Law Office of Lina Baroudi

Six years and three presidents later, my client from #Iran was finally granted #asylum!

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, USCIS is again extending flexibility for responses to certain requests for evidence, notices, and decisions issued between March 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021.

Watch this brief news report from MSNBC about the Muslim Ban, which includes an interview with me and my Yemeni client, who has been waiting years to reunite with his wife. We're making it happen! #immigration #MuslimBan #travelban #Yemen

I’m quoted in today’s article from NBC News about the #MuslimBan and the impacted families I represent.

The Federal Register officially extending and redesignating #Syria for #TPS is scheduled to be published tomorrow (Friday). For those anxiously waiting, here is an advance copy of the document. https://www.federalregister.gov//extension-and-redesignati

I gave an interview earlier today on the Muslim Ban/travel ban and how it has affected my clients and continues to devastate families. Stayed tuned for it in the next few days! . . . #muslimban #travelban #immigration #immigrationlaw... #immigrationlawyer #immigrationattorney See more

#TPS has just been announced for #Burma! Only individuals who are already residing in the United States are eligible for TPS. Individuals who can demonstrate continuous residence in the United States as of March 11, 2021, are eligible for TPS under Burma’s designation. Registration instructions have not been released yet.

Congratulations green card applicants! USCIS has removed the Form I-944 page from its website and confirmed that Trump's public charge rule is no longer in effect.

! The Biden Administration has just announced Temporary Protected Status -- #TPS -- for Venezuelans in the U.S. as of March 8, 2021 until September 9, 2022. The 180-registration period begins March 9, 2021 and ends on September 5, 2021. USCIS estimates that approximately 323,000 individuals are... eligible to file applications for TPS under the designation of #Venezuela. *** TPS is a temporary immigration status granted to eligible nationals of a country designated for TPS, or to eligible persons without nationality who last habitually resided in the designated country. During the TPS designation period, TPS beneficiaries are eligible to remain in the United States, may not be removed, and are authorized to obtain EADs so long as they continue to meet the requirements of TPS. TPS beneficiaries may also apply for and be granted travel authorization as a matter of discretion. **Do not travel outside the U.S. without speaking to an experienced attorney**

Just announced: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services today announced it will temporarily suspend in-person services at , . to ensure the safety of our employees and individuals with appointments. USCIS will reschedule individuals who had appointments on Jan. 19 and 20 and send them notices with their new appointment dates. ... #USCIS #inauguration #ByeTrump

Too little, too late For the first time, a senior Trump administration official who helped implement family separation has condemned the hardline immigration policy, which made it possible for the government to take more than 3,000 children, including infants, from their parents at the US-Mexico border in 2018. In response to a damning report published on Thursday by the US justice department’s internal watchdog on the ‘zero-tolerance’ policy, which made family separation possible, the former deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein said the policy ‘should have never been proposed or implemented’.

JUST NOW: Federal judge in Northern CA just blocked the Trump administration’s new (horrible) asylum rules, which were scheduled to go into effect on Monday. Order attached. Great news enjoy the weekend! #immigration #asylum

(/) USCIS has provided an update on delays in scheduling or rescheduling application support center (ASC) appointments to collect biometrics. The update is attached, and some interesting things to note: *Between March-June, 280,000 biometrics appointments were cancelled ... *Previously cancelled appointments have not all been rescheduled yet *USCIS is scheduling approximately 10,400 appointments per day. *As of mid-December, approximately . are awaiting biometrics appointments.

Wishing everyone a healthy and happy new year. Happy immigrating!

Unfortunately, Form I-944 is back on. The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit issued an administrative stay of the District Court decision to vacate the Public Charge rule pending an appeal, which is effective immediately.

Breaking news The public charge rule for green cards has been completely vacated (canceled) by the US District Court in Cook County, Illinois. The judge determined that the rule is unlawful and, as of today, the rule is no longer in effect nationwide. Great way to start the week!! https://www.courtlistener.com//gov.uscourts.ilnd.369026.22

What a wonderful way to end a busy day! Two of my clients’ work permits were approved in just 23 days ! These were initial work permit applications filed under the CASA v. Wolf lawsuit, which is challenging USCIS’s new work permit rules for asylum seekers. Asylum seekers like my clients, who are members of Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, are protected by the Court’s recent preliminary injunction and may be able to apply for employment authorization. Thank you Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, CASA and all of the other organizations for bringing the lawsuit!

Disaster and devastation are guaranteed in a second term under this administration. US CITIZENS, PLEASE VOTE! The architect of Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policy, senior adviser Stephen Miller, is said to have a drawer full of executive orders ready to be signed in ‘shock and awe’ style if Trump is re-elected.... The former homeland security department chief of staff, Miles Taylor, said this wishlist was reserved for the second term because it included policies that were too unpopular for a president seeking re-election. This comes as no surprise to those who have watched and worried as legal pathways to US immigration shut under Trump, and who wonder not just about for more years of him as president, but also of four more years with Miller at his side. [...] Those items are expected to include attempting to eliminate birthright citizenship, making the US citizenship test more difficult to pass, ending the program which protects people from deportation when there is a crisis is their country (Temporary Protected Status) and slashing refugee admissions even further, to zero.

An excellent video by Last Week Tonight with John Oliver about how the current administration has shattered the U.S. asylum system. Watch it and, if you can, don't forget to #VOTE

We are the only organization representing these deported parents who haven’t seen their children in now three years. As we speak we are involved in legal battle...s trying to reunite them. Not saying this to brag, saying it to tell you he’s lying. We’re the ones that are actually there. This administration is doing everything to prevent that reunification. See more

US immigration officers allegedly tortured Cameroonian asylum seekers to force them to sign their own deportation orders, in what lawyers and activists describe as a brutal scramble to fly African migrants out of the country in the run-up to the elections. Many of the Cameroonian migrants in a Mississippi detention centre refused to sign, fearing death at the hands of Cameroonian government forces responsible for widespread civilian killings, and because they had asylum hea...rings pending. According to multiple accounts, detainees were threatened, choked, beaten, pepper-sprayed and threatened with more violence to make them sign. Several were put in handcuffs by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers, and their fingerprints were taken forcibly in place of a signature on documents called stipulated orders of removal, by which the asylum seekers waive their rights to further immigration hearings and accept deportation. Lawyers and human rights advocates said there had been a significant acceleration of deportations in recent weeks, a trend they see as linked to the looming elections and the possibility that Ice could soon be under new management.

Wow, I can’t believe this was 8 years ago! #flashback #immigrationattorney

Lawyers appointed by a federal judge to identify migrant families who were separated by the Trump administration say they have yet to track down the parents of 545 children, and that approximately two-thirds of those parents were deported to Central America without their children, according to a filing from the ACLU on Tuesday. The Trump administration instituted a ‘zero tolerance’ policy in 2018 that separated migrant children and parents at the southern U.S. border. The administration later confirmed that it had actually begun separating families in 2017 along some portions of the border under a pilot program. The ACLU and other pro-bono law firms were tasked with finding the members of families separated during that pilot program.

***Attention Asylum Applicants*** New rule to be published tomorrow which will bar asylum for individuals with certain criminal convictions entered on or after November 20, 2020. The bar will also apply to individuals who are arrested for certain domestic violence offenses, even if not convicted. The new rule will apply to asylum applications filed on or after November 20, 2020. If you have a pending criminal case, immediately: 1) make sure that your criminal defense attorne...y knows about this new rule and knows that you are an immigrant/asylum seeker, 2) consult with an immigration attorney who is knowledgeable in asylum law/criminal-immigration matters, and 3) remind your U.S. citizen friends and family to VOTE. https://www.justice.gov//departments-justice-and-homeland- #asylum #asylumlaw #immigration

The Supreme Court on Monday said it would take up two challenges to President Trump’s immigration initiatives, his diversion of military funds to pay for construction of the southern border wall, and a policy that has required tens of thousands of asylum seekers to remain in Mexico while their claims are processed. The Trump administration had asked the court to intervene in both because of decisions against it in lower courts.... Also in both cases, the justices have previously allowed the administration to proceed with its plans while the merits of the issues were litigated.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported a flight of approximately 100 African asylum seekers to their home countries, where they could face immediate arrest and death. Many of the Cameroonian and Congolese immigrants had protested their detention and spoken out about abuses in U.S. custody. ICE went forward with the deportations on October 13 even after members of Congress attempted to intervene. Detention can be horrific for anyone in ICE custody, but deta...ined African immigrants must also contend with anti-Black racism. Black immigrants are at higher risk of solitary confinement, higher bond amounts to secure their release, prolonged detention, and deportation on criminal grounds. Since February, approximately 40 Cameroonians detained at ICE’s Pine Prairie facility in Louisiana have organized on-and-off protests of their prolonged detention, including hunger strikes. On Juneteentha holiday that celebrates the emancipation of enslaved people in the United Statesprotests reignited due to a lack of COVID-19 prevention measures. ICE has used force and solitary confinement in retaliation against protestors. Cameroonians detained in Louisiana have also reported racist behavior from immigration judges. This behavior includes discrediting Cameroonians’ identification documents, disregarding evidence, pressuring them to give up on their cases, and claiming they will lose their cases and appeal before the judge hears the case.