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There's an informative video about Palantir put out by GamersNexus. The video discusses how Palantir has contracted with various government agencies, including ICE, to develop "ImmigrationOS." Of particular note is the platform's asserted capability of tracking with "near real-time visibility...instances of self-deportation." And, the story tracks with what the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) writes about ICE going on a surveillance spending spree . EFF recommends that

Today, the United States Senate held a hearing to propose that the House of Representatives advance articles of impeachment against federal judges such as Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg and U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman. Interestingly, Boasberg was the chief judge of the Alien Terrorist Removal Court from January 1, 2020 to January 1, 2025. The current chief judge of the Court is U.S. District Judge Joan N. Ericksen. As of writing, the Alien Terrorist Remo

USCIS announced some alleged changes to the VAWA program on December 22, 2025. The Agency noted that there have been "alarming and unprecedented" changes to the program including a 360% increase in petitions and 259% increase in male petitioners. In summary, USCIS will now more strictly interpret the statutory and regulatory provisions governing VAWA petitions. So-called "[p]olicy [h]ighlights" of the updated policy include: Codifies long-standing practices and gives a more d

A recent story's headline asserts that there is a "skyrocketing number of 'no shows'" at immigration court hearings. The story says that "[m]ore immigrants are not showing up for their mandatory immigration court hearings, allowing the government to order their immediate deportation." Not appearing at your immigration court hearing normally results in the immigration judge issuing an in absentia order of removal. However, this is not always the outcome of one missed hearing

The Trump Administration has suspended the diversity visa program . The Secretary of DHS stated that: " At President Trump's direction, I am immediately directing USCIS to pause the DV1 program to ensure no more Americans are harmed by this disastrous program." The DV program was launched about 35 years ago and offers approximately 50,000 visas per year to aliens from countries with comparatively low rates of immigration to the United States. Recipients are chosen at rando

President Trump is considering reclassifying marijuana as a Schedule III drug. Currently, weed is a Schedule I drug which limits the medical use of the substance under federal law. Schedule III drugs are defined as having a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence whereas schedule I drugs allegedly have a "high potential for abuse." However, such reclassification will have little to no impact on how weed is treated under the immigration laws. In o

The Trump Administration has announced the availability of new programs for lawful permanent residence for those of you willing to pay either approximately $1 or $5 million dollars to the government (plus fees). If interested, USCIS has made the Form I-140G available on its website which seems to only work for the "Gold Card." Don't worry, you can be put on the wait list for the Platinum Card. It appears that the main benefit of the program is speed, at least for the Gold Ca

The U.S. Department of State, according to the New York Times , has issued a memo titled a "Return to Tradition: Times New Roman 14-Point Font Required for All Department Paper." If true, this would be a departure from the Department's decision to use a san-serif font in 2023. Secretary Rubio asserts in the Memo that "[s]witching to Calibri achieved nothing except the degradation of the department's official correspondence." Apparently, the Calibri font is "informal" and the

In an opinion ( Calona-Escobar et al. v. Att'y Gen .), filed December 9, 2025, the Third Circuit denied the petition for review of Alcira Mireya Calona-Escobar and J.R.L.-C. The case was heard by a panel of Chief Judge Michael Chagares , Judge Arianna Freeman , and Judge Emil Bove . The Immigration Judge in the case was Joseph C. Scott of the Philadelphia Immigration Court. Below, the IJ determined that the Petitioners' proposed social groups, relating to the Petitioners'

On December 4, 2025, USCIS issued a new Policy Alert, PA-2025-27 , which reduces the validity period of many work permits (employment authorization documents [EADs]) from five years back to 18 months. The categories affected include work permits for refugees, asylees, aliens granted withholding of removal, asylum applicants, withholding of removal applicants, most green card applicants, and cancellation of removal applicants. The policy change affects anyone who has filed or

The Trump Administration is increasingly pushing to denaturalize naturalized citizens. President Trump himself has said he would "absolutely" denaturalize certain U.S. citizens if he could. A naturalized citizen can be denaturalized if they procured naturalization by concealing a material fact or by willful misrepresentation. Denaturalization on this basis requires you to have 1) concealed or misrepresented some material fact, 2) the misrepresentation or concealment was wil

USCIS has paused processing oath ceremonies for naturalization applicants who have already passed their tests. According to Policy Memorandum 602-0192 , a "hold" has been placed on all benefit requests for aliens from countries listed in the Presidential Proclamation 10949, Restricting the Entry of Foreign Nationals to Protect the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats . The Memo does explicitly allow for lifting the "hold"

Some recent not precedential decisions from the Third Circuit are good starting points for understanding your claim to asylum or cancellation of removal for non-permanent residents. In Zhu v. Att'y Gen. , the Court reviewed the petition for review and upheld the BIA's and Immigration Judge Mary C. Lee's decisions. The Court's reasoning was that none of the claimed hardship rose to the level of "exceptional and extremely unusual." This decision is typical of petitions of rev

According to CBS News , the Trump Administration has paused all affirmative asylum adjudications. The story states that asylum officers "were instructed to refrain from approving, denying, or closing asylum applications received" by USCIS. At the time of writing, the USCIS website does not contain any public notice of such a pause. Likewise, there has been no update to EOIR's website regarding any pause to defensive asylum adjudications. This measure is in addition to the r

Being aware of your immigration status is of utmost importance if you would like not to have unpleasant surprises. A common scenario arises if your parents are from another country. Some parents will not disclose your immigration status to you either because they do not know it or because they are trying to protect you from the ramifications of being in the United States unlawfully. Recently, a college student was arrested by ICE while on her way home for Thanksgiving. Accor

A new trend is emerging of CBP revoking Global Entry membership. Of course, when issuing a revocation, you can expect CBP to provide you with no reason for the revocation. While these practices have been ongoing , Bloomberg notes an uptick in the number of revocations in recent months. Methods of disputing such revocations are available. Contact us if you would like to pursue your appeal.

Even though the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued an administrative stay of the interim final rule which restricts the issuance of non-domiciled CDLs, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is still abiding by the rule. If you think that does not make sense, contact your representatives (and the governor ) and let them know how you feel about the Commonwealth following a rule that is not legally in effect.

Your United States senators and representatives can assist your case before any federal agency. You can use this website to determine who your representatives are. For Pennsylvania, the current federal senators are Senator John Fetterman and Senator David McCormick . Your representative in the House of Representatives will vary based on your residence. Your representative will not be able to approve or denial your case. However, your representative can act as a liaison to t

Many clients tell us that their previous lawyer, or lawyers, almost never spoke to them. Has this happened to you? When you call your lawyer's office, do you speak to your lawyer or to a paralegal, secretary, or who knows who? If this sounds familiar, you are not alone. Some signs of poor communication poor listening skills bad styles of communicating criticism defensiveness contempt stonewalling dismissiveness avoidance assumption making repetition of similar themes Beware!

On November 10, 2025, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ordered that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's interim final rule (IFR), 90 Fed. Reg. 46, 509 (Sept. 29, 2025) be administratively stayed pending further review by the Court. While the administrative stay's purpose is to give the Court time to consider the emergency motions for stay before it, the effect is that the IFR is not currently in force. At the time of writi