Joanna Schaffer, Immigration Lawyer

10/03/2021

DHS Secretary issued new enforcement priorities on Sept.30. The new misses to identify people to prioritize for protection, as advocates have called for.

06/21/2021

The Biden administration intends to move away from the Trump era, in everything from legal immigration to asylum and the border.

12/23/2020

A judge ruled that a nationwide class of individuals should have access to their immigration files—called A-Files—within the timeframes outlined in the law.

04/14/2020

Immigrants who file for unemployment or other government benefits during the coronavirus pandemic won't have it count against the public charge rule.

10/27/2019

Beginning in December, all New Yorkers will be able to apply for a driver’s license—regardless of immigration status. The Driver’s License Access and Privacy Act, or “Green Light” bill, passed the New York Senate in June. Oregon passed a similar bill, the Equal Access to Roads Act, that mo...

06/24/2019

USCIS is beginning to transfer cases out of its busiest offices to even out the processing times across the country. Transferred cases will go to USCIS offices that have more manageable workloads.

02/12/2019

Under President Trump, the backlog of applications at USCIS doubled in the span of only one year. This is causing needless harm to immigrants.

01/15/2019

“America is a low immigration nation.”

This is contrary to common perception. An interesting read!

By any reasonable metric, “mass” immigration is a myth. The reality is that America desperately needs to pick up the pace of immigration for its economic health.

01/12/2019

With our immigration policies, we are losing talent. Other countries seek to attract the best and the brightest. We are pushing them away. What are we doing?

“Moving to Canada” is no longer a punchline — it’s a business plan.

01/10/2019

Predictions on immigration in 2019.

Yet more litigation, congressional action, a worsening immigration court backlog and new, daring programs by the Trump administration are all highly likely in 2019, immigration court watchers say.

01/05/2019

Roughly 25 percent of the federal government closed on December 22 after President Trump declared his intent to veto any funding bill that didn’t contain five billion dollars for building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Thirteen days later, much of the government remains on a shutdown, with R...

01/01/2019

Happy New Year 2019!