Immigration fraud at Trump Burger and other important developments.

everyone gets investigated

As of August 1, 2025, USCIS has made in-person interviews mandatory for nearly all marriage-based adjustment cases. Lawyers are reporting that, in some instances, USCIS officers have begun requesting information related to I-9s from prior employers. Putting aside the relevance and appropriateness of such a request,* what does an employer do when asked for employee records?

It may depend on whether we’re talking about a USCIS site visit or an ICE investigation. USCIS requests are administrative, in which officers verify the accuracy of information that’s been submitted: job duties, wages, validity of the marriage, etc. On certain employment-based cases, and yes,“certain spousal-based immigrant petitions(B)(2).),” USCIS asserts inspection rights at any address listed on a filing.

ICE, on the other hand, can conduct I-9 audits and raids, with employers subject to civil fines, criminal penalties, and orders to terminate unauthorized employment. ICE agents may also enter private areas with a judicial warrant.

Employers are very nearly damned if they do, damned if they don’t. Over-complying by providing more documents than are absolutely required (producing I-9s before the three-day deadline, or granting ICE access to private areas without a judicial warrant) can expand liability and mistrust from employees. Under-compliance (not timely producing I-9s or not permitting a lawful inspection) could easily result in fines, immigration penalties, or obstruction charges. Then there’s the other bad stuff that might come up: possible wage or tax issues coming to light, loss of confidence from investors or staff, or any number of unanticipated harms.

Standard counsel is to institute a clear response plan, a trained point person, and access to your lawyer. Couples, meanwhile, may consider a plan for toothbrush identification.

no visitors, please

The U.S. Department of State has launched a 12-month pilot program requiring applicants for visitor visas to post bonds of $5,000, $10,000, or $15,000: consular officers decide the amount. Nationals from Malawi and Zambia are the first to be subject; more countries may be added with 15 days’ notice. These applicants receive only a single-entry visa valid for 3 months, may enter the U.S. for a maximum of 30 days, and only through limited airports (Boston Logan, JFK, or Washington Dulles). If the visitor leaves the U.S. on time, or never enters at all, the bond is cancelled and refunded. It should not be considered a violation if the visitor timely applies to change or extend status before timely departing.

Even under a functional administration, the Arrival and Departure Information System (ADIS) used to verify departures is notorious for errors, so visitors may need to proactively prove timely document departure through other means: arrival stamps in the country of return, plane ticket stubs, receipts, Uber rides, credit card charges, ATM withdrawals, overweight baggage fee receipts, your pet’s customs quarantine paperwork, a video of the unstable person crashing out on your flight, whatever you have. That’s a lot of money at stake.



Bulletin time



The September 2025 visa bulletin will apply the Dates for Filing chart for family-based cases (which generally filing applications earlier during the waiting period), while for employment-based cases it will apply the stricter Final Action Dates chart (meaning cases can only move forward when a green card is truly available). There isn’t any retrogression for the employment-based cases, but the State Department does anticipate running out of these visas before the fiscal year begins in October.

This Dumb Age

There are now 60,000 people in immigration detention, and the Iowa National Guard is joining the effort.** ICE agents drew guns on a disabled student outside his school. Instead of just trying to win cases, the administration is now suing ALL of the federal judges in Maryland. The Republican administration continues it’s federal takeover of local government. The co-owner of Trump Burger was arrested by ICE for “orchestrating a fake marriage in order to gain permanent residency.”

*Employers, not employees, maintain I-9 information. Further, unlawful employment is not bar to adjusting status based on a petition filed by a U.S. citizen spouse.

**Having lived in the rural upper-midwest, I can attest that these guys do not in fact have anything else to do.

Matthew Blaisdell, Esq.

Sunset Immigration PLLC

219 36th Street, Ste 511

Brooklyn, NY 11232

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Hiring gets more confusing, quotas have no meaning, and we only want Argentines. Two weeks of updates!

whom you can hire, whom you can’t, and for whom we have no idea

Terminations of TPS programs are somewhat complicated matters. Termination(s) of the Haitian program(s) are of a different scale. Here’s an “simplified” version:

- November 20, 2017: DHS announces termination of Haiti TPS with an 18-month wind-down (an effective date of July 22, 2019), and some complicated mechanics for work permit extensions.

- October 3, 2018: a federal case (Ramos v. Nielsen) blocks DHS from implementing TPS terminations for Haiti (as well as El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Sudan) while the case proceeds; work permits are extended in compliance with the injunctions.

- August 3, 2021: A new TPS designation is made for Haiti.

- As various lawsuits continue to proceed, work permit validity is repeatedly extended through June, 2024.

- January 26, 2023: The 2021 designation is redesignated and extended through August 03, 2024.

- July 01, 2024: The 2021 designation is extended & redesignated through February 3, 2026, with work permits (with 11 different expiration dates) extended through August 3, 2025. That same day, a new federal case, Haitian Evangelical Clergy Ass’n v. Trump blocks the termination due to it occurring before the program’s most current end date.

- July 15, 2025: final judgment in Haitian Evangelical Clergy Ass’n v. Trump delays termination to February 3, 2026 (the end date of the July 01, 2024 extension), and USCIS aligns is guidance accordingly.

The upshot for employers:

- No new work permits will be issued.

- E-Verify cases must be updated, and previously completed Forms I-9 corrected, by entering Feb. 3, 2026 in Section 2, initialing and dating the correction.

- Work permits with expiration dates from July 22, 2017 to September 2, 2025 remain valid through February 3, 2026.

- Employers must reverify affected employees before they resume work on February 4, 2026.

SAVE has updated its guidance accordingly, and verification may rely on work permits and USCIS notices.

On July 31st, a different lawsuit (National TPS Alliance v. Noem), blocked a different TPS termination (Nepal), extending the effective date to November 18, 2025.

On August 4th, USCIS confirmed that work permits for the TPS designations for Hondurasand Nicaragua are continued through November 18, 2025.

Employers may rehire anyone affected, but must reverify the I-9s, attach a printout of the relevant USCIS webpage, and should run Change of Status Reports (in addition to maintaining a record with all relevant documentation, including website prints with clear URLs).

Venezuela TPS is set to expire September 10th, and given that DHS neither extended nor terminated it within the 60-day deadline beforehand (July 12, 2025), a six-month extension may be triggered. However, USCIS has offered no confirmation, work permit extensions, or any action__ __to extend or terminate TPS by the statutory 60-day deadline (July 12, 2025): so employers continue to wing it for those who have expired work permits. Some employees are threatening legal action if the employers do not auto-extend the permits, while the employers concern themselves with recriminations from ICE forI-9 violations.



gender (and nationality) is not enough



The five protected grounds of asylum do not explicitly include gender, though gender-based claims are frequently included within the ground “particular social group,” often involving domestic violence or other harm from an actor the government is unwilling or unable to control: a line of jurisprudence that has been developing for 30 years.

Matter of K-E-S-G- slows this progress, holding that gender and nationality alone cannot define a “particular social group”: additional factors limiting the size of the group are required. In practice, gender + nationality alone has rarely been enough, on its own, to sustain a claim for asylum; additional factors limiting the size of the group are typically required (e.g., women in X country who have filed police complaints, women in X country who have opposed X practice, etc.). K-E-S-G- now formalizes this practice.

Because this is a decision from the Board of Immigration Appeals, and because the U.S. Supreme Court recently heldthat federal courts have relatively broad discretion to disagree with administrative courts, federal courts in different parts of the country may end up interpreting this decision in a number of ways on appeal. But at the level of the asylum office and the immigration courts, the holding stands.

____

What is a quota, really?

In May, Stephen Miller told anyone who would listen, all over television, in his Stephen Miller-y way of talking, that ICE had a quota of arresting “a minimum” of 3,000 immigrants every day, and would keep raising that number as soon as they could. Reports have stated that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem also pressured ICE leaders hit that number. During Trump’s campaign, he promised, as often as he could, “the largest domestic deportation operation,” promising that he would target 15–20 million people for removal. Shockingly, now that they are being sued, the Trump administration claims that these were merely aspirational: “goals to aim for,” rather than formal requirements.

interviews again

Beginning next month, the Department of State willremove interview waivers for nonimmigrant visas, except for diplomatic visa holders, and renewals of visitor visas and Border Crossing Cards in narrow exceptions.* For those who might qualify, the waivers remain discretionary, and consular officers may require the interview regardless. Expect longer waits––the busier the consulate, the longer the delays––and the requirement of applying in the home country precludes the possibility of shopping around for a different consulate. But it seems we now want more Argentines.**

more of the same

Between encouraging DACA recipients to self-deport, punishing DACA-friendly universities, dusting off more family separation policies, sending the military into our cities, targeting Spanish speakers, driving detainees to hunger strikes, shaming states and cities that aren’t playing along, and just generally acting in the dumbest, most aggro manner possible, it’s been . . . another two weeks in the second Trump administration.

* Visas must be within 12 months of expiration, they must have been at least 18 year old at initial issuance, they must have applied in their country of residence or nationality, have no prior refusals (unless overcome), and have no apparent ineligibility.

**Who doesn’t?

Matthew Blaisdell, Esq.

Sunset Immigration PLLC

219 36th Street, Ste 511

Brooklyn, NY 11232

Book appointment