Morrison Urena, LC

Tip: if you are a visa applicant with scheduled interview and are interested in consulting with a former consular officer prior to that interview, I have a recommendation: Josef Burton, who is former consular who worked for State Department in India, Turkey, and DC, specializing in cases for Iranians, Afghans, and Indians. You can reach him via email: burton.josef@gmail.com. Good luck. 🍀 - curtis

🚨Announcing! 🚨 Group Lawsuit for Family Preference Category Visa Applicants from 19 Countries Blocked by Trump’s Travel Ban ✈️🚫🗽⚖️ https://redeaglelaw.com/fb-travel-ban

Special announcement on Let's Talk Immigration today about our next group lawsuit challenging Trump's travel ban. The LIVE starts in 25 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jONL3zt995I

Onboarding begins soon for a group lawsuit for DV-2025 selectees (who have already attended interviews) so they can challenge the legality of Trump’s June 4, 2025 Travel ban: https://redeaglelaw.com/dv2025-travel-ban ⏳⚖️

If you are outraged by Trump's latest travel ban, please amplify support for the efforts of those attempting to defeat the travel bans, not only in the courts but also in Congress. There is a bill pending before congress, call the No Ban Act, sponsored by Representative Judy Chu and Senator Chris Coons. Odds are against success, but still support this effort with a retweet: https://x.com/curtisforCA48/status/1931800864890765596 🙏 -curtis

“Hopeful immigrants must submit entries each fall; they find out whether they “won” by checking the State Department’s website. Diversity Visa entrants for fiscal 2026 just recently got their results; with just shy of 20 million entrants this year, an entrant for 2026 had less than a 0.025 percent chance to be selected. From there, due to overselection, only about half of those selected are issued visas.   It is in that context that we cannot, ethically or morally, ask the poorest families on earth to spend $250 — nearly half their annual income — just for a negligible chance to be selected in the program. This would essentially constitute mass fraud.” - @curtisatlaw https://thehill.com/opinion/immigration/5308030-diversity-visa-program-reform-threatened/

"Morrison says that this 60 day evaluation is Trump’s team doing 'homework,' and he beliefs that a draft of a second ban is in place. Come March 21st, we’ll find out. For now, travelers, businesses, and advocacy groups are watching closely to see which countries will be affected—and whether Trump’s second travel ban will be as controversial as the first." https://migrantinsider.com/p/trumps-springtime-travel-ban-playbook

FAQ: Can Trump suspend Diversity Visa lottery through executive order? Answer: No. He tried that in 2020 and 2021 and my amazing colleagues and me beat him in court 𝗺𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗲 times. (See: Gomez, Goodluck, Rai). morrisonurena.com/dv-2020 morrisonurena.com/dv-2021 However, there were still many victims of his attempted suspensions who were never issued visas. So he can do harm in trying. -curtis

Good luck to those of you who entered DV-2026. Given the election results, this may be the last year of the DV program. Recently disclosed documents show the whole time we were fighting the State Department on behalf of DV selectees in FY-2020, the department's Bureau of Consular Affairs had an official position that they wanted to end the program. See: https://x.com/NIACouncil/status/1854616464638247340 -curtis

DV-2026 Program: The online registration period for the DV-2026 Program begins on Wednesday, October 2, 2024, at 12:00 noon, Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) (GMT-4) and concludes on Tuesday, November 5, 2024, at 12:00 noon, Eastern Standard Time (EST) (GMT-5).  https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/diversity-visa-program-entry/diversity-visa-instructions.html

Join Curtis Live in an hour - at 3pm PST (6pm EST)

In DV news...Morgan Miles is no longer the Director of the Kentucky Consular Center.

DV2020/DV2021 update: Last night, to comply with the court clerk’s request, attorneys for class members and plaintiffs filed a certificate listing all the attorneys and their clients. With the exhibit listing plaintiff names, the filing is almost 1,700 pages, and almost identical to a filing we made when we filed the original appeal brief. This filing was only a formality of procedure, and not consequential. - curtis

FAQ:Why is my name not on the first page of this court filing? Answer: The names on the first page are just the first 50 +/- names in each lawsuit and not at all relevant. All 25,000+ plaintiff names were not entered in the court’s electronic filing system as that was not required or allowed. -curtis

The final draft of the motion for en banc review is being reviewed by all the attorneys again now, and will be filed with the court at approximately 5pm PT / 8pm ET by Gomez counsel. As I am in Spain and it is midnight here and I am exhausted, so I will not be able to download and share the court filing until tomorrow. However, I promise to share tomorrow. There is no reason to message me about this. Thank you. 🙏 -curtis

DV2020/DV2021 update: Many of you are asking when the motion for en banc review will be filed. (that’s where we ask the full circuit court to reconsider the opinion of the 3-judge panel.) That motion will be filed this Friday, August 9. We will share the filing after it is filed. Thanks for your patience. 🙏