< back
AMERICAN IMMIGRATION LAW FOUNDATION FILES SUIT TO FORCE HEALTHCARE WORKER REGULATIONS
In 1996, Congress passed sweeping legislation to reform the immigration system in the US. As part of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, Congress passed a little noticed provision imposing new requirements on healthcare workers seeking to immigrate to the US.  Healthcare workers would now  berequired to obtain certification from US based credentialing organizations before being allowed to obtain permanent residency.  It took until 1998 for the INS to pass regulations implementing the law and the regulations dealt only with registered nurses and occupational therapists.  The regulations were passed only after the American Immigration Law Foundation (AILF) filed suit.  
A few months ago, we announced that AILF was planning to file another suit and was looking for plaintiffs to force the INS to pass regulations covering the following professions:  Speech Pathologists, Medical Technologists and Physician’s Assistants.  Until these regulations are passed, these workers are not allowed to become permanent residents, even though they are legally entitled to do so, and even though their services are desperately needed in many medically underserved areas of the US.  
AILF has now filed the suit in the US District Court for the District of Columbia. They have now filed the suit and the INS will either have to issue regulations or convince a judge that four years is a reasonable length of time to be working on these rules. 
The lawsuit is a class action and seeks to compel the INS to issue regulations within 90 days of a court order. The text of the suit is now in our Documents Collection at http://www.visalaw.com/docs/.