Immigration

July 09, 2024
DOL Defends H-2A Farmworkers' Rule

The U.S. Department of Labor has argued that it has had the authority to regulate labor protections for foreign H-2A farmworkers for about 40 years, telling a Georgia federal court that 17 Republican attorneys general and two entities cannot halt a rule that just went into effect.
July 09, 2024
Buchalter Debuts Immigration Group, Adds 2 Karr Tuttle Attys

Buchalter PC has hired two attorneys for its Seattle office to complement its new immigration practice group.
July 08, 2024
Migrants Want Another Try In Martha's Vineyard Flight Suit

Several migrants who claim they were tricked into boarding flights to Martha's Vineyard have asked a Massachusetts federal judge to let them file an amended suit in an effort to cure the jurisdictional issues that doomed the initial complaint in March.
July 08, 2024
Federal Circuit Doubts Impropriety Of $4K H-1B Fraud Fee

A Federal Circuit panel seemed unpersuaded Monday by an argument from software companies that a $4,000 fraud fee for H-1B visa petitions does not apply to noncitizens in the U.S. seeking to change their nonimmigrant visa status to H-1B.
July 08, 2024
8th Circ. Won't Review Immigration Hardship Determination

A split Eighth Circuit panel held Monday that it can't review whether a Mexican man's U.S. citizen children will experience extreme hardship if he's removed, saying the underlying decision denying him removal relief is discretionary and therefore shielded from judicial review.
July 08, 2024
Amazon Must Face Podcast Defamation Suit, ICE Doc Says

A former physician at a Georgia immigration facility who says he was falsely accused of performing forced hysterectomies on detainees has urged a federal judge not to let Amazon and podcast publisher Wondery distance themselves from a podcast episode that dubbed him "The Uterus Collector."
July 05, 2024
How Reshaped Circuit Courts Are Faring At The High Court

Seminal rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court's latest term will reshape many facets of American society in the coming years. Already, however, the rulings offer glimpses of how the justices view specific circuit courts, which have themselves been reshaped by an abundance of new judges.
July 05, 2024
Breaking Down The Vote: The High Court Term In Review

The U.S. Supreme Court's lethargic pace of decision-making this term left the justices to issue a slew of highly anticipated and controversial rulings during the term's final week — rulings that put the court's ideological divisions on vivid display. Here, Law360 takes a data dive into the numbers behind this court term.
July 05, 2024
High Court Flexes Muscle To Limit Administrative State

The U.S. Supreme Court's dismantling of a 40-year-old judicial deference doctrine, coupled with rulings stripping federal agencies of certain enforcement powers and exposing them to additional litigation, has established the October 2023 term as likely the most consequential in administrative law history.
July 05, 2024
The Sharpest Dissents From The Supreme Court Term

The U.S. Supreme Court's session ended with a series of blockbuster cases that granted the president broad immunity, changed federal gun policy and kneecapped administrative agencies. And many of the biggest decisions fell along partisan lines.
July 05, 2024
5 Moments That Shaped The Supreme Court's Jan. 6 Decision

When the high court limited the scope of a federal obstruction statute used to charge hundreds of rioters who stormed the Capitol, the justices did not vote along ideological lines. In a year marked by 6-3 splits, what accounts for the departure? Here are some moments from oral arguments that may have swayed the justices.
July 05, 2024
The Funniest Moments Of The Supreme Court's Term

In a U.S. Supreme Court term teeming with serious showdowns, the august air at oral arguments filled with laughter after an attorney mentioned her plastic surgeon and a justice seemed to diss his colleagues, to cite just two of the term's mirthful moments. Here, we look at the funniest moments of the term.
July 05, 2024
Colo. Appeals Court Invalidates Sheriff's ICE Agreement

The Colorado Court of Appeals has ruled that a state law prohibits an agreement between the Teller County Sheriff's Office and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement permitting state and local law enforcement to arrest and detain noncitizens.
July 05, 2024
Justices Told Revoked Visa Petition Is Reviewable

A woman whose visa petition for her Palestinian husband was revoked two years after being approved urged the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that courts can review secondary decisions, saying that lower courts' refusal to do so creates an irrational system in which only initial decisions can be reviewed.
July 05, 2024
The Firms That Won Big At The Supreme Court

This U.S. Supreme Court term featured high-stakes oral arguments on issues including gerrymandering, abortion and federal agency authority, and a hot bench ever more willing to engage in a lengthy back-and-forth with advocates. Here's a look at the law firms that argued the most cases and how they fared.
July 05, 2024
Farmworkers Union Wins Partial Block Of DOL Wage Rules

A Washington federal judge partly blocked U.S. Department of Labor rules on prevailing wage rates that a union claimed depressed farmworkers' wages, saying the agency failed to consider effects on workers and must reinstate wage rates from 2020.
July 05, 2024
How A Mayer Brown-Led Coalition Secured 143 Asylum Grants

A Mayer Brown LLP-led coalition of 20 law firms celebrated a major pro bono victory after recently securing asylum for 143 Asian University for Women students who the firm helped evacuate from Afghanistan in 2021.
July 03, 2024
Chevron Irrelevant To Spouse Work Permit Case, Group Says

The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that courts don't have to defer to federal agencies' interpretations of ambiguous statutes doesn't pertain to a lawsuit challenging an Obama-era program allowing work permits for spouses of highly skilled foreign workers, a nonprofit group intervening in the case told the D.C. Circuit.
July 03, 2024
Guo Witnesses Point To Chinese Harassment Of Dissidents

Defense witnesses in the $1 billion fraud trial of Miles Guo told a Manhattan federal jury Wednesday that the Chinese dissident is a prime target of "Operation Fox Hunt," an alleged program within China's government that aims to silence and repatriate critics of the regime.
July 03, 2024
Asylum-Seeking Families Split At Border Get $1.3M Deal OK'd

An Arizona federal judge on Tuesday signed off on a $1.3 million settlement that the federal government reached with families who were separated at the southern border in 2018 amid the Trump administration's zero-tolerance policy that prosecuted migrants who entered the U.S. illegally.
July 03, 2024
9th Circ. Says Carjacking Is Not Reason For Removal

The Ninth Circuit has ruled the 2006 carjacking conviction of a Salvadoran immigrant isn't enough to deport him because carjacking alone "is not a categorical crime of violence" under federal law.
July 03, 2024
4 Mass. Rulings You Might Have Missed In June

Massachusetts state courts last month dealt with thorny contract disputes, mistakenly disclosed emails between a defendant and an attorney, and a company's overtime policy change that may not have been spelled out to workers.
July 03, 2024
Feds Call Delayed Asylum Bid Reasonable Amid Backlogs

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is urging a Florida federal court to rule that it's not unreasonable for one man's asylum application to still be processing after four years and counting in light of the asylum backlogs at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
July 03, 2024
After Chevron Deference: What Lawyers Need To Know

This term, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Chevron deference, a precedent established 40 years ago that said when judges could defer to federal agencies' interpretations of law in rulemaking. Here, catch up with Law360's coverage of what is likely to happen next.
July 02, 2024
Immigration Attys Cautiously Optimistic After Chevron Ruling

The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that courts no longer have to defer to federal agencies' interpretations of ambiguous statutes could help some immigrants fight removal orders while serving as a buffer against partisan challenges to executive immigration actions.

Expert Analysis

Series

Inside Immigration Court: The Pros, Cons Of Remote Hearings

Technology introduced during the pandemic has improved the quality and efficiency of virtual immigration court hearings, but concerns still linger over the court system's ability to provide full and complete simultaneous interpretation in these hearings, as well as its effect on due process, says Immigration Judge Mimi Tsankov.
Perspectives

How Attorneys Can Help Combat Anti-Asian Hate

Amid an exponential increase in violence against Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, unique obstacles stand in the way of accountability and justice — but lawyers can effect powerful change by raising awareness, offering legal representation, advocating for victims’ rights and more, say attorneys at Gibson Dunn.
Opinion

Congress Needs To Enact A Federal Anti-SLAPP Statute

Although many states have passed statutes meant to prevent individuals or entities from filing strategic lawsuits against public participation, other states have not, so it's time for Congress to enact a federal statute to ensure that free speech and petitioning rights are uniformly protected nationwide in federal court, say attorneys at Skadden.
Some Client Speculations On AI And The Law Firm Biz Model

Generative artificial intelligence technologies will put pressure on the business of law as it is structured currently, but clients may end up with more price certainty for legal services, and lawyers may spend more time being lawyers, says Jonathan Cole at Melody Capital.
New Foreign Labor Certification Form Brings Complications

Ambiguities in a question on the Office of Foreign Labor Certification's new application for permanent employment certification could serve as a trap for attorneys and sponsoring employers, as it's unclear how it will be interpreted by both the OFLC and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, says Michael Morton at Fakhoury Global.
Ensuring I-9 Compliance As Remote Flexibility Sunsets

Employers that took advantage of remote document inspection in their I-9 employment eligibility verification processes under COVID-19 accommodations must physically reinspect such documents and make other adjustments to bring their records into compliance before Aug. 30, say attorneys at Duane Morris.
A Lawyer's Guide To Approaching Digital Assets In Discovery

The booming growth of cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens has made digital assets relevant in many legal disputes but also poses several challenges for discovery, so lawyers must garner an understanding of the technology behind these assets, the way they function, and how they're held, says Brett Sager at Ehrenstein Sager.
Opinion

High Court's Ethics Statement Places Justices Above The Law

The U.S. Supreme Court justices' disappointing statement on the court's ethics principles and practices reveals that not only are they satisfied with a status quo in which they are bound by fewer ethics rules than other federal judges, but also that they've twisted the few rules that do apply to them, says David Janovsky at the Project on Government Oversight.
Series

Inside Immigration Court: Making The Case For Bond Release

Immigration Judge Samuel Cole offers a guide to help attorneys practicing in immigration court — against a backdrop of high stakes and fast-moving dockets — better prepare for bond hearings, so proceedings run more smoothly and with less delay.
Opinion

Time For Law Schools To Rethink Unsung Role Of Adjuncts

As law schools prepare for the fall 2023 semester, administrators should reevaluate the role of the underappreciated, indispensable adjunct, and consider 16 concrete actions to improve the adjuncts' teaching experience, overall happiness and feeling of belonging, say T. Markus Funk at Perkins Coie, Andrew Boutros at Dechert and Eugene Volokh at UCLA.
Tips For In-House Legal Leaders In A Challenging Economy

Amid today's economic and geopolitical uncertainty, in-house legal teams are running lean and facing increased scrutiny and unique issues, but can step up and find innovative ways to manage outcomes and capitalize on good business opportunities, says Tim Parilla at LinkSquares.
Minimizing Discrimination Risks In Export Control Compliance

A recently issued U.S. Department of Justice fact sheet on avoiding immigration-related discrimination in U.S. export control compliance should help employers learn to walk a tightrope to ensure their good faith compliance efforts do not unintentionally create risks, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.
What Associates Need To Know Before Switching Law Firms

Excerpt from Practical Guidance

The days of staying at the same firm for the duration of one's career are mostly a thing of the past as lateral moves by lawyers are commonplace, but there are several obstacles that associates should consider before making a move, say attorneys at HWG.
A Case For Sharing Mediation Statements With Counterparties

In light of a potential growing mediation trend of only submitting statements to the mediator, litigants should think critically about the pros and cons of exchanging statements with opposing parties as it could boost the chances of reaching a settlement, says Arthur Eidelhoch at Eidelhoch Mediation.
EB-5 Reform Continues To Weigh Heavily On Participants

Recent U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services guidance helps clarify aspects of the 2022 EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act, which increased oversight of EB-5 regional centers, but does not end the industry's continuing state of uncertainty, says Robert Divine at Baker Donelson.