The New York Times reports that the U.S. Supreme Court will consider the case against President Obama's Executive Immigration Programs. President Obama announced his executive immigration programs, including Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA), in November 2014, but the state of Texas and several other states sued to block their implementation. The Supreme Court's decision to hear this case means that the previous decision by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which held the programs to be impermissibe and temporarily blocked them from being implemented, may be overturned.

Kathryn N. Karam is quoted in the Houston Business Journal's recent article on Texas vs. United States, the suit filed by several stated to stop the Obama Administration's Executive Actions for Immigration Reform.

This evening, Kathryn N. Karam was a guest on KPFT Pacifica Radio's Proyecto Latino-Americano show with Henry and Alma Cooper at 9 PM . The podcast from the February 17th airing of Proyecto Latino-Americano is available here.

A Federal Court in Brownsville, Texas has issued a temporary injunction to stop the implementation of the executive actions announced by President Obama in November 2014, including the extended DACA program and the DAPA program. As a result, USCIS has announced that it will not begin accepting applications for protection under the extended DACA program tomorrow as originally announced. However, the Court's order does not affect the existing DACA program originally announced on June 15, 2012.

The Associated Press reported that the U.S. Government has delayed thousands of immigration court hearings for five years. While this move appears to be a concession to individuals in immigration proceedings, attorneys representing those whose hearings have been delayed fear it may affect their clients' cases if evidence is considered stale or circumstances related to the case change in the coming years.

The House passed a bill today that would fund the Department of Homeland Security through September 2015, but will block funding for the Executive Action programs announced by President Obama in November 2014, including the Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA) program, and the extension of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that reaches more individuals than the original 2012 DACA program. As the bill makes its way to the Senate, Democrats have vowed to stop these contested parts of the DHS Appropriations bill to ensure that they do not survive.

On Friday, House Republicans introduced legislation to fund the Department of Homeland Security but stop the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program implemented in 2012, and the new executive actions announced by President Obama in November 2014, including the Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA) program. The legislation is not expected to pass the Senate and is intended to be a symbolic gesture to show how far Republicans are willing to go to contest actions taken by President Obama, according to the New York Times.

The Department of State has issued the January 2015 Visa Bulletin. Notable movement includes EB-3 China moving up to

Kathryn Karam's new article on p. 54 of this month's issue of Lebanon Times Magazine discusses changes to the immigration system implemented to help immigrant families.

The New York Times has reported that White House Officials have stated today that President Obama will wait to take any executive action to protect immigrant families from deportation.