US Immigration News

House Democrats are reportedly pushing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to stop working with local and state police on US immigration. 60 Democrats have called for an end to the 287(g) program, which allows the DHS to enter into agreements with local and state police departments.

 

A recent executive order issued by President Biden has given the go ahead for a review of the US special immigrant visa (SIV) that’s issued to Afghan and Iraqi citizens who have helped the US military. The SIV program currently faces a backlog of tens of thousands of applications.

 

Caleb Watney, Doug Rand, and Lindsay Milliken of the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) and the Federation of American Scientists have urged the Biden administration to ‘revive’ the US start-up visa. Under former US President, Donald Trump, legislation for a start-up visa was repeatedly delayed.

 

The US H1B visa registration process for 2022 will open on March 9, just days after the Biden administration announced that the H1B visa lottery would remain until the end of the year. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that registration would remain open until 12 noon on March 25.

 

After recent failed attempts made to allow access to US E3 visas for citizens of Ireland, a Democratic Congressman has criticized the lack of legal US immigration options for Irish nationals. Congressman Brendan Boyle said he was ‘saddened’ by the lack of Irish emigration to the United States.  

Boyle, the Congress representative for Philadelphia, is now urging the Biden administration to reform US immigration rules to allow for increased emigration from Ireland to the US.

The Biden administration has announced it will continue with the existing H1B visa lottery system until the end of 2021, rather than introducing a wage-based selection process proposed by Trump. The biggest beneficiaries of the H1B visa lottery are Indian IT professionals who receive approximately two-thirds of all H1B visas issued annually.