Featured Issue: Assist Individuals Impacted by the Conflict in the Middle East

AILA had made the following recommendations to the Biden Administration for actions to protect people impacted by the conflict in the Middle East.

As the conflict in the Middle East continues, AILA provides these resources for practitioners and urges immediate action by the Biden Administration and Congress to protect people impacted by the conflict, including those living in the affected regions and people in the United States.

• Action Alert – share AILA’s alert urging Biden to act with your networks.
• AILA sent a letter to President Biden with actions DHS, DOS, and other agencies should take now.
• Practice Pointer from AILA’s DOS Liaison Committee on assisting clients and others impacted.
• AILA issues a statement on hate violence, discrimination, and the need to protect those in harm’s way.
• AILA endorsed a bicameral congressional

AILA Recommendations to the Biden Administration

AILA calls upon the U.S. government to take the following steps to facilitate travel by individuals from these areas and to ensure that individuals currently present in the U.S. are not sent back to this area during this period of instability when people are being deprived of basic necessities and vulnerable to intensive air strikes.

Inter-Government Agency Actions

All U.S. Citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents and their family members wishing to leave the impacted area should be given the opportunity.

The Secretaries of Homeland Security and State should authorize Temporary Protected Status and/or Deferred Enforced Departure to provide temporary relief from removal and work authorization for nationals of the countries and territories impacted by conflict who are currently in the United States.

Agencies handling immigration related matters should provide automatic extensions on filing deadlines and waive or offer flexibility on other requirements for forms and motions and other agency requests for people from impacted areas.

Department of State Actions

DOS must expeditiously process the visas of individuals from the impacted areas, particularly where consular services are closed or significantly reduced, at any U.S. consulate in the world they may safely reach.

Department of Homeland Security Actions

USCIS should expedite review and processing of all cases involving individuals from the impacted areas, including but not limited to requests for humanitarian relief, waivers, nonimmigrant and immigrant petition processing and parole.

DHS should issue a Federal Register Notice declaring the war an emergent circumstance for granting Special Student Relief (SSR) for students from all of the impacted areas.

DHS should place a temporary moratorium on removals to the impacted areas and noncitizens in immigration custody should be assessed for release or release with any necessary conditions.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of the Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA) and Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) should robustly exercise prosecutorial discretion for pending removal cases involving individuals from the impacted areas, including dismissal, termination, administrative closure, or stipulations to relief or facts such as country conditions for those with applications for relief.

ERO should issue public guidance for noncitizens impacted by the conflict on Orders of Supervision who may be approaching the end of their period of supervision.