Dear Readers:
On October 25th, Siskind Susser was honored with the 2019 InnovAction Award by the College of Law Practice Management for our firm’s Visalaw.ai project. This is one of legaltech’s big recognitions and we were excited to attend the award ceremony held in Nashville at COLPM’s annual Futures Conference. We’ve been using artificial intelligence tools to create immigration expert system apps that replicate what lawyers do – provide legal analysis and prepare legal documents. We’re excited to announce that our apps become available to the public on our Visalaw.ai web site on November 4th. I hope you’ll take a look and see what we’ve been up to.
In immigration news over the last month, the revolving door at the Department of Homeland Security continues to turn. Acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan resigned last month, the fourth DHS Secretary to hold the position. The heads of USCIS, CBP and ICE have turned over as has the head of the Department of Labor and the Department of State. Some positions are now held by “acting” agency heads who are supposed to hold their jobs on an interim basis until the Senate confirms a replacement. However, the Administration has started simply filing jobs with acting heads and not appointing people to replace them, thus avoiding the Senate.
Congress anticipated this and passed the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 (the “FVRA”). The law requires acting agency heads to have served at the agency for at least 90 days during the year prior to the prior officeholder’s departure. That was not the case for USCIS Director Ken Cuccinelli and Cuccinelli was one of the names mentioned as a replacement for McAleenan. Last week, the Trump Administration indicated they would not likely attempt to appoint Cuccinelli because of the FVRA and the concern that DHS decisions might be challenged in court based on the illegal appointment. That is already a concern with USCIS and Cuccinelli’s illegal appointment was cited as a reason for the recent public charge rule to be overturned by a court. The rule was overturned on different grounds.
As always, we remind you that if you would like to schedule a call to discuss a potential matter, please feel welcome to go to www.visalaw.com/consultation.
Regards,
Greg Siskind
Disclaimer: This newsletter is provided as a public service and not intended to establish an attorney client relationship. Any reliance on information contained herein is taken at your own risk.