Entries by Cyrus Mehta

The Impossible Feat of Determining Who is an “Illegal Alien” Under Trump’s Unconstitutional Census Executive Order

In line with other xenophobic actions too numerous to keep tabs on, President Trump issued a Presidential Memorandum dated July 21, 2020 entitled “Memorandum on Excluding Illegal Aliens From the Apportionment Base Following the 2020 Census.” From the title itself, it is readily obvious that the Trump administration does not intend to count undocumented or […]

The Real Threat to the US Economy is Trump’s Proclamation, Not the Nonimmigrant Workers it Bans

By Cyrus D. Mehta and Kaitlyn Box* President Trump has mastered the Dark Arts of immigration bans. On June 22, 2020, Trump signed yet another Presidential Proclamation further restricting immigration into the United States. The new proclamation is an extension of the previous proclamation issued on April 22, 2020 that suspends certain green card applications […]

Reflecting on the Supreme Court DACA Decision in Comparison to Trump’s Immigration Bans

On June 18, 2020, the Supreme Court in Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California ruled that Elaine C. Duke, then-Acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) in 2017 when she rescinded the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, in place since […]

Ethics for Immigration Lawyers During COVID-19

Based on my video presentation at a  Practising Law Institute One Hour Briefing  entitled Ethics and Immigration: Spotlight on Select Rules and Client Representation during Covid-19, I drew up some frequently answered questions (FAQs) that might be helpful to  immigration lawyers. Immigration lawyers have adapted to work remotely from home during the Covid-19 pandemic, which […]

Using a Sledgehammer to Crack a Nut: Trump Proclamation Bans Chinese Students and Researchers Linked to China’s “Military-Civil Fusion Strategy”

President Trump has issued a proclamation limiting Chinese students wishing to study in the United States to undergraduates under certain conditions, and limiting Chinese researchers. The proclamation states that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) uses some Chinese students, mostly post-graduate students and post-doctoral researchers, to operate as “non-traditional collectors of intellectual property” in the […]

The Differing Impact of Foreign Entity Changes on an L-1 Extension and EB-1(C) Petition

By Cyrus D. Mehta and Rebekah Kim U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has issued a final policy memorandum designating Matter of F-M- Co. as an Adopted Administrative Appeals Office Decision. The decision clarifies that for employment-based first preference category multinational executives or managers, a petitioner must have a qualifying relationship with the beneficiary’s foreign employer at […]