June 9, 2017|Contributed by: Jennifer Howard
In April, following the appearance of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents near a charter high school in west Denver and at the Lindsey-Flanigan Courthouse in downtown Denver, Colorado, Mayor Hancock and a number of other city and county leaders sent a letter to the local ICE office requesting that the agency adhere to […]
June 8, 2017|Contributed by: Joseph & Hall P.C.
Customs and Border Protection, (“CBP”) is implementing a new program to remind certain travelers of their last possible departure date from the United States. CBP will start the program for travelers eligible for the visa waiver program (“VWP”). CBP plans to expand this program to other categories of nonimmigrant visas. To check their admitted until […]
May 30, 2017|Contributed by: Jennifer Howard
On Thursday, May 25, 2017, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Virginia upheld the block of Trump’s travel and refugee ban to prevent it from being implemented. The executive order in question, issued in late January by the newly-instated head of state, resulted in hundreds of people being detained in airports by Customs and […]
May 26, 2017|Contributed by: Courtney Sommer
The Denver City Council unanimously voted to pass a proposal that could help immigrants facing low-level city court criminal sentences. Before this proposal was passed, the Denver city code allowed for a maximum penalty of one year in jail for any city ordinance violation. The new code will divide city ordinance violations into three categories […]
May 25, 2017|Contributed by: Aaron C. Hall, Esq.
The maximum possible sentence for a criminal offense often impacts the potential immigration consequences for conviction. In particular, whether an offense has the potential to render a noncitizen deportable may depend on whether the maximum possible sentence is one year or longer under 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(i). Until now, Denver municipal offenses generally carried a […]
May 25, 2017|Contributed by: Joseph & Hall P.C.
The H-2B cap for Fiscal Year 2017 (October 1, 2016 – September 30, 2017) was reached on March 13, 2017 (in less than six months). From January 1-7, 2017, the Department of Labor (DOL) received 2,971 applications requesting more than 51,000 positions for the 33,000 H-2B visas available for the second half of the fiscal […]
May 2, 2017|Contributed by: Jeff D. Joseph, Esq.
Congress has reached a bipartisan agreement on a bill to fund the federal government through September 30, 2017, which includes some limited H-2B cap relief. The bill provides the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of Labor, the authority to raise the H-2B cap when he determines that there is an economic […]
April 27, 2017|Contributed by: Courtney E. Butler, Esq.
A federal district court judge in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California has issued a nationwide preliminary injunction blocking the enforcement of President Trump’s executive order targeting “sanctuary cities.” This is the second successful legal challenge to Trump’s executive order after several federal court injunctions were issued against the travel […]
April 27, 2017|Contributed by: Jennifer Howard
Under current state law, a Colorado resident who cannot provide proof of lawful presence in the United States can make an appointment* with the state Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to obtain a “special” Colorado driver’s license, permit, or identification (ID) card. These licenses, permits, and ID cards are not valid for federal identification purposes […]
April 26, 2017|Contributed by: Joseph & Hall P.C.
Although people in immigration detention face similar deprivations of liberty as criminal detainees, there is a key difference regarding how their cases are treated in court. While criminal detainees have the right to a public defender if they cannot afford one, immigration detainees do not. However, New York City changed this reality at the New […]
