Dana Rifai and Alfredo Estrada both spoke on the topic of Immigration Matters: Family, Employment, Removal and Humanitarian Visas at the Lake County Bar Association’s 2016 Bench Bar Conference on October 28, 2016.

Dana Rifai presented an overview of the U.S. immigration process.  She discussed how BCC attorneys strategize through the non-immigrant and immigrant processes to attain the longest periods of stay with the shortest waiting times to enter the U.S. The various non-immigrant visas and methods of family and employment-sponsored immigrant visas were also discussed in depth.

Alfredo Estrada discussed numerous new issues in immigration law, including the I-601A waivers applicability to Legal Permanent Residents, the recently published USCIS Policy Manual update giving guidance on discretionary waivers of inadmissibility that require extreme hardship, and Jimenez Moreno et al v. Napolitano et al, 11-cv-05452 (N.D. Ill) where a federal court ruled against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for unlawfully detaining immigrants and U.S. citizens identified through local law enforcement agencies for violating the due process rights of immigrants subject to the local detainers.