Law Offices of David J. Semaan

The January 27, 2017 executive order has been temporarily halted by a federal district judge in the state of Washington. The decision was appealed by the Trump administration this weekend. The appeals court of the 9th circuit denied the Justice Department's request for an immediate reinstatement of the executive order. This is good news for anyone who was affected by the travel ban. It is my understanding that everything is back to normal for the time being. I would highly r...ecommend that anyone who was stuck outside of the United States because of the ban, travel immediately to the United States. We are not sure how long the executive order stay will remain in place. If you have any questions please give me a call at 619-387-8328.

Hello Everyone, I have an update to yesterday's post. After doing some research it seems that all the Asylum offices across the United States are putting cases from the banned countries on hold for at least the next 90 days. My understanding is that this temporary hold, only relates to final decisions rendered by USCIS. This does not mean that asylum cases will be automatically dismissed, or that asylees will be automatically deported from the United States. USCIS is still ...accepting new asylum cases and is conducting asylum interviews as usual. If you have any questions please feel free to reach out to my office at 619-387-8328.

On January 27, 2017 President Trump signed an executive order that suspended resettlement of Syrian refugees indefinitely, suspended all other refugee resettlement for 120 days, and banned the entry of nationals from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen for 90 days. I have received many phone calls from distraught clients over the last couple of days asking me how this order will effect their pending asylum claims, and pending immigration cases. People are genu...inely scared that they will either be denied entry to the United States or will be deported. Due to the vague wording of the executive order it is not entirely clear what is meant by "nationals". Under the executive order It is quite possible that lawful permanent residents (LPRs) could be denied re-entry into the United States. There have been some reports of LPRs being detained by the Department of Homeland Security after returning from trips abroad. Because of this risk, I am warning anyone who is from one of these 7 countries not to travel outside of the United States for the time being. As for Asylum seekers who are already in the United States, the executive order should not directly impact their cases, because asylees and refugees are two separate categories. Asylum law is controlled by the Immigration and Nationality Act Section 208. The president of the United States cannot rescind Section 208 with an executive order. My office will be reaching out to the United States Citizenship and Immigration in the coming days to confirm whether the executive order will impact asylum cases. Once I have any updates I will submit a second post apprising you all of what I find out. Please reach out to my office if you have any questions relating to the changes in the law or any immigration questions in general.

If anyone has any immigration questions please feel free to contact my office at 619-387-8328. Refugees from Iraq and Syria currently have very high success rates with asylum applications in the United States. Their chances of successfully winning asylum go up significantly with proper legal representation. Many people make the mistake of applying on their own and are denied asylum because of simple errors. Many asylum seekers listen to the advice of family members and frien...ds who are not well versed in asylum law. This leads them to either hide or embellish certain facts. This is a huge mistake that will lead to many asylum denials. At the end of the day honesty is the best policy when it comes to asylum applications. Despite what many people think it is not necessary to suffer individual persecution to win an asylum case. Due to the horrendous country conditions in Iraq and Syria one can be granted asylum based on fear of future persecution only, and not past persecution. Please give my office a call for a free consultation. I will be happy to answer any questions.

Hello family and friends. I have moved to a new location in El Cajon. The new address is 671 S. Mollison Ave Suite G, El Cajon CA, 92020. If you have any immigration questions please feel free to give me a call.

Hello family and friends. I hope all is well with everyone. I wanted to give everyone an update on the things that I have been doing at my law practice. I recently submitted an asylum application for one of my client's. It was a considerable amount of work, but it was extremely gratifying. It is a great feeling when your professional expertise goes towards helping someone achieve their goals. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the application will be successful. When I get ...word on the results I will be happy to share them with you all. Besides the asylum application, I have been working on a handful of personal injury cases, workers' compensation, employment law, and business law. The area of law which I have found to be very interesting is that of employment law and workers' compensation. It very surprising to see the amount of labor code violations beiing committed on a daily basis. Some of these violations include employers not paying overtime and wages, not allowing employees to take breaks, and the very serious issue of sexual harrasement. It is sad to see the level of abuse that some of these employers are dishing out to their employees. I will try and keep my facebook family and friends updated on some of these matters as they reach a conclusion. In the meantime, if anyone has any questions for me please feel free to give me a call. Thanks

Happy New Year to my family, friends and colleagues. I made a New Years resolution to start using social media to help promote my business. Here is my first attempt. Since it is the start of a new year it is important that business owners, start thinking about protecting themselves from liability. The best way to do this is by creating either an LLC or Corporation for their business. One of the most important aspects of creating either entity is that they both offer personal ...asset protection. This means that if your business incurs liability, your personal assets will be shielded from that business liability. Other benefits include, tax flexibility, name protection, and additional credibility within the community. If you feel that your business could benefit from forming an LLC or Corporation, please feel free to give me a call. I will be more than happy to answer any of your questions. 619-387-8328