On June 25, 2012, the US Supreme Court, in a 5-3 decision, issued its much anticipated decision in Arizona v. United States [pdf], striking down three provisions of the Arizona law S.B. 1070, and upholding a fourth. The case arose from the State of Arizona’s appeal of an injunction blocking four parts of the immigration … Continue Reading
The US Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) announced that the 2013 fiscal year quota of 65,000 H-1B visas (the “H-1B visa cap”) was exhausted on June 11, 2012. To put this in context, last year’s quota lasted until November and the previous year’s until January. This means that US employers who need certain specialty skilled … Continue Reading
So were the words of Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor to the Solicitor General Donald Verrilli during last week’s oral argument in Arizona v. United States, as she challenged the government’s position that the Constitution and the doctrine of preemption prevents states from mandating their law enforcement officers to conduct immigration status checks. Such a challenge … Continue Reading
It’s summertime and the immigration debate is heating up again. On the heels of a recent Supreme Court decision upholding the mandatory E-Verify provision of Arizona’s Legal Arizona Workers Act (A.R.S. §§23-211 to 23-214) (LAWA) (see our recent client alert for details), two competing business oriented immigration bills were introduced in Congress this week. Shortly … Continue Reading
According to recent reports, the US Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) team has begun a new wave of illegal working audits, targeting employers in industries including fast-food, retail, hospitality and agriculture. These new “silent raids” are consistent with the Administration’s strategy of targeting employers in lieu of worksite round-ups of unauthorized … Continue Reading
