USCIS has posted additional data related to employment-based visa programs, including L-1, H-1B, H-2B, and EADs, in support of President Trump’s “Buy American and Hire American” Executive Order. For more information, see the USCIS post.

The National Immigration Project has published a legal memorandum, “Understanding the Federal Offenses of Harboring, Transporting, Smuggling, and Encouraging under 8 USC § 1324(a).” The memo, which could be useful in defending worksite enforcement actions by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, notes growing concern that federal law enforcement could expansively interpret the criminal statutes penalizing “harboring, transporting, smuggling, and encouraging codified at 8 USC § 1324(a) and use the federal investigation and prosecution process to chill and retaliate against immigrant organizing, know-your-rights initiatives, and political dissent.” The memo analyzes related legal authority, with particular attention to the harboring provision. The memo’s goal is “to provide lawyers, legal workers, organizers, and community-based organizations with general legal knowledge about these federal criminal offenses, their consequences, and the federal investigation and prosecution process.”

Advisories and tips:

  • Community Advisory: Social Media, Criminalization, and Immigration has been published by the National Lawyers Guild’s National Immigration Project. This advisory summarizes ways in which immigration agents may use social media against those in removal proceedings or involved in criminal cases.
  • How to safeguard your data from searches at the border is the topic of several recent articles and blogs.
  • Airport Lawyer is a free web app that is intended to help ensure that travelers are treated fairly at airports. Arrivals information can be securely passed along to large groups of volunteer attorneys who have been organized to monitor arrivals.
  • Listings and links to cases challenging executive orders, and related available pleadings, are available at the Lawfare website.
  • DACA Revocation Advisor helps people determine how their Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) eligibility is affected by the recent Trump administration action to terminate the program in six months. See https://visalaw.neotalogic.com/a/dacamobile.