Headlines:

Mayorkas Impeached; Conviction in Senate Appears Unlikely – After a earlier failed try and impeach Secretary of Homeland Safety Alejandro Mayorkas, Republicans within the Home of Representatives succeeded in impeaching Mr. Mayorkas on February 13. Conviction within the Senate appears extremely unlikely.

President Orders Deferred Enforced Departure for Palestinians in america – On February 14, 2024, President Biden directed the Secretary of Homeland Safety to grant Deferred Enforced Departure to Palestinians in america for 18 months, with some exceptions.

ETA Extends Remark Interval for Responses to PERM Schedule A Request for Data – ETA stated it has acquired “a really restricted variety of feedback, only some of which have responded to the questions posed within the RFI.” The general public remark interval has been prolonged to Could 13, 2024.

CIS Ombudsman Releases Tips about Find out how to Keep away from Getting Locked Out of Your USCIS Account – The ideas embrace easy methods to create a powerful password, the significance of logging in frequently to keep up entry, what to do when locked out, easy methods to reset a password, safety concerns, and the way USCIS’s Technical Assist Desk works to help with account entry.

ETA Updates Allowable Prices for Agricultural Employees’ Meals and for Journey Reimbursement, Together with Lodging – The Employment and Coaching Administration introduced updates to the allowable financial prices that employers of H-2A staff, in occupations apart from herding or manufacturing of livestock on the vary, could cost staff when the employer supplies three meals per day. The annual discover additionally introduced the utmost journey subsistence meal reimbursement a employee with receipts could declare underneath the H-2A and H-2B applications, and reminded employers of their obligations regarding in a single day lodging prices as a part of required subsistence.

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Mayorkas Impeached; Conviction in Senate Appears Unlikely

After a earlier failed try and impeach Secretary of Homeland Safety Alejandro Mayorkas on February 6, 2024, Republicans within the Home of Representatives succeeded in impeaching Mr. Mayorkas on February 13 with a vote of 214-213. Republicans accused Mr. Mayorkas of failing to keep up operational management of the border, amongst different issues.

The Senate will subsequent take into account the articles of impeachment after February 26, 2024, after they return. The Senate has quite a lot of choices, together with voting to dismiss, acquit, or convict Mr. Mayorkas, amongst different issues. Conviction, which might require a two-thirds majority vote, is taken into account extremely unlikely. A vote to dismiss, against this, would wish only a easy majority. Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) stated the impeachment effort can be “lifeless on arrival” within the Senate.

Response from immigration advocates was sharp. American Immigration Legal professionals Affiliation (AILA) Govt Director Ben Johnson referred to as the impeachment effort “politically motivated.” He stated, “The accusations that Secretary Mayorkas breached ‘public belief’ proceed to ring hole given he was implementing coverage as Cupboard Secretaries have performed all through American historical past,” and “[w]eaponizing the impeachment course of is each unconstitutional and harmful for the way forward for a functioning authorities.” Jeremy Robbins, government director of the American Immigration Council, stated, “All this political grandstanding round Mayorkas does completely nothing to deal with our challenges on the border.”

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Again to High

President Orders Deferred Enforced Departure for Palestinians in america

On February 14, 2024, President Biden directed the Secretary of Homeland Safety to grant Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) to Palestinians in america for 18 months, with some exceptions. He additional directed the Secretary to authorize employment for Palestinian noncitizens whose elimination has been deferred during such deferral, and “to think about suspending regulatory necessities with respect to F-1 nonimmigrant college students who’re Palestinians.” The Biden administration stated it’s taking these actions to provide Palestinians in america a “momentary protected haven” as a result of deteriorating humanitarian circumstances in Gaza.

The memorandum lists exceptions to DED for Palestinians, together with those that haven’t constantly resided in america since February 14, 2024, who’ve voluntarily returned to the Palestinian territories after that date, who’re inadmissible underneath sure provisions of U.S. immigration regulation or topic to extradition, who’ve been convicted of any felony or two or extra misdemeanors dedicated in america, or who the Secretary deems a hazard to public security.

In keeping with reviews, about 6,000 Palestinians are eligible for DED underneath the memorandum.

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Again to High

ETA Extends Remark Interval for Responses to PERM Schedule A Request for Data

The Division of Labor’s Employment and Coaching Administration (ETA) has prolonged the remark interval for responses to its PERM Schedule A Request for Data (RFI). ETA stated it has acquired “a really restricted variety of feedback, only some of which have responded to the questions posed within the RFI.” The general public remark interval was set to conclude on February 20, 2024, however has been prolonged to Could 13, 2024.

As background, on December 21, 2023, ETA revealed the RFI, soliciting public enter on potential revisions to Schedule A of the everlasting labor certification course of to incorporate occupations in science, expertise, engineering, and arithmetic (STEM), together with synthetic intelligence-related occupations and non-STEM occupations, for which there could also be an inadequate variety of prepared, prepared, in a position, and certified U.S. staff.

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Again to High

CIS Ombudsman Releases Tips about Find out how to Keep away from Getting Locked Out of Your USCIS Account

On February 14, 2024, the Workplace of the Citizenship and Immigration Providers (CIS) Ombudsman launched a tip sheet on how individuals with particular person U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Providers (USCIS) on-line accounts can keep entry and keep away from getting locked out of their accounts.

The ideas embrace easy methods to create a powerful password, the significance of logging in frequently to keep up entry (the tip sheet suggests “as soon as a month or as soon as each few months”), what to do when locked out, easy methods to reset a password, safety concerns, and the way USCIS’s Technical Assist Desk works to help with account entry.

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ETA Updates Allowable Prices for Agricultural Employees’ Meals and for Journey Reimbursement, Together with Lodging

On February 13, 2024, the Division of Labor’s Employment and Coaching Administration (ETA) introduced updates to the allowable financial prices that employers of H-2A momentary agricultural staff, in occupations apart from herding or manufacturing of livestock on the vary, could cost staff when the employer supplies three meals per day. The annual discover additionally introduced the utmost journey subsistence meal reimbursement a employee with receipts could declare underneath the H-2A and H-2B momentary nonagricultural applications, and reminded employers of their obligations with respect to in a single day lodging prices as a part of required subsistence.

The discover supplies that:

• The up to date most allowable cost has elevated from $15.46 to $15.88 per day, until the Workplace of Overseas Labor Certification’s Certifying Officer approves the next cost.
• The usual meals-and-incidental-expenses (M&IE) fee is $59 per day for 2024. Employees who qualify for journey reimbursement are entitled to reimbursement for meals as much as the usual M&IE fee after they present receipts. In figuring out the suitable quantity of reimbursement for meals for lower than a full day, the employer could restrict the meal expense reimbursement, with receipts, to 75 % of the utmost reimbursement for meals, or $44.25, primarily based on the Common Providers Administration’s per diem schedule.

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