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Immigrants on the H-1B highly-skilled visas, as well as their partners, are the targets of an under-the-radar effort to weed out foreign workers. Activists say the move is inhumane and business leaders argue it will hurt the economy. A report released Tuesday by the Silicon Valley-backed immigration lobbying group FWD.us lays out the White House’s…

The Court of Appeal for this district yesterday affirmed an order to an African American medical doctor, who was fired from his post as provost of Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, a predominantly African American university, and sued for racial and age discrimination in addition to retaliation and whistle-blowing, to pay $94,017.50…

Employers with 25 or more employees must now start paying minimum wages at the rate of $12.00 per hour starting July 1, 2017. This also means that overtime exempt employees must also be paid fixed salaries of at least two times the applicable minimum wage rate for full-time employment (2 X $12.00 X 40 =…

Beware of Becoming Enslaved by a Severance Agreement! Many hardworking employees who dedicate their lives and sacrifice their own health and family for the good of their corporate employers will sooner or later find a pink slip in their inbox, usually right before the holidays. Whether it’s due to “downsizing” or for whatever pretextual reason…

The Entrepreneur Parole Rule Lets Foreigners Buy their Way Into the USA Starting July 17, 2017 The US Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) has finalized new regulations creating the Entrpreneur Parole Rule, which takes effect on July 17, 2017. The DHS believes that this final rule will encourage foreign entrepreneurs to create and develop start-up…

The California Supreme Court Recently Held That Employees Cannot Be “On-call” Or “On-duty” During Their Rest Breaks On December 22, 2016, the California Supreme Court ruled that employers may not require their employees to remain “on duty” or “on call” during rest breaks. In Augustus v. ABM Security Services, Inc., the plaintiffs were required to…

USCIS Filing Fees Set To Increase On 12/23/2016 Just in time for the holidays, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) has recently announced an increase in the filing fees for almost all of its applications. In particular, applications concerning the “million dollar investment greencard” face filing fee increases in the thousands of dollars. Further,…

President-elect Trump Will Likely Retroactively Cancel DACA! On June 15, 2012, the Secretary of Homeland Security announced that certain people who came to the United States as children and meet several guidelines may request consideration of deferred action for a period of two years, subject to renewal. They are also eligible for work authorization. Deferred…

Get Ready for the new 2017 California Employment Laws! Governor Brown has just signed several important measures that bring new changes to California’s employment laws, most of which will take effect on January 1, 2017. Here are some of the highlights: 1) Increased Paid Family Leave and State Disability Benefits: Effective January 1, 2018, state…

6 Sick Days For Employees In Los Angeles City Starting 7/1/2016 Starting July 1, 2016, most employees within Los Angeles city will be entitled to accrue six sick days (48 hours) of paid sick leave per year. California state law already provides that employer must provide three days (24 hours) of paid sick leave per…