H-1B Visas Restricted Without Public Comment

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On October 8, the Departments of Labor and Homeland Security published “interim final” rules restricting the issuance of H-1B visas for skilled workers. They used a mechanism to bypass public comment, saying it was an emergency and they needed to bypass normal rulemaking procedures. “The U.S. unemployment rate for individuals in computer occupations stood at 3.5% in September 2020, not changed significantly from the 3% unemployment rate in January 2020 (before the pandemic spread in the U.S.),” according to an analysis of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Current Population Survey by the National Foundation for American Policy. Forbes

In other federal immigration news…

How Amy Coney Barrett May Rule on Immigration Cases

As confirmation hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett continue, experts are scrutinizing her immigration history to determine how she might rule if appointed to the court. In one case Barrett was involved with, Cook County v. Wolf, a three-judge panel voted in favor of Cook County, which was challenging the public charge rule. Still, Barrett wrote a scathing dissent in favor of the public charge. Barrett also heard appeals for asylum cases and denied most of the cases she received, Nicole Phillips, Legal Director for the Haitian Bridge Alliance, said. Haitian Times

Second Half of FY 2020 Sees Largest Legal Immigration Decline in U.S. History

The second half of FY 2020 saw the biggest decline in the number of legal immigrants entering the U.S. in the country’s recorded history. The latter half of FY 2020 saw 92 percent fewer immigrants than the first half, largely due to Trump shutting down most travel into the country. This year had “the lowest rate of immigration except for three years during World War II and one year during the Great Depression,” according to the Cato Institute. Read the report.