AILA’s Advocacy Action Center allows you to advocate for legislative and policy reforms consistent with AILA’s principles and priorities.
Get InvolvedThe brand-new 18th edition of Kurzban's Immigration Law Sourcebook is now shipping.
Order NowLearn how to tackle challenges like finding and retaining affordable staff, working better in a hybrid or remote environment, when and how to raise fees, and much more.
Register NowAILALink puts an entire immigration law library at your fingertips! Search the AILALink database for all your practice needs—statutes, regs, case law, agency guidance, publications, and more.
AILA Doc. No. 21032301 | Dated March 23, 2021
CONTACTS:
George Tzamaras, gtzamaras@aila.org
Tessa Wiseman, twiseman@aila.org
WASHINGTON, DC – Last night, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and Wasden Banias, LLP filed a class action lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) challenging the extraordinary processing delays on extensions of status and extensions of employment authorization documents (EAD) for H-4 and L-2 nonimmigrant spouses.
According to Jennifer Minear, President of AILA, “The delays that H-4 and L-2 nonimmigrants are facing needlessly place families in financial limbo. DHS has the legal tools and authority to grant work authorization to impacted individuals whose financial security is hanging in the balance, and it should immediately begin to use those tools to provide solutions. DHS can and must revoke the unnecessary biometrics requirements for H-4 and L-2 nonimmigrants, provide automatic work authorization while DHS processes EAD renewal requests, and allow EAD applicants to file their renewal applications sooner than 180 days prior to EAD expiration to prevent gaps in work authorization.”
Jesse Bless, AILA’s Director of Federal Litigation, added, “In 2019, the Trump administration implemented a new biometrics requirement for H-4 and L-2 and other dependents seeking to extend their stay in the U.S. These new requirements added to the already extraordinary processing delays—delays that COVID-19 restrictions further exacerbated. The process to attain work authorization should not put families at risk of immense loss of income and instability. There are reasonable and immediate steps that DHS can take to make certain that visa holders meet requirements without imposing needless suffering. We hope to work with the government on immediate solutions to get these individuals back working.”
###
The American Immigration Lawyers Association is the national association of immigration lawyers established to promote justice, advocate for fair and reasonable immigration law and policy, advance the quality of immigration and nationality law and practice, and enhance the professional development of its members.
Cite as AILA Doc. No. 21032301.
American Immigration Lawyers Association
1331 G Street NW, Suite 300
Washington, DC 20005
Copyright © 1993-
American Immigration Lawyers Association.
AILA.org should not be relied upon as the exclusive source for your legal research. Nothing on AILA.org constitutes legal advice, and information on AILA.org is not a substitute for independent legal advice based on a thorough review and analysis of the facts of each individual case, and independent research based on statutory and regulatory authorities, case law, policy guidance, and for procedural issues, federal government websites.