California Senate Approves Bill Extending Bar & Alcohol Sale Hours to 4 a.m.

California night owls, rejoice. The Golden State Senate just passed a bill that would allow bars to operate and sell alcohol until 4 a.m., extending but not requiring communities the opportunity to keep nightlife going an added two hours.

SB 384 was proposed by Senator Scott Wiener of the 11th Senate District, representing San Francisco and other municipalities. Nicknamed the LOCAL Act, for Let Our Communities Adjust Late Night, was voted in with bipartisan support in both houses. The bill now seeks approval by the heads of the state assembly, and if passed, would give local communities the opportunity to draft their own legislation to extend hours and vote within their constituencies whether or not to enact such shifts.

“The LOCAL Act recognizes that nightlife is critical to the culture and economy of many cities throughout our large and diverse state, and that local communities can make responsible decisions to support nightlife, if that’s the choice they want to make,” Senator Wiener is quoted in the official release from California's Senate. “By taking this nuanced approach to empower -- but not require -- local communities to extend alcohol sales hours, we can support nightlife in California while also recognizing that there is not a one-sized fits all solution for each and every city in our great state. I look forward to working with my co-authors in the Assembly to pass the LOCAL Act.”

The US is finally telling the public who overstays their visas the most—and it’s not Mexicans

For years, the best—and virtually only—publicly released statistic tracking illegal immigration in the US has been the number of people caught at the southern border.

Now, the US Department of Homeland Security is scrutinizing a lesser known type of undocumented immigrant: the one who comes in legally. In a new report released May 22, the agency has attempted to count the people who overstayed their visas in  2016. The results tell a different story than the border apprehension numbers, and suggest that the US should broaden its singular focus on the border to include airports and seaports as well.

By the end of   2016, some 630,000 visitors had failed to leave the US, far exceeding the 415,000 people who were intercepted crossing the US-Mexico boundary during the same time period. According to Homeland Security, Canadians, not northbound Latin Americans, were the biggest group of violators. About 120,000 Canadians with expired visas were still believed to be living in the US at the end of the period covered by the report, versus roughly 47,000 Mexicans.

At the same time, the statistics released today likely underestimate overstays because they only include travelers who entered and left the country by plane or boat. That means many Mexicans and Canadians probably didn’t even make it into the count because they travelled by land.

The incomplete nature of the data speaks to the US immigration system’s continued difficulties in tracking who leaves the country. Homeland Security officials have been trying to improve their system for years, with very little to show for their efforts. The agency is only now getting around to setting up a system to identify departing travelers with biometric technology, more than 10 years after Congress mandated it. And the funding assigned to the technology—$100 million a year—is tiny compared to what president Donald Trump wants to spend on his border wall project.

Airbnb Settles San Francisco Suit

Airbnb has settled a suit with San Francisco, and will require people to register with the city when they rent-out their homes through the company's website.

The company, which lists rental lodgings in 65,000 cities worldwide, agreed to share names, addresses and zip codes of hosts in the city. San Francisco has only 2,100 on its records, but Airbnb has more than 8,000 in the city.

"Every host on the Airbnb platform will be registered, which is what the city has said it will be looking for," said Chris Lehane, global policy chief for the company. Registration will debut for Airbnb hosts in San Francisco in 2018.

The issue arose last year when the city enacted an ordinance, making it illegal for Airbnb to collect fees for booking rentals that had not been registered with the city. The company fought the ordinance in court, but settled in an apparent plan to resolve similar issues in other cities as well.

Reuters reported that the settlement is the latest indication that Airbnb is relaxing its long-standing resistance to turning over information to city officials. In an interview with reporters, Lehane said the company has retreated somewhat from its earlier arguments that federal laws protect internet service providers from liability for information posted by users.

CNBC reported last month that Airbnb is the second most valuable start-up since Uber, and like the ride-sharing service, faces "many" regulatory challenges.

"It is unlikely that the home-sharing start-up run by CEO Brain Chesky goes public anytime soon," CNBC reported.

USCIS Will Issue Redesigned Green Cards and Employment Authorization Documents

USCIS Will Issue Redesigned Green Cards and Employment Authorization Documents

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services today announced a redesign to the Permanent Resident Card (also known as a Green Card) and the Employment Authorization Document (EAD) as part of the Next Generation Secure Identification Document Project. USCIS will begin issuing the new cards on May 1, 2017.

These redesigns use enhanced graphics and fraud-resistant security features to create cards that are highly secure and more tamper-resistant than the ones currently in use.

The new card designs demonstrate USCIS’ commitment to continue taking a proactive approach against the threat of document tampering and fraud. They are also part of an ongoing effort between USCIS, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to enhance document security and deter counterfeiting and fraud.

The Redesigned Cards

The new Green Cards and EADs will:

·         Display the individual’s photos on both sides;

·         Show a unique graphic image and color palette:

o    Green Cards will have an image of the Statue of Liberty and a predominately green palette;

o    EAD cards will have an image of a bald eagle and a predominately red palette;

·         Have embedded holographic images; and

·         No longer display the individual’s signature.

Also, Green Cards will no longer have an optical stripe on the back.

How To Tell If Your Card Is Valid

Some Green Cards and EADs issued after May 1, 2017, may still display the existing design format as USCIS will continue using existing card stock until current supplies are depleted. Both the existing and the new Green Cards and EADs will remain valid until the expiration date shown on the card.

What should we know about the Paris climate agreement?

President Donald Trump announced his decision to withdraw the United States the the Paris climate agreement. The deal, joined by all but two countries (Syrian and Nicaragua), is a broad framework designed to nudge nations to prevent catastrophic climate change.

The deal was the result of tense negotiations in December 2015 and what it does is pretty simple. Let's have a look:

The goal of the Paris agreement is the global target of keeping global average temperatures from rising by the end of the century. Beyond 2 degrees, we risk dramatically higher seas, changes in weather patterns, food and water crises, and an overall more hostile world.

But the agreement doesn’t detail exactly how these countries should do so. Instead it provides a framework for getting momentum going on greenhouse gas reduction, with some oversight and accountability. Under Trump’s current policies, that goal is impossible.

A lot of countries have agreed to it. But there’s also no defined punishment for breaking it.

So as part of the Paris agreement, richer countries, like the US, are supposed to send $100 billion a year in aid by 2020 to the poorer countries. And that amount is set to increase over time. Again, like the other provisions of the agreement, this isn’t an absolute mandate.

The Paris agreement is largely symbolic, and it will live on even if Trump withdraws the US. But it will for sure weaken the global coalition around climate change.

Iranian National Challenges USCIS Investor Visa Denial

An Iranian national demanded in D.C. federal court Tuesday that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services reconsider her petition for an investor visa leading to permanent resident status, alleging that she had complied with the visa requirements by investing $500,000 in a Washington state hotel project and was nevertheless wrongly denied.

Batool Sadeghzadeh claimed to have invested her funds into a Washington limited partnership to finance the development and operation of a 297-room Embassy Suites hotel called the Hotel Tower, rendering her and her young daughter eligible for permanent residency. She claims that USCIS unjustly denied her petition on the basis of what it deemed to be inadequate evidence of the proper legal path of her funds, violating the Immigration and Nationality Act and administrative procedure statutes, as well as her Fifth Amendment due process rights.

Up to 10,000 visas are available through the EB-5 immigrant investor program, which encompasses individuals investing a minimum of $500,000 with required amounts varying by area in a "new commercial enterprise" employing at least 10 new workers.

Sadeghzadeh argued that USCIS had overstepped its authority under the INA, abused its discretion, had conducted an erroneous survey of her supporting documents and had unreasonably delayed the processing of her visa application for years.

"The denial was replete with not only flawed legal conclusions, but also with factual errors, and bizarre claims about document translations, and missing translations or foreign language originals for documents that were in original English," the complaint states.

Sadeghzadeh requested that the court force USCIS to immediately approve her petition and compensate her for attorneys, as well as any other relief deemed proper. Representatives for USCIS declined to comment.



 

Rep. Labrador Introduces Davis-Oliver Act

House Judiciary Immigration and Border Security Subcommittee Vice-Chairman Raúl Labrador (R-Idaho) introduced the Michael Davis, Jr. and Danny Oliver in Honor of State and Local Law Enforcement Act (H.R. 2431) yesterday that would strengthen interior enforcement. The bill would protect and encourage jurisdictions to cooperate with ICE detainer requests and would target sanctuary jurisdictions by withholding federal grants.

The House Judiciary Committee has scheduled a markup of the bill on Thursday.

“The bill I’m introducing today, the Davis-Oliver Act, gives states and localities the authority to enforce federal immigration laws. We already entrust them with enforcing most categories of federal law, and immigration law should be no exception. The Davis-Oliver Act is a first and necessary step to modernize a broken immigration system. While other reforms are needed, my bill is vital to a long-term fix,” Rep. Labrador said in his press release.

The bill is named after Michael Davis, Jr. and Danny Oliver, two California deputy sheriffs who were murdered by illegal aliens.

Among other things, the bill:

·         Removes the President’s ability to unilaterally shut down immigration enforcement.

·         Strengthens ICE’s detainer authority by establishing probable cause standards to issue the detainers.

·         Withholds certain DOJ and DHS grants from sanctuary jurisdictions that refuse to honor ICE detainer requests and prohibit their officers from communicating with ICE.

·         Protects law enforcement officers from lawsuits for complying with ICE detainer requests.

·         Allows ICE to not release criminal aliens into sanctuary jurisdictions and makes criminal gang members deportable.

·         Provides expedited removal of alien terrorists and prohibits foreign terrorists or removable immigrants who threaten national security from receiving immigration benefits, including naturalization.

·         Helps to prevent visa fraud by using advanced analytics software and requires USCIS to conduct fraud assessments and report to Congress.

·         Requires DHS and the State Department to utilize social media and other public available information when determining if a visa applicant is a security threat to the U.S.

·         Calls for the hiring of an additional 12,500 ICE officers.

Grassley Pushes for Quick Executive Actions to Curb EB-5 Visa Abuse

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley called on the Homeland Security Secretary to expedite proposed regulations targeting abuse and national security concerns in the EB-5 investor visa program, and to clarify that the department is processing EB-5 applications in a fair and transparent manner.  The request follows a recent extension of the EB-5 program without any reforms and a reported pitch by Kushner Companies implying that potential investors should invest soon to avoid changes in program rules.

The EB-5 program, which has been riddled with well-documented fraud and national security vulnerabilities, was extended last week without any reforms, despite efforts by Grassley and others to restore integrity in the program. Regulations proposed by the Obama Administration and under consideration by the Trump Administration would address some of the program’s weaknesses. Investors typically face a two-year wait for the limited number of EB-5 visas. In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, Grassley pointed out that, given the backlog of applicants, new investors would be subject to the program’s rules at the time their visas become available, despite the comments made by representatives of Kushner Companies.

“As you know, EB-5 applicants ordinarily wait at least two years for a petition to be processed and for visas to become available.  Ms. Meyer’s statements, however, could seem to imply that foreign nationals who invest with the Kushner Company will receive special treatment and expedited approval.  It is appropriate for the Department to clarify and affirm that no foreign investors will receive preferential treatment, that applications will be processed in the order in which they are received—subject to any existing backlog—and that future applications will be subject to the proposed regulations, when approved,” Grassley said in the letter.   

In the letter, Grassley called on the Trump Administration to continue moving forward with the regulations in an open and transparent manner.

Senior White House Advisor Jared Kushner, the previous CEO of Kushner Companies, has divested from Kushner Companies, in compliance with Office of Government Ethics requirements.

US sues Google for allegedly paying female employees less than males

The US Department of Labor is suing Google over findings that the company routinely pays female employees less than their male counterparts.

The government agency noted at a hearing before a federal judge in San Francisco last Friday that it “found systemic compensation disparities against women pretty much across the entire workforce” at the company. It pointed to pay disparities in salaries from 2015 and has demanded that the company the company disclose additional records to aid in the investigation.

Speaking to The Guardian, DoL regional solicitor Janet Herold said that the probe is still underway, and that the agency has “received compelling evidence of very significant discrimination against women in the most common positions at Google headquarters.”

She added: “The government’s analysis at this point indicates that discrimination against women in Google is quite extreme, even in this industry.”

However, Google disagreed with the claim and said that the agency hadn’t shared any data or disclosed what methodology it used to come to this conclusion.

As a federal contractor, Google is required to allow the DoL to check its records for compliance with equal opportunity laws. The agency has locked horns with the company over a request for such data from last year, with Google claiming that it had already handed over plenty of data but refused to hand over more information that’s necessary to proceed with the investigation.

Last week, Google announced in a tweet that it had closed the pay gap for all roles within its organization’s operations across the globe. Given that and the fact that all eyes are on the tech industry to learn which firms are engaging in unlawful and discriminatory practices, it’d be surprising to learn that the company would be obtuse enough to allow managers to award women with lower salaries than men in 2017.

The Kushner family lures investments from wealthy business owners in China with the promise of American visas.

Nicole Kushner Meyer, the sister of White House adviser and President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, spoke at an event in Beijing on Saturday. She was marketing a Kushner-owned property in New Jersey -- invest in the development and get into the United States on a so-called EB-5 visa.

An ad for the event, held at a Ritz-Carlton hotel, said "Invest $500,000 and immigrate to the United States."

The EB-5 visa has been used by the Trump and Kushner family businesses.

On Saturday, potential investors in the Kushner project were told they should act quickly because possible policy changes to the EB-5 program might raise the required minimum investment.

Nicole Kushner Meyer also mentioned Jared's new position in the White House. President Trump photo appeared on a slide that listed the "key decision makers" on the EB-5 program.

"In 2008, my brother Jared Kushner joined the family company as CEO, and recently moved to Washington to join the administration," she said.

The most amazing thing about this is how brazen it is. They sent Kushner’s own sister to China to make the pitch, seemingly to remind potential investors just how direct their pipeline to the Oval Office could be.

Jared Kushner serves as an influential senior adviser to the president. Trump has at various times said he would lead or play a key role in many policy areas from foreign affairs to business innovation.

The event was meant to draw investors for 1 Journal Square, a $976.4 million residential and commercial project underway in New Jersey. The company says about 15% of it will be funded through the EB-5 program.

Attendees at the presentation surely understood how politically connected the Kushners are even without his sister getting into specifics. The materials noted the family’s “celebrity” status — wink wink. And the Chinese upper crust are very familiar with how regimes operate where gaining influence requires making nice with “princelings,” i.e. children of the political elite. At Saturday’s event, attendee Wang Yun, a Chinese investor, said the Kushner family’s ties to Trump were an obvious part of the project’s appeal. “Even though this is the project of the son-in-law’s family, of course it is still affiliated,” Wang said.

All of that being so, an EB-5 pitch from the “princeling” Kushners carries two special charms to a foreign investor. One, it provides an unusual degree of confidence that the investment/bribe will in fact produce the visa they’re after (which federal immigration bureaucrat would dare slow-walk a Kushner investor?), and two, it carries the potential for a relationship with the president himself. The EB-5 is known as “the golden visa” among Chinese but an EB-5 via the Kushners is really more of a platinum visa. The only more attractive “investment” opportunity in the U.S. for a wealthy foreigner would be one with the Trump family itself.

So obvious is the stench of conflicts of interest from this that organizers at the Kushner event in Beijing yesterday reportedly panicked once they discovered there were NYT and WaPo reporters there to cover it and ended up hassling them even though it was advertised as a public event. The Beijing event, which was organized by Chinese immigration agency Qiaowai, was open to the public. Reporters from the Washington Post and the New York Times attended but said they were later harassed and forcefully removed.

O-1 Visa: Individuals with Extraordinary Ability or Achievement

The O-1 nonimmigrant visa is for the individual who possesses extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics, or who has a demonstrated record of extraordinary achievement in the motion picture or television industry and has been recognized nationally or internationally for those achievements.

Evidentiary Criteria for O-1B

Evidence that the beneficiary has received, or been nominated for, significant national or international awards or prizes in the particular field, such as an Academy Award, Emmy, Grammy or Director's Guild Award, or evidence of at least (3) three of the following:  

• Performed and will perform services as a lead or starring participant in productions or events which have a distinguished reputation as evidenced by critical reviews, advertisements, publicity releases, publications, contracts or endorsements
• Achieved national or international recognition for achievements, as shown by critical reviews or other published materials by or about the beneficiary in major newspapers, trade journals, magazines, or other publications
• Performed and will perform in a lead, starring, or critical role for organizations and establishments that have a distinguished reputation as evidenced by articles in newspapers, trade journals, publications, or testimonials.
• A record of major commercial or critically acclaimed successes, as shown by such indicators as title, rating or standing in the field, box office receipts, motion picture or television ratings and other occupational achievements reported in trade journals, major newspapers or other publications
• Received significant recognition for achievements from organizations, critics, government agencies or other recognized experts in the field in which the beneficiary is engaged, with the testimonials clearly indicating the author's authority, expertise and knowledge of the beneficiary's achievements
• A high salary or other substantial remuneration for services in relation to others in the field, as shown by contracts or other reliable evidence

If the above standards do not readily apply to the beneficiary’s occupation in the arts, the petitioner may submit comparable evidence in order to establish eligibility (this exception does not apply to the motion picture or television industry).

USCIS Will Issue Redesigned Green Cards and Employment Authorization Documents

Citizenship and Immigration Services today announced a redesign to the Permanent Resident Card (also known as a Green Card) and the Employment Authorization Document (EAD) as part of the Next Generation Secure Identification Document Project. USCIS will begin issuing the new cards on May 1, 2017.

These redesigns use enhanced graphics and fraud-resistant security features to create cards that are highly secure and more tamper-resistant than the ones currently in use.

The new card designs demonstrate USCIS’ commitment to continue taking a proactive approach against the threat of document tampering and fraud. They are also part of an ongoing effort between USCIS, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to enhance document security and deter counterfeiting and fraud.

The Redesigned Cards

The new Green Cards and EADs will:

• Display the individual’s photos on both sides;
• Show a unique graphic image and color palette:
  • Green Cards will have an image of the Statue of Liberty and a predominately green palette;
  • EAD cards will have an image of a bald eagle and a predominately red palette;
• Have embedded holographic images; and
• No longer display the individual’s signature.

Also, Green Cards will no longer have an optical stripe on the back.

How To Tell If Your Card Is Valid

Some Green Cards and EADs issued after May 1, 2017, may still display the existing design format as USCIS will continue using existing card stock until current supplies are depleted. Both the existing and the new Green Cards and EADs will remain valid until the expiration date shown on the card.

Certain EADs held by individuals with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and other designated categories have been automatically extended beyond the validity date on the card. For additional information on which EADs are covered, please visit the Temporary Protected Status and American Competitiveness in the 21st Century Act web pages on uscis.gov.

Both versions are acceptable for Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, E-Verify, and Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE). Some older Green Cards do not have an expiration date.  These older Green Cards without an expiration date remain valid. Individuals who have Green Cards without an expiration date may want to consider applying for a replacement card bearing an expiration date. Obtaining the replacement card will reduce the likelihood of fraud or tampering if the card is ever lost or stolen. 

Eligibility for Green Cards and EADs

For more information about the Green Card application process, please visit USCIS.gov/greencard.

To request an EAD, you must file Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization. Visit uscis.gov for more information about EADs.