The Fifth Circuit has now erased the constitutional protection that a divided panel recognized only months ago in Sosnava Rodriguez v. Ortega. On October 23, 2026, the en banc court reversed the district courts and held that three longtime Texas residents who entered without inspection were not entitled to a bond hearing before being detained […]
By Cyrus D. Mehta and Manjeeta Chowdhary A federal district court in Nebraska has reopened a consequential debate over how U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services adjudicates EB-1A extraordinary ability petitions. In Agarwal v. Miller, Chief District Judge Brian C. Buescher dismissed a challenge to USCIS’s “final merits determination,” declining to follow the earlier decision in […]
By Cyrus D. Mehta and Manjeeta Chowdhary * The L-1 visa classification appears to pull owner-beneficiaries in two directions. INA § 214(b) permits an L-1 nonimmigrant to pursue permanent residence without forfeiting L-1 eligibility, and an L-1 manager or executive may be sponsored for permanent residence in the EB-1C category under INA § 203(b)(1)(C). Yet […]
DHS General Counsel James Percival’s September 15, 2026 letter to the American Immigration Lawyers Association is troubling not because it reminds lawyers that fraud and frivolous filings are prohibited. No responsible immigration lawyer disputes that. It is troubling because the letter largely collapses the distinction between fraud, frivolousness, and a claim that the government ultimately […]
On September 18, 2026, President Trump issued an executive order entitled Enhancing Program Integrity and Interagency Coordination in the Administration of the H-1B Nonimmigrant Visa Program. Issued alongside a proclamation extending for another year the controversial $100,000 payment requirement for certain H-1B cases, the executive order directs the Departments of Labor, Homeland Security, and State […]
Following defeat in the Supreme Court in Trump v. Barbara on constitutional grounds of a presidential order limiting birthright citizenship, President Trump signed two new executive orders on August 6, 2026, to limit birthright citizenship for those he deems not to “fall within the rule of birthright citizenship announced by the Supreme Court”: Continuing to […]
By Cyrus D Mehta and Damira Zhanatova* The Supreme Court’s decision in Mullin v. Doe is a major setback for TPS holders and a deeply troubling signal about how the Court is willing to treat racialized immigration policy. By allowing the Trump administration to move forward with ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians and […]
By Cyrus D. Mehta and Manjeeta Chowdhary * For many beneficiaries, approval of an O-1 petition by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) feels like the final hurdle has been cleared. After all, USCIS has already reviewed the petition and determined that the beneficiary qualifies for O-1 classification as an individual possessing extraordinary ability or […]
By Cyrus D. Mehta and Manjeeta Chowdhary In our previous blog, we discussed the decision of a district court in Nebraska in Mukherji v. Miller, which relied on Loper Bright principles to overturn an EB-1A denial based on USCIS’s use of the “final merits determination” framework. As explained in that post, the court questioned whether […]
By Cyrus Mehta, Damira Zhanatova and Kaitlyn Box On Monday, June 8, 2026, a Massachusetts federal judge delivered a major decision for employers who rely on the H‑1B program. In State of California et al. v. Markwayne Mullin et al., U.S. District Judge Leo T. Sorokin ruled that President Donald Trump’s $100,000 payment requirement on […]
