FOR the first time since the Clinton Administration, the Federal Government began a partial shutdown on October 1, 2013, with the Senate and House of Representatives unable to reach an agreement on the budget before the commencement of the new fiscal year. The abrupt shutdown has placed perhaps one million Federal workers on unpaid leave, closed national parks and stalled medical research projects, as well as cut services via agencies deemed “non-essential” until the impasse is resolved.
Although the shutdown looked inevitable due to the House of Representatives’ insistence that any budget bill repeal or defund the Affordable Care Act, also known as “Obamacare,” the drama played out late into Monday night, in which the Democratic-controlled Senate repeatedly stripped measures passed by the House that tied temporary funding for government operations to delaying Obamacare. In response to the House’s final offer to refer the matter to a committee for negotiation, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid rejected the idea, saying Democrats would not enter into formal negotiations on spending “with a gun to our head” in the form of government shutdowns. Meanwhile, President Obama tweeted: “The Affordable Care Act is moving forward. You can’t shut it down.”
As a result, Federal Agencies were directed to cut back services, including many of those affecting immigrants in the US. At the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) which consists of the Immigration Courts and the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) Court functions that support the detained caseload will continue, but other functions are suspended. Non-detained removal proceedings in Los Angeles are currently being postponed, pending resolution. The BIA is only processing emergency stay requests as well as detained alien cases, including case appeals, motions, federal court remands, and bonds.
At the Department of Labor, the Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) has placed all of its employees in “furlough” status and the OFLC will neither accept nor process any applications or related materials it receives, including Labor Condition Applications, Applications for Prevailing Wage Determination, Applications for Temporary Employment Certification, or Applications for Permanent Employment Certification.
The USICE will continue “essential” operations, such as detention and enforcement, but the ICE chief counsel trial attorneys will only work on the detained docket during the shutdown. Meanwhile at USCIS, all offices remain open, due to the fact that USCIS operates entirely on user-fees, such as filing fees for green card and naturalization applications, and is not dependent on Federal budget allocations to remain at work. All USCIS offices remain open, so people scheduled for USCIS interviews and appointments must plan on arriving on time and prepared to go forward.
As for how long the shutdown will continue, it’s anyone’s guess, but the 1996 shutdown crippled the Government for 21 days. Stay tuned.
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Daniel P. Hanlon is a California State Bar Certified Specialist in Immigration and Nationality Law and a principal of Hanlon Law Group, PC, located at 225 S. Lake Ave., 11th Floor in Pasadena, California; Tel. No. (626) 585-8005. Hanlon Law Group, PC is a “full-service Immigration Law firm.” E-mail: [email protected] and www.hanlonlawgroup.com.
