***Update*** it is now confirmed that immigration related orders will be moved to TUESDAY next week. The reason is because of the delay in confirming Secretary Mayorkas.

OK so I thought I would recap where we stand with the immigrant bans – mainly focussing on PP10014 which is the most damaging of the bans, at least from a DV Lottery perspective.

I discussed this just now on a YouTube Livestream, but I am capturing the information here to allow translations.

I have speculated before that Biden would remove PP10014. Of course, the COVID situation is evolving, and in fact new strains represent more risk over the coming months, but PP10014 was never a sensible COVID measure. It purported to be saving US jobs during the COVID crisis, but it clearly wasn’t about that, and missed the point of immigration anyway. So – based on the lack of logic for the ban, comments made by Biden when the ban was introduced, and just the general evidence based approach that I knew Biden would apply, I reasoned that Biden himself would lift the ban.

When Biden laid out his timetable to work on various priorities, he set January 29th as the day when he would take some actions on immigration. Up to now he has not shared any information about what steps he would take, and although I felt hopeful, I was by no means certain that he intended to remove PP10014. Chuck Kuck took a view that it would not be included in the actions, but he also was extremely confident that other legal action would succeed if Biden failed to remove the ban (more on those other efforts later in this post).

However, Reuters is now reporting there are some plans to remove 10014 by executive order, as I had hoped. The article is based on comments made by a Biden official, Esther Olavarria, deputy director of the Domestic Policy Council. So these comments are not official, but obviously are from someone within the administration and close to the topic.

She said “that Biden would rescind several Trump proclamations. She appeared to reference one that barred certain visa applicants who could not prove they had health coverage and two others that banned the issuance of many work and immigrant visas, which Trump said would protect American jobs during the coronavirus pandemic.”

The two others would refer to PP10014 (immigrants) and PP10052 (work visas). So this is the clearest indication yet that Biden does understand the issue and intends to do something about it. The article also mentions that some of the announcements will be delayed a few days, BUT it is not clear whether that only refers to another issue related to the Mexican border.

So, I also prefer to “wait and see” what the actual official decision is, but in this case I wanted to be able to explain in advance what might happen.

Now if Biden fails to take down 10014 tomorrow (or after a few more days), what else is going on that might bring relief. Well there is a lot actually.

First, the challenge to PP10014 in the Gomez appeal is still to be decided. That is from the appeals court, meaning a court of three Judges above Judge Mehta. I would expect to have a decision on that in the next week or two. There is also a status hearing planned for tomorrow with Judge Mehta himself.

Next, the Annunciato case was heard last week and as many of you will know, Charles Kuck argued against the PP10014 extremely well. I think that is very likely to succeed if Biden doesn’t lift the ban, but that case also includes protections for DV2020 cases that need re-issuances.

The Jacob case had an initial hearing this morning, so that case is a little behindz, but again will seek the same remedies with another Judge (Judge Chen).

So – PP10014 is being fought in many battles. I strongly believe it will go – the only question really is “when” not “if”. The when is important to give DV2020 people time to travel and of course to help get DV2021 going.