Immigration Immpact Litigation Update for May 27, 2026

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[00:00:00]thousand views.

[00:00:02]Hey everybody. Oh, go live. Okay.

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[00:00:10]You can't go live with Aaron's account.

[00:00:11]Hey everybody, an error occurred. Well, you try again.

[00:00:15]>> There we go.

[00:00:17]>> There we go.

[00:00:18]I think we're live on everybody. We're here. As we couldn't go live on Aaron's account because he doesn't have a premium account. So, he probably doesn't go on Twitter anymore.

[00:00:25]Uh Greg, how are you today?

[00:00:28]>> I'm just making it every day.

[00:00:31]>> Yeah, you know, it's um we've of course been >> Making my day.

[00:00:35]>> We've been dealing with the uh the adjustment of status memo uh of course for a lot of our clients and a lot of people questioning. I actually wrote did two op-eds today on that and um talked to wait wait a minute reporters about that case.

[00:00:51]Um the more I read that memo the more I think that you can literally make the law say anything you want it to say even if it's truly awful. I mean, it's They did a great job of misrepresenting cases and taking quotes out of context and uh trying to like read it that Congress has a law that's been around for 74 years, amended 20 times and somehow shouldn't be used.

[00:01:22]>> Well, there's a BIA decision from 1970 that's uh seemed to work pretty well all this time plus >> Well, you know, >> I mean, Amy Nice uh did did you read Amy Nice's memo about the 20 >> Oh yeah, the 20 that >> the 20 changes Congress made in adjustment of status to make it >> The matter of law says clearly absent negative factors, adjustment should be granted.

[00:01:44]I mean, it's just like come on, Joe. Uh I think ultimately this may may end up being a big nothing. I mean, I have people call me and say should we sue?

[00:01:53]You know, should we sue? Well, you can't sue yet.

[00:01:56]It It hasn't done anything. All right, nobody's been negatively affected other than your psyche. So, you really can't sue on it yet. Uh and you've got to have standing, right? You've got to have You've got to be affected by it somehow and you know, that means you've got to get denied. So, if you're going to get denied, yeah, we can have it.

[00:02:15]>> I mean, it's going to happen. I I think there are just some overzealous examiners who are going to I mean, we know about the memo and you know you know what's what's been circulating and how the questions are and it just takes one examiner that decides that they're going >> it was in Memphis, wasn't it? Ari, where the guy asked him, "Why you didn't consular process?"

[00:02:37]Probably >> We've also heard about the three questions. I don't know if you saw like the three questions that they've all been ordered. Apparently, they were in Chicago and Yakima, Washington and other places who said that they got the same the same three questions in the interviews. Um that they had today, so >> Cuz I don't have I think the better answer is, "I don't have to." I can adjust status. It's the law.

[00:03:00]Right?

[00:03:01]You know, it's the law, so that's a stupid question. I don't want to go home for the next 10 years while I wait something out, so All right, let's take a look at some of our cases here, Greg. We don't have Jesse or Zach with us.

[00:03:11]>> Who's Zach?

[00:03:12]>> That poor Zach must be exhausted. He's got a new baby, too, you know, he's doing all this writing with the new baby.

[00:03:18]Um let's take a look at the 75-country pause case. I've got my notes here cuz I went I went on looked at everything again.

[00:03:26]>> Thank you for doing that.

[00:03:27]>> to check on the 75-country pause case.

[00:03:30]Uh and uh we that's the Masood case uh in DC.

[00:03:35]And uh we are we're now in the process of uh preparing uh we don't know if the government's going to file a motion to dismiss in that case. Uh they haven't at this point.

[00:03:46]But, we do have in the Boston case, which is also a 75-country case, um where the government has filed a motion to dismiss and it's fully briefed and we're just literally waiting on the judge on the motion to dismiss.

[00:03:59]Um, you know, part of the problem with preliminary injunctions is you got to show irreparable harm um, and it's really hard to show irreparable harm um, these days if you're stuck abroad waiting to process because they want you to be stuck abroad anyway waiting to process. So, you have to show some severe damage abroad. Um, so, that's why motion for summary judgment, which is what you want anyway cuz you want a final order is generally the best mess modus, but you can't really do that until you get the administrative record, which means you got to wait for the government to to respond. So, it's kind of a a long long way of saying we're just still pending.

[00:04:36]On the um, the DV lottery case, uh, the uh, the case by the way is now called Chersac.

[00:04:47]It's not leaked anymore. Oh, Zach's here. Yay!

[00:04:50]>> Hey, Zach.

[00:04:51]>> Zach is here. So, the the DV lottery case is Zach, welcome. Good to see you.

[00:04:56]Um, we need to get Zach a better camera.

[00:04:59]Um, >> I don't know. Somebody's got a >> Have you Have you ever cleaned that camera? I >> It's like a filter on it.

[00:05:06]>> Like that or something? I don't I don't know what's going on there.

[00:05:08]Um, but it's now called the Chersac case where Leak is not a not a defend not the plaintiff anymore. So, he's out. So, it's now Chersac. That is fully briefed on cross motion. So, the question now becomes uh, when will Judge Leon rule on it? Will he going to have a hearing? Is there going to be um, arguments? I don't know. So, uh, I think what we'll probably do, I talked to Jesse about this, is probably uh, call the court's clerk and say, "Do you want to have oral argument on this case?"

[00:05:39]You know, we're we're ready to go if you want us to do that. Uh, and um, we also today uh, started the second round of onboarding for the next DV lottery case. So, take a look at that as well.

[00:05:54]But that's so we'll be working on that.

[00:05:57]It's just a question of, you know, we're in front of the judge. Judge Leon is not known for sitting on cases.

[00:06:03]I mean, he's not.

[00:06:05]He's the ballroom judge.

[00:06:07]He was the judge in our litigation on the wage rule, the first wage rule back in the day.

[00:06:13]He was he was on top of that, too. So, I don't expect that you know, so what if he takes till August? Well, I mean, he can.

[00:06:22]I just don't think he will on fully briefed motions for summary judgment. I just don't think he's going to do that.

[00:06:27]And where we're going to file the second DV case is probably We've been talking to Curtis cuz Curtis is doing one as well. I think he's going to be filing out in California, I think the ninth circuit. We might explore that. We have filed previously >> By the way, I I read it and I think it was New York Times yesterday did a story about federal courts and pro se litigation that has exploded because of chat GPT and these and and they're talking about a major crisis in the courts with with judges that have just no capacity to be able to deal with all these filings. And I think we were sort of a you know, we're basing our assumptions on how long things take based on our you know, based on the last several years and how long they take, but this is a new phenomenon that's really sort of taken hold in the last 18 24 >> in immigration. A lot of people filing pro se stuff and then calling lawyers when they when the US attorneys calls them out on the garbage they've been filing.

[00:07:28]>> Right. But I mean, where even if they're good cases or not, people are just filing a lot more cases and they just they're just overwhelmed in the >> They're they're not adding judges and certainly the US attorneys have even a worse problem cuz there are far fewer US attorneys than there were even two years ago and as I talked to >> That that doesn't affect the number of judges that are out there even though they're far but the judges themselves their workloads have exploded.

[00:07:53]>> Plus the cases that got thrown at them thousands of cases. The last time there was something like this Greg was back in 2003 and 2004 under the first Bush administration first George Bush administration when they basically refused to naturalize anybody from a Muslim country and so the courts were literally flooded with with mandamuses and 336B cases so much so that Roberts went to Congress and complained about it to get more judges. So you know maybe that's that's what it takes here.

[00:08:26]>> I've been hearing there's a $25,000 bonus to join the US Attorney's Office right now.

[00:08:32]>> Well because nobody that's You have to turn down the ultimate job. That was the ultimate job. I mean you get a job at the US Attorney's Office you're the man.

[00:08:45]Now >> It doesn't have the prestige that it used to have I guess.

[00:08:48]>> Well good luck finding a job after leaving the DOJ cuz a lot of them are going to lose their jobs probably in the next administration.

[00:08:55]>> Oh yeah they'll just fire all those >> And then they're going to have to go out and explain to prospective employers what motivated them to to join the Trump administration.

[00:09:04]>> Well I mean 20 25,000 signing bonus >> Liberty Law School so there you go.

[00:09:09]Um the the Georgia case let's go let's go to the 39 country case now which now that Zach is with us.

[00:09:15]>> Well I'm here.

[00:09:16]>> Um and um the Georgia case is now called the Nekairo case in case you were curious.

[00:09:23]That is the name of the case in the Cairo case. To give you an update uh we had to wait of course to find out who was leaving the Georgia case before we could go to the US Attorney um and so we did that on Tuesday to the US attorney and said, "Hey, here's here's folks that need EADs. We we want EADs. Um, judge invited us to do it. We can go to the judge, we can get it, but we know we'd rather not have to wait the time frame and do all the briefing and everything that we needed. Would your client do it?" Uh, everybody knows it was a it was a weekend. It was a holiday weekend. Lots of folks were gone Thursday, Friday, and of course Monday, including our US attorney that's on this case. So, I spoke to him first thing Tuesday morning.

[00:10:07]Uh, he had gotten email while he was out. He had arranged an appointment with his client cuz US attorneys can't make decisions. They They They do what their client tells them to do.

[00:10:18]And so, he had a call this afternoon with the US USCIS. I have not heard back from him. I've emailed him uh to ask him if he's got any news to share with me.

[00:10:27]I'm actually checking right now. Uh, no.

[00:10:29]So, no news to share. As soon as we have news to share, we will let our clients know whether they're going to process the EADs or we'll go ahead and prepare um the motion for the court.

[00:10:40]>> notify them of the doctors as well.

[00:10:42]>> Yeah, and any all the So far it's only like four. I thought there'd be more.

[00:10:47]Uh, there's four uh doctors, including one researcher. So, hopefully >> I spoke to him as well and I think that one thing is that we do feel pretty confident that he's pushing to to try to get this. I don't think that he's just trying to to waste time. He does seem to really want to resolve these cases.

[00:11:04]>> Oh, he hates that.

[00:11:05]>> I hate I know that there's he does. I know that there is um a lot of anxiety, a lot of stress, and I mean, for good reason.

[00:11:15]Um, but us not filing like a TRO immediately is is not a sign of anything but our confidence that this is going to result in some um positive decisions for plaintiffs.

[00:11:28]>> Yeah, and if we've got to file TRO, we'll go ahead and file it. And and the judge obviously seemed disposed to grant it, so we'll go from there.

[00:11:34]>> Um yeah, yeah, I guess that's the second part is that we are fully prepared to do that when and if this is not working out. But, at this point, it does seem to be working out.

[00:11:43]>> You have to give me the You have to give a lawyer a chance to do a good job.

[00:11:47]>> And Rodney's a good lawyer, so um he's who's never done an immigration case before, but hey.

[00:11:53]>> [laughter] >> I'm super happy about that.

[00:11:57]>> The new case that Zach filed for the folks from Georgia is the Yila case in Maryland.

[00:12:03]Uh it was initially signed to uh Judge Paula G or she, but it was reassigned to the chief judge uh yesterday or today.

[00:12:12]Um and uh Zach, I know you're preparing a PI up there for that, and I know you talked >> And TRO for that one that I should have for So, reason I'm late is because I was getting all those these things ready for everybody's final review and sign-off.

[00:12:29]Um the TRO should be in the attorneys' inboxes tonight, so we'll file it either tonight or tomorrow morning for >> tomorrow morning to give it a look at it tonight. So, that'd be great. All right, so that's great news for those folks.

[00:12:43]Well, that's That of course is the Yila case. Uh and uh yeah, Zach, give us an update on the I don't know the name of the Colorado case, I forgot it. So, >> Amadi. Amadi is the case.

[00:12:52]>> All right, tell us about the Amadi case.

[00:12:54]>> For that, we we got the government's uh response last Tuesday, um which was I mean, pretty similar to all the responses that we've gotten so far in these 39 cases, um these 39-country cases, not the 39 cases. Um uh it's, you know, no jurisdiction, not final agency action, uh this isn't against the law, and we have our response date on Friday. So, we will respond on Friday, and then next Wednesday, for anybody who's in Denver, um that's oral argument. They have it scheduled from 1:30 to 5:00, so uh we're >> Wow, that's that's like an hour and a half longer than our judge gave us in Georgia.

[00:13:33]>> Uh this is this is going to be uh it's going to be a marathon.

[00:13:38]Uh and I've already got uh less than a perfect voice right now. I'm a little little sick, so we're going to be seeing if I last all the way through these uh this 4 hours of arguments.

[00:13:47]>> Go gargle. Got to gargle with some Listerine.

[00:13:51]>> Uh and I guess the other one we've got uh our our other Maryland case uh Raji, which is um got the PI uh ready to go as well. This is again uh attorneys in boxes filing tonight or tomorrow morning if uh that's what we need to do.

[00:14:08]>> Wait, did you get an order admitting you to Maryland?

[00:14:12]>> No, I've got to file that still. I need to >> also been transferred to Judge Russell?

[00:14:18]>> That one is not >> It was also transferred to to the Chief Judge.

[00:14:22]>> Well, all right. So, they're all with But, so he's actually made uh he's the one who's had one other case um in Maryland, so I think it's just a matter of he knows this, and so he's kind of taking all the related cases.

[00:14:34]>> And he's the Chief Judge, and hopefully he wants to rule on it quickly.

[00:14:37]>> He was appointed in 2012 by Barack Obama.

[00:14:42]>> Oh, it's always good to have a Barack Obama appointed. All right. So, um let's And the last case is the F-1 the visa revocation case.

[00:14:50]>> All the visas is actual visas.

[00:14:53]>> We're just waiting on the courts to decision at this point to dismiss.

[00:14:56]There's generally never oral argument on the motion to dismiss.

[00:15:00]Uh once the judge rules, hopefully in our favor, uh then we can go ahead and file for summary judgment in that case and and get that order done. So, that's kind of where we are, or at least >> he denies this to negotiate with them to reissue those visas.

[00:15:13]Um Uh Zach, we already talked about the lottery cases, just FYI. So, uh we're good there. Uh we got some questions up here. Let's take a look at some questions here.

[00:15:23]Uh Gentlemen, a few questions. DV uh 20 is $1,000.

[00:15:29]Uh the website I just or emailed Kirby about fixing the website um and uh we talked about Judge Leon. We're going to call his chambers clerk and see when he wants to schedule oral argument for that.

[00:15:41]Uh any update on EADs? Yes, we just gave the update on the EADs. Uh and hopefully either tonight or probably tomorrow US attorneys generally don't work after 6:00, so I suspect we'll I'll hear in the morning from him. And we'll let you we'll we'll send an email to people once we get the answer.

[00:15:58]Uh in Akerat versus Trump exhibit D paragraph 8 USCIS I-551 does this apply to everyone or only the plaintiffs in that lawsuit?

[00:16:06]>> Uh it's um it's it should be everyone. I-130 petitions filed by US citizens and half their spouses it should be for everyone.

[00:16:16]>> You don't have to answer. So, why just why I-130s?

[00:16:20]>> Yeah. Well, because it doesn't give you anything really by itself. Same thing they also unpaused I-129Fs and it's like great uh now they're not going to schedule you for a K-1 visa.

[00:16:30]>> That's why they're doing it. Classic.

[00:16:33]Have you notified the lawyer about the Physicians EAD case in in Georgia?

[00:16:39]>> Yes.

[00:16:39]>> What lawyer?

[00:16:42]>> Yes, we notified them.

[00:16:44]The the the we notified Rodney about the lawsuit.

[00:16:48]>> Of course. I mean, didn't I just say that? That was a good interesting question.

[00:16:52]Hello, have you seen the doctor's case answered? Yeah. Doctor's case moving forward to an exemption from the ban.

[00:16:57]That's great. Have you seen have immigration moving on the doctors?

[00:17:01]>> No.

[00:17:02]Um we we have been told that by some of the DOJ lawyers that are on some of these cases that something is coming, um but it's now almost a month um the better part of May since this announcement happened and lots of media fanfare that this was happening and yet nothing has happened.

[00:17:23]We've seen anecdotal reports of 765 being approved for some doctors including Jesse blessing his in one of his cases at 5 VADs approved for doctors but it is definitely not we're not seeing a trend across the country of these cases being adjudicated yet.

[00:17:43]>> So and of course for the impact doctors that are in the Georgia case we have in fact separated them out and asked about those specifically.

[00:17:51]What are we expecting to put in church act should we [clears throat] hear from the judge we kind of talked about this already generally Leon would have oral argument in a case like this so again we're going to reach out to his clerk and then ask if he's going to have oral argument and you know when when we can set that according to our schedules because almost all of us will be in mid-june we will be in San Diego at a an immigration lawyers conference so we prefer to do this before then if that's if that's possible.

[00:18:16]Paul is genus is no longer on the case.

[00:18:19]I felt optimistic too but I also am very optimistic about the chief judge who's already ruled on this issue in our favor.

[00:18:26]What do you think will happen with the country ban with those DACA recipients so there's a lot of DACA recipients that are in these 39 countries and again there should be they should be issuing the EADs when we win these cases it's completely insane. DACA gets who literally did their whole life here right there is no record abroad there is no vetting abroad that these guys need none.

[00:18:49]Maybe a DACA specific one would be really interesting lawsuit.

[00:18:54]Because de facto none of them were out inside outside the country as children as adults interesting interesting issue.

[00:19:01]Congrats to Zach we talked about your beautiful baby and >> Oh thank you thank you that's why why I have these uh >> Yeah well Zach uh they they never go away.

[00:19:13]>> [laughter] >> It's always the baby.

[00:19:17]I think the problem is I'm certainly driving fear. I wonder how they should have fared in those AOS interviews.

[00:19:23]This gets me to a point. If you go to an AOS interview without a lawyer, you're insane.

[00:19:29]>> You know what? We It was interesting because one of our lawyers was at USCIS today, and one of the examiners told him, "You better tell all your clients have lawyers with them and be in their best interest."

[00:19:41]>> Yeah.

[00:19:43]Absolutely.

[00:19:44]>> I mean, he's a pretty friendly guy that that was mentioning it, but it was like >> He knows >> He knows what's coming. He was Yeah, it seems like they're pretty upset at So many examiners are like basically completely uh it seems like bowled bowled over by or I'm by what came on Friday. I mean, a lot of them are sort of like I don't think they want to be in the position that they're about to be in.

[00:20:09]>> No, I mean, they >> They don't they don't take this job so they could deny people on every basis. I mean, it's just >> I mean, it's a big chunk of them are spouses of the US citizens.

[00:20:18]Uh and that's uh they're asking them a lot of >> majority are going to be spouses of US citizens.

[00:20:23]>> Yeah.

[00:20:24]>> I mean, that's who they interview.

[00:20:25]Um so please So David Cookie, great name, by the way.

[00:20:30]Um Are you not seeing the email?

[00:20:33]>> Yeah, if you're not getting the email emailed the or send the contact page on Impact uh whatever the website is on our the Impact website.

[00:20:42]>> You know it was posted on that >> if you're not getting the emails, it's like let me know through the contact page. I will um shoot something over to the team.

[00:20:50]>> Yeah, you should have gotten an email.

[00:20:52]>> It was filed in like May May 6th, I think it was filed, so >> Yeah, I mean, just so folks know, we you know, when you're talking about large numbers of people, we're using We're not just sending out one individual email at a time to everybody. We're using a um we use constant contact at uh to distribute um and every every case has its own list for constant contact.

[00:21:16]Sometimes constant contact is picked up by spam filters and email goes awry. You should uh if you know, check with us if you're not getting things that you're expecting uh and if it turns out that you know, we we can see if it actually left the server uh and went to the correct address. If that's the case, you're probably going to need to talk to and check your spam filter or if you're getting an address, check your uh uh >> Whitelist us. You got to whitelist us.

[00:21:46]Um uh Laperle's, thank you. Thank you very much. Can you explain if the PI is granted in an inner country case and the pause is lifted, how does the case proceed?

[00:21:57]Will you get us the promised future benefits exemption in the final order and not settle with the government?

[00:22:05]>> So, by if we get a PI granted and we have an order from the judge, there's no settling with the government. It's just the government has to comply with the order.

[00:22:16]Um if the the order says adjudicate the benefits or you know, these folks are no longer subject to the pause, then we should be seeing adjudications and if we're not seeing adjudications, that's when we go to the government lawyer and say, "Hey, why are none of these premium process cases, for example, um getting decisions? Like this is uh you guys are are failing in your statutory duty right now. It says you got to make a decision in 15 days." And they say, "Oh, uh we're still not complying with this." And then we go to the judge and say, "Judge, they're not complying with your order."

[00:22:46]And we're going to do a motion to enforce or something like that. So, like if we have a uh PI granted and this pause is lifted, the cases should move and there are ways to kind of push this uh like it should move without us doing things, but if they don't move without us doing things, there are ways for us to kind of >> We We should remind people, I mean, other policies come into play as soon as the cases start moving, such as this new adjustment of status policy. So, um you know, it could be the case that uh that your case moves, and then you have to deal with this other issue.

[00:23:21]That's not retaliation. It's not It's like it's affecting uh everybody, but you you should know that in some cases, once cases start moving, you it may not be your only problem that you have to deal with.

[00:23:34]>> Uh in order, remember, we didn't file a mandamus in this case.

[00:23:39]So, to take your case out of order. So, if you just filed your adjustment in January, the lift is gone with I mean, possibly be gone for you, but you still filed in January. So, you still got to get in the normal adjustment process, for example.

[00:23:53]Uh good afternoon. What is your opinion of people who won the Hacking McBean PI not been adjudicated?

[00:23:59]I I'm honestly I I don't know anything about the Hacking McBean >> your lawyers, I guess, about it. I I would talk to talk to your attorneys.

[00:24:09]They probably have time >> Talk to Jim and >> I mean, it could be it could be an issue with the you know, some of the judges give a timeline, and some of the judges just say adjudicated, and then it's just like you you know, you basically have to go back to the judge and complain later on when nothing's happening.

[00:24:24]>> Yeah.

[00:24:25]And so, I do like this one. Um I think Zach can afford a new >> Hopefully, I can pay for a webcam.

[00:24:32]>> We think we I think we better go and saddle him into get you getting a new webcam.

[00:24:36]>> Just have to I just have to be heckled enough.

[00:24:39]>> I would suggest, by the way, eye contact. I love cuz it it's stick it sends down from the top of your screen into the middle of the screen, not the middle, but it comes down a couple of 4 in so, so, you can look at you look at your you're looking at the cam instead of looking up, and you're looking right at your screen. So, it's actually kind of kind of nice.

[00:24:56]>> That's have sponsored content.

[00:24:58]>> The priority of an iMac is the answer.

[00:25:01]>> Yeah, well, he got that, too.

[00:25:03]Uh Gabby Gal, for the Maryland case, how do you make sure your case will actually get processed if TRO PI is granted? How do you know?

[00:25:08]Well, okay. A lot of people Well, that's the That's the problem. If you are out of place in line, you should be You should be in the front of the line. If If the line has passed you by, you should be doing it.

[00:25:17]You know, the thing is that USCIS is very opaque these days.

[00:25:22]Uh they're not publishing their statistics.

[00:25:25]The The processing time dates on their webpage are doesn't seem to be in based in any reality that we're aware of.

[00:25:34]Uh but without that data, which you only collect through AILA at this point, it's hard to tell, you know, did somebody who filed after you get approved? Sure.

[00:25:45]Did somebody file Third-party collectors of data, though. I mean, lawfully and some of the There are a couple of companies that are out there that at least you can Actually, it's probably more reliable than what you get out of USCIS for some of those companies, but uh it's not going to be government data.

[00:26:02]>> No, so Lawfully might have that information.

[00:26:05]Has the PI been filed in the third round? We've already talked about uh that. Um be filed tomorrow, right, Zach? Is that uh right?

[00:26:12]>> Yeah, tomorrow, depending on when I get thumbs up from everyone.

[00:26:15]>> That'd be great. All right. So, $100,000 case dismissed? No, you asked this question to me.

[00:26:21]What What did you ask that earlier, too?

[00:26:23]>> I can I can talk about that one.

[00:26:25]There's three There are three cases for the H-1 Did you We didn't mention the H-1B case earlier.

[00:26:31]>> We did We didn't mention it because it's still pending and we got nothing to share.

[00:26:35]>> I I I do want to I do want to say something about that because it's uh there are three of these cases that are all sitting with nothing happening um in different parts of the country for the H-1Bs. One is uh our case, Global Nurse Force, in San Francisco.

[00:26:52]We're now more than 2 months where it was March that we had our arguments. Um, it's getting close to three.

[00:27:02]We are every day we say it's coming.

[00:27:05]It's got to be coming before the Memorial Day weekend. That was Jesse's last words on on Friday afternoon. Um, but that's where we are. The state's attorney the state attorneys general case in Boston May 29th. I believe they have arguments.

[00:27:22]So that is Friday. Is today Wednesday?

[00:27:25]Yes, so it's Friday.

[00:27:26]>> And we're still waiting on the DC Circuit to make a decision.

[00:27:29]>> Jesse Jesse is going to hopefully he was planning on attending live at that hearing to see how it goes.

[00:27:37]>> Friday.

[00:27:38]>> Yeah, and then we're waiting on the DC Circuit for the chamber case. So nothing bad has happened in any of these cases.

[00:27:44]Nothing good has happened in any of these cases. They're all just kind of in a hole.

[00:27:48]>> Nothing has happened.

[00:27:49]All right, Zach. I've got a question for you.

[00:27:52]>> So this one I I get a lot of emails about this. People are really worried about your harms. You really want to update your declarations. You really want your harms focused on in particular filings. One thing that I really really want folks to remember about the Georgia case about really all these cases is that there have been no questions that you are irreparably harmed. Like nobody nobody is saying that you're not harmed.

[00:28:16]So we don't need additional evidence of your harms because all the judges are like, yeah, obviously this is a tremendous amount of harm.

[00:28:23]>> I think there was a hearing the other day.

[00:28:26]Even Greenberg said there's harm.

[00:28:28]>> Yeah, there was a hearing the other day where it was in the Rhode Island case and the government attorney there was was not conceding that there was injury and the the judge Alito just yelled at them. He was like, how could you say it's like a a ludicrous thing. Like this is it was it was yeah, there's no need for us to really supplement the harms.

[00:28:49]The the big part of the PI, the TRO, things like this is not the harms as much as it is the the the merits, I guess, at this point.

[00:28:59]Nobody is is saying you're losing your job, you're losing status, you you know, being afraid of of losing all these things in the future is not irreparable harm. So, not necessary for us to have giant giant giant declarations from everybody.

[00:29:17]Even Grimbert, who did deny the PI, but said that this was irreparable harm for plaintiffs.

[00:29:26]>> All right, I think Frank Wright is complaining, although it's a little unclear. That is a truly bizarre picture. Uh AOS loopholes Don't know what that is. Parole workarounds, don't know that. Domestic discretion relief.

[00:29:42]Um I think he's complaining about the new AOS memo.

[00:29:48]I don't I don't I don't really understand that, but there you go.

[00:29:52]Amy Pat, who is a frequent listener and not a first-time commentator, seems since getting approved is now not Yeah, no, I don't know anybody's getting approved anymore the day of the interview. No one.

[00:30:06]Um because officers are no longer allowed to approve cases. You know that, Greg?

[00:30:12]>> Yeah, in fact, one of our colleagues uh posted to our listserv that you and I are on, I think Zach's on it as well today, a colleague in Boston, um saying that the uh adjudicator was I mean, the examiner was ready to approve today and basically said that she can't do anything now without permission, and she's waiting on that.

[00:30:32]>> They have to be supervisory approved for everything. I'm surprised Joy Lo isn't reading the each case at night before he goes to bed to approve it himself.

[00:30:40]Um Agile Boy Chill, "When would you be going up to your client of Tiero on the Georgia case?" He doesn't We will file that as quickly as humanly possible. If tomorrow they tell us they're not going to give us EADs.

[00:30:57]And we'll update you right away.

[00:30:59]>> Give me a couple days.

[00:31:00]>> Right.

[00:31:02]Um, let's see.

[00:31:06]Like okay, the Cairo Embassy doesn't schedule even one interview DB but yeah, we we know that because they were told not to.

[00:31:13]They're not scheduling anything.

[00:31:15]Um, I mean, it's happening all over the world. It's not It's not just Cairo.

[00:31:20]Um, "What are your thoughts on the Hack Let's Miami?" I asked that question. Any comments about the new memo? It will affect outcomes of 39 country ban cases.

[00:31:31]You know, I what I dislike is when people quote a case quote a memo with a number like >> [laughter] >> Is the adjustment of memo?

[00:31:38]>> at the Library of Congress. Just call it the adjustment of status memo. That's what lawyers call. Lawyers don't call it by these numbers. They just call it the adjustment of status memo.

[00:31:47]Um, you know, or the pause memo. We don't we don't track the numbers.

[00:31:51]Um, well, obviously it affects everybody, right? You know, it affects everybody. That's kind of a >> know. I don't know if it affects everybody cuz I don't know how much like what it's going to do. So, we know what they're asking a couple There's like four new cases.

[00:32:04]>> I'm not sure if it's going to have a real effect ultimately except for the random people that are you know, some officer gets a wild hair and just denies a case.

[00:32:13]>> Yeah, it's hard to say cuz so like the headlines, scary headlines. Everybody's got to concert process. The memo itself though is like, "Hey guys, remember you have discretion."

[00:32:22]Um, and poking like a couple of I think there's a couple of categories that are going to be a little bit more impacted than others, but like by and large the the actual memo itself I don't know how much >> I got The only thing I will Exactly. I will say is that there's communications that are happening between headquarters and local USCIS offices and the service centers about adjudications that we're not seeing.

[00:32:48]>> Definitely true.

[00:32:49]>> We don't know we don't know exactly we don't have the whole picture yet.

[00:32:53]>> Sounds like it's lawyer time. I think Stephen Brown is so thank you Stephen.

[00:32:58]>> 10 days that's all they get.

[00:32:59]>> 3 years we'll see it.

[00:33:01]Um Have you seen any movement on the position waiver backlog or the mass J physician rejections from India?

[00:33:08]Greg?

[00:33:09]>> Uh I have not seen I mean I've heard about the about the problems with the the J physicians in India. I'm guessing that there's it's being worked from political angles right now because that's going to present major problems for teaching hospitals that are in a lot of important congressional districts. So that's a but there's there's some precedent for this happening. I think the last time was at the beginning of COVID which was in April when the shutdowns of the consulate started I guess. I'm trying to remember April 2020. Um as you guys you guys probably would know this but the July 1st is the official date of the beginning of the the physician graduate years.

[00:33:54]So all the J's are typically processing in the month of June which is about to happen. Um so that last time that happened was in the first Trump administration and that was one of the rare instances where they pragmatism won the day and they basically opened up all the consulates just for doctors to be able to come in for their residency programs. Uh now granted it was a public health emergency at the time but uh the residents are you know are filling preferably important functions in a lot of cities so my guess is that uh they're going to be handled.

[00:34:30]>> You have great faith.

[00:34:33]>> [laughter] >> Uh what about H-1B's in the Georgia case? Well, H-1B's in the Georgia case, I think Zach are going to have to wait the 60 days that Krumholz said.

[00:34:42]>> So there's kind of two parts to this. So either it's um 60 days or when we do the TRO PI if necessary for work authorization, we throw in, "Hey, and you know what you didn't really consider is people who are already here in status or trying to extend their status. Yeah.

[00:35:00]So I think there's also that uh that angle.

[00:35:02]>> We'll do that with the TRO if we have to. Yes.

[00:35:06]Uh can you talk about the timeline for the PI in the Raj case in Maryland? Uh Raj case and what are the adjustment for EAD for STEM OPT? Are there any difference in 765 and STEM OPT?

[00:35:17]>> So the estimate for the PI is uh let's say 24 hours or less than 24 >> got time to review it tonight or in the morning before we file it tomorrow.

[00:35:27]>> Um estimate for an EAD for STEM OPT and if there's difference between 765 and 45 and STEM OPT, I think that that depends on Okay. Um let me back up.

[00:35:42]With an EAD for STEM OPT, you could premium process that. So you could have that much faster just by virtue of the fact that there's premium processing in place for that as opposed to a 765 for a 45. But if you filed your 765 for your 45 a year ago and hasn't been approved yet, >> Yeah.

[00:36:00]>> like you know, there's uh I think both of them will be processed pretty expeditiously after PI is granted.

[00:36:07]>> Uh if you filed them a year ago. If you filed them a week ago, no. I mean, it just depends on when it was >> With the STEM OPT, that lets you get the the premium processing going.

[00:36:15]>> Yeah, exactly. That'll let you do that.

[00:36:17]So you're going to you may have If you filed it, you know, right before we filed this case, then you're going to have to premium process the case to get it.

[00:36:22]Um I see. I have my interview tomorrow for a green card. I'm also very country Maryland case which says I should say my country is banned and therefore I cannot process.

[00:36:32]You don't You should definitely not volunteer why they should adjudicate your case.

[00:36:36]Uh just go to your interview.

[00:36:39]Congratulations on your marriage and bring a lawyer with you. Hopefully you've got a lawyer taking that interview with you. But don't say I know you can't adjudicate me because I'm Don't say that.

[00:36:49]>> [laughter] >> No.

[00:36:51]But be prepared question why you didn't consular process.

[00:36:57]Um Any updates regarding the dual citizens of the denied countries?

[00:37:03]This is something that's confused me since the beginning. If you're a dual citizen, this ban does not apply to you.

[00:37:08]Why are they being >> does. Well, the ban the visa the I mean the entry ban apply doesn't apply to you. The pause applies, so there's not even a clear you know, instant explanation for that.

[00:37:20]>> legitimate sense why it applies. If it doesn't apply to come in the country, why does it apply to the pause?

[00:37:26]>> Right. Exactly.

[00:37:30]>> Uh there's lots of good immigration lawyers around the United States. There are. Uh you can find a lot of them at aila.org and search by attorneys in your city.

[00:37:39]>> 17,000 on there.

[00:37:41]>> Okay.

[00:37:42]Uh this is another I don't know if this is the same as the same question about that. We we I that call those lawyers ask them.

[00:37:49]Uh does the entry pause lift mean anything when it comes to embassy issue visas for the applicants that are giving 212(f)s?

[00:37:55]212 Well, there's a separate litigation on the denials on 212(f)s. 212(f) is not a basis to deny a visa.

[00:38:02]And that litigation is ongoing as well.

[00:38:05]Um so >> But the pause lift doesn't mean anything for this.

[00:38:10]>> No.

[00:38:13]Uh if the judge rules in favor of the Dark Act case, would that actually mean in practice people pending 45 and under deck and Jan December and Jan memos.

[00:38:22]>> So, I think that if the Dorcas case is successful, there's kind of two things that could happen. The I mean, USCIS either says, "All right, rolling over.

[00:38:33]These policies are are vacated, and then we are back to, you know, as if this never happened in the first place, which is great." Now, we amend only challenge the negative factors policy, and everybody's cases are moving forward. Like, that is a wonderful, wonderful outcome.

[00:38:49]The other potential outcome is they have their case appealed, because there's is much more widespread. I mean, they're looking to vacate the entire policy, and we have seen a bigger appetite for appeals on these large-scale relief-type lawsuits. So, either it's like, "Awesome. Everybody's no longer subject to a pause." Or it's a still kind of a little bit more drawn-out fight that the folks at This Democracy Forward have to put on.

[00:39:19]>> All right. Do we have enough time until September 30th, referring to the second lottery case? Answer is yes.

[00:39:24]Um keep in mind, in in 3 weeks, they approved 9,000 cases in 2019. So, yes, they can they can >> What what month of the year did we get that decision? I'm curious. I can't remember.

[00:39:35]>> We got one decision on September 9th, and one decision next year like on September 3rd.

[00:39:41]>> Right. So, that was pretty late in the game.

[00:39:43]>> Yeah, very late in the game.

[00:39:45]Uh can we file a lawsuit against immediate relatives of someone seeking separation and sham waiver that hasn't been granted to anyone?

[00:39:55]Zach, you got anything on this?

[00:39:57]>> I think we're talking about the um the fact that uh immediate relatives are are banned from processing uh a bunch of different countries now, and not just the 39. You've got 75 as well.

[00:40:10]Um and the fact that they're like, "Hey, you can apply for a national interest exemption." And that just doesn't exist.

[00:40:15]>> nobody grants that. That has never That has never been granted to my knowledge.

[00:40:18]>> The fact that it doesn't exist is like, well, you know, that great, you you say this so that you can say it in litigation that there's an exemption, but nobody's ever been granted this thing.

[00:40:27]Uh I mean, yeah, you you could file a lawsuit on that. Um I think it's um Yeah, you could.

[00:40:35]>> All right, this is a really interesting question and uh Zach, I know you have the answer to this question cuz you may answer this question earlier kind of in the back way.

[00:40:44]>> Yeah, um it's kind of like that. Yeah, they to they can just kind of update their software >> obvious to maintain the list of litigation. Yes.

[00:40:54]>> So, it is um pretty it's it's a little bit awkward cuz like yeah, a list it's really just like a list gets sent around cuz first off it has to go to Joe Edlow who's got to say, "Yeah, sure, let's." But anyways, um there's a list, your name gets put in the system as being um lifted from the hold um through litigation and yeah. That's That's kind of how it works. Just in the system you get uh get flagged as not paused.

[00:41:21]>> All right, uh this is about the second DV case uh ends June 19th uh to give people ample time to sign up. Uh is that enough time to file? We We're going to file immediately within a few days, probably four or five days of that date.

[00:41:34]The reason is that week, the week of the 15th is the annual conference of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and we're simply not available to work on the case. Uh so, I don't want to cut litigate I don't want to cut the filing off on the 15th and I won't be able to file it for 8 days. We're going to take more people in and uh then file it when I would have filed it anyway. So, hopefully that answers it. And that's more than enough time. We got plenty of time.

[00:41:56]Any hope for that 180-day timeline the government gave initially?

[00:42:01]>> So, they didn't that this is from presidential proclamation saying that we're going to revisit the um I I if I'm understanding your question right, this is not actually something the government said. This is just from the presidential proclamation saying, "I'm going to revisit the travel bans every 180 days." Um and what I would expect is that it's going to only get worse. I I don't think that he's going to be like, "Hey, you know what?

[00:42:24]Iranians are no longer subject to a travel ban." Um I think that these 180 day reviews are going to be either nothing uh or some countries being shuffled around between full bans and partial bans and it's not going to really impact uh things on a on a major basis.

[00:42:41]>> Basically, they're doing that cuz SCOTUS makes them do that. I don't think they're serious about it.

[00:42:45]Uh so, this fellow is going to be interviewed put in advanced administrative processing cuz of the pause.

[00:42:51]So, you win the lawsuit tell the consulate, "Hey, no longer a pause."

[00:42:55]Um but that point you may have to, you know, depending on what the size you might have to file a mandamus depending on how long your AP has been in and what the if that's the only reason for the AP or there's other reasons. Okay.

[00:43:06]Um Let's see.

[00:43:10]Let's see.

[00:43:13]Okay, the Dworkin's hearing was great.

[00:43:15]If you don't have a chance to listen to it find a transcript. Um Uh what does what stops CIS from saying despite the PIRs they your field office is 12 months processing leave it 12 months on purpose. They hope your case is in favor and solved.

[00:43:26]Basically, if you're if you feel like your case is taking longer than the normal in your area, you can file a mandamus action.

[00:43:35]>> Or if there's a PI or summary judgment saying that you have to do something that the government is supposed to do something they didn't, your lawyers can take it back for a motion to enforce, motion for contempt. I mean, there's they have to comply with these things.

[00:43:47]>> do.

[00:43:48]>> Yeah.

[00:43:50]>> Yeah, this is actually a good point. You know, the the news media, who knows nothing about immigration law, takes the government's headline on their press release and writes about that press release headline without actually reading. And now, you know, four or five days later now I'm getting calls from from lawyers saying, "What does it really mean?"

[00:44:08]So.

[00:44:09]Um why adoption has an exception from travel ban and not spouses and biological children? I'm thinking in the top of my head.

[00:44:15]>> It's actually the the the reason's pretty funny is because right when the travel ban went into effect, uh a lawyer, Mark Steven, uh won a TRO and the government was like, "Oh, crap.

[00:44:27]Let's put an exception in for this." And then they just apparently forgot that, you know, biological children were not in there as well. So, it's a it's a stupid [clears throat] thing, but it all stems from like a TRO getting uh being successful at the very very very beginning of this.

[00:44:43]>> Yeah, positions have really been screwed by this whole thing. The delays, um the ages, um I mean, it's it's it's just Americans are going to die because of this.

[00:44:55]Americans are going to die.

[00:44:57]Um DV 2020 already asked this question.

[00:45:00]Okay, thanks Zach. Take care of your newborn and your wife. Take some sleep if you can. Also, good to see you again with the judge for the second round. Will it be the same as the first? No, because we're filing in a different place.

[00:45:10]And we will file we will file a PI um uh probably with the with the with the a complaint.

[00:45:17]There's no reason not to file it with the complaint. The PI is done.

[00:45:20]Uh the onboarding I gave you yesterday.

[00:45:22]I asked this question. You misunderstand my question. I meant, do you handle future benefits that are not pending under that country is um Zach, you want to have you have I I know how I understand what we're doing. Um can you go ahead >> so let's assume that so this is not this wouldn't be the PI part of things. This would be the permanent injunction, the final order from the judge saying pause doesn't apply to to plaintiffs in this case. You cannot apply the pause uh or negative factors memo.

[00:45:50]And then let's say that they paused uh an application for you in the future. We could go back to the government attorney and be like, "Hey, remember this this order from the judge that said that you're not supposed to do this?" Well, it's being done. Can you please fix this? Um usually the government attorney will be pretty happy with that. If um we have to, we can reopen the case and say, "Judge, your order's not being complied with." Um but ideally that is not necessary cuz you just have your order saying, "Look, you have to process my case."

[00:46:20]>> Yeah. And this is the same with by Molly Prime. Basically, we will go back to the government lawyer and say, "You're not following the rule.

[00:46:26]You want us to file a contempt motion?

[00:46:28]Or do you want to tell your client to do to get the case?"

[00:46:31]Okay.

[00:46:32]I'm a dual citizen. I have evidence through my congressional office that USCIS still applying the pause clause to my EAD. And you asked if this will be mentioned in the Maryland case.

[00:46:40]>> Um it's something So, a little bit. Um it's you're not It's not highlighted in like Look, um >> is David Chase. It is not doing that for >> It's just It's evidence that um this is an arbitrary and capricious policy. It's one of those arguments you can make because they could tie it to something else. They could say, "Oh, no, it's based off of this January 20th um presidential proclamation saying you got to do more vetting." Even though we we cite the travel bans, that's not really like they could still make arguments to try to weasel their way out of it. Um it's Yeah, it's just evidence though that like this is clearly not a well-considered policy. They didn't think through things because they included people in this pause that are excluded from the actual um travel bans.

[00:47:31]>> With the USCIS pause lifted from the 30-day issue, plenty of those joined the other lawsuits that challenge issues with the embassies that have received their immediate and what else what?

[00:47:39]Um Generally, we I know all of our plaintiffs in our 75-country pause case had pending DS-260s.

[00:47:48]So, the It's not just having an I-130 approved. You've got to be in the DS-260 process as well before you file on that.

[00:47:56][snorts] Uh I mean the the goal the goal is they lose enough time so they get rid of the policy. That's kind of the goal. For all these lawsuits, we just have to get enough of these wins under our belts.

[00:48:08]Can the USCIS keep premium processing fees even though they didn't adjudicate the case in time?

[00:48:13]The answer, Greg, is no.

[00:48:16]>> They're going to try though. They're going to try.

[00:48:18]>> Actually, I have heard reports they're sending money back. I have seen reports >> I mean, that well, we've been having discussions about that issue and you know, once we just need examples of people that once cases resume that they didn't get it, but I mean, we're not in a position yet to know what they're going to do.

[00:48:36]>> Yeah.

[00:48:37]>> I don't think. You said people are getting money back, but I mean, they're getting money back getting money back while their case is still paused?

[00:48:44]>> Yeah, not uh clearly most people haven't, but at least two that I saw in the last week have.

[00:48:49]>> Okay. I haven't uh I haven't heard that, but that's good news obviously.

[00:48:53]>> All right. So, uh do you believe Rubio trying to justify these reforms saying 20 million entered illegally? Well, we've seen Trump make that number up. I mean, the number is probably closer to 4 million, maybe 5 during the 2 years that we had the the big surge in '23 and '24.

[00:49:08]But, you know, 20 sounds way worse. So, you might as well lie about it.

[00:49:13]The new lawsuit, do you separate lawsuit or do you add their names? No, this is separate lawsuit in a different location. In different locations.

[00:49:20]USCIS Emma says that a dual citizen doesn't have any hold and if it's clearly this is fake news.

[00:49:28]A piece of advice, if you can get Emma to say that, screenshot that for it and send it to Zach.

[00:49:33]>> You know one of the best things about this stuff? There's a case that just came out of the Western District of Washington where the USCIS lawyers were talking I mean, there's just so much confusion about the dual citizen issue right now. Like they the USCIS lawyers were told, "No, this doesn't apply." And then told that to the government attorneys who then filed a thing saying like, "Oh, no, no, no. This person is is exempt from the pause. Their application will absolutely be resumed." But, then there's a separate declaration in the case where it says the complete opposite. So, the the person won their case, but the evidence in the record it says something completely different than what the USCIS attorneys were saying.

[00:50:11]So, it's just so much confusion going on for those citizens.

[00:50:15]>> Okay, Madrad who just joined us just had a question about the Does it mean an Iranian F-1 who applied for a green card when you're under it will be denied? No, it does not mean that.

[00:50:27]Cuz if it meant that, that would be illegal.

[00:50:29]But, if you get denied, call us, we'll sue.

[00:50:32]Um D O D V 2.0 I like DV 2.0 different state. I am not sharing that cuz we need to see where our where our plaintiffs are going. We have to create standing and venue for our plaintiffs.

[00:50:44]Do you guarantee the win if the first DV lawsuit wins? There are no guarantees in life except for death and taxes. And certainly there's no guarantees in lawsuits.

[00:50:55]Just isn't. So, uh you're in the wrong profession if you're looking for guarantees.

[00:51:00]Uh gentlemen, been a pleasure.

[00:51:02]Have a great evening, Zach. Go take care of your baby. I'll look at the stuff tomorrow that you send out. Uh thank you, Greg, for being totally awesome as always. We'll see you guys next Wednesday at at 6:00.

[00:53:44]>> Mhm.

[00:55:39]>> Mhm.

[00:56:31]>> Mhm.