June 12, 2009 by Bradley Maged.

In a decision issued on June 11, 2009, the US District Court, Western District of Washington at Seattle in the case Gabriel Ruiz-Diaz et al. vs. United States of America et al., ordered the defendants to “accept as properly filed adjustment of status applications (Form I-485) and employment authorization applications (Form I-765) from individuals who are beneficiaries of petitions for special immigrant visas (Form I-360), whether submitted concurrently with or  subsequent to the vbisa petition provided the applications meet defendants’ valid filing requirements.”

This is a very favorable decision in which the class-action plaintiffs succeeded on all fronts.  The Court even refused the government’s request to stay the matter pending appeal and ordered that the decision be posted on the USCIS website within 15 days.

We will see how the USCIS handles this and I will update this blog as news is forthcoming.

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June 12, 2009 by Bradley Maged.

The following is for informational purposes and is not legal advice.  Please consult a qualified immigration lawyer regarding you unique situation. 

According to an article that appeared on latimes.com:  “No immigration agents descended on Overhill Farms, a major food-processing plant in Vernon. No one was arrested or deported. There were no frantic scenes of desperate workers fleeing la migra through the gritty streets of the industrial suburb southeast of downtown Los Angeles.”

Desk audits are an effective method that the federal and state departments of revenues use to collect taxes they believe are due.  A desk audit is simply a letter stating how much the government believes is due with and envelope enclosed to send a check.  When the amounts in controversy are small, taxpayers often just send a check rather than spend the time or money needed to argue the matter - regardless of whether they believe they actually owe the amount claimed.  This brings us to the concept of “de facto deportation”.

Generally, employers who receive “no match” letters from the SSA should give the affected employees 30 days to remedy the situation and if the workers do not take action, they may be terminated.  In the case referred to in the article, the no match informatiion apparently came as a result of an IRS audit.  This is a smart way for the government to get undocumented aliens to leave the country if this is indeed their goal.  Hopefully, Comprehensive Immigration Reform is in the cards and employers will be able to legally hire and retain the workers they need to run their businesses.

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