8chan/8kun QResearch Posts (30)
#9153323 at 2020-05-13 13:16:04 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #11715: The 'Stand And Deliver!' Edition
Judge orders plane carrying deported mother and child turned around, blocks more removals
https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/immigration-border-crisis/judge-orders-plane-carrying-deported-mother-child-turned-around-blocks-n899311
In a federal courtroom in Washington on Thursday, a judge heard about something the Trump administration had just done that clearly angered him. The government, he learned, had deported an immigrant mother and daughter who are plaintiffs in the lawsuit the judge was hearing over asylum restrictions.
So the judge did something highly unusual: He demanded the administration turn around the plane carrying the plaintiffs to Central America and bring them back to the United States. And he ordered the government to stop removing plaintiffs in the case from the country who are seeking protection from gang and domestic violence.
The jurist did something else out of the ordinary: He stated that if the government did not comply, "Attorney General Jefferson Sessions, III; Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Kirstjen M. Nielsen; U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service Director Lee Francis Cissna; and Executive Office of Immigration Review Director James McHenry, preferably accompanied by their attorneys, shall be ORDERED to appear in Court to SHOW CAUSE why they should not be held in CONTEMPT OF COURT … "
Judge Emmett G. Sullivan - the gift that keeps on giving!
#8257307 at 2020-02-26 20:49:38 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #10571: They Are Coming For You DS Edition
DOJ Creates New Unit to Strip Citizenship from Terrorists, Criminals
The Justice Department on Wednesday announced a new unit to handle the denaturalization of individuals who obtained citizenship illegally and other criminals.
The new section dedicated to "investigating and litigating revocation of naturalization" of individuals who illegally secured naturalization or committed other serious crimes will be under the Civil Division's Office of Immigration Litigation.
"This move underscores the Department's commitment to bring justice to terrorists, war criminals, sex offenders, and other fraudsters who illegally obtained naturalization," DOJ said in a statement announcing the new unit.
"When a terrorist or sex offender becomes a U.S. citizen under false pretenses, it is an affront to our system-and it is especially offensive to those who fall victim to these criminals," Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt said.
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U.S. citizens can be stripped of citizenship for a variety of reasons, including becoming affiliated with a terrorist organization or a totalitarian party like the Communist Party, or if it is discovered that the person was not eligible for naturalization in the first place. The U.S. may also revoke citizenship for lying about their identity or "deliberate deceit on the part of the person" regarding other relevant information such as their employment.
In 2018, former Citizenship and Immigration Services Director L.
Francis Cissna said his agency was hiring several dozen lawyers and immigration officers to probe cases of individuals who were slated for deportation but later used fake identities to obtain citizenship through naturalization. Those cases would be referred to the DOJ, Cissna said at the time.
"We finally have a process in place to get to the bottom of all these bad cases and start denaturalizing people who should not have been naturalized in the first place," Cissna said. "What we're looking at, when you boil it all down, is potentially a few thousand cases."
More
https://www.blabber.buzz/conservative-news/786614-doj-creates-new-unit-to-strip-citizenship-from-terrorists-criminals-special?utm_source=c-alrt&utm_medium=c-alrt-email&utm_term=c-alrt-GI&utm_content=6EVXDBEhNeDj9bMg5o7sTF7eHgMtqtqK-oxfbNkEzx44.A
#6584521 at 2019-05-25 05:54:08 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #8419: Never Give Up Edition
Trump will tap ex-Virginia attorney general for U.S. immigration agency: Washington Post
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will pick former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli as the head of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Washington Post reported on Friday. Cuccinelli will replace L. Francis Cissna as the head of the agency, which manages the country's legal immigration system. Cissna told staff in a farewell letter on Friday he had resigned at the president's request, effective June 1, a USCIS official said. The White House is still figuring out what exactly Cuccinelli will be doing in his new role, the Post reported. A White House official did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
As Virginia's attorney general and a state senator, Cuccinelli developed a reputation as a hardliner. In Virginia, he called for denying citizenship to U.S.-born children if their parents are in the country illegally, introduced a proposal barring unemployment benefits to people who were fired from jobs for not speaking English and authorized law enforcement officials to investigate the immigration status of anyone they stopped. Cuccinelli will likely face a pitched battle for the Senate approval of his nomination, though it is controlled by Trump's Republican party. Cuccinelli heads a political group that has clashed with Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, who has vowed to block Cuccinelli from being confirmed for any administration position, according to media reports. He is also unlikely to receive much support from Senate Democrats. In April, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen announced her departure from the Trump administration, raising the specter of more firings of senior immigration officials.
Trump is seeking to overhaul the U.S. immigration system and has sought to crack down on illegal immigrants, but has been largely unable to enact the sweeping changes he has sought. Cuccinelli met with Trump on Monday and was expected to be picked for an immigration policy position by the president.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-homeland-leadership/trump-will-tap-ex-virginia-attorney-general-for-u-s-immigration-agency-washington-post-idUSKCN1SU2J0?il=0
#6582864 at 2019-05-25 01:47:49 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #8417: Literally Shaking - The NPC Dems Edition
https://apnews.com/dac6d2adc09146f3a569c1aea5741443
Trump asks Citizenship and Immigration Services head to quit
President Donald Trump asked the head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to resign, leaving yet another vacancy within the Department of Homeland Security.
Lee Francis Cissna told staff on Friday that his last day would be June 1, according to a copy of the email obtained by The Associated Press.
Cissna leads the agency responsible for legal immigration, including benefits and visas. With his departure, there are more than a dozen vacancies of top leadership positions at the sprawling, 240,000-employee department. Some are being temporarily filled, including secretary and inspector general. Cissna's position, like others, requires Senate confirmation.
#6143865 at 2019-04-12 00:19:26 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #7857: "The 'Server' Brings Down The House" Edition
U.S. airport-security head named as No. 2 Homeland Security official
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The new chief of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) named the United States' top airport-security official, David Pekoske, his acting deputy on Thursday, as President Donald Trump overhauls the leadership of the domestic-security agency. The move, by Acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan, who took office on Wednesday, temporarily fills a leadership vacuum at the top of DHS, which is responsible for everything from border protection to disaster response. But it also places further strains on an agency of 240,000 employees, many of whose top leadership posts were unfilled even before Trump's management shakeup.
McAleenan remains in charge of U.S. Customs and Border Protection even as he assumes responsibility for all of DHS. Likewise, Pekoske will continue to head the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, which screens airline travelers, while he serves as the No. 2 official at DHS. Both men are serving on a temporary basis.
In recent weeks, Trump has interviewed several candidates for DHS secretary, an appointee who must be confirmed by the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate. Trump has forced out top DHS officials over the past week as the agency tries to stem rising numbers of immigrants arriving at its southern border, many of them families fleeing violence and poverty in Central America. DHS said it arrested or denied entry to more than 103,000 people along the border last month, more than double the figure for March 2018. Trump has grown increasingly frustrated as DHS officials have told him that dramatic immigration changes he wants are not possible under current law, several sources say.
DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen announced her departure on Sunday after clashing with Trump over border security. Her deputy, Claire Grady, stepped down on Tuesday. Trump is trying to force out L. Francis Cissna, who oversees legal immigration programs as director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, as well as John Mitnick, the top DHS lawyer, according to a source familiar with White House deliberations. Leadership is also in flux at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Secret Service and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Ten other top positions are either vacant or filled on a temporary basis.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-homeland-leadership/u-s-airport-security-head-named-as-no-2-homeland-security-official-idUSKCN1RN25B?il=0
#6128667 at 2019-04-11 01:35:48 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #7837: Not Just Russia Hoax. Treasonous Russia Hoax Edition
>>6128644
With talk that more top officials were likely to be ousted, Republicans expressed public and private concerns about the shake-up orchestrated by the White House and cautioned that leadership changes wouldn't necessarily solve the problem.
RELATED: Trump gives Mexico 12 months to stop flow of drugs, migrants or face tariffs, border shutdown
House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said his committee would look at the staff shake-up at Homeland Security, although he said he had not decided on calling in Nielsen.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said there was a serious problem going on between the White House and Homeland Security.
"If everybody's sitting around waiting for a shiny new wonder pony to ride in and solve it, we're going to be waiting a long time," he said.
At hearings across Capitol Hill, lawmakers also grilled administration officials on whether the family separation practice would resurface despite last year's outrage and evidence that separations were likely to cause lasting psychological effects on the children.
RELATED: US struggling with growing number of asylum seekers
People familiar with immigration discussions within the administration said family separation was one of several ideas Trump had revived in recent weeks as he and his aides try to tackle the problem of an ever-growing number of Central American families crossing into the U.S. The people were not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
A senior administration official who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity Tuesday said the president had made a series of leadership changes at DHS because of frustrations that department officials weren't fast enough at implementing changes, such as a new regulation that would challenge a longstanding agreement limiting how long children can be detained.
The White House also was weighing a tougher standard to evaluate initial asylum claims, proposing a "binary choice" that would force migrant families to choose between remaining with their children in detention until their immigration cases were decided or sending their children to government shelters while the parents remained in detention.
The administration also is considering clamping down on remittance payments that Mexican nationals send to their families, the official said.
Amid the pushback, Trump told reporters he was not "cleaning house" at the agency despite the numerous staff changes.
RELATED: House fails to override Trump veto of his border emergency
But as Trump was speaking, the senior administration official was making a case to reporters about why the president felt changes were necessary. He described the agency as a large and unwieldly civilian bureaucracy in need of leadership that can deal with career officials resistant to the president's agenda, including many responsible for implementing some of the very policies Trump seeks to roll back.
Top Republicans in Congress also expressed concern over vacancies at Homeland Security and cautioned Trump to heed off more churn after Nielsen's resignation.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, made both a public and private plea to the White House not to dismiss career homeland security officials, including the director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, Lee Francis Cissna, whose future remained uncertain Tuesday.
He said he had spoken to acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney but "never heard anything final" about Cissna.
Congress should really stop weighing in on the changes, and work on coming up with a solution for WE THE PEOPLE! Fix the damn loopholes!
#6125740 at 2019-04-10 21:49:30 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #7834: Open Barr of Justice Edition
Acting ICE director resigns after Trump pulls nomination
By Rafael Bernal - 04/10/19 04:48 PM EDT
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/438308-acting-ice-director-resigns
The acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Ron Vitiello, has resigned amid an agency-wide restructuring of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Vitiello had originally been nominated to take over the post permanently, but his nomination was abruptly pulled last week by President Trump, who said he wanted to go in a "tougher" direction.
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Outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen announced the news of Vitiello's departure on Wednesday, praising his "knowledge and expertise as a seasoned law enforcement professional."
Nielsen said in a statement that Vitiello "has left a legacy of excellence as our Department has expanded and refined our efforts to curb illegal immigration and secure our borders."
Vitiello's last day at ICE will be Friday. Nielsen, whose own departure from the helm of DHS was announced over the weekend, is leaving Wednesday.
The moves come amid a White House shakeup affecting virtually all senior leadership at DHS that has seen the exit this week of Nielsen, Vitiello, Secret Service Director Randolph "Tex" Alles and Acting Deputy Homeland Secretary Claire Grady.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Francis Cissna, USCIS policy and strategy head Kathy Nuebel Kovarik and General Counsel John Mitnick are also reportedly due to resign.
A number of lawmakers from both parties have pushed back on plans to oust senior officials, while even some Trump allies on immigration have expressed concerns that the shakeup may be going too far.
Andrew Arthur, a research fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), a think tank that favors reduced immigration, wrote that "these moves raise the question whether the president is irrationally looking for scapegoats on whom to blame for [the border] situation."
"[Trump] must reject purported efforts to remove U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Francis Cissna," Arthur wrote this week.
The lone survivor at the top of DHS so far is incoming Acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan, who until Wednesday served as U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) commissioner.
Vitiello, a former Border Patrol chief, served as McAleenan's deputy at CBP from 2017 to 2018, before moving on to head ICE in an acting capacity.
With Vitiello's resignation, almost all senior Obama-era border and immigration holdovers are now out at the department.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) told The Washington Post on Monday that Trump is "pulling the rug out from the very people" working to accomplish his agenda on immigration.
"The president has to have some stability and particularly with the number one issue that he's made for his campaign, throughout his two and a half years of presidency," Grassley said.
The shakeup has also drawn attention to White House adviser Stephen Miller, a key voice within the administration on immigration issues who is seen as a driving force on pushing the president's agenda concerning the border.
Senate Republicans have openly warned in recent days of Miller's outsize influence in the DHS decision-making process in the wake of recent departures at the agency.
"I hope that [Trump's] got more voices than that one in his ear on these issues, because, yeah, I think it's important that he get a whole perspective and range of opinions," said Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.).
#6117396 at 2019-04-10 05:20:06 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #7823: AG BARR "DISGUSTED" BY WHAT HE'S DISCOVERED Edition
>>6117333
Lee Francis Cissna was at DHS throughout Obama tenure (2005-2017)
Also reports he volunteered as immigration adviser on DJT's campaign.
https://www.uscis.gov/about-us/leadership/l-Francis-Cissna-director-us-citizenship-and-immigration-services
http://www.allgov.com/news/top-stories/director-of-us-citizenship-and-immigration-services-who-is-l-Francis-Cissna-171103?news=860353
#6117333 at 2019-04-10 05:10:50 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #7823: AG BARR "DISGUSTED" BY WHAT HE'S DISCOVERED Edition
>>6116849 (pb)
DHS: Lee Francis Cissna
Previously worked Dept of State -> HAITI & Sweden
Mother - Peruvian immigrant
MIL - PALESTINIAN refugee
Both Cissna and his wife worked for Republican Senators; wife also WH liaison to DHS.
Is he being smeared or is he Swamp?
#6116849 at 2019-04-10 04:21:44 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #7822: Barr Meeting Huber & OIG Edition
Former Trump official: Nielsen was 'obstructionist' who wouldn't fire 'deep state' employees in DHS
Outgoing Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen triggered her own demise by refusing to fire a pair of agency officials that were slow-walking President Trump's immigration agenda, says a former administration official who worked with all three people. "I think she was an obstructionist to getting rid of the bad people," the official, who asked to speak on background in order to speak openly, said in a phone call with the Washington Examiner Tuesday. The official specially mentioned the department's General Counsel John Mitnick and Citizenship and Immigration Services Director L. Francis Cissna - both of whom have been reported to be next on Trump's chopping block. Their departures would follow what's already been nearly a week of upheaval at DHS. In addition to getting rid of Nielsen, Trump rescinded the nomination of acting ICE Director Ronald Vitiello and terminated Secret Service Director Randolph Alles from his position.
Mitnick and Cissna are under scrutiny for not aggressively pursuing Trump's approach to stopping illegal immigration along the U.S.-Mexico border. Both are holdovers from the DHS of John Kelly, who headed the department for the Trump administration's first six months or so, before becoming the president's chief of staff. "When Kelly left, they never took the bad people with them. Everyone makes bad hiring decisions, [but] you don't leave them on." The former official named Mitnick as the "reason why most of the immigration policies from DHS never came to fruition." Mitnick, in particular, is getting blame from Trump allies for details implementing a 2015 court ruling mandating that children who arrive at the border with parents cannot be held more than 20 days in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.
A DHS official slammed the allegations. "Outside voices criticizing the department's general counsel for working to assiduously to follow the law while implementing the president's security first agenda likely know little about the law, and less about homeland security," the official said. Trump administration officials contend the court ruling is the reason why record-high numbers of Central American families have traveled to and illegally entered the country at the U.S.-Mexico border. That's because DHS lacks the space and legal ability to hold people for the duration of their asylum hearings.
The official said Mitnick's office is sorting through comments and making small changes to the language, but that it should not take two years to do. "John Mitnick got really good at letting this career and bureaucracy overwhelm him. You need someone that's going to be a fierce defender of what we're doing in the Trump administration, not someone who's gong to let the deep state run everything," the official said.
Cissna, meanwhile, likely hurt his own cause by having his office issue permits for those who illegally entered the U.S. to obtain work documents while they await asylum decisions, 90 percent of which are denied. "He's part of the reason we have a flood at the border," the official added.
But the DHS official broke with the rogue official again. "Director Cissna has restored USCIS' focus on national security, economic prosperity, and protecting U.S. workers. He has taken numerous steps to end illegal or inappropriate benefit programs and brought integrity to the immigration application process. He has wide support from conservatives on the Hill and in the homeland security community," the DHS official said. USCIS referred the Washington Examiner to a March list that cites 10 examples of how the agency is "improving the integrity" of the immigration system. The agency's list touted ways it says it has enhanced fraud detection among visa applicants and transparency among employment-based visa applicants."
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/former-trump-official-nielsen-was-obstructionist-who-wouldnt-fire-deep-state-employees-in-dhs
#6116569 at 2019-04-10 03:50:57 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #7822: Barr Meeting Huber & OIG Edition
Purge continues: Acting DHS Deputy Secretary Claire Grady resigns
Outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen announced Tuesday night her acting deputy secretary is resigning. Claire Grady, who was next in line after it was announced by President Trump over the weekend that Nielsen was resigning, was reportedly pushed out of the position to make room for Trump's pick, Kevin McAleenan, the chief of Customs and Border Protection. The resignation is the latest in a massive shakeup at the department. Trump announced over Twitter on Sunday that Nielsen was leaving after a tense meeting on immigration and the border. Soon after, Nielsen shared her letter of resignation and said she would officially depart Wednesday after helping with the transition.
Randolph "Tex" Alles, director of the Secret Service, left the White House on Monday after reports that he was told he had 10 days to exit. Trump picked Secret Service assistant director of the Office of Protective Operations, James Murray, to take over May 1.
Two other immigration officials who are reportedly expected to leave the Trump administration soon are L. Francis Cissna, the head of Citizenship and Immigration Services, and John Mitnick, a senior member of Nielsen's team. Nielsen announced Grady's resignation in a string of tweets.
"Acting Deputy Secretary Claire Grady has offered the President her resignation, effective tomorrow. For the last two years, Claire has served @DHSgov w excellence and distinction. She has been an invaluable asset to DHS - a steady force and a knowledgeable voice, "Claire has led the men and women of DHS who support our operational staff. Her sound leadership and effective oversight have impacted every DHS office and employee and made us stronger as a Department. Clair has had a remarkable career in public service," she added. "- 28 years at the Departments of Homeland Security & Defense - that is coming to a close. I am thankful for Claire's expertise, dedication & friendship & am filled w gratitude for her exemplary service to DHS & to our country. I wish her all the best in her future endeavors."" Nielsen said.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/acting-dhs-deputy-secretary-resigns
#6109270 at 2019-04-09 16:56:02 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #7813: Spoiler Alert: Unicorns Aren't Real Edition
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/former-trump-official-nielsen-was-obstructionist-who-wouldnt-fire-deep-state-employees-in-dhs
Outgoing Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen triggered her own demise by refusing to fire a pair of agency officials that were slow-walking President Trump's immigration agenda, says a former administration official who worked with all three people.
"I think she was an obstructionist to getting rid of the bad people," the official, who asked to speak on background in order to speak openly, said in a phone call with the Washington Examiner Tuesday. The official specially mentioned the department's General Counsel John Mitnick and Citizenship and Immigration Services Director L. Francis Cissna - both of whom have been reported to be next on Trump's chopping block.
Mitnick, in particular, is getting blame from Trump allies for details implementing a 2015 court ruling mandating that children who arrive at the border with parents cannot be held more than 20 days in Immigration and Customs Enforcement Custody.
Cissna, meanwhile, likely hurt his own cause by having his office issue permits for those who illegally entered the U.S. to obtain work documents while they await asylum decisions, 90 percent of are denied.
#6104938 at 2019-04-09 04:16:03 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #7807: I Bake Two Breads In Time Of Peace, And Two In Time Of War Edition
Donald Trump's Enemies, Friends Praise Embattled USCIS Chief
Supporters and opponents of President Donald Trump are rushing to defend Trump's deputy at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Lee Francis Cissna.
Sen. Chuck Grassley tweeted in support of Cissna, who is facing immediate firing as Trump cleans house at the Department of Homeland Security, according to a wide series of media reports. Commissioner McAleenan will do gr8 job @ DHS. Has gr8 support from 1 of smartest immigration policy minds I know: US Citizenship & Immigration Services Dir Cissna who worked w me for 2yrs on judic cmte & is doing an excellent job leading USCIS- ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) April 8, 2019
Trump has already fired Kirstjen Nielsen and replaced her with Kevin McAleenan, the commissioner of the Customs and Border Protection agency within DHS. Many media reports say Trump also plans to fire the DHS's acting deputy leader Claire Grady, and DHS general counsel John Mitnick. Cissna is also on the chopping block, even though Trump's critics say Cissna has done a very good job for Trump.
Cissna's agency handles a vast amount of tasks - including curbing fraud by migrants, developing and implementing asylum reforms, overseeing the citizenship process, and tracking the visa worker programs, which keep a population of more than 1.5 million white-collar workers in U.S. jobs. "Cissna is the best thing that has happened to that agency since was created," said Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Under President Barack Obama, "it was taken over by people who thought it was their job to rubber-stamp [work] visa applications, to [always] 'Get to Yes' .., [but now] Cissna is applying the law," said Stein.
Cissna is also backed by Mark Krikorian, the director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors Trump's "Hire American" policy. Moreover, Krikorian's argument in favor of Cissna is backed by an advocate for cheap labor immigration, Alex Nowrasteh at the Cato Institute, who bitterly opposes Trump's pro-American immigration policies. Cissna's implementation of Trump's pro-American policies also got a backward endorsement from Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a pro-migration advocate at the immigration lawyers' advocacy group, the Immigration Council. "None of this makes any sense," Reichlin-Melnick wrote. "Cissna has been an extremely effective advocate for the administration's restrictionist priorities, and his agency has little to do with the current border issues. Why fire him?" Via Twitter, Krikorian argued that Cissna is vital for Trump's"Hire American" policy, which has raised wages for Americans since 2017 - and promises to keep raising those wages before the 2020 elections. Firing Cissna "would not be 'cleaning house', it would be burning the house down. Cutting off your nose to spite your face. Throwing out the baby with the bathwater ... There's no one else who is committed to "Hire American" AND capable of implementing it," he wrote. Cissna is a former immigration lawyer who has worked for DHS and on the Hill. Cissna knows what regulations need to be changed before Trump's "Hire American" policy can be fully implemented, and he also knows how to change those rules, a Hill source added.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/04/08/donald-trumps-enemies-friends-praise-embattled-uscis-chief/
#6101799 at 2019-04-08 23:38:42 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #7803: Summer of Winning Edition
This all seems to be more than finding leakers, but there's this:
The dismantling of the government's immigration leadership is being orchestrated by Trump adviser Stephen Miller, the impetus behind some of the administration's most controversial policies, according to three people familiar with the matter. Beyond changing names and faces, Trump is considering separating migrant families at the border again, resuming the practice that drew so much outrage last year, the same people said.
The head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, L. Francis Cissna, and Homeland Security General Counsel John M. Mitnick are expected to be pushed out of their positions, the officials said.
https://www.apnews.com/88d0c24ce4504a5fb31a0f09dca7fc89
=================
As I recall researching years ago, the real cesspool is in FEMA.
On March 1, 2003, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) became part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). … In March 2003, FEMA joined 22 other federal agencies, programs and offices in becoming the Department of Homeland Security.
#6098444 at 2019-04-08 18:28:24 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #7799: April Shake Up Edition
Moar shake-ups
MORE: Two other top officials, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Francis Cissna and Office of the General Counsel's John Mitnick, are also expected to depart soon, according to one official.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/secret-service-director-24-hours-dhs-secretary-resigns/story?id=62254656
#6098216 at 2019-04-08 18:12:55 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #7799: April Shake Up Edition
Trump is removing US Secret Service director
United States Secret Service director Randolph "Tex" Alles is being removed from his position, multiple administration officials tell CNN.
President Donald Trump instructed his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, to fire Alles. Alles remains in his position as of now but has been asked to leave.
The Secret Service director reports directly to the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielsen, who resigned on Sunday amid growing pressure from the President. The director oversees the Secret Service's work on both protection and investigations.
"There is a near-systematic purge happening at the nation's second-largest national security agency," this official says.
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services director Francis Cissna and Office of the General Counsel's John Mitnick are expected to be gone soon, and the White House is eyeing others to be removed.
The President in recent weeks empowered Stephen Miller to lead the administration's border policies "and he's executing his plan" with what amounts to a wholesale decapitation or the Department of Homeland Security leadership, the official says.
Neither the USSS nor the White House immediately responded to CNN's request for comment.
Alles previously served in Customs and Border Protection leadership and also led that agency's Air and Marine Operations. He is a 35-year veteran of the Marine Corps.
It was not immediately clear what prompted his firing, but the Secret Service recently came under scrutiny after a Chinese woman illegally entered the President's Mar-a-Lago club carrying Chinese passports and a flash drive containing malware.
https://www.wxyz.com/news/national/trump-is-removing-us-secret-service-director
#6098082 at 2019-04-08 18:01:37 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #7799: April Shake Up Edition
Trump Fires Head Of Secret Service
Following former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen's Sunday resignation due to her "abysmal failure" to curb the crisis at the southern border (indeed, the number of migrants and asylum seekers pouring into the US has reached unprecedented levels this year), President Trump appears to be embarking on a purge of all Nielsen's allies and direct reports - starting with Secret Service Director Randolph "Tex" Alles.
According to CNN, Trump has asked Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney to fire Alles. Alles is reportedly aware that he will soon be pushed out, but his departure hasn't yet been made official. One of CNN's sources described Alles' ouster as part of a "near systematic purge" as Stephen Miller, who has been charged with running the administration's immigration policy, consolidates power. One official described Miller's purge as a "wholesale decapitation" of DHS.
"There is a near-systematic purge happening at the nation's second-largest national security agency," one senior administration official says. And Alles's likely won't be the last head to roll at DHS. Two other top officials are reportedly on their way out. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services director Francis Cissna and Office of the General Counsel's John Mitnick are expected to be gone soon, and the White House is eyeing others to be removed.
Notably, Alles firing may also be related to an embarrassing episode for the secret service after a Chinese woman illegally entered the President's Mar-a-Lago club carrying four cell phones, two passports, electronic devices and a thumb-drive containing malware. Whatever the reason, the White House and DHS declined to comment to CNN on the matter.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-04-08/trump-reportedly-firing-head-secret-service
#6097968 at 2019-04-08 17:54:10 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #7798: Mack Pleads Guilty. Was 'Missguided 'Edition
Trump is removing US Secret Service director
United States Secret Service director Randolph "Tex" Alles is being removed from his position, multiple administration officials tell CNN.
President Donald Trump instructed his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, to fire Alles. Alles remains in his position as of now but has been asked to leave.
The Secret Service director reports directly to the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielsen, who resigned on Sunday amid growing pressure from the President. The director oversees the Secret Service's work on both protection and investigations.
"There is a near-systematic purge happening at the nation's second-largest national security agency," this official says.
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services director Francis Cissna and Office of the General Counsel's John Mitnick are expected to be gone soon, and the White House is eyeing others to be removed.
The President in recent weeks empowered Stephen Miller to lead the administration's border policies "and he's executing his plan" with what amounts to a wholesale decapitation or the Department of Homeland Security leadership, the official says.
Neither the USSS nor the White House immediately responded to CNN's request for comment.
Alles previously served in Customs and Border Protection leadership and also led that agency's Air and Marine Operations. He is a 35-year veteran of the Marine Corps.
It was not immediately clear what prompted his firing, but the Secret Service recently came under scrutiny after a Chinese woman illegally entered the President's Mar-a-Lago club carrying Chinese passports and a flash drive containing malware.
https://www.wxyz.com/news/national/trump-is-removing-us-secret-service-director
#6092549 at 2019-04-08 03:46:03 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #7792: Do not let them DIVIDE you. The PANIC BUTTON PUSHED Edition
>>6092548
"He thinks we can be tougher - that if we only can do more tough talk this may stop," said another person close to DHS.
The decision to pull Vitiello's nomination came as a surprise to Nielsen, who protested the move, according to two people close to the situation. It also shocked Republicans on Capitol Hill.
"It's kind of a kick in the face to ICE in the middle of a very difficult period," said a congressional aide. "There's understandably a limited bench for people who are willing and able to do the job."
Several Republican members of Congress have called the White House to question Vitiello's withdrawal, according to two people familiar with the phone calls.
"There's a worry now that there's an erosion of people that actually have operational judgment that can at least provide the president with counsel about what will be some of the negative consequences for some of these ideas," said a person close to DHS.
Miller's efforts to oust Cissna from his post, meanwhile, have frustrated even some of the White House aide's usual allies.
"If there's anyone worthy of the White House's ire on the immigration issue, it certainly isn't Francis Cissna," said RJ Hauman, government relations director at the Federation for American Immigration Reform. "A change at the top of USCIS would be a colossal mistake."
But Miller has left some officials feeling as though they, too, could be in jeopardy if they don't pursue a more aggressive approach to border control. His calls to several officials - including Craig Symons, chief counsel at USCIS; Carl Risch, the assistant secretary of State for Consular Affairs; ICE deputy director Matthew Albence; and Kathy Nuebel, policy and strategy chief at USCIS - have sometimes included discussions about poor work performance among colleagues, according to a source briefed on one such conversation.
Last week, as Trump threatened once again to shut down the border - a threat he later walked back, saying he would instead impose auto tariffs on Mexico if immigration and drug trafficking is not curtailed - Miller held a conference call with immigration activists to explain the administration's position and answer questions.
He has told allies that the administration is out of ideas about how to stem the migrant tide at the border, according to a source familiar with the conversations.
The number of family members intercepted at the southwest border soared in March, according to preliminary CBP statistics. While overall arrests remain below the higher levels of the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s, the Trump administration argues families and children present unique humanitarian and security issues.
Trump officials have also recently discussed creating an immigration "czar" - a single official who would oversee the issue across dozens of departments and agencies. The position would not require Senate confirmation.
#6092548 at 2019-04-08 03:45:52 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #7792: Do not let them DIVIDE you. The PANIC BUTTON PUSHED Edition
Stephen Miller pressuring Trump officials amid immigration shakeups
The White House hardliner is driving a more aggressive immigration approach.
By ANITA KUMAR, GABBY ORR and DANIEL LIPPMAN
04/07/2019 11:26 PM EDT
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/07/stephen-miller-trump-immigration-1260431
As President Donald Trump roils the capital over illegal immigration, his influential aide Stephen Miller is playing a more aggressive behind-the-scenes role in a wider administration shakeup.
Frustrated by the lack of headway on a signature Trump campaign issue, the senior White House adviser has been arguing for personnel changes to bring in more like-minded hardliners, according to three people familiar with the situation - including the ouster of a key immigration official at the Department of Homeland Security, whose secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, announced on Sunday that she is resigning.
Miller has also recently been telephoning mid-level officials at several federal departments and agencies to angrily demand that they do more to stem the flow of immigrants into the country, according to two people familiar with the calls.
The pressure comes as Trump, who forced a government shutdown over his demand for a Mexican border wall, is again making immigration the central theme of his presidency; last week, Trump backed off his threats to shut down the border entirely.
The officials at the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice and State, who each handle different parts of the immigration process, were initially surprised that a high-ranking White House official like Miller would call them directly, rather than contact their bosses.
"It's intimidation," one of the people who was briefed on the calls told POLITICO. "Anytime you get a call like this from the White House it's intimidation … Under normal circumstances, if you were a deputy in one of these agencies, it would be very unusual."
"There's definitely a larger shakeup abreast being led by Stephen Miller and the staunch right wing within the administration," said a person close to Nielsen, who resigned Sunday after months of pressure from a president who felt she was not tough enough on illegal immigration. "They failed with the courts and with Congress and now they're eating their own."
It was not immediately clear whether Miller played a role in the departure of Nielsen, who resigned during a Sunday evening meeting with Trump and whose approach to border enforcement often exasperated Miller and other hardline immigration reform advocates, who saw her as insufficiently bold.
A 33-year-old policy adviser and speechwriter, Miller is the Trump administration's most influential advocate for stricter immigration policies. He uses his close relationship with Trump and tight ties to conservative media to shape the president's thinking. But he has kept a relatively low public profile in recent months, even as Trump has hammered constantly at what he calls a "crisis" on the southern border, where illegal crossings have recently surged.
But critics of Trump's policies and personnel moves believe that Miller may be playing an instrumental role. Several members of Congress, unhappily surprised by Vitiello's withdrawal, and have been asking administration officials and lobbyists for an explanation.
Miller and the White House didn't respond to a request for comment.
Miller also has been pushing for Trump to fire Lee Francis Cissna, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, who has overseen implementation of some of the administration's lesser-known immigration policies, including green card reforms and changes to how the federal government processes and admits refugees.
"He's actively trying to put in place people who have very different points of view than the current leadership within the agencies," said a former DHS official familiar with Miller's efforts. "His idea is basically [to] clean house."
Miller also appears to have played a role in Trump's surprise move on Friday to withdraw his nomination of acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Ronald Vitiello, whom he had moved to install permanently, saying he wanted to take the agency in a "tougher direction."
Miller had informed the president days before he pulled Vitiello's nomination that the acting ICE chief had reservations about closing down the southern border, which Trump has recently threatened to do against the recommendation of some of his top economic advisers and policy aides.
#6083328 at 2019-04-07 11:44:45 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #7780: Qresear.ch Edition
http://www.journalgazette.net/news/us/20190407/hard-line-aide-has-trumps-ear-as-border-tactics-flounder
Sunday, April 07, 2019 1:00 am
Hard-line aide has Trump's ear as border tactics flounder
JILL COLVIN and COLLEEN LONG | Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Tensions are rising, fingers are pointing and the search for solutions is becoming increasingly fraught.
Overwhelmed by an influx of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border that is taxing the immigration system, President Donald Trump is grasping for something to stem the tide.
Trump, who campaigned on a promise to secure the border, has thrown virtually every option his aides have been able to think of at the problem, to little avail. He has sent out the military, signed an emergency declaration to fund a border wall and threatened to completely seal the southern border.
On Thursday, he added a new threat, warning of hefty tariffs on cars made in Mexico if the country doesn't abide by his demands.
Now, with the encouragement of an influential aide and with his reelection campaign on the horizon, Trump is looking at personnel changes as he tries to shift blame elsewhere.
The first move was made Thursday, when the White House unexpectedly pulled back the nomination of Ron Vitiello to permanently lead U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, where he had been acting director.
The abrupt reversal was encouraged by top Trump policy adviser Stephen Miller and seen by some as part of a larger effort to bring on aides who share Miller's hard-line immigration views.
"We may go a different way. We may have to go a very tough way," Trump said in an interview with "Fox & Friends Weekend" that aired Saturday.
An empowered Miller is also eyeing the removal of Lee Francis Cissna, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which runs the legal immigration system, according to two people who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal staffing matters. The White House did not respond to questions Friday about whether Trump was on board with that plan.
Trump has become increasingly exasperated at his inability to do more to halt the swelling numbers of migrants entering the country. Aides, too, have complained they are stymied by regulatory guardrails, legal limitations and a Congress that has scoffed at the president's requests for legislative changes.
"There is indeed an emergency on our southern border," Trump said Friday during a visit to the southern border in Calexico, California, where his frustration was evident. "It's a colossal surge and it's overwhelming our immigration system, and we can't let that happen. So, as I say, and this is our new statement: The system is full. Can't take you anymore."
He went on to flatly declare: "Our country is full."
#5655624 at 2019-03-13 06:26:31 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #7233: The 33s Edition
U.S. to close international immigration offices
Social Sharing
Duties of 23 offices will shift to embassies or back to U.S.-based sites
U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is planning to close the U.S. immigration agency's overseas locations, according to current and former officials and an internal memo, in a move affecting offices that handle family visa requests, international adoptions and other tasks.
The move is the latest from an administration that has worked to limit legal and illegal immigration since Trump took office in January 2017, including cuts to the U.S. refugee program and heightened vetting of U.S. visa applications.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Francis Cissna, in an email message to agency employees, announced plans for closure of the international field offices. The plans called for shifting those duties to U.S.-based agency offices and American consulates and embassies abroad.
The agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security, operates 23 offices overseas, scattered across Latin America, Europe and Asia, according to the agency's website.
The agency offices carry out services including: helping U.S. citizens who want to bring relatives to the United States; processing refugee applications; enabling overseas citizenship applications; and assisting Americans who want to adopt foreign children, according to its website.
The international offices can also process naturalizations of U.S. military service members who are not already U.S. citizens. USCIS officers abroad also look for fraud in visa applications and provide technical immigration advice to other U.S. government officials.
This is another example of the administration pulling up the drawbridge.
- Mark Hetfield , refugee advocate
On Monday, senior USCIS officials told employees within its refugee asylum and international operations division that the agency had decided to close its overseas posts, one current and one former official said. The closures will happen over the next year, and some of the offices' tasks likely will be shifted to the State Department, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"Change can be difficult and can cause consternation," Cissna wrote, but he said the agency is committed to implementing "as smooth a transition as possible."
In places where USCIS does not have overseas posts, the State Department already carries out some of its duties, such as replacing green cards for American legal permanent residents who have lost theirs.
International USCIS staff provide support to U.S. officials who travel abroad to interview refugee applicants.
Creating roadblocks
The administration has put in place new barriers for asylum seekers, barred citizens of several Muslim-majority countries from travelling to the United States and pushed new rules that would make it harder for low-income immigrants to become legal permanent American residents.
Advocates expressed concern that the move to close down overseas offices would create additional roadbocks for vulnerable applicants.
"They are doing an across-the-board effort to dismantle the capacity of this country to process refugees and immigrants legally," said Mark Hetfield, president of the U.S. refugee assistance organization HIAS. "It is not consistent with what President Trump said in the state of the union [address], which is that he wants immigrants to come here, that he wants them to come here legally."
"This is another example of the administration pulling up the drawbridge," Hetfield added.
Leon Rodriguez, USCIS director under Trump's predecessor Barack Obama, said the shift may have been aimed at cutting costs and that most duties now performed internationally by USCIS likely will be delegated to U.S. consulates abroad.
"Symbolically it is retreating from an international presence," Rodriguez said.
Agency spokeswoman Jessica Collins said by email: "As we have internally shared, USCIS is in preliminary discussions to consider shifting its international USCIS office workloads to USCIS domestic offices in the United States and, where practicable, to U.S. embassies and consulates abroad."
"The goal of any such shift would be to maximize USCIS resources that could then be reallocated, in part, to backlog reduction efforts," Collins said.
Sauce: https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/u-s-immigration-offices-closed-international-1.5053448
#5642419 at 2019-03-12 18:09:23 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #7216: Stay Tuned! Edition
Please tell me this is true, even though it's a leak.
https://news.yahoo.com/u-immigration-agency-slash-overseas-presence-155215323.html
By Yeganeh Torbati (Citizen?) and (((Mica Rosenberg)))
(((WASHINGTON/NEW YORK))) (Reuters) - The U.S. immigration agency plans to significantly reduce its presence abroad,
>according to an internal e-mail seen by Reuters and current and former U.S. officials, in an effort to shift resources to domestic offices that took some career officials by surprise.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which operates under the Department of Homeland Security, currently operates 23 offices overseas, scattered across Latin America, Europe and Asia.
The move comes as the Trump administration has worked in the past two years to limit both legal and illegal immigration with cuts to the U.S. refugee program and USCIS stepping up vetting of visa applications.
The USCIS offices carry out a number of services…, processing refugee applications. USCIS officers abroad also look for fraud in visa applications.
On Monday, senior USCIS officials told employees within the agency's Refugee Asylum and International Operations division that the agency had
>decided to close its overseas posts, one current and one former official said.
The closures will happen over the next year and some of the offices' tasks likely will be shifted to the State Department, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. (((LEAKS)))
USCIS Director Francis Cissna sent a message on Tuesday to all agency employees saying the agency is preparing for discussions that would lead to shifting much of its international workload to its U.S. offices for domestic processing, as well as to U.S. embassies and consulates abroad.
>One of the responsibilities of the overseas offices is to help process refugee applications. But the Trump administration's reduction of refugee admissions has reduced that part of the offices' workload.
(Winning, but we need to send teh refugees back hme, especially to Somolia)
>The administration also has put in place new barriers for asylum seekers, barring citizens of several Muslim-majority countries from traveling to the United States, and pushing new rules that would make it harder for low-income people to become permanent American residents.
#5266443 at 2019-02-19 18:44:45 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #6730: MSM Pushes Narrative that Trump is Anti-LGBT Edition
ICE Issues New Guidance on Petitions for Child Brides
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Trump administration announced new rules Friday to scrutinize petitions to bring in underage spouses to the U.S., after data showed thousands of requests by men to bring in child and adolescent brides had been approved.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said it was updating guidance to adjudicators that stresses marriages involving minors warrant special attention. They must ensure the marriage was lawful where it was celebrated, and is legal in the state where they will live, and that it is bona fide and the minor consented freely to it.
The Associated Press last month obtained data showing there were more than 5,000 cases of adults petitioning on behalf of minors and nearly 3,000 examples of minors seeking to bring in older spouses or fiancées.
The approval of the petitions is the first of a two-step visa process, and USCIS had already said it has taken steps to better flag and vet the petitions.
They are legal. The Immigration and Nationality Act does not set minimum age requirements for the person making the request or for that person's spouse or fiancée. By contrast, to bring in a parent from overseas, a petitioner has to be at least 21 years old.
And in weighing petitions, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services goes by whether the marriage is legal in the spouse or fiancée's home country and then whether the marriage would be legal in the state where the petitioner lives.
Marriage between adults and minors is not uncommon in the U.S., and most states allow children to marry with some restrictions.
But the data raise questions about whether the immigration system may be enabling forced marriage and about how U.S. laws may be compounding the problem despite efforts to limit child and forced marriage.
The USCIS changes will not stop child marriage - age limits must be set by Congress, and states - but officials hope it will help detect instances where a spouse is in the marriage against her will.
"USCIS is taking action to the maximum extent permitted under current immigration law to highlight special considerations in the adjudication of marriage-based immigrant petitions involving a minor," said USCIS Director L. Francis Cissna. "While these are steps in the right direction, ultimately it is up to Congress to bring more certainty and legal clarity to this process for both petitioners and USCIS officers."
There is a two-step process for obtaining U.S. immigration visas and green cards. Petitions are first considered by USCIS. If granted, they must be approved by the State Department. Overall, there were 3.5 million petitions received from budget years 2007 through 2017.
Over that period, there were 5,556 approvals for those seeking to bring minor spouses or fiancées, and 2,926 approvals by minors seeking to bring in older spouses, according to the data. Additionally, there were 204 for minors by minors. Petitions can be filed by U.S. citizens or permanent residents. In nearly all the cases, the girls were the younger person in relationship.
Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson said he was pleased to see the guidance.
"Despite this improvement, Congress still needs to act to close this loophole - I look forward to continue working with my colleagues on legislation to do just that," the Wisconsin Republican said.
https://www.courthousenews.com/ice-issues-new-guidance-on-petitions-for-child-brides/
#4710166 at 2019-01-11 14:39:49 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #6010: The Real Intelligence Hero's Edition
>>4710140
part 2
Fraidy Reiss, who campaigns against coerced marriage as head of a group called Unchained at Last, researched data from her home state of New Jersey. She determined that nearly 4,000 minors, mostly girls, were married in the state from 1995 to 2012, including 178 who were under 15.
"This is a problem both domestically and in terms of immigration," she said.
Reiss - who says she was forced into an abusive marriage by her Orthodox Jewish family when she was 19 - said that often cases of child marriage via parental consent involve coercion, with a girl forced to marry against her will.
"They are subjected to a lifetime of domestic servitude and rape," she said. "And the government is not only complicit; they're stamping this and saying: Go ahead."
The data was requested in 2017 by Johnson and then-Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, the committee's top Democrat. Johnson said it took a year to get the information, showing there needs to be a better system to track and vet the petitions.
"Our immigration system may unintentionally shield the abuse of women and children," the senators said in the letter.
USCIS didn't know how many of the approvals were granted by the State Department, but overall only about 2.6 percent of spousal or fiancee claims are rejected.
Separately, the data show some 4,749 minor spouses or fiancees received green cards to live in the U.S. over that same 10-year period.
The head of USCIS, L. Francis Cissna, said in a letter to the committee that its request had raised questions and discussion within the agency on what it can do to prevent forced minor marriages. The agency noticed some issues in how the data was collected and has resolved them. Officials also created a flagging system that requires verification of the birthdate whenever a minor is detected.
The country where most requests came from was Mexico, followed by Pakistan, Jordan, the Dominican Republic and Yemen. Middle Eastern nationals had the highest percentage of overall approved petitions.
#3844717 at 2018-11-11 04:32:58 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #4887 With Fuckery Abroad, We Want Our POTUS Back Edition
>>3844694
'Dramatic increase' in number of H1B visas being held up, claims Compete America
The H1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.
Claiming that there has been a "dramatic increase" in the number of H-1B visas being held up, a coalition of American employers representing top IT companies like Google, Facebook and Microsoft has alleged that the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is acting outside of its own regulations. The H1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.
"We have observed three changes in H-1B adjudication practices under the current administration that seem to permeate most of the increased H-1B adjudication inconsistencies experienced by employers," Compete America said in a letter to the Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen and Francis Cissna Director, USCIS. Expressing concerns over legal issues regarding the recent changes in adjudication standards for H-1B non-immigrant visa petitions at USCIS, the coalition - Compete America - said the agency's current approach to H-1B adjudications cannot be anticipated by either the statutory or regulatory text. This leaves employers with a disruptive lack of clarity about the agency's practices, procedures, and policies. This lack of certainty and consistency wreaks havoc among the nation's employers which are hiring high-skilled Americans and foreign-born professionals, it said in the letter dated November 1.
Compete America alleged that the agency appears to be acting "outside of its own regulations and the controlling statute" by requiring petitioners to comply with the agency's current view that a comparatively entry-level job, and corresponding wage level, cannot be a specialty occupation. The specific field of study requirement for a specialty occupation means the job must necessitate completion of a single major or qualifying degree, and the requirement for an occupation to usually carry a degree prerequisite means a degree must always be needed. In its letter, Compete America said that its members have reported dramatic increases in the issuance of Requests for Evidence (RFEs) and denials regarding H-1B petitions for the last 18 months.
More recently they are experiencing a sharp increase in the issuance of Notices of Intent to Deny (NOIDs) and Notices of Intent to Revoke (NOIRs) concerning H-1B petitions. "These reported shifts in agency action have been perplexing to our coalition's members, especially because the agency's changes in approach were unannounced and unexplained and are not previewed in the regulations governing a qualifying H-1B specialty occupation that have been in effect since 1991," it said. According to Compete America, USCIS has been denying H-1B petitions exclusively because an entry-level wage is applicable for the specific position, even though the occupation itself is clearly a specialty occupation.
"Nothing in the statute or regulations contemplates or suggests, much less states, that USCIS could ever take the position that it per se excludes or disfavours entry-level jobs in an occupation, or young professionals working in jobs in an occupation, as qualifying for H-1B specialty occupation approval," it asserted. Further, employers have reported repeated instances of USCIS denying an H-1B petition on the basis that the degree held by the sponsored foreign professional is not within a single field of acceptable study for an occupation.
Employers are also reporting repeated instances of USCIS denying H-1B petitions for occupations that may have some limited instances of jobs where a bachelor's degree or higher is not required, even when those occupations normally do require that level of education for the majority of roles, as contemplated by the statute, Compete America said.
https://indianexpress.com/article/world/us-dramatic-increase-number-h1b-visas-held-up-compete-america-it-companies-5438562/
#1797268 at 2018-06-18 14:50:41 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #2263 Obama's Warehouse Full Of Children In Nogales (2014) Edition
>>1797255
>>Francis Cissna, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) director, told "Fox & Friends" the agency wants to release as much data about DACA as possible for the public and lawmakers to be informed.
>>"I would like people to keep in mind . . . whatever they do, I would hope that we, at USCIS, would be able to turn down these people . . . if we think they're a public safety threat . . . if someone is a gang member . . . even if they don't have a conviction," Cissna said.
From the linked article.
#1747855 at 2018-06-14 19:11:59 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #2199: Channeling OmnibusAnon Edition
Homeland Security will strip citizenship from naturalized Americans who lied on their applications
The Trump administration is creating an office within the Homeland Security Department to strip immigrants of their naturalized citizenship or green card status if they are discovered to have lied on formal applications about their immigration status.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman Michael Bars told the Washington Examiner the agency has begun hiring dozens of lawyers and immigration officers to staff the forthcoming USCIS office in Los Angeles with the intent of possibly prosecuting some of those who committed fraud.
"The new USCIS office in southern California will serve as a centralized location to review and initiate the civil denaturalization process against individuals who had been ordered removed and intentionally used multiple identities in order to defraud the government and the American people to obtain citizenship," Bars explained. The idea of crosschecking paper documents has been years in the making, but is only happening now because technological advances have allowed hundreds of thousands of fingerprint records to be uploaded from paper into IDENT, the department's fingerprint repository. One person's fingerprints can be scanned through the system to see if the same unique prints were used on another person's application. Officers based in the agency's Los Angeles office started a sort of pop-up office in January 2017 in order to look over fingerprints that were flagged as possible violators.
Bars said anyone who lied on legal documents can expect to hear from the new office. "Nobody who obtained U.S. citizenship by deliberately assuming a false identity will be surprised to learn they are being referred to the Justice Department for removal proceedings. USCIS screens for deliberate acts of fraud," said Bars. As a result of the start-up operation last January, 2,536 naturalization cases were flagged as needing additional review. The person under investigation will then be called in for an in-person interview. If officers determine he or she intentionally lied, the person will be referred to the Justice Department where a judge will make the ultimate denaturalization decision.
To date, 95 of the more than 2,500 identified cases have been sent to DOJ, which is one reason USCIS has chosen to establish an office with the sole intention of focusing on this issue. Others could face criminal charges for fraud if DOJ prosecutors choose to pursue additional charges. Just more than 300 people have had their citizenship revoked since 1990, according to Matthew Hoppock, an immigration attorney in Kansas who obtained those statistics.
USCIS Director L. Francis Cissna said the program is not looking to go after people who made innocent mistakes. He added in an interview with the Associated Press that he could not estimate the cost of the new office, but said USCIS will use fees from applicants to cover the associated costs.
https:// www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/homeland-security-will-strip-citizenship-from-naturalized-americans-who-lied-on-their-applications
#1708148 at 2018-06-12 02:30:00 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #2149: "Good, better, best. Never let it rest" Edition
U.S. launching office to identify citizenship cheaters
LOS ANGELES - The U.S. government agency that oversees immigration applications is launching an office that will focus on identifying Americans who are suspected of cheating to get their citizenship and seek to strip them of it.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director L. Francis Cissna told The Associated Press in an interview that his agency is hiring several dozen lawyers and immigration officers to review cases of immigrants who were ordered deported and are suspected of using fake identities to later get green cards and citizenship through naturalization.
Cissna said the cases would be referred to the Department of Justice, whose attorneys could then seek to remove the immigrants' citizenship in civil court proceedings. In some cases, government attorneys could bring criminal charges related to fraud.
Until now, the agency has pursued cases as they arose but not through a coordinated effort, Cissna said. He said he hopes the agency's new office in Los Angeles will be running by next year but added that investigating and referring cases for prosecution will likely take longer.
"We finally have a process in place to get to the bottom of all these bad cases and start denaturalizing people who should not have been naturalized in the first place," Cissna said. "What we're looking at, when you boil it all down, is potentially a few thousand cases."
He declined to say how much the effort would cost but said it would be covered by the agency's existing budget, which is funded by immigration application fees.
The push comes as the Trump administration has been cracking down on illegal immigration and taking steps to reduce legal immigration to the U.S.
Immigrants who become U.S. citizens can vote, serve on juries and obtain security clearance. Denaturalization - the process of removing that citizenship - is very rare.
The U.S. government began looking at potentially fraudulent naturalization cases a decade ago when a border officer detected about 200 people had used different identities to get green cards and citizenship after they were previously issued deportation orders.
In September 2016, an internal watchdog reported that 315,000 old fingerprint records for immigrants who had been deported or had criminal convictions had not been uploaded to a Department of Homeland Security database that is used to check immigrants' identities. The same report found more than 800 immigrants had been ordered deported under one identity but became U.S. citizens under another.
Since then, the government has been uploading these older fingerprint records dating back to the 1990s and investigators have been evaluating cases for denaturalization.
Earlier this year, a judge revoked the citizenship of an Indian-born New Jersey man named Baljinder Singh after federal authorities accused him of using an alias to avoid deportation.
Authorities said Singh used a different name when he arrived in the United States in 1991. He was ordered deported the next year and a month later applied for asylum using the name Baljinder Singh before marrying an American, getting a green card and naturalizing.
Authorities said Singh did not mention his earlier deportation order when he applied for citizenship.
For many years, most U.S. efforts to strip immigrants of their citizenship focused largely on suspected war criminals who lied on their immigration paperwork, most notably former Nazis.
Toward the end of the Obama administration, officials began reviewing cases stemming from the fingerprints probe but prioritized those of naturalized citizens who had obtained security clearances, for example, to work at the Transportation Security Administration, said Muzaffar Chishti, director of the Migration Policy Institute's office at New York University law school.
https:// www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jun/11/us-citizenship-and-immigration-services-launches-o/
#1105922 at 2018-04-19 22:49:37 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #1381: What Are You Watching Unfold?
>>1105913
Spox DHS TQ
12/11/17
https:// twitter.com/SpoxDHS/status/940361293449613312 (Thread)
https:// twitter.com/SpoxDHS/status/940225296808083456 (Thread) NYC Bomber
12/12/17
Sessions: https:// twitter.com/wsyx6/status/940610216114221056
FOX Busi:
L. Francis Cissna, @DHSgov: "The immigration system is heavily weighted towards family migration."
https:// twitter.com/FoxBusiness/status/940676138921287681