Immigration Law

IMMIGRANT OF THE DAY: CHRISTOPH WALTZ - ACTOR

Posted on March 07, 2010
Congratulations to Austrian-born actor Christoph Waltz who has won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Inglourious Basterds. Waltz is soon going to be in two very anticipated movies - The Green Hornet based on the comic book hero and Water For Elephants, based on the bestselling novel.

IMMIGRANT OF THE DAY: MAURO FIORE - CINEMATOGRAPHER

Posted on March 07, 2010
Congratulations to Italian-born Mauro Fiore who won an Academy Award for his work as a cinematographer in the film Avatar. Fiore thanked his parents for making the decision to immigrate to the US with him. And movie lovers can thank them as well.

IMMIGRANT OF THE DAY: PAUL N.J. OTTOSSON - SOUND EDITOR

Posted on March 07, 2010
Congratulations to Swedish-born Paul N.J. Ottosson who won two Academy Awards this evening for Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing for The Hurt Locker. Ottosson came on a tourist visa in the 80s with some friends to try and make it as a rock musician...

THE WAIT

Posted on March 07, 2010
People often ask me how long they'll have to wait on their green card when they're stuck in backlogs. I don't have a clear answer because a lot depends on the future demand for visas. The State Department has made statistics available, however, that will at least give an idea of what the backlogs look like based on nationality.

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WHITE HOUSE WANTS TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR DETENTION ABUSES, BUT NOT TOO MUCH

Posted on March 05, 2010
The New York Times' Nina Bernstein reports on gross abuses of immigrants in the detention system and how the Administration would like to make reforms to better protect detained individuals. But just as it is trying to clean up the mess, the White House is trying to wash its hands of responsibility in two of the worst cases.

START ME UP

Posted on March 03, 2010
Here's a link to a new blog about the startup visa proposal starting to circulate in DC. There's an innovative Twitter campaign associated with the site.

IMMIGRANT OF THE DAY: AVICHAL GARGA - ENTREPRENEUR

Posted on March 03, 2010
Indian-born Avichal Garga is a former Google employee who left to co-found PrepMe.com. The company describes its services as follows: PrepMe is a premium test preparation company dedicated to bringing high-quality, personalized test preparation to students across the world at an affordable price...

IMMIGRANT OF THE DAY: FOTIOS PAPADIMITRAKOPOULOS - SCIENTIST

Posted on February 28, 2010
Popular Science Magazine writes this month about amazing research going on in the lab of Greek-born Professor Fotios Papadimitrakopoulos. Professor Papadimitrakopoulos and his University of Connecticut colleagues have developed a sensor the size of a grain of rice that is injected in to the skin and senses a diabetic person's glucose level...

IMMIGRANT OF THE DAY: JEFFREY KOFMAN - JOURNALIST

Posted on February 28, 2010
Canadian-born Jeffrey Kofman is ABC News' Miami-based correspondent covering Florida, Latin America and the Caribbean. He recently was sworn in as a US Citizen and gave words of advice to his fellow new Americans at his naturalization ceremony.

CHAVEZ MAKES THE CONSERVATIVE CASE FOR BEING PRO-IMMIGRATION

Posted on February 28, 2010
Former Reagan Cabinet Secretary Linda Chavez has some common sense advice for her fellow right wingers: Immigration reform legislation is probably dead this year -- which, no doubt, pleases some conservatives. But the issue isn't going away. And if conservatives hope to become the dominant force in American politics, we need to figure out a way to resolve the problem without alienating the country's fastest growing demographic, Hispanics.

ANTIS RELEASE POLL SHOWING IMMIGRANTS ARE REALLY ANTI-IMMIGRANT

Posted on February 28, 2010
Hilarious.

TEXAS REPUBLICANS SHOULD BE NATURAL REPUBLICANS...

Posted on February 25, 2010
... but they're not. It's hard to love a party that treats you like a scourge. The Dallas Morning News reports on a recent poll showing Texas Hispanics have more conservative views than the general population but will still vote Democratic because of the anti-Hispanic rhetoric coming from the GOP.

IMMIGRANT OF THE DAY: DAVID FEHERTY - GOLF ANALYST

Posted on February 25, 2010
Northern Ireland native David Feherty, a gold analyst for CBS Sports, became a citizen this week. Feherty credited a recent trip to visit US soldiers in Baghdad with moving him enough to want to become an American. Feherty is the author of five books and writes a regular column for Golf Magazine.

IMMIGRANTS' LIST SCORES HOUSE MEMBERS

Posted on February 25, 2010
Pro-immigrant PAC Immigrants' List has taken a lesson from the anti-immigration groups and scored House of Representatives members on their immigration positions.

NEW REPORT SHOWS E-VERIFY STILL HIGHLY INACCURATE

Posted on February 25, 2010
A new Westat report (commissioned by DHS) shows that identity theft presents a major gap in E-Verify's ability to identify illegally present immigrants. The report also shows E-Verify still only has a 93% accuracy rate for legal workers. And until the program is much more accurate and Congress gives adequate protections to workers objecting to an E-Verify non-confirmation, the program's expansion should not be promoted.

DHS' WAR ON STAFFING COMPANIES APPARENTLY DOESN'T INCLUDE DHS

Posted on February 25, 2010
Those of you who follow H-1B developments know that a memo issued last month essentially tries to bar H-1B use when the employer places the worker at a third party site. The aim was to target IT staffing companies in an attempt to deflect criticism from Senator Chuck Grassley...

BIPARTISAN INVESTOR VISA BILL INTRODUCED

Posted on February 25, 2010
Senators Richard Lugar (R-IN) and John Kerry (D-MA) have introduced the StartUp Visa Act of 2010. According to Senator Lugar's office: Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today introduced legislation to drive job creation and increase America?s global competiveness by helping immigrant entrepreneurs secure visas to the United States...

IMMIGRANT OF THE DAY: MARION PRINGLE - NEW CITIZEN

Posted on February 25, 2010
The Oregonian newspaper in Portland reports on Marion Pringle who became a citizen at the age of 104 this week. Pringle moved as a young girl and has been a resident of the US for nearly a century. Her tep-mother Eva Cline was a famous painter at the turn of the century...

IMMIGRANT OF THE DAY: K.R. SRIDHAR - ENERGY ENTREPRENEUR

Posted on February 24, 2010
Indian-born K.R. Sridhar is the Chief Executive Officer of Bloom Energy. The company is in the news today for introducing the Bloom Box, a small energy "server" that promises to revolutionize energy production. According to CNET: At the heart of the box is the Bloom fuel cell, shown here...

SCHWARZEGGER: NEVER THE PERFECT TIME FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM

Posted on February 24, 2010
The Governator makes a good case for doing immigration reform this year. Go to about 6:35 in the interview with Greta Van Susteren to hear his comments on the subject.

MORE ON THE GOP IMMIGRATION CIVIL WAR

Posted on February 23, 2010
Add CQ Politics to the list of news organizations writing about the growing schism in the Republican Party over immigration issues. CQ was reporting from the CPAC conference in DC for the nation's political conservatives. It appears that there are really three camps in the GOP: - a pro-immigration wing whose members worry that conservatives will remain permanently in the minority - a "law and order" camp that claims to be pro-immigration but merely against illegal immigration - an anti-immigrant wing that is against immigration of any sort GOP leaders want to pretend like the last group doesn't exist and...

IMMIGANT OF THE DAY: SHAKIRA - SINGER

Posted on February 23, 2010
Colombian-born Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, better known simply as superstar singer Shakira, met with President Obama at the White House today and urged the President to approve comprehensive immigration reform legislation. According to Foreign Policy Magazine: ...

AND YET FURTHER EVIDENCE GOP'S ANTI-IMMIGRATION VIEWS CAUSING ELECTORAL PROBLEMS

Posted on February 23, 2010
The Orange County Register has an interesting piece reporting on the dramatic decline in fortunes for the Republican Party in affluent Orange County, California. Once a solid GOP bedrock in California, a growing immigration voting population in the county has significantly helped Democrats...

REPUBLICANS CONTINUE TO SPREAD THE WORD THAT THEY'RE LATINO FRIENDLY

Posted on February 22, 2010
Now the Wall Street Journal picks up the theme. Words are nice. But if you can't control the vitriol coming from the Tea Party wing and actually work with Dems on immigration reform, you're not going to reverse the damage. In short, conservative Hispanics still perceive the GOP as anti-them...

THE WAY OF THE WHIGS

Posted on February 20, 2010
My law school roommate and long time friend Henry Olsen is the vice president of the conservative think tank the American Enterprise Institute. He's written an essay for the National Review entitled "The Way of the Whigs" and it talks about the danger the GOP faces in terms of long term survival...

BILL INTRODUCED TO EXTEND E-VERIFY TO MORTGAGE APPLICANTS

Posted on February 20, 2010
Ah, the magical E-Verify solution. If we just required it for everything from getting a job to applying for any kind of government benefit and now qualifying for a mortgage, all would be right with America. In the mean time, innocent Americans are still getting caught in non-confirmation hell...

TEXANS TEND TO FAVOR IMMIGRATION REFORM

Posted on February 17, 2010
From the Houston Chronicle: More Texas voters think unauthorized immigrants should be allowed to stay in the United States ? through either a path to citizenship or work visas ? than favor deporting them, according to a new Houston Chronicle/San Antonio Express-News poll...

THE CONSEQUENCES OF INACTION

Posted on February 17, 2010
Lest Democrats think they're playing it safe if they push immigration off until the future.

CONSERVATIVES GEARING UP FOR CIVIL WAR OVER IMMIGRATION

Posted on February 17, 2010
Pro-immigration advocates can come from the conservative movement just as they can come from the liberal camp. And just as there is an internal battle on the left (labor protectionists often seize on anti-immigration positions), there is also a battle on the right between the pro-business, small government advocates and the xenophobic America first crowd who usually couch their arguments in terms of law and order (though if you dig a little, you'll find that these folks are usually against liberalizing rules to make legal immigration easier)...

SHERIFF JOE TO BE PUNISHED FOR ILLEGAL DESTRUCTION OF RECORDS

Posted on February 15, 2010
Our favorite defender of law and order is being sanctioned by a judge for lawbreaking. Should we exile him? I guess some lawbreakers are more equal than others.

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