that some portions of Arizona’s immigration law will be able to go into effect today, as scheduled. However, the judge issued a preliminary injection against the parts of the law that call for police officers to check and verify people’s immigration status when they are enforcing other. In addition, the preliminary injunction also took issue with the part of the law that would require immigrants to carry documentation of their immigration status at all times. Both of these parts of the law have been placed on hold while Judge Bolton listens to various challenges to the law.

“There is a substantial likelihood that officers will wrongfully arrest legal resident aliens,” wrote Judge Bolton. “By enforcing this statute, Arizona would impose a ‘distinct, unusual and extraordinary’ burden on legal resident aliens that only the federal government has the authority to impose.”
Arizona’s immigration enforcement law was adopted in April 2010 and has caused much controversy from both sides of the immigration debate. Opponents of the law have prevailed for now: The provisions that most angered opponents will not take effect, including sections that required officers to check a person’s immigration status while enforcing other laws.

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The report, “Deportation by Default,” documents cases of non-citizens who could not understand questions, were delusional, couldn’t tell the date or time, and didn’t understand the concept of deportation for example, saying they wanted to be deported to New York. Thousands of mentally disabled immigrants are entangled in deportation proceedings each year with little or no legal help, leaving them distraught, defenseless and detained as their fates are decided. Their plight is detailed in a report issued Sunday by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union, who exhort federal authorities to do better.

Shortcomings outlined by the two groups include no right to appointed counsel, inflexible detention policies, insufficient guidance for judges on handling people with mental disabilities, and inadequately coordinated services to aid detainees while in custody. No one knows what to do with detainees with mental disabilities, so every part of the immigration system has abdicated responsibility. The result is people languishing in detention for years while their legal files and their lives are transferred around or put on indefinite hold.

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Arizona has been hit with several lawsuits and dozens of business boycotts since the law was passed, and musicians have also gotten in on the act: Many are canceling shows in the state, while others are voicing their opposition through music.

Arizona is no stranger to musical protests over its politics. In 1991, Public Enemy’s “By the Time I Get to Arizona” lambasted Arizona’s decision not to recognize the holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr. Stevie Wonder, Bill Cosby and others boycotted the state.

“We have to intervene in order to do whatever we possibly can to limit that state’s ability to function and implement the law,” Zack de la Rocha, of the band Rage Against the Machine, says in a Web video he’s produced. He’s organized a boycott of Arizona called The Sound Strike. So far, he’s recruited artists ranging from Kanye West and Nine Inch Nails to Latino bands such as Los Tigres del Norte. Jorge Hernandez says Los Tigres del Norte’s decision to join the boycott was personal: If the Los Angeles musicians were to come to Arizona, he says, they worry that police could detain them.

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On July 20, 2010, the House of Representatives passed, by voice vote, the International Adoption Harmonization Act of 2010, to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act with respect to adopted alien children.

The International Adoption Harmonization Act of 2010, HR 5532, will allow an adopted child to legally immigrate so long as the adoption is completed and the petition is filed before the child turns 18. The current age limit is 16. The bill would also restore an international adoption exemption that was inadvertently eliminated when the U.S. joined the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoptions.

The bill was sponsored by Immigration Subcommittee Chairwoman, Zoe Lofgren (D-CA).

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According to the San Diego Union Tribune, San Diego’s small businesses are heading to bankruptcy court at a higher rate than last year, and the city is among the Top 10 metropolitan areas in the country based on the number of filings.

The number of small businesses filing for bankruptcy in the San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos region was 387 in the first quarter of 2010, giving it the sixth-highest number of bankruptcies.

In the San Diego metropolitan area, the number of small businesses that filed for bankruptcy was up 12 percent, compared with the same period last year.

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The Obama administration’s challenge to the controversial Arizona immigration law goes before a federal judge Thursday. The Justice Department’s lawsuit, seeking to stop the law from going into effect, is one of two challenges scheduled for a hearing Thursday.

The first challenge by a group of more than 100 individuals and civil rights groups will be heard Thursday morning. In the afternoon, the Justice Department’s lawsuit will have a hearing in a Phoenix federal courtroom.

Both cases will be in front of U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton, according to court documents. The law, signed by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer in April, requires police to question people about their status if they have been detained for another reason and if there’s reason to suspect they’re in the United States illegally. It also targets those who hire illegal immigrant laborers or knowingly transport them.

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Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Defense (DOD) today announced that National Guard deployments to the Southwest border will begin on Aug. 1 as part of the administration’s unprecedented efforts to combat the transnational criminal organizations that smuggle weapons, cash and people across our Southwest border. The President has also requested $600 million in supplemental funds for enhanced border protection and law enforcement activities, which are critical to our ongoing efforts.

“Over the past year and a half, this administration has pursued a new border security strategy with an unprecedented sense of urgency, making historic investments in personnel, technology and infrastructure,” said Secretary Napolitano. “These troops will provide direct support to federal law enforcement officers and agents working in high-risk areas to disrupt criminal organizations seeking to move people and goods illegally across the Southwest border.”
In May, the President authorized the deployment of up to an additional 1,200 National Guard troops to the Southwest border to provide support for intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance, and counternarcotics enforcement—providing support for one year as part of the administration’s unprecedented efforts to crack down on transnational smuggling and cartel violence, as CBP continues to recruit and train additional officers and agents to serve on the Southwest border. In deploying these personnel, the National Guard Bureau is operating under a request for assistance from DHS. Border security is a law enforcement mission, and these troops will augment the Administration’s efforts to crack down on the drug cartels and transnational criminal organizations that operate along our Southwest border.

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The H-2B non-agricultural temporary worker program allows U.S. employers to bring foreign nationals to the United States to fill temporary non-agricultural jobs. As of 07/16/10, USCIS receipted 30,154 petitions, toward the 47,000 beneficiaries target for the second half of the fiscal year. This count includes 28,539 approved and 1,615 pending petitions.

There is a statutory numerical limit, or “cap,” on the total number aliens who may be issued a visa or otherwise provided H-2B status (including through a change of status) during a fiscal year. Currently, the H-2B cap set by Congress is 66,000 per fiscal year, with 33,000 to be allocated for employment beginning in the 1st half of the fiscal year (October 1 – March 31) and 33,000 to be allocated for employment beginning in the 2nd half of the fiscal year (April 1 – September 30). Any unused numbers from the first half of the fiscal year will be made available for use by employers seeking to hire H-2B workers during the second half of the fiscal year. There is no “carry over” of unused H-2B numbers from one fiscal year to the next.

The H2B visa is available to employers of foreign workers not working in the agricultural field. This visa is only available for work that is temporary in nature. For H2B purposes, that means:

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