Immigration Law

DREAM ACT COULD COME BACK TO HAUNT GOP

Posted on December 15, 2010
I've been blogging about this for years, but the GOP still can't see that its tilt to being the anti-immigrant party is incredibly dangerous for its long-term prospects. The LA Times reports on this today. Some in the party suffer from the delusion that Latino voters don't care about immigration or, incredibly, actually agree with their positions...

SISKIND'S IMMIGRATION BULLETIN - 12/13/2010

Posted on December 14, 2010
Here are the contents from the latest issue of my newsletter which is at my web site (www.visaaw.com). To download the entire newsletter in PDF format, click here. 1. Openers 2. ABC's of Immigration Law: The DREAM Act Proposal 3. Ask Visalaw.com 4. Border and Enforcement News -Feds at odds withVictorville,CAover regional center -Californiastudent released after intervention by Sen...

BLOOMBERG: DEALING WITH LEGAL AND ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS KEY TO SAVING US ECONOMY

Posted on December 13, 2010
Billionaire and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is making the case that putting illegally present immigrants on a path to legalization and making it easier for skilled immigrants to navigate the US immigration system go hand in hand and are both desperately needed if the US is going to compete in the 21st century.

BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE HOUSE DREAM ACT VOTE

Posted on December 13, 2010
The Hill has an interesting piece giving the play by play necessary to get the DREAM Act passed last week in the House of Representatives.

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HUTCHISON VOTING NO ON DREAM ACT BASED ON FALSE UNDERSTANDING OF THE BILL

Posted on December 10, 2010
This is a crying shame. My friend Paul Parsons, an excellent immigration lawyer in Austin, shared this exchange with me last night: From: Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison [mailto:senator@hutchison.senate.gov] Sent: Thursday, December 09, 2010 5:50 PM To: Paul Parsons Subject: Constituent Response From Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison Dear Friend: Thank you for contacting me regarding S...

GALLUP: MOST AMERICANS SUPPORT DREAM ACT

Posted on December 10, 2010
This is the case even with the outrageous lies the antis are promoting about the bill.

JANUARY 2011 VISA BULLETIN RUNDOWN

Posted on December 09, 2010
Here's the link. Bad news in the family categories as much of the advancement of the last two years has been reversed with major retrogressions. The only good news was a ten month jump for Mexico EB-3 cases. Family 1st- 13 month retrogression for most countries to January 2005; six month advance for Dominican Republic to January 2005; one week advance for Mexico...

ROHRABACHER PLAYS RACE CARD IN ARGUING AGAINST DREAM ACT

Posted on December 09, 2010
The media really should have picked up the truly obnoxious (and completely false) appeal to racism to convince his colleagues to vote against the DREAM Act last night: Mr. Speaker, if this act passes, if an illegal immigrant happens to be of a racial or ethnic minority, which the vast majority of illegal immigrants are, that individual, as soon as legal status is granted, will be entitled to all the education, employment, job training, government contracts, and other minority preferences that are written into our Federal and State laws...

DREAMERS' PARENTS FACING 25 YEAR WAIT ON GETTING A GREEN CARD

Posted on December 09, 2010
One of the bigger myths floating around regarding DREAM is that it will lead to chain migration. The thought is that DREAMers will get citizenship and then quickly sponsor their parents for green cards. Not quite. DREAM Act recipients must wait ten years in a non-immigrant conditional status to apply for a green card...

HISPANIC CAUCUS SPLIT ON DREAM VS. AGJOBS

Posted on November 24, 2010
Roll Call reports: Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus are struggling to settle on their priorities for the lame-duck session. CHC leaders are pressing for action on the DREAM Act in the coming weeks... But some CHC members insist that now is the time to take on...

STEVE KING LAYS OUT PLAN TO ABOLISH BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP

Posted on November 23, 2010
Rep. Steve King (R-IA), the staunch opponent of illegal immigration who is set to become the chairman of a key subcommittee on immigration, is setting his sights on the right-wing cause of ending birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants...

DHS REVERSAL ON OPTING OUT OF SECURE COMMUNITIES

Posted on November 22, 2010
Months after Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano assured House Democrats that jurisdictions could opt out of a controversial immigration enforcement program, officials reversed themselves and said opting out was not possible. - Washington Post

IN THE NEWS

Posted on November 20, 2010
Law Practice Today quotes me in an article on marketing for new law firm partners.

VACATION BREAK

Posted on November 19, 2010
I will be taking a week off starting tomorrow to enjoy some time with my family and have promised NOT to work. I'm not sure I can entirely commit to that, but you'll likely notice light posting for the holiday week. The ILW.com folks have promised that if there is any breaking news I miss particularly regarding the lame duck session, they'll update everyone...

CORNYN: DEMS PLAYING POLITICS WITH DREAM ACT

Posted on November 19, 2010
Of course, he said they were playing politics by forcing a vote on the DREAM Act before the election as well. For someone who once supported the DREAM Act and who now opposes it mainly out of fear of facing a backlash from the Taliban wing of his party, it seems Senator Cornyn (R-TX) is the one who is bending to political pressure.

ANOTHER COLLEGE PRESIDENT REVEALS HE IS ILLEGALLY PRESENT

Posted on November 19, 2010
A show of bravery from a young man who is the eleted president of Miami Dade College's InterAmerican Campus in South Florida. One more example of who will benefit when we get the DREAM Act.

REPORT: H-2B VISAS CRITICAL FOR MANY BUSINESSES

Posted on November 19, 2010
A new report from ImmigrationWorksUSA (I'm an outside technical advisor to the organization) and the US Chamber of Commerce shows that the H-2B temporary worker visa is a frustratingly difficult program, but ultimately very critical for businesses across the US.

UNIVERSITY STUDENT BODY PRESIDENT "OUTED" AS ILLEGALLY PRESENT

Posted on November 18, 2010
Pedro Ramirez, the student body president at Fresno State University in California, has had his immigration status revealed by the Los Angeles Times after the paper received an anonymous tip. One more illustration of why we need the DREAM Act right away.

H-1B EXHAUSTION TARGET - FEBRUARY 16, 2011

Posted on November 17, 2010
1000 H-1Bs were used last week and my exhaustion target advances a few more days to closer to mid-February 2011. Note, however, that the masters cap is still likely to run out in late December (it is now at 17,400 and should be reached December 28th or thereabouts) and I'm expecting regular cap usage to jump in January as those applicants use the regular quota...

STAGE BEING SET FOR DREAM ACT VOTE

Posted on November 17, 2010
Lots of activity to report. Congressional Hispanic Caucus leaders met this week with President Obama who said he wants a vote during the Lame Duck and would work the phones to round up votes. Harry Reid tweeted today that he'll offer the DREAM Act as a standalone bill which will hopefully help bring along a few of the "procedural" no voters from last September who indicated they like the DREAM Act but didn't believe in tacking it on to a budget bill...

RECORD NUMBER OF FOREIGN STUDENTS COMING TO US

Posted on November 15, 2010
The New York Times reports that nearly 700,000 foreign students came to the US last year and that for the first time, Chinese students were the number one nationality. India previously held that distinction. Indian students were up 1.6% last year compared to a nearly 30% jump in Chinese students.

DECEMBER 2010 VISA BULLETIN RUNDOWN

Posted on November 15, 2010
Here's my take on the new Visa Bulletin First, bad news for Dominicans. Separate cutoffs have now been established for the Family First and 2B preference categories which are now earlier than the worldwide dates. Family First is 01 JUN 2004 and 2B is 01 JAN 2002...

HAZLETON, PA FINDS IGNORING CONSTITUTION VERY, VERY EXPENSIVE

Posted on November 13, 2010
Hazleton, Pennsylvania, one of the first towns in the country to enact an anti-immigrant ordinance, has already had its law thrown out by the courts. Now the taxpayers of Hazleton are going to be stuck paying the plaintiffs' bill for the litigation - potentially $2...

LATINO GOP GROUP WARNS PARTY LEADERS NOT TO PUT KING IN CHARGE OF IMMIGRATION

Posted on November 12, 2010
A recipe for disaster in 2012 warns Somos Republicans. Of course, if you're a cynical hyperpartisan Democrat, you're savoring the impact of King's likely hearings on birthright citizenship.

THE DEFICIT COMMISSION'S UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES

Posted on November 12, 2010
The Bowles-Simpson Deficit Reduction Commission released it's preliminary recommendations this week for closing the government's massive budget deficit. The report will contain a lot of controversial cuts and tax increases and given the fiscal crisis in which the country finds itself, the effort is commendable...

OUR LOCAL EMBARRASSMENT

Posted on November 11, 2010
Memphis is a fairly tolerant city, but one local state representative (from the district next door to mine) is an exception to the rule.

PELOSI WILL PUSH FOR DREAM ACT VOTE IN LAME DUCK

Posted on November 11, 2010
From Politico: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to push for a vote during the lame-duck session on a bill that would legalize young, undocumented immigrants if they attend college or serve in the military, according to Democratic sources familiar with a leadership conference call Wednesday...

H-1B CAP EXHAUSTION TARGET: FEBRUARY 21, 2011

Posted on November 10, 2010
1200 H-1Bs were used last week which is just under the four week rolling average of 1225. 18,200 H-1Bs of the 65,000 annual cap remain available and based on that I'm forecasting the quota will be exhausted in late February. That's slightly sooner than the March 2011 exhaustion target I have been posting for the last few months...

HE'S BAAAAAACK...............

Posted on November 10, 2010
Dobbs joining Fox Business Channel.

WADHWA PRESENTATION: AMERICA'S LOSS IS THE WORLD'S GAIN

Posted on November 08, 2010
May of you may be familiar with Professor Vivek Wadhwa from his columns in BusinessWeek and his major papers published on skilled worker immigration. I got to meet Professor Wadhwa when we both spoke at an ImmigrationWorksUSA conference a few months back...

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