Miller Mayer immigration attorney Steve Yale-Loehr was quoted by Radio Free Asia in “US Visa Extension to Offer 18-Month Work Permit to ‘Eligible’ Hongkongers.” Referring to President Biden’s memorandum issued August 5, 2021, allowing Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) for “certain Hong Kong residents,” along with the right to work for 18 months, Steve said the move was a good first step but that more is needed: “There are many things that could be done to help Hongkongers in the U.S. First, the president can extend the initial 18-month period. Second, Congress can pass a law giving them the avenue to obtain green cards in the United States.” He added that a similar law was passed to aid Chinese students and former members of the 1989 pro-democracy movement at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square and elsewhere in China. Read the full article here.
Steve was quoted by Univision in “How the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001 Brought Down Immigration Reform.” Steve said, “In 2001 President George Bush seemed ready to push for comprehensive immigration reform in Congress. The 9/11 terrorist attacks changed all that. Suddenly, instead of thinking of immigrants in a positive light, Americans perceived them as threats to national security. For that reason, when Congress created DHS in 2003, it moved the immigration office to that new ministry. At some point the legislature will have to fix our broken immigration system. However, given the current political fractures, it is possible that this will not happen soon.” Read the full article here (Spanish, with English translation available).