Welcome to the Garfinkel Immigration news roundup, where every month we will summarize and provide links to the latest stories impacting U.S. immigration.
Below is the January 2022 edition of the Garfinkel Immigration news roundup:
U.S. requires travelers entering country at land ports-of-entry to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19
All non-U.S. individuals entering the United States at land ports-of-entry and ferry terminals are now required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
The new rule went into effect on Jan. 22, 2022, and impacts most individuals traveling for both essential and non-essential purposes. The measure does not apply to U.S. citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents (LPRs).
Individuals are considered fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving the recommended dose(s) of vaccines that are approved/authorized by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or listed for emergency use by the World Health Organization (WHO), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
There is currently no testing requirement for travelers entering the United States via land ports-of-entry or ferry terminals.
Biden administration announces policy changes to attract international STEM students
President Joe Biden announced policy changes earlier this month designed to “attract STEM talent.”
The new policies:
- “Facilitate additional academic training” for undergraduate and graduate students in STEM fields on a J-1 visa for periods of up to 36 months.
- Add 22 new fields of study to the STEM Optional Practical Training (OPT) program
- Update adjudication criteria of national interest waivers for “certain immigrants with exceptional abilities in their field of work”
“Our history is filled with examples of how America’s ability to attract global talent has spurred path-breaking innovation,” a fact sheet about the new policy released by the White House read. “This innovation has led to the creation of new jobs, new industries and new opportunities for Americans across the United States. Our commitment as a nation to welcoming new talent has long provided America with a global competitive advantage, and we must continue to lead in this effort.”
Biden’s 1st-year record on immigration
ABC News writer Quinn Owen examines President Joe Biden’s immigration policies during his first year in the White House in this story published in mid-January.
“Some efforts over the past 12 months have succeeded in reversing hardline measures from the Trump era while other promises have stalled, generating harsh criticism from immigrant advocates,” Owen writes. “Despite setbacks, Biden in sheer numbers has made more changes than Trump to federal immigration policy with many reversals to the way the U.S. enforces immigration law.”
Owen continues: “On the legislative front, Biden’s promise to provide a pathway to citizenship for about 10.5 million unauthorized immigrants has faced major headwinds in the Senate. Multiple attempts to get some version of the proposal included in the ‘Build Back Better’ spending package were shot down by the Senate parliamentarian last year.”
The outlook on H-1B visas and immigration in 2022
In this piece, Forbes senior contributor Stuart Anderson discusses the future of the H-1B visa program as well as other potential immigration policy trends in 2022.
“Numerous academic and government studies show H-1B visa holders are paid the same or higher than comparable U.S. professionals,” Anderson writes. “U.S. law requires employers to pay the higher of the actual or prevailing wage paid to U.S. workers with similar experience and qualifications.”
Anderson continues: “There are more than 1.5 million job vacancy postings in computer occupations (as of December 6, 2021), according to an NFAP analysis of EMSI data, and only about 56,000 new H-1B petitions annually go to computer jobs. That means even if one believes (incorrectly) there are a fixed number of jobs, there are close to 30 times more available jobs in computer occupations than H-1Bs who fill such jobs annually.”
COVID-19, surge in new cases create historic backlog in U.S. immigration courts
There is currently a historic backlog in U.S. immigration courts, according to a story published in mid-January by USA Today, which cites data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC).
“Pending cases at the end of December reached 1.6 million — the largest ever in the court’s four-decade history, according to the report released Tuesday by (TRAC), a research group in New York that tracks U.S. immigration cases,” the story reads. “Wait times for an asylum claim hearing are averaging 58 months — or just under 5 years.”
The story continues: “The mounting backlog of cases — up from 1.3 million at the end of 2020 — creates another immigration challenge for (the) Biden administration, which has struggled to reverse many of the immigration policies of former President Donald Trump.”