According to reporting from the California Farm Bureau, the Farm Workforce Modernization Act of 2019 has made it through the House Committee on the Judiciary by a margin of 18 to 12—a key step on the path to becoming law. Introduced by lead sponsors that include California Democrat Zoe Lofgren and California Republican Doug LaMalfa,…
In July 0f 2019, the United States House of Representatives passed the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act by a wide margin. Currently, the bill is still making its way through the Senate—though, with 35 co-sponsors, including prominent Democrats such as California Senator Kamala Harris and prominent Republicans such as Utah Senator Mitt Romney, there is…
As described by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), an R-1 visa is a temporary nonimmigrant visa that is reserved for qualified religious workers. To obtain a religious worker visa, there are very strict eligibility requirements that an applicant must meet. If you are applying for an R-1 visa in Los Angeles and you have…
On November 15th, 2019, the Los Angeles Times published a story about an asylum officer who is standing up and fighting back against President Trump’s “illegal” and “immoral” immigration policies. Doug Stephens, a Northern California-based asylum officer, told reporters from the Los Angeles Times that he will no longer implement the Trump Administration’s so-called ‘Migrant…
On November 12th, 2019, the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral arguments in the set of cases that are likely to decide the fate of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The future of a program that protects hundreds of thousands of DREAMers from deportation is in the fate of a…
According to reporting from BuzzFeed News, Trump Administration officials are actively pushing new and increased immigration fees. Not only is President Trump proposing a new rule that would require asylum seekers to pay a fee, but administration officials are also moving forward on increased fees across several different types of immigration applications. Here, our Los…
As immigration lawyers, we help people get green cards, citizenship through naturalization, work visas, and other immigration benefits. Some of our clients have made mistakes in the past and have a criminal history. Here's a line of questions that we sometimes hear from our immigration clients: "My criminal case was a minor offense. And the…
In September, California lawmakers passed a bill to ban private prisons—including private immigration detention facilities. Unfortunately, the early indications are that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is ignoring the ban and possibly attempting to rush contracts through the system before the law can officially go into effect. According to reporting from KTLA 5, ICE…
According to reporting from Spectrum 1 News, the U visa backlog now stands at more than 250,000. The U visa—which provides much needed immigration protections to victims of crime who have cooperated with police and prosecutors—is currently capped at just 10,000 per year. Unfortunately, many people who would otherwise be eligible to obtain a U…
According to reporting from The Daily Beast, Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey has reversed her office’s harsh stance of fighting immigration protections for individuals previously convicted of minor drug offenses, including marijuana-related offenses. In this article, our Los Angeles immigration lawyer explains the change in policy and the potential implications for immigrants charged…
