DHS requested six-month abeyance as they considered changes to the H4-EAD program whereas Save Jobs has filed a motion opposing DHS’s request. The Immigration Voice team has been carefully assessing today’s developments with our attorneys – Jennie Santos-Bourne from Americans for Immigrant Justice, Carl Goldfarb, and Adam Amir from Boies Schiller Flexner LLP.
In our view, the fact that the Government is asking for six-month abeyance and talking about trying to change the rule through notice and comment rule-making, is a victory. Because of the spotlight that Immigration Voice shone on the case through our Motion to Intervene, it was much harder for the Government to find a cheap and easy way to kill the rule. If the court grants the motion, the rule will stay in place for at least six months i.e. until the start of the notice and comment process, a process that would also take several more months to complete.
In the interim, the rule stays in effect and we can work on gathering political support to defend the rule. On the other hand, if the court denies the request for additional abeyance, the court will set a briefing schedule for DHS’s brief, and it should allow us to intervene – and we expect to win.
