Jonathan Wasden, the firm’s primary legal officer, has over 20 years of federal court trial experience, with a focus on employment based immigration matters for a majority of that time. His experience includes working for the US Department of Justice Office of Immigration Litigation, where he defended the agencies that he now litigates against. He has also served as attorney for USCIS Administrative Appeals Office where he handled employment based immigrant and non-immigrant matters. Jonathan left government service in 2017 when he realized his values didn’t align with those of the Trump administration.
His first case in private practice challenged a rule change made by the Department of Homeland Security which prohibited the grant of STEM OPT, OPT, and CPT to employers in the IT consulting industry (third party work sites). The agency withdrew their new rule two weeks after filing suit.
His next big case, and best known, is ITSERVE Alliance v. Cissna, where he confronted and successfully knocked down three long held USCIS requirements: 1. the 1990 itinerary regulation; 2. the 2010 Neufeld Memo on Employer Employee Relationship; and, the 2018 Contracts and itinerary Memo. The USCIS policies under Trump were targeted largely at the Indian IT community who had acted legally in getting their visas. An extension of the Trump Era anti-Indian immigration agenda was a processing change in H-4 and L-2 EADs that required spouses get biometrics retaken before extending visas and employment authorization. This change guaranteed spouses of legal visa holders could not maintain consistent employment eligibility. He filed suit and shortly after, the agency withdrew its biometric process. USCIS capitulated in that litigation and agreed to two major policy changes: automatic extension of H-4 EADs; and, L-2 visa holders were eligible for employment ‘incident to status’ which meant that they no longer had to apply and wait (up to a year) for an EAD
Team Members
Jonathan D. Wasden