Washington Bans For-Profit Detention Centers Including Immigration Detention Centers
The Washington State Legislature passed a law, which the Governor signed, banning for profit detention centers in the State of Washington. This also applies to immigration detention centers, which means that the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC), a large for-profit immigration detention center owned by GEO, a private company, will have to be shut down by 2025.
The NWDC is a 1575-bed privately owned, for profit detention center used to detain immigrants pending resolution of removal defense proceedings. GEO has a long-standing relationship with the U.S. government that dates back to the 1980s. GEO operates under multiple contracts with the U.S. government, in particular Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). New York, Illinois, Nevada, and California have all enacted laws similar to the Washington law. In 2019, GEO signed new contracts with ICE for five GEO-owned private detention centers in California with a term of 15 years. Those contracts were expected to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for GEO. GEO sued the State of California over the law and the federal judge presiding over the case ruled largely in favor of the State of California. GEO appealed the ruling and the appeal is pending.
The Biden Administration filed a briefing in the California case in which it adopted the Trump Administration’s arguments that the state law is unconstitutional. The Biden Administration did order agencies not to renew contracts with private prisons but specifically exempted immigration detention facilities from that order. For the time being, the Biden Administration is fighting to maintain the status quo as it relates to immigration detention and keeping immigrants in these for profit, private detention centers. This will leave it to the states to determine whether for-profit detention centers are welcome within their borders. It is highly likely that the Administration will also challenge the Washington law as unconstitutional.
Court of Appeals Clears Path for Trump Administration to End TPS
Temporary Protected Status, or “TPS,” has long been targeted by the Trump Administration as a program it would like to terminate. TPS is available to nationals of certain countries that the Department of Homeland Security has designated as a country to which it is not safe to return or which cannot handle the return of their citizens. In 2018, the government attempted to end TPS for nationals of Sudan, Nicaragua, Haiti, and El Salvador. The government also attempted to end TPS for Nepal and Honduras. A court prevented the government from ending TPS for Sudan, Nicaragua, Haiti, and El Salvador. After that ruling came down, the government also paused its plans to end TPS for Nepal and Honduras while they appealed the court’s decision.
The government appealed the order causing them to postpone ending TPS for the above-mentioned countries to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Unfortunately, the Ninth Circuit held that even though there was evidence that Trump displayed racial animus toward non-white, non-European immigrants, there was no evidence that he sought to influence phasing out TPS. Therefore, barring Supreme Court intervention, the administration is now free to proceed with its plans to phase out TPS.
The government has not yet issued guidance regarding how it plans to implement phasing out TPS. However, you can check this page on the USCIS website for updates. If you have TPS and are curious how this will impact you, please call or email us.
Work Permits and Travel Permits No Longer Bundled with Adjustment of Status Applications
As you know from our prior article, USCIS is raising their fees on October 3, 2020. For more information on the fee increase, please click here. What many applicants do not know is that this will have a severe impact on many adjustment of status applications, also known as I-485s. Prior to the fee increase, adjustment applicants were allowed to file applications for work and travel authorization at no extra cost. This amounted to a savings of almost $1000 in filing fees. Also, you could renew your work and travel permits with no filing fees as long as your green card application was pending.
This is changing on October 3, 2020. As of October 3, 2020, USCIS will require filings fees for work permit and travel applications, even if they are filed with an I-485. Applicants who wish to apply for work and travel permits will now have to pay an additional $550 for a work permit and an additional $590 for a travel permit.
Helpful Tips: If you are currently eligible to file an adjustment of status application, we highly recommend doing so before October 3, 2020. As long as your application is postmarked by October 2, 2020, you will not be subject to the fee increase. If you have a work or travel permit that is expiring within 120 days, you should consider filing your renewal applications before October 3, 2020. Again, as long as your application is postmarked by or before October 2, 2020, you will not be subject to the fee increase.
Have Questions? Feel free to call or email us!
The Current State of DACA - What Applications Will USCIS Accept and What Applications will USCIS Reject?
In a recent order by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Supreme Court rejected the Trump Administration’s termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. It is important to remember that the Court did not rule that DACA is lawful. The Court ruled that the administration’s termination of the program did not comply with the required legal provisions. In a later decision, a federal court ordered USCIS to accept new DACA applications and applications for Advance Parole. However, USCIS is not complying with that order.
Currently, USCIS will accept DACA renewal applications and will issue one-year renewals on a case-by-case basis. It will not grant advance parole documents absent exceptional circumstances. USCIS will reject any applications filed by applicants who have never before been granted DACA. These rejections will likely be the source of many lawsuits in the very near future. Therefore, there may be a benefit to applicants who file new applications even if the applications will be rejected because it could make you eligible for benefits resulting from litigation.