Mr. and Mrs. L's I-130 Alien Relative Petition, permitting Mr. L to seek adjustment of status, was approved.

Mrs. N's I-602 waiver application was approved, thereby allowing her to become a lawful permanent resident in the United States.

Mr. F was granted asylum by the Arlington Immigration Court based on his political activism and resulting past persecution in his native country of Cameroon.

After many years of legal arguments and a complex procedural history, Mr. H and his family were granted permanent residency by the Arlington Immigration Court. BOILA successfully argued that Mr. H, a native of South Korea, was eligible for adjustment of status through his employment-based petition pursuant to section245(k) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.   Although DHS believed he was barred from obtaining his green card, alleging that he had been out of legal status for more than 180 days, BOILA successfully argued that CIS failed to timely process an application upon which he was a dependent and that Mr. H. should not be faulted for a delay caused through no fault of his own. Through BOILA's efforts to assist Mr. H to obtain his green card, Mr. H, his wife, and two children were also granted their green cards.

Ms. F's application for naturalization was approved and she is now a US citizen. She is among many others who initially obtained their legal status through BOILA's assistance. In fact, BOILA represented Ms. F many years ago before the Baltimore Immigration Court, where she was granted asylum.

Ms. A, who BOILA successfully represented before the Baltimore Immigration Court last year in her efforts to secure asylum, was granted her green card.

Ms. N. is a citizen of Cameroon, who was granted her green card by the Baltimore Immigration Court after BOILA successfully represented her eligibility on her I-360, Abused Spouse Petition. She was physically and sexually abused by her US citizen husband who had substance abuse problems.   BOILA is pleased that Ms. N can now move on with her life.

Ms. O is a citizen of Brazil, received her conditional resident card through her marriage to her US citizen husband with the help of BOILA. They live happily together here in the United States.

Through BOILA's representation, Mr. K is the beneficiary of an approved I-130 petition, filed on his behalf by his permanent resident spouse and mother of his newborn son.

Mr. S is a citizen of Cameroon. After a difficult struggle with the Office of Chief Counsel as well as difficulties caused by Mr. S's multiple travels abroad before coming to the United States, Mr. S was granted asylum by the Baltimore Immigration Court. BOILA presented evidence of Mr. S's past persecution based on his political and human rights activities in his native country as well as compelling evidence of why he could not remain in Nigeria where he had temporary status.

Mr. K is a citizen of Cameroon. While in removal proceedings, he married his now USC spouse. BOILA successfully got his Alien Relative Petition approved and his proceedings terminated. He is now a permanent resident.

Mr. B is a citizen of the Ivory Coast. He has been a longtime client of BOILA. Through BOILA's ongoing efforts, he was recently naturalized and is now in process of having his entire family naturalized.

Mr. and Mrs. D are citizens of Gambia. BOILA had the pleasure of being with them from the start of their cases, winning their asylum in court, to their recent naturalization. BOILA is very happy to have assisted them throughout their legalization process and congratulates them on having gained US citizenship.

It is increasingly difficult to try to pinpoint where President Obama truly stands regarding immigration.

Although his administration has been a harsh critic of state immigration laws with the Obama administration filing lawsuits against several states including Arizona, Alabama, and Georgia for their immigration measures, statistics from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) note that deportations during the Obama administration have seen a 10% to 25% increase from the later years of the Bush administration.

Although Obama believes that immigration should remain in the federal domain, earlier this month he showed his clear support for the mandatory use of the Secure Communities Program by preventing states from withdrawing from the program. Rather than trying to insure that immigration remains a federal issue, Secure Communities does exactly the opposite. By requiring local enforcement agencies to share the fingerprints of all detained individuals with ICE in order to verify their legal status in this country, Secure Communities gives too much power to local law enforcement authorities in immigration matters. ICE advertises on its website that Secure Communities is a "common sense way" for it to carry out its priorities, however several states including Illinois, New York, and Massachusetts disagreed and unsuccessfully attempted to "opt out"of the program. When started in 2008 it was clearly stated by the Obama administration that any state could opt out. Now the exact opposite has been stated and states are prevented from opting out of the program. By 2013, Secure Communities will exist in all law enforcement jurisdictions in the United States.

President Obama previously promised that the focus of his deportation efforts would be "the worst of the worst." However, Jorge Mario Cabara of the Huffington Post noted that over 25% of those deported under the Secure Communities Program had no criminal charges filed against them. The Secure Communities Program has led to over 77,000 deportations and estimates from the Associated Press noted that over 25% were from minor criminal convictions.

On August 19, the Obama administration has once again shown a change of face on the issue of immigration. After protests in several American cities and widespread criticism from immigration advocacy groups and Hispanic organizations regarding his Secure Communities policy, the Obama administration's August 19th announcement is yet another unclear change of policy. Many are wondering if the Obama administration's latest decision is a way to attract Hispanic voters as this election season gears up. His administration's decision to require the Secure Communities Program is also under new judicial scrutiny after the decision of Federal District Judge Scheindlin to release ICE documents which stated that ICE would have to re-write prior memos to comply with the administration's new mandatory adoption of Secure Communities.

With so many changes on immigration policy, it's hard to understand where President Obama truly lies. Although his August 19, 2011 decision is to be commended, one can't help but wonder what direction this administration will take next and who would administer this change with so many branches of DHS and ICE.

So what exactly does this August 19 announcement mean for individuals in deportation/removal proceedings? The New York Times stated that this would help the youths of America by removing their possibility from deportation proceedings.  Here are some of the possible effects according to Reform Immigration for America

• The announcement is about deportation cases only. This announcement is DHS's attempt to "unclog" the deportation case log by removing "low-priority" cases in order to focus on individuals who pose serious dangers to our communities and our country.
• "High-priority" individuals include, but are not limited to, those who pose a serious threat to national security, are serious felons and repeat offenders, are known gang members, or have a record of repeated immigration violations.
• "Low-priority" individuals include, but are not limited to, veterans, long-time lawful residents, DREAMers and others brought to the US as children, pregnant women, victims of domestic abuse and other serious crimes, and spouses.
• Individuals in deportation proceedings who are deemed "low-priority" will get a letter from DHS stating their case has been administratively "closed".
• Those whose cases are closed can apply for a work permit program. Decisions about work permits will be made on a case-by-case basis. Undocumented immigrants not in deportation proceedings cannot seek work permits.
• Individuals SHOULD NOT attempt to be placed in deportation proceedings in order to apply for a work permit.
• While these changes do not directly benefit non-criminal, undocumented immigrants who are not in deportation proceedings, if implemented properly, these individuals will not be placed into deportation proceedings in the first place.
• The announcement does not change programs such as 287g and Secure Communities.
• This is not "back-door amnesty" as our opponents will claim. This is a procedural change in the implementation of DHS's enforcement policies to target only those who pose serious threats to the US and those with long criminal records.

However, the problem lies in implementation and discretionary review and it does not help all those who currently are here and unable to work or to leave the country.

We hope our Muslim readers had a blessed Ramadan and we would like to wish them a Happy Eid Ul-Fitr.

 

Although the current recession that has impacted the United States has led to a decline in 30% of the available H1B numbers, the current cap of 65,000 available H1B visas may prove to be inadequate as the United States moves out of this recession.   Paul McDougall of Information Week reported on August 25, 2011 that it is likely that the H1B count for the next fiscal year will be met as early as March as high-tech companies scramble to make new hires.

In spite of the economic slow down, high tech giant Microsoft has been lobbying Congress for an increase in the H1B cap as Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith noted that filling their worker gap remains a serious problem. The debate about this issue continues as advocates for American high tech workers believe that the H1B program is full of loopholes and has been used an excuse for Microsoft to higher foreign computer scientists for pay as low as $12 per hour.

Balancing the need for talent and protecting the American labor market is not an easy task. Although the United States needs to remain competitive in the global marketplace in order to be a bastion of the high tech industry, the House's failure to pass immigration reform in 2006 which mandated raising the quota for H1Bs to 115,000 may soon prove to be detrimental.