2023—The D.C. Circuit denies rehearing en banc of a divided panel ruling (in Washington Alliance of Technology Workers v. Department of Homeland Security) that held that federal immigration law gives the executive branch the discretion to permit foreign visitors on student visas to work in fields related to their study for up to 36 months after they graduate.
In dissent from the denial of rehearing en banc, Judge Neomi Rao objects that the panel opinion “turns Congress’s carefully calibrated [immigration] scheme on its head”:
Despite the requirements that an F-1 visa go to a person who is a “bona fide student” seeking “solely” to pursue a course of study in the United States, the majority concludes that DHS has general authority to extend an F-1 visa for any “reasonably related” purpose. On the majority’s reading, the highly specific requirements of the F-1 provision define only requirements of entry, rather than ongoing conditions for an alien to remain in the United States. The majority explicitly recognizes that its reasoning and analysis applies to all nonimmigrant categories.