AILA and Members File Litigation Against Arbitrary Mandatory Form Changes

WASHINGTON D.C. – Today, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and Benach Collopy, LLP, brought litigation in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia against the Trump Administration for abruptly implementing immediate form changes that will harm tens of thousands of AILA member attorneys and their clients.

On Monday, March 3, and again on Tuesday, March 4, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) abruptly posted multiple forms for immediate use and removed the previous versions, only permitting the submission of the new form editions. No notice was given, no grace period was implemented. Across the country, immigration attorneys and their clients were faced with the reality that potentially tens of thousands of forms that had been submitted properly and in accordance with the law would be rejected even if mailed before the new form was made available. AILA reached out to the agency to request a grace period for acceptance of the new forms, but the agency offered no clear relief or public guidance, thus litigation was required.

AILA Benefits Litigation Attorney Jennifer Coberly stated, “USCIS has arbitrarily and capriciously abused its discretion by failing to provide adequate notice of, or a grace period regarding, the revised forms making it impossible for eligible applicants to apply using the governing forms. This puts AILA and our members in an impossible situation. AILA has emailed USCIS requesting a grace period be applied and other alternative remedies to ease the impact on members. Today, USCIS suggested it may not reject all of the numerous forms at issue but will instead exercise discretion, possibly on a case-by-case basis. This offer is not an appropriate solution to severe APA violations. Therefore, we’ll see them in court.”

AILA Treasurer, and Partner at Sharma-Crawford Attorneys at Law, Rekha Sharma-Crawford added, “USCIS has revised, backdated, and made mandatory use of numerous updated forms, without notice, or explanation. The unexpected actions of USCIS have caused widespread panic for attorneys, clients and communities as they anticipate an onslaught of rejected filings that have the potential to cause increased delays or loss of benefits to applicants. Unless a grace period or other remedy is implemented, the risk of wrongful rejections remains a concern and would result in increased costs and expenditures to applicants and their representatives as they resubmit applications which may have no other changes other than the version of the form. This is a tremendous and needless waste of taxpayer money and resources.”

Brian Green of the Law Office of Brian Green stated, “Many attorneys are already suffering harm as they try to pull together whole new application packets with the new forms for submission despite a complete application having already been mailed out. These changes were immediate and done without any warning; clients are angry at their attorneys when everyone should be looking to the federal government as the sole cause of all of this chaos.”

Sarah Pitney of Benach Collopy said, “As an immigration attorney, I know that this administration is doing everything in its power to stack the deck against immigrants. What I’m most concerned about is the possibility that delays because of these form changes will harm individual clients. What about someone who could fall out of status and literally lose their opportunity for permanent status? What about a child who ages out during a resubmission period and starts accruing unlawful presence or becomes ineligible for a benefit entirely? I also worry about how the gender marker changes on the forms will harm LGBTQ+ immigrants and make it impossible for them to live their true identities. This imminent harm is absolutely real, and it’s shameful that USCIS updated the forms for no real reason, with no grace period, creating a massive waste of time and taxpayer money.”

AILA and Benach Collopy are represented by AILA Benefits Litigation Attorney Jennifer Coberly, joined by Rekha Sharma-Crawford of Sharma-Crawford Attorneys at Law, Brian Green of the Law Office of Brian Green, and Jesse Bless of Bless Litigation.