AILA AND ASC FILES LAW SUIT AGAINST USCIS TO RELEASE H-1B REVIEW PROCESS

On July 20, 2010, AILA (American Immigration Lawyers Association) and the AIC (American Immigration Council) file a law suit against USCIS in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for declaratory and injunctive relief, following the denial of two FOIA requests seeking disclosure of DHS and USCIS documents concerning H-1B review and processing procedures.
AILA had pursued disclosure of the documents through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests which were denied in full by the government. In its complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, AILA seeks the court's intervention to compel the government to release the requested records.
The law suit was filed because since 2008, USCIS has implemented new, more stringent procedures for review and processing for H-1B visas and has dramatically increased the frequency of unannounced worksite inspections - expected to reach 25,000 visits in 2010 alone - in connection with H-1B cases. Yet USCIS has kept secret the rules and guidelines related to the review process. Because of the lack of publicly available information on the government's heightened scrutiny of H-1B applications, it is extremely difficult for businesses to anticipate and meet agency expectations during the application process and thus the information was requested.
The documents should have released these documents as a matter of course, even without a FOIA, but the fact that the FOIAs were denied is counter to President Obama's directives for a more open and transparent government.
The law suit was filed under the APA (Administrative Procedures Act) seeking transparency to the reliability and fairness of an adjudication process. It will be interesting to see what the government will say in response. We'll keep you updated.