Statement on the rescission of DACA

Dear Clients, Friends, and Community –

Like many of you, we are dismayed at President Trump’s rescission of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. DACA  enabled 800,000 of our neighbors to come out of the shadows and be an unafraid part of the nation to which they already belong. We stand with them today in calling on Congress to enact a humane solution.

We are following legal developments and will carefully consider strategies and implications for our clients as information becomes available.

For those of you in the San Francisco Bay Area, DACA supporters are gathering at the San Francisco Federal Building at 5:00PM today.

In solidarity,
Jewell Stewart & Pratt PC

© Jewell Stewart & Pratt PC 2017

Ninth Circuit Decision on Travel Ban 2.0

News Release from Jewell Stewart & Pratt PC

On June 12, 2017 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued an order upholding the District Court’s decision to block President Trump’s second Executive Order regarding travel and refugee admissions (i.e., “Travel Ban 2.0”).

The Ninth Circuit’s order states that “the President, in issuing the Executive Order, exceeded the scope of the authority delegated to him by Congress” and that “the Order runs afoul of other provisions of the INA that prohibit nationality-based discrimination.” The court affirmed the lower court’s decision to enjoin the travel ban and prevent suspension or limitations to the refugee program. However, the court also vacated the lower court’s decision to prevent the government’s internal reviews of visa issuance procedures.

The Ninth Circuit’s decision follows on the heels of the Fourth Circuit’s May 25, 2017 decision also blocking the ban. The administration is already seeing U.S. Supreme Court review of the Fourth Circuit decision.

© Jewell Stewart & Pratt PC 2017

Update: State Department now using Form DS-5535, Supplemental Questions for Visa Applicants

News Release from Jewell Stewart & Pratt PC – June 5, 2017 As noted in our prior post, the Department of State recently published a Notice of request for emergency approval by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for its new form, Form DS-5535, Supplemental Questions for Visa Applicants. The form was designed to collect extra information from visa applicants who have been determined to warrant additional scrutiny in connection with terrorism or other national security-related visa ineligibility.

According to a news report from The Washington Post, Form DS-5535 was approved by the OMB and has been in use at U.S. embassies and consulates since May 25, 2017. A copy of the form is currently available on the U.S. Embassy and Consulates in Turkey website. The extra information it collects includes:

• Countries visited over the last fifteen years
• Email addresses used in the past five years
• Social media handles and aliases used in the past five years

Form DS-5535 is authorized on an emergency basis through November 2017, but as The Washington Post article notes, it is expected to be authorized on a permanent basis.

© Jewell Stewart & Pratt PC 2017

USCIS reports 27.7% increase in applications for U.S. citizenship

News Release from Jewell Stewart & Pratt PC – June 4, 2017 On April 30, 2017, U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) released data related to the number of applications and petitions it processed in the first quarter of its 2017 fiscal year (October 1, 2016 to December 31, 2016). The number of N-400 applications for naturalization was 239,628, compared with 187,635 for the same period in the prior fiscal year – an increase of 27.7%.

Current and historical USCIS data on Form N-400 applications can be found at the USCIS website here. Further coverage of the spike in naturalization applications can be found in the May 30, 2017 edition of the Daily Journal legal newspaper, for which Jewell Stewart & Pratt PC principal Claire Pratt was interviewed and quoted.

© Jewell Stewart & Pratt PC 2017