On September 14, 2020, the Ninth Circuit of Appeals struck a near-fatal body blow to the dreams of the Temporary Protected Status beneficiaries, leaving many of them groping for air as the program nears its death bed.

Though more vulnerable than ever before, TPS beneficiaries need not give up the fight.

However, to survive, they must realize that their best defense is a good offense.

Phorm Tem, a California resident, was deported in October 2017.

In June 2020, he was sworn in as a U.S. citizen, the first and only Cambodian deportee to earn this privilege.

Except for the ending, Tem’s story is symbolic of the plight more than 16,000 Southeast Asian refugees – from Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos – who fled their homelands as children during the Vietnam War and its aftermath have endured in the United States.

On December 20, 2019, immigrant advocates celebrated the birth of the Liberian Refugee Immigration Fairness program.

In their view, the precarious nature of laws which had kept Liberians in the United States had come to an end.

Seven months later, Liberian immigrants worry about the program’s termination.

As you’re likely aware, the future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program has been one of the top immigration news stories over the past few weeks.

Commonly known as DACA, the fear was that over 700,000 immigrant youth would face deportation if the Supreme Court rules in favor of the Trump Administration.

I disagreed with that assumption.

Win, lose, or draw, I did not think, as I wrote in various articles, the Supreme Court decision would be the final word. I still hold to that perspective.

April 1, 1997.

The day IIRAIRA went into effect.

The day we entered the Age of Immigration Darkness.

Does a grant of Temporary Protected Status constitute a legal admission?

It depends.

It depends, in part, on where you live.

A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.

Especially when it comes to immigration law.

And programs like the U Visa.

I’m not an unequivocal fan of Lozada motions to reopen cases for ineffective assistance.

It’s not that I think immigrants are never the victim of incompetent guidance, duplicity, or outright corruption.

It’s not that I think lawyers, like judges, are incapable of mistakes.

For immigrants, a divorce is not always the worst aspect of divorces. In many instances, a divorce has no impact on immigration status.

On the other hand, navigating the issues of family court proceedings is often like tip-toeing through a field of landmines. One misstep and permanent residency or citizenship dreams are shattered.