UNACCOMPANIED CHILD MIGRANTS TO THE UNITED STATES: DROP IN THE BUCKET AND SO MUCH HYPE

By Cyrus D. Mehta

The overreaction surrounding  57, 000 unaccompanied children who have come to the United States, with a population of 300 million, is not befitting of  a great nation of immigrants. Indeed, some of the reaction against these children has been nothing short of disgraceful. The waiving of the American flag against busloads of dazed and frightened children by residents of Murrieta in California did a great disservice to the ideals symbolized by this flag. The summoning of the Texas National Guard to the border against these children, unschooled in the complexities of immigration law,  is also unwarranted. Are they going to shoot at these kids?  It is further worth noting  that developing countries host 80% of the world’s displaced population, while most of the anti-refugee sentiment is heard loudest in industrialized countries. 

To also characterize the flow of these children to our borders as illegal migration is a canard. People escaping harm in their countries are able to seek the protection of the United States through the asylum process under the rule of law.  As a signatory to the United Nations Refugee Convention, the United Nations Convention Against Torture and other international instruments, the United States cannot ignore expressions of fear of harm and turn these children and their families away. Section 208 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), which Congress enacted in accordance with the obligations of the United States under the Refugee Convention, allows children fleeing harm to apply for asylum.   These children are not evading the border guards; rather they approach them and could hardly be charged under INA section 275 for an improper entry. Those who argue that these children have been brought here by smugglers and coyotes may have a point, but most people use all sorts of assistance while fleeing desperately persecution, and this should not bar them from seeking asylum under INA section 208. According to Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske, these mothers and children often run towards U.S. agents, turning themselves in and seeking detainment. 

There is an incident in this nation’s history that is considered a grave blemish, which should never be repeated again.  In May 1939, the St. Louis set sail for Havana, Cuba carrying mostly Jewish refugees escaping the Third Reich in Nazi Germany. Most of them planned to immigrate to the United States as they were on the waiting list for admission, and had landing certificates permitting them entry into Cuba. When Cuba refused to honor the landing certificates, the ship sailed towards Florida and the captain appealed for help. The U.S. Coast Guard refused to allow the ship to dock in Florida and also prevented anyone from jumping  for freedom into the water. When the St. Louis turned back to Europe, Belgium, the Netherlands, England and France admitted the passengers. However, within months, the Germans invaded Western Europe,  and  hundreds of these passengers became victims to the Nazi’s “Final Solution.” 

While it is difficult to compare any other event to the horror of the Holocaust,  a child who may be fleeing gang violence and certain death in San Pedro Sula,  Honduras, known as the murder capital of the world, should not be turned back by the United States. The poignant story of Alejandro, only 8 years old, making it all alone to the United States in search of his mother,  and also fleeing gang violence, should prompt us to find compassionate ways to find a solution rather than spit on these children. The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 (TVRPA) applies to all unaccompanied minors under the age of 18. It would be wrong for President Obama and the Congress to modify the TVRPA, and thus diminish the child’s ability to apply for asylum. Under the TVRPA, for unaccompanied minors coming from countries other than Mexico and Canada, the child must be turned to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) of the Department of Health and Human Services within 72 hours. ORR has more expertise than border agents to help children make their asylum claims in a humane setting.   If the government wishes to remove the child, the child must still be provided a full and fair removal hearing before an Immigration Judge under INA section 240 where he or she can assert all rights available under law, including asylum and related relief, the trafficking visa and special immigrant juvenile status. The TVRPA also incorporates a policy in favor of releasing the child or placing the child in the least restrictive and most humane detention setting as possible. While unaccompanied children from Mexico and Canada do not get the same initial protections, they too will be covered under TVRPA if the answer to any of the following three questions is “No”: 1) whether the child is unlikely to be a victim of trafficking; 2) whether the child has no fear of returning to his or her country of origin; and 3) whether the child has the ability to make to make an independent decision to withdraw his or her application for admission to the United States. 

Although the protections in the TVRPA do not apply to children who are accompanied, they too along with their parents may apply for asylum after passing a credible fear test and even if they face expedited removal. Still, after the increased migration from the Central American countries, there are reports of claimants not being able to adequately express their fear of persecution at the Artesia detention facility in New Mexico. According to a press release of the American Immigration Lawyer Association,  “[w]omen are being asked to share intimate details about past persecution and violence right in front of their children because DHS has not created a safe and separate interview space,” said Karen Lucas, AILA Legislative Associate. Congress now wishes to lower the standards in the TVRPA, and if the HUMANE Act introduced by Sen. Cornyn and Rep. Cuellar got passed, vulnerable children will be forced back to the same dangerous conditions from which they recently fled without proper screening for ascertaining the harm or the sexual abuse they may have faced and will face. Furthermore, under the HUMANE Act, victims may be further traumatized when questioned by officers who lack training and sensitivity, especially with respect to sexual assault interviewing techniques. Clearly, the best interest of the child is paramount when addressing this humanitarian crisis, and asylum standards should not be compromised for the sake of political expediency. Lowering safeguards and sending back children under the specious ground that they would bring diseases to the United States is repulsive. Under such perverse reasoning, lice infested concentration camp survivors may never be able to seek asylum in another country.  Fear of opening the floodgates is also not a reason for sending back people fearing harm without hearing their claim. Each asylum case must be individually judged on its own merits under the applicable law. 

Rather than diminish  the ability of minors to seek asylum, the United States must instead provide more funding for better access to courts and lawyers, where they can meaningfully make claims for asylum and other relief. As the Supreme Court famously stated in a case regarding the appointment of counsel in juvenile delinquency proceedings, “The child requires the guiding hand of counsel at every step of the proceeding against him.” In re Gault, 387 U.S. 1, 37 (1967) (quoting Powell v. State of Alabama, 287 U.S. 45, 69 (1932)). If after the child has meaningfully asserted all claims for relief, and been turned down after exhausting all appeal options, he or she may be removed from the United States in a humane manner. Alternatively, the child can also be the subject of prosecutorial discretion if he or she meets the criteria under the Morton June 2011 memo. All children deserve protection, and Congress should be focused on strengthening protections rather than weakening them through the oxymoronic HUMANE Act. The recent announcement by the United States to consider refugee claims of children in their own countries is salutary, but that should still not diminish their ability to seek asylum here.

The United States, as the world’s sole superpower and the lumbering giant in the backyard of countries of Central America, ought to step up and take more responsibility. It is no coincidence that the gang related violence in Central America, resulting in harm to the children fleeing,  stems from  the insatiable demand for illicit drugs in the United States.  Moreover, the love that bonds a parent to the child and vice verca pervades through all countries and cultures. With so many people living in the United States in an undocumented capacity and under a broken immigration system, many of these children, who are vulnerable to gang violence and poverty,  would be united with parents in a more legal and orderly process if we had immigration reform.  The recent calls from GOP leaders to abolish the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program is ill-conceived and will backfire against the party in future Presidential elections. DACA has nothing to do with the flood of unaccompanied child migrants to the United States.  What we need is sensible immigration reform, so that the undocumented leading productive lives in this country can legalize and have their children, vulnerable to gang violence,  join them in a legal manner. If Congress continues to obstruct immigration reform, President Obama should have the guts – and he has the authority to do so under the INA - to improve the immigration system through bold administrative fixes.  It is also equally, if more important, to preserve the asylum protections so that people, especially children,  fleeing harm are never turned away like those on the St. Louis.

DACA RENEWALS AND THE UPHOLDING OF EXECUTIVE ACTION IN ARIZONA DREAM ACT COALITION V. BREWER

By Michelle S. Velasco

August 15, 2014 marks the two-year anniversary of the implementation of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).  The policy was announced through a memorandum by then Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano on June 15, 2012.  The Memo directed the heads of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS), and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to implement DHS’s decision to grant deferred action, and employment authorization, to certain eligible individuals who entered the U.S. when they were younger than 16 years old.  Now, nearly two years have passed since DHS began accepting applications for the program on August 15, 2012.  DACA recipients who were among the first to apply and receive DACA and employment authorization must now undergo the process of renewing their DACA.

ICE and USCIS released their renewal processes in February and early June, respectively.  ICE had begun issuing DACA to eligible immigrants in removal proceedings prior to August 15, 2012, when USCIS began accepting applications.  To be eligible for DACA renewal, the recipient must (1) not have departed from the U.S. on or after August 15, 2012 without advance parole; (2) have continuously resided in the U.S. since the first DACA approval; and (3) not have been convicted of a felony, significant misdemeanor, or three or more misdemeanors, and does not otherwise pose a threat to national safety or public safety.

The renewal process for ICE-granted and USCIS-granted DACA recipients is the same:

 Complete and submit the following forms:

• The new version of Form I-821D (6/4/2014 edition)
• Form I-765
• Form I-765 Worksheet
• Submit the $465 fee for the employment authorization application
• Submit only new documents involving removal proceedings or criminal history that was not previously provided to USCIS (Note: USCIS does not require previously submitted documentation establishing the applicant’s DACA eligibility)

USCIS has advised DACA recipients to renew approximately 120 days (4 months), but no more than 150 days (5 months), before their current DACA grant expires.  USCIS also anticipates that in the event it cannot process the submitted applications before the initial DACA expires, it might issue extensions of the initial DACA to prevent any lapse in time before the renewal is approved.

Since its implementation, DACA has been granted to over 550,000 recipients, according to USCIS statistics released on March 2014.  DACA has provided more than half a million young immigrants security from removal and a means to work lawfully in the U.S. The DACA recipients, sometimes also called Dreamers, can now live openly, work, and contribute to their own and their families’ wellbeing.  The economic and social repercussions of this have not yet been fully studied or revealed, though the American Immigration Council recently published a study of the economic impact of DACA on the recipients.  The study found that through DACA, many young immigrants have benefitted economically through such activities as obtaining new jobs, getting driver’s licenses, and opening bank accounts.  We can also imagine what has been the psychological impact on these young immigrants of coming out of hiding and being able to be productive members of American society and the American workforce.  They have experienced the excitement of receiving an approval notice and the much sought after work permit, then a valid Social Security Number and card, and then oftentimes a State Identification Document in the form of an ID or driver’s license. 

Though it has undoubtedly bettered the lives of half a million recipients, DACA has been a double-edged sword.  While it provides recipients protection from removal from the U.S. and allows them to work legally, DACA is still far less than what these young immigrants would have received from the government had the DREAM Act or Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) passed in Congress.  The DREAM Act would have granted a way for eligible young immigrants to apply for permanent residence, and therefore, lawful status.  S.744, the CIR bill passed by the U.S. Senate on June 27, 2013, and that has since stalled in the House of Representatives, included stipulations for the implementation of the DREAM Act’s provisions.  In contrast, DACA is only granted for two years, and DACA recipients must renew before the expiration of their deferred action and work permits.  Moreover, DACA recipients do not have lawful status in the U.S. (although they do not accrue unlawful presence upon the grant of DACA since they are still authorized to remain), and there is no direct pathway to permanent residency or U.S. citizenship. 

One limitation that some DACA recipients face is getting a driver’s license.  Until recently, two states, Arizona and Nebraska, refused to grant driver’s licenses to DACA recipients.  The Ninth Circuit, on July 7, 2014, struck down Arizona’s law that denied driver’s licenses to DACA recipients.  Arizona Dream Act Coalition v. Brewer, No. 13-16248, WL 3029759 (9th Cir. July 7, 2014).  This much-maligned law (see Cyrus Mehta’s take down of it here) was put in place as soon as DACA was first announced in the summer of 2012.  Governor Jan Brewer issued Executive Order 2012-06 “Re-Affirming Intent of Arizona Law In Response to the Federal Government’s Deferred Action Program,” August 15, 2012, directing Arizona state agencies to design rules to prevent DACA recipients from becoming eligible to obtain state identification such as driver’s licenses.  Arizona’s Department of Transportation’s Motor Vehicle Decision changed its requirements for state identification eligibility such that Employment Authorization Documents (EADs or work permits) with the DACA category code of (c)(33) would not be accepted as proof that the license or ID applicant’s presence was authorized in the U.S.  Five DACA recipients living in Arizona, along with the Arizona Dream Act Coalition, filed suit to stop Arizona from enforcing its policy.  The Ninth Circuit found that the law violated the Equal Protection Clause and there was no rational basis for the Arizona government’s policy.  The decision hinged on Arizona’s refusal to accept as proof of “authorized presence” in the U.S. an EAD based on DACA category (c)(33) work while they continued to accept EADs based on (c)(9) and (c)(10) categories, which respectively correspond to applicants for adjustment of status and applicants for cancellation of removal.  The Ninth Circuit systematically rejected each of Arizona’s arguments that it had a legitimate state interest in upholding the policy. Initially the Court rejected Arizona’s argument that (c)(9) and (c)(10) noncitizens could demonstrate authorized presence in the U.S. while (c)(33) could not.  Putting aside the nonsensical use of the term “authorized presence” which holds no actual meaning in immigration law, Arizona conflates the immigration concepts of unlawful presence and unlawful status – two very different things.  Unlawful presence is used in determining admissibility under the 3- and 10-year bars, while a noncitizen not in lawful status may be authorized to stay in the U.S.  The Court’s clearly did not make that mistake: “Employment Authorization Documents merely “tied” to the potential for relief [i.e. (c)(9) and (c)(10) categories] do not indicate that the document holder has current federally authorized presence, as Arizona law expressly requires.”  Arizona Dream Act Coalition, at *9.  Moreover, the Court found that Arizona’s other four arguments also could not hold up against a rational basis test. Arizona could not show it might have to issue licenses to 80,000 unauthorized immigrants (less than 15,000 Arizona residents have applied for DACA). DACA recipients cannot access state or federal benefits using a driver’s license alone.  Though the DACA program might be canceled at any time and DACAs could lose their authorized stay, the same could occur to (c)(9) and (c)(10) noncitizens whose corresponding applications are denied.  Therefore, these arguments also do not pass the rational basis test.  The Court went on and mentioned that additionally, Arizona’s policy “appears intended to express animus toward DACA recipients themselves, in part because of the federal government’s policy toward them.”  Id. at *25.  The court pointedly stated: “Such animus, however, is not a legitimate state interest.”  Id. 

Interestingly, the Court struck down the law on equal protection grounds rather than conflict-preemption.  Generally, courts use preemption analysis to strike down a conflicting state law acting to regulate immigration.  In a concurrence, Circuit Court Judge Christen analyzed the case’s conflict-preemption argument and found that Arizona’s policy effectively created a new class of noncitizens who are not under “authorized presence” – a descriptor not recognized in immigration law.  The act of creating a new immigration classification, in Judge Christen’s view, is preempted by federal law because states may not directly regulate immigration.  Id. at *13, citing Valle del Sol Inc. v. Whiting, 732 F.3d 1006, 1023 (9th Cir. 2013), cert. denied, 134 S. Ct. 1876 (2014).  Moreover, in footnote 3, the Court notes that Judges Pregerson and Berzon agree with the concurring opinion, and specifically that the plaintiffs in the case could succeed on a conflict preemption argument.

Here, however, the Court’s majority analyzed Arizona’s law from an equal protection perspective, which gives it lasting and powerful impact.  By going this route, the 9th Circuit recognized DACA recipients to be part of a protected class.  This can have huge implications for any other state laws that purport to discriminate against this now recognized protected class of noncitizens.  Moreover, the Court, in footnote 4, acknowledged that the Supreme Court in other cases applied strict scrutiny standard of review when state action discriminates against noncitizens authorized to be present in the U.S., see e.g. Graham v. Richardson, 403 U.S. 365 (1971).  But here, the Court states it did not have to analyze under strict scrutiny review because Arizona could not even make its case under the lower rational basis test.  In its analysis the Court found it could “identify no legitimate state interest that is rationally related to Defendant’s decision to treat DACA recipients disparately from noncitizens holding (c)(9) and (c)(10) Employment Authorization Documents”  Arizona Dream Act Coalition at *8. (emphasis added).  It is also worthwhile to note that, unlike the Arizona district court which also held that the Arizona government’s arguments failed a rational basis review, the 9th Circuit found that the protected class, here the DACA recipients, would likely suffer irreparable harm in the absence of a preliminary injunction.  The irreparable harm was the limiting of the DACA recipients’ professional opportunities, hurting their abilities to seek or maintain a job in a state where 87 percent of its workers commute by car.

The decision lays bare the type of backlash that occurred after the Obama administration introduced DACA.  Conservative pundits and anti-immigration groups believe that these young people should receive no acknowledgement or benefits from a country to which they do not belong.  This type of thinking is not only wrong, but it fuels hatred toward a group that, for all intents and purposes, took no part in the decision to enter the U.S. without inspection or to overstay visas.  The point of the DACA policy is to respond to the cries from millions of young immigrants brought into the U.S. as children, who have grown up in the U.S., but who are forced to stay in hiding.  They are punished for someone else’s sins.  

I have personally processed over 100 DACA applications in the past two years.  When talking to these young immigrants and their families, it is often impossible to tell apart the individuals who were born here and the ones who were brought here.  DACA requestors speak like Americans, look like Americans, and dream the American dream like native-born Americans.  It is hard to put into words the unfairness of their lives: to live in a country that is oftentimes the only one they have known, and yet to be denied full recognition and basic equal treatment.  Worse, they are called “illegal” and are made to feel unwanted and unwelcome.  This treatment is confusing and painful to many of these young people who had no choice about coming to the U.S.  Yet they are undoubtedly the future of this country.  They will help shape the U.S. cultural, economic, and political landscape.  And we are not doing enough to acknowledge their presence, since they are here to stay, and provide them with the tools to be full active members of American society. 

The Obama administration has implemented regulations and executive policies to alleviate some of the pain from long-standing immigration problems that Congress has time and again failed to address.  DACA, for instance, was the Executive’s response to Congress’s failure to pass the DREAM Act in 2010.  Recently President Obama spoke out angrily against Congress’s ability to compromise on immigration reform, calling it the reason behind his decision to direct more resources to address the ongoing crisis of unaccompanied children.  As has been pointed out on this blog, Obama can expand the use of Executive action to confront problems in immigration law while we wait for Congress pass CIR.  The Obama administration can do more than just grant deferred action to young immigrants.  DHS could grant deferred action to DACA parents.  The Department of Education could grant federal student loans to DACA recipients.  Paradoxically, the Obama administration has specifically rendered DACA recipients ineligible for healthcare benefits under the Affordable Care Act even though prior to the August 2013 rule, DACA recipients would have been eligible.  There are myriad ways Executive action, such as DACA, can provide relief to millions of immigrants who live and work beside us every day.  Until such time that Congress takes action, the Executive will have to be the branch taking action, and immigrants must be content with its limitations.

Because the basis of a deferred action grant is DHS’s policy of prosecutorial discretion, it remains only in the form of executive action and it is not an actual law passed by Congress and signed by the President.  DACA and any other executive action are thus vulnerable to attacks from groups and individuals who consider them an overreach by the Obama administration. These attacks, such as Arizona’s driver’s license law, are often informed by fear and a fundamental misunderstanding of immigration law.  Litigation to strike down these anti-immigrant and anti-immigration state laws, which are arguably preempted by federal law, can sometimes take years.  Moreover, executive action while necessary in the face of Congressional inaction is limited in scope: it cannot grant visas or permanent residence, which only Congress can do by expanding the eligibility categories for permanent residence.  Meanwhile, immigrants languish in backlogged visa lines, wait months and years for hearings before an immigration judge, face harsh vitriol from anti-immigration groups, and DACA recipients still do not have a way to become fully integrated into American life. 

LISTING THE FOREIGN NATIONAL'S QUALIFICATIONS ON THE PERM FORM

by Cora-Ann V. Pestaina

One of the most surprising lessons to learn for practitioners who regularly file PERM labor certifications is that past certifications do not always mean future certifications. In other words, just because 10 PERM labor certifications prepared in the same way have all been certified without issue does not mean that the 11th one will also be certified. That is the nature of PERM. The Department of Labor (DOL) is notorious for suddenly coming up with new and previously unheard of reasons for denial. 

Most recently, there have been reports of a slew of PERM denials, primarily for physician and teaching occupations, on the basis that Section H.14 of the ETA Form 9089 indicates that a medical or other license is required, but Section K does not list that the PERM beneficiary holds a license. What makes these denials even more baffling is that in many of these cases, the foreign national’s work experience practicing medicine or teaching in the US was listed in Section K thereby providing proof that the foreign national was indeed licensed.  Moreover, the ETA Form 9089 does not provide any specific section in which to list licenses. Most disturbing is the fact that the DOL did not previously deny any PERM applications for failing to list a license on the form. But that did not stop the denials from coming.  The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) recommends that denials of a PERM labor certification solely because of not listing a license should be reported to the AILA-DOL liaison committee. A motion for reconsideration should be filed at the same time.

The DOL has promised to issue an FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) on this issue. But since the ETA Form 9089 will remain unchanged, it is anticipated that the FAQ will advise practitioners to list the foreign national’s qualifications in Section K.9. AILA raised the issue of the denials in a DOL Stakeholders Meeting on December 12, 2013 (AILA Doc. No. 14011449). In sum, the DOL responded with:

In general, if an employer states that a specific position requires a license, the employer should indicate that the beneficiary has the license. The appropriate place to list the license is under K.9 so that the analyst can compare the requirements and the beneficiary’s qualifications. OFLC will issue an FAQ to spell this out more clearly. When stakeholders asked OFLC to consider in the future, issuing an FAQ in advance of the change in practice, OFLC agreed to take this into consideration if there is a decision to make a policy change. OFLC is continuing to examine how to address cases already denied on the basis that Section K did not list the license or certification. Employers with denials on this basis may wish to file a Request for Reconsideration of the denied case to at a minimum preserve the issue until OFLC develops further guidance.

At the recent AILA National Immigration Conference in Boston on June 18-21, 2014, representatives of the DOL indicated that the instructions in Section K.9 of the ETA Form 9089 already instruct practitioners to list “job duties performed, use of tools, machines, equipment, skills, qualifications, certifications, licenses, etc.” Accordingly, the DOL expects practitioners to list all the experience and qualifications gained with a particular job under the particular job experience listed on the ETA Form 9089. At the AILA national conference, it was also suggested that Section K of the ETA Form 9089 can be completed to only indicate the foreign national’s license or other special qualification earned during a specific time period when he was not also earning work experience and the ETA Form 9089 will not be denied for failure to list an employer’s name and other details. Other qualifications that need to be included in Section K.9 of the ETA Form 9089 include (See AILA InfoNet Doc. No. 14041655. (Posted 04/16/14):

• Licensure, or eligibility for license, e.g., Medical License, Teacher Certification, Professional Engineer (PE). 
• Knowledge or coursework acquired in a course of study. 
• Professional certificates or diplomas, e.g., Microsoft certification, Health and Safety Certificate, CPR Certificate, Engineer-in-Training Certificate. 
• Board Certification, or Certification Eligible, e.g., Board Certification in Internal Medicine, Board Certification in Immigration Law. 
• Second degree, if required by employer, e.g., Bachelor’s in Civil Engineering, in addition to a Ph.D. 
• Degree or other credential required at H.4, “education: minimum level required,” does not match the foreign national’s credential at J.11, “highest level achieved relevant to the requested occupation” [e.g., H.4 requires a BS in Chemical Engineering; J.11 indicates foreign national has a (relevant) Ph.D. in Process Engineering, but foreign national also has a BS in Chemical Engineering that cannot be entered anywhere in Section J or K].

The issue of making every attempt to set forth the foreign national’s qualifications on the ETA Form 9089 in a manner that ensures the Certifying Officer’s (CO) comprehension was also highlighted in the Board of Alien Labor Certifications (BALCA) case, Matter of The Clariden School, 2011-PER-02857 (January 30, 2014). In that case, the primary job requirements for the position of “AMI Montessori Elementary Teacher” as listed on the ETA Form 9089 included a Bachelor’s degree in any discipline and AMI (Montessori) Certification. The Employer indicated in Section H.7 of the ETA Form 9089 that an alternative field of study was acceptable; specifically a Bachelor’s in Education plus AMI Certification. In Section H-8 the Employer also indicated that it would accept the alternative combination of a Master’s degree, and one year of experience. In Section H-14, the Employer noted that AMI Certification is required.

In Section J.11 of the ETA Form 9089 which requires the Employer to list the highest level of education achieved relevant to the occupation, the Employer checked “Other” from a list of options that included “None,” “High School,” “Associate’s,” “Bachelor’s,” “Master’s,” “Doctorate,” and “Other.” The Employer specified in Section J.11-A that the “Other” classification was AMI Certification. The Employer reported that the Alien obtained the AMI Certification in 2006 at the Montessori Institute of Milwaukee. The CO denied certification under 20 C.F.R. § 656.17(i)(1) on the ground that the application did not indicate that the foreign national met either the primary or the alternative educational requirements of a Bachelor’s degree in any discipline or a Master’s degree in any discipline.

In its request for reconsideration/review, the Employer argued that it answered Section J.11 accurately because AMI Certification was the highest education level achieved by the foreign national and that such a certification is a level of education higher than Bachelor’s but lower than a Master’s or a Doctorate. The Employer pointed out that the motion for reconsideration was its first opportunity to explain and clarify its answer on the ETA Form 9089, Section J, and that it was supplying supporting documentation which included a document from the Montessori Training Center of Minnesota stating that one of the admission requirements for its AMI Montessori Diploma program is that the applicant holds a Bachelor’s degree.

The CO refused to bend and affirmed the denial arguing that the employer’s representation on the ETA Form 9089 that Other – AMI Certification is the highest education level achieved by the foreign national did not enable the DOL to verify from the face of the application that the foreign worker earned a Bachelor’s degree which is the minimum education level required. The CO then went on to present the novel argument that “there is sufficient free form space on the ETA Form 9089” for the employer to disclose, for example, that the foreign national possessed a Bachelor’s degree (or its equivalent) in addition to AMI Certification.

BALCA thankfully saw reason and held that while the initial denial could be understood since it is hardly intuitive that AMI Certification is a higher level of education than a Bachelor’s degree, the CO’s insistence that the Employer disclose the foreign national’s holding of a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree be disclosed on the ETA Form 9089, even in the face of documentation on a motion for reconsideration showing that a Bachelor’s degree is a prerequisite for the foreign national’s admission to the Minnesota Montessori Training Facility for its AMI certification program, was unreasonable and unsupported by the regulations. BALCA was not persuaded by the CO’s claim that the ETA Form 9089 had adequate free form text fields finding, as any reasonable person would, that the form actually does not have any obvious free form space for clarifying why a person would necessarily have at least a Bachelor’s degree to have obtained an AMI certification.

Matter of Clariden and the recent PERM denials highlight the fact that practitioners need to find some way to list all of the foreign national’s credentials somewhere on the ETA Form 9089. While we await the DOL’s forthcoming FAQ, it is important to make every attempt to alert the CO that the foreign national possesses the qualification required for the offered position. If the offered position requires experience in specific technologies then these technologies need to be listed somewhere in the job descriptions of the foreign national’s past experience. If the offered position requires any license, certification, knowledge or anything other than work experience, it needs to be listed in Section K. This information can be listed in Section K.9 between asterisks or in capital letters or in any manner at the bottom of any job description for the foreign national’s past experience or it can be listed on its own in Section K.9. 

The moral of the story is basically that anything which could remotely be unclear to the CO should be explained somewhere on the ETA Form 9089, notwithstanding the space limitations. But with regard to the recent Section K denials, the hope is that once the FAQ has been published the DOL will apply its requirement prospectively rather than to already pending cases. In such matters, the DOL really ought to hold itself accountable for setting a precedent for how the ETA Form 9089 should be completed merely by its certification of all prior cases.