Visa Lawyer Blog

Articles Posted in Spanish

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Image by Lorie Shaull

It is with great sadness that we report that today, Monday January 8, 2018, the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kirstjen M. Nielsen, has formally decided to terminate the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation for the country of El Salvador. This decision is extremely upsetting given that Salvadorans were among the largest group of foreign nationals receiving temporary provisional residency permits under the TPS program in the United States. The consequences of this decision are even more troubling considering the plight that Salvadorans face in their home country. For more than a decade, the country of El Salvador has been plagued by soaring gang violence, drug trafficking, human smuggling, and an endemic rate of violence against women.

Per today’s statement issued by the Department of Homeland Security, the TPS designation for El Salvador will officially terminate on September 9, 2019. This means that the Department of Homeland Security will give Salvadorans a period of 18 months, before terminating their provisional residency permits on September 9th, to allow Salvadorans to make an orderly departure from the United States or to seek alternative legal means to remain in the United States.

According to the Washington Post, the United States has issued approximately 200,000 provisional residency permits to Salvadorans, many of whom have been living in the country since 2001. Salvadorans were first given Temporary Protected Status in 2001 when a series of large earthquakes devastated the impoverished country. Since 2001, the United States government has renewed their temporary permits on an 18-month basis.

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Yesterday, November 6, 2017, the acting Secretary of Homeland Security, Elaine Duke, announced her decision to terminate the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation for Nicaragua, with a delayed effective date of 12 months until the termination of that designation, giving Nicaraguans enough time to make preparations to either depart the United States or seek alternative lawful immigration status in the United States, before the designation officially terminates on January 5, 2019.

Furthermore, Duke announced that the TPS designation for Honduras will be automatically extended for six months “from the current January 5, 2018 expiration date to the new expiration date of July 5, 2018.” This automatic extension has been granted because additional information is necessary to determine whether conditions have changed in Honduras that would justify termination of  the country’s TPS designation.

According to Duke’s announcement, the decision to terminate the TPS designation for Nicaragua was made after it was determined that the conditions in Nicaragua have changed since the country’s original 1999 designation that no longer justify granting protected status to this class of individuals. Furthermore, because the Secretary received no formal request from the Nicaraguan government to extend TPS status, and there was no evidence to indicate that the Nicaraguan government could not adequately handle the return of Nicaraguan nationals, the TPS designation for Nicaragua was no longer justified.

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Beginning January 02, 2015 in the state of California, undocumented immigrants will be able to benefit from Assembly Bill 60, The Safe and Responsible Driver Act enacted in 2013. Beginning immediately, undocumented driver’s license applicants, will be able to schedule an appointment on or after January 02, 2015 with their local DMV by calling 1-800-777-0133, online on the California DMV website www. dmv.ca.gov, or via their smart phones on the DMV NOW iPhone and Android applications.

Applicants should make sure to comply with the following in order to obtain their ‘original’ driver’s licenses:

  • Study for the driver license exam
  • Complete a driver license application form (DL 44) available at the DMV office
  • Under AB 60, applicants will need to provide DMV with:

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President Obama’s executive order is looming on the horizon, as part of an alleged 10 point plan the president plans to announce as early as Friday, November 21. According to a draft proposal released by a U.S. government agency, the plan may suspend removal proceedings for millions of undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children, as well as parents of U.S. Citizen children residing in the United States illegally, and parents of green card holders, by allowing them to benefit from a reprieve that will expand deferred action for these individuals. Among its 10 initiatives, firstly, the plan proposes to bolster border security, secondly, to improve pay for immigration officers, thirdly, to provide a 50% discount to the first 10,000 applicants whose income levels are below 200% of the poverty level in order to encourage participation, fourthly, to establish a program designed to stimulate the tech industry which could potentially offer millions of immigrants and their dependents a path to citizenship, and lastly, to prioritize removal proceedings on the basis of the severity of an immigrant’s criminal history, calling an end to the program known as ‘Secure Communities.’ This 10 point plan makes anyone who entered the United States before turning 16 and before the date of January 01, 2010, eligible for naturalization. Such a plan would thereby suspend deportation for millions of undocumented immigrants.

The proposal has not yet been announced, we would like to inform our audience to please be wary of fraudulent schemes. At this time ONLY preliminary information has been released.

Please continue to follow our blog for further updates, for more information please contact our office.  It is our goal to provide you with the most up to date immigration reform developments.

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On September 19, 2014 the California Department of Motor Vehicles released a statement detailing the progress it has made to date in order to implement Assembly Bill 60, operative January 01, 2015. Assembly Bill 60 was signed into law by Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr on October 2013 for the benefit of all California residents. The bill promises to improve public safety, for all Californians, by requiring undocumented persons to go through the same licensure requirements as legal permanent residents and U.S. Citizens, residing in the state of California. In addition, applicants will be required to provide satisfactory proof of identity and California residency, though exact documentation requirements are still being deliberated and have not officially been made public. To view the proposals on documentation required please click here. The fee for the AB 60 driver’s license will remain the same as the fee for original driver’s licenses at $33.00. Before AB 60, applicants could not apply for a California driver’s license because of their inability to submit the required proof of legal presence in the United States. The Department of Homeland Security recently notified the DMV that the state’s most recent AB 60 driver’s license design had met the standard required to move forward to the production stage.

Since its adoption, the California Department of Motor Vehicles has held over 80 public outreach events throughout California, educating local communities on the implementation of the new law. Additionally the DMV has hired new staff, organized department-wide training, and opened temporary offices, with the purpose of facilitating extra appointments for the nearly 1.4 million anticipated new driver’s that will apply during just the first three years of AB 60’s implementation.

The DMV has launched such outreach events with the support of foreign consulate offices, community and church organizations, law enforcement, and other local officials. At these events the DMV has explained the licensing requirements under the new law, encouraged the undocumented community to study for the written driver’s license examination early on, and provided tips to the undocumented community on how to study for the exam.

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