Immigration Law

NATURALIZATION CASES - HOW LONG IS TOO LONG?

Posted on July 20, 2008
Dan Kowalski at Bender's Immigration Bulletin has posted an interesting case from the District Court in the Northern District of California. The court in the case of Reddy v. Mueller found that a two year wait in a naturalization case is presumed to be too long and the judge ordered the immigration service to adjudicate the case within 90 days whether the security clearance is finished or not...

IS THIS AMERICA'S FRIENDLIEST CITY?

Posted on July 20, 2008
I have always loved Nashville from my college days and the eight years I lived in the city after law school. I still make it up every month or so to visit clients. The city is beautiful, has wonderful people, great restaurants and culture and well deserves its ranking as one of America's friendliest cities...

POSTVILLE CONGRESSMAN BLASTS DHS OVER CONTRADICTIONS

Posted on July 20, 2008
Bruce Braley (D-Iowa), the Congressman who represents the district that includes Agriprocessors, the meat processing plant that was recently the target of the largest work site raid in US history, has released letters that show contradicting stories regarding the government's preparation and management of the raid...

33 NATURALIZED US CITIZENS TO COMPETE FOR THEIR COUNTRY IN BEIJING

Posted on July 20, 2008
According to the Associated Press, this is more than a 20% increase since the 2004 Olympics. The AP article also has some humorous quotes from the antis basically saying that we should only be allowing in Olympic athletes and Nobel Prize winners. What these less than Nobel-level thinkers don't get is that the immigrant society that is the United States is one of the key reasons these 33 athletic superstars chose the US...

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IMMIGRANT OF THE DAY: KHATUNA LORIG - OLYMPIC ARCHER

Posted on July 20, 2008
Khatuna Lorig will represent the US in Women's Archery at the Beijing Olympics. She previously competed for the Former Soviet Union at the 1992 Games (where she earned a bronze medal) and then the Republic of Georgia in 1996 and 2000. She just missed qualifying in 2004...

IMMIGRANT OF THE DAY: LUCETTE LAGNADO - JOURNALIST/AUTHOR

Posted on July 19, 2008
A few months back, I was in New York attending a board meeting of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, the country's oldest refugee assistance organization. At our lunch session, we had the honor of hearing a talk from Wall Street Journal reporter Lucette Lagnado, an investigative journalist who told us her family's immigration story...

SHRM RESPONDS TO INSULTING BLOG POST BY DHS OFFICIAL

Posted on July 18, 2008
Well, when I noted that DHS blogger Stewart Baker crossed the line when he essentially called the entire human resource professional criminals, I assumed there would be a response. And SHRM has now fired back. The organization sent an email to its nearly quarter million members informing them of Baker's insulting remarks...

THE AIR BRANCH? REALLY?

Posted on July 17, 2008
When I saw this ICE press release, at first I thought it was a routine work site raid. But this round up of illegally present workers was a little different: Eighteen illegal aliens were arrested Wednesday morning following an administrative search warrant that U...

JUDGE AWARDS $25,000 IN LEGAL FEES IN MANDAMUS CASE

Posted on July 17, 2008
A federal judge has ordered USCIS to pay attorney Kip Evan Steinberg $25,000 in legal fees after the lawyer's client sued the agency to force it to complete processing in an adjustment of status green card case. USCIS tried to point the finger at the FBI for delays in the name check process, but the judge wasn't buying...

HITTING AMERICANS IN THEIR WAISTLINE

Posted on July 17, 2008
McTrouble.

BILLS ARE MOVING IN CONGRESS

Posted on July 16, 2008
As the August recess approaches (and with the reality of few bills likely moving once the presidential campaign gets in to full swing), immigration bills are seeing some progress. Here's what to watch - 1. HR 6034 - eliminates the widow penalty in family immigration cases...

CANADA SEEKS TO LURE DISSATISFIED HIGHLY SKILLED IMMIGRANTS

Posted on July 16, 2008
A helpful reader sent me this tip. While our Congress buries its head in the sand and refuses to update our antiquated skilled immigration system, our neighbors to the north are seeking to take advantage of the paralysis. This is just embarrassing.

SENATE LIFTS HIV TRAVEL BAN

Posted on July 16, 2008
Finally, some good news to report. Political commentator Andrew Sullivan does a nice job summarizing what happened.

IMMIGRANT OF THE DAY: TARA SUMMERS - ACTRESS

Posted on July 15, 2008
If you are a fan of ABC's Boston Legal (I count myself in that group), you already know British actress Tara Summers who plays Katie Lloyd, a junior lawyer. The talented young actress is a Brown University graduate and has written and starred in a one-woman play about her childhood.

DHS ATTACKS NATION'S HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGERS

Posted on July 14, 2008
Stewart Baker, DHS' Assistant Secretary for policy, is pretty harsh in how he describes the motives of SHRM - the Society for Human Resource Management which has opposed E-Verify. Maybe the fact that so many groups are criticizing E-Verify's reliability means there is a real problem, Mr...

AUGUST VISA BULLETIN IS OUT

Posted on July 14, 2008
Mostly bad news with one important exception bolded below. Family 1st - No movement except one month advance for Mexico. Family 2A - Two month jump forward (but Mexico is still unavailable) Family 2B - Six week advance for everyone except one week advance for Mexico and two weeks for Filipinos Family 3rd - No movement except one month advance for Mexico Family 4th - One week advance except two week advance for Mexicans and no change for Filipinos EB-1 - All categories remain current EB-2 - All current except India and China...

IMMIGRANT OF THE DAY: AHMAD BATEBI - HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST/REFUGEE

Posted on July 13, 2008
Yesterday, I profiled a heroic translator working to expose injustice in this country. Today, I profile another brave immigrant and one that has only been in this country for a few short days. The New York Times has a front page story describing the harrowing escape story of Iranian dissident Ahmad Batebi...

NY TIMES EDITORIAL HIGHLIGHTS TRANSLATOR'S ESSAY

Posted on July 13, 2008
The Times has an editorial this morning discussing the essay of Professor Erik Caymard-Freixas, the translator I honored as yesterday's Immigrant of the Day. The Times editorial writers have strong words to describe their outrage: Anyone who has doubts that this country is abusing and terrorizing undocumented immigrant workers should read an essay by Erik Camayd-Freixas,a professor and Spanish-language court interpreter who witnessed the aftermath of a huge immigration workplace raid at a meatpacking plant in Iowa...

NATURALIZATION OF MEXICANS JUMPS 50% in 2007

Posted on July 12, 2008
It's believe hard to believe this will NOT have an impact on the 2008 elections.

DEBATE OVER MCCAIN'S ELIGIBILITY TO BECOME PRESIDENT CONTINUES

Posted on July 12, 2008
For the record, I think John McCain's birth abroad does not disqualify him from being President. But the arguments raised in this article in the NY TImes are interesting.

CLEVELAND, OHIO: WE WANT SMART, ENTREPRENURIAL IMMIGRANTS

Posted on July 12, 2008
Civic leaders in Ohio's largest metro area have started an initiative to attract foreign students, workers and entrepreneurs. Why? Because they help drive the job creation engine that the region is trying to bolster. The Talent Blueprint Project is not the only initiative around the country with a mission of this sort...

$1.7 TRILLION...

Posted on July 12, 2008
...and a loss of 8.1 million jobs for US workers. That's how much consumer spending would decline and the number jobs that would be lost if the antis got their way and all illegally present immigrants suddenly were gone, according to a study by the Perryman Group, a Texas-based economic and financial analysis firm.

IMMIGRANT OF THE DAY: RODOLFO ACEVEDO - ARCHITECT

Posted on July 12, 2008
Argentine-born Rodolfo Acevedo started out 18 years ago in America as a busboy. Today, he's a partner at JMWA Architects in Boca Raton, Florida and he's been tapped by USCIS to redesign drab, unwelcoming USCIS offices in South Florida. Will friendlier-looking offices translate in to friendlier USCIS officers? We'll see...

VACATION TIME/GUEST BLOGGING

Posted on July 12, 2008
I'm going to be taking my annual vacation starting Monday. Last year I had to skip it because we were in the middle of VisaGate and our firm was filing green card applications like crazy during the window that opened up for our employment-based applicants...

WHEN PEOPLE GET CREATIVE

Posted on July 12, 2008
What happens when business groups, unions, workers, government officials, pro-immigration advocates and immigration restrictionist groups all put their heads together to craft a solution to a problem? Just look to Colorado. I'm talking about an initiative in that state to make it easier for farmers to work through the incredibly difficult H-2A visa process for foreign agricultural workers...

PENDULUM SWINGS THE OTHER WAY IN ARIZONA

Posted on July 12, 2008
Arizona was one of the first states to pass a major employer sanctions immigration bill and nearly two dozen other states have followed suit. As workers have fled the state and employers are starting to re-evaluate whether it is worth doing business there, some are giving serious thought to trying to reverse course...

NEW CHERTOFF BLOG ADDRESSES WORKSITE ENFORCEMENT

Posted on July 11, 2008
Here's the link . And here's Chertoff's post. There's some interesting data on the pickup in work site enforcement. Myth vs. Fact: Worksite Enforcement Opponents of immigration enforcement continue to propagate mythical objections to the Department's enforcement efforts...

BORDER PATROL CHECKING TRAINS AND BUSES

Posted on July 11, 2008
Here's an interesting blog post with an account of how the US Border Patrol is more aggressively checking buses and trains in the US, particularly near the border with Canada. The embedded video is also interesting. Caught in Transit: The Rochester Border Patrol Station from Newshouse on Vimeo.

IMMIGRANT OF THE DAY: ERIC CAMAYD-FREIXAS - LANGUAGE PROFESSOR

Posted on July 11, 2008
If you haven't read the great article in today's New York Times about Professor Eric Camayd-Freixas' bravely coming forward with his account of the Postville meat processing plant raid (see my post below), make sure you check it out. There's also a video of the professor's interview with the Times posted with the article...

TRANSLATOR BLOWS THE WHISTLE ON POSTVILLE TRAVESTY

Posted on July 11, 2008
The New York Times has a major story this morning regarding the recent raid of the meat processing plant in Postville, Iowa. Nearly 400 illegally present workers were criminally prosecuted as a result of their work at the plant. The Times interviewed translator Eric Camayd-Freixas after the Florida International University professor circulated a 14 page essay describing his experience working at the trials of the workers...

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