Critics: USCIS Policies Make Immigration Difficult And Dangerous

https://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2020/03/23/critics-uscis-policies-make-immigration-difficult-and-dangerous/amp/

In the age of coronavirus, policies imposed by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) are making it difficult for businesses, high-skilled professionals and others to file applications and meet deadlines. Attorneys say that although USCIS has made one positive accommodation their clients deserve policies that better take into account the new health and safety realities of doing business under social distancing, remote work and USCIS office closures.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/03/us-govt-expects-18-month-pandemic-with-widespread-supply-shortages/?amp=1

The US government is reportedly preparing for the coronavirus pandemic to last 18 months or longer and result in "significant shortages for government, private sector, and individual US consumers."

A 100-page US government plan was leaked to The New York Times, which today published an article summarizing the highlights.

The plan's warnings include the following:

• Shortages of products may occur, impacting health care, emergency services, and other elements of critical infrastructure... This includes potentially critical shortages of diagnostics, medical supplies (including PPE [personal protective equipment] and pharmaceuticals), and staffing in some locations.
• State and local governments, as well as critical infrastructure and communications channels, will be stressed and potentially less reliable. These stresses may also increase the challenges of getting updated messages and coordinating guidance to these jurisdictions directly

• Ethan Baron
• PUBLISHED: March 17, 2020 at 3:54 p.m. | UPDATED: March 18, 2020 at 3:30 a.m.
• Categories:Business, California News, Economy, Latest Headlines, Nation & World, News, Politics, Technology

Applicants for the H-1B visa hoping to accelerate their submissions by paying extra for premium processing won t be able to obtain that service when this year s application period opens April 1, federal authorities announced.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration has temporarily suspended premium at the start of each H-1B application season since 2017.

The agency said the move, for applicants subject to the annual cap on new visas, would help us to reduce overall H-1B processing times.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/03/17/h-1b-premium-processing-suspended-for-upcoming-visa-application-season/amp/

https://amp.usatoday.com/amp/4905563002

We're seeing confusion, despair and even suicide after Trump rule on aid to immigrants
The Trump administration says coronavirus tests and treatment won't count against 'aliens' as a public charge. But how many will risk seeking care?
RANIA AWAAD | OPINION CONTRIBUTOR | 10 hours ago

Two days after President Donald Trump announced a rule last August that made immigrants ineligible for residency and citizenship if they relied on government benefits, a 28-year-old Iranian asylum seeker died by suicide. His county-based social worker in Northern California later told me that Rouzbeh, who went by Adam, had confided in her that his suicidal thoughts stemmed from this new "public charge" rule. Despite reassurance from his family and social worker, he said it made him feel unsafe.

Adam, whose last name is being withheld for privacy reasons, believed that he would likely be extradited back to Iran on account of accessing public mental health services for his depression, not speaking English well and accumulating a large debt from an emergency hospital visit all examples listed in the new rule as potential reasons to deny immigrants American citizenship. Complicating matters, extradition would mean a one-way trip back to the very conditions Adam was trying to escape by seeking asylum. Iran is one of the 13 countries listed in Trump s now expanded travel ban.

As it turns out, refugees and asylum seekers are exempt from the expanded public charge rule. Adam's unfortunate misinterpretation highlights the confusion surrounding this new policy. And he wasn't the only one. As I was helping plan a community healing event after Adam's death, two other families reached out to our team. That was how we discovered there were three suicides by a refugee or asylum seeker from the same county following Trump's public charge announcement.

https://amp.miamiherald.com/news/local/immigration/article241196746.html

When immigration officials rolled out their public charge rule last month, people who were sick were deemed a burden to the U.S. and their health conditions were counted against them when applying for a green card.

Late Friday, however, part of that changed at least when it comes to coronavirus, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services announced. Any immigrant who gets tested or treated for the virus will not be negatively impacted.