Immigration Law

E-Verify is Not a Solution

Posted on March 07, 2011
Texas immigration attorney Mark Murov has a good article about the E-Verify system in his latest newsletter. His conclusion is that this is not a workable solution to our immigration problems. Here are excerpts from Mr. Murov's article: Although the government claims that E-Verify, its electronic employment authorization program, is free, most companies which have been forced to use it (due to Federal Contracts and State laws) have found it necessary to utilize vendor programs, and to pay setup costs and ongoing service fees...

Government Spends $12,500 for Each Person Deported from U.S.

Posted on January 28, 2011
Yesterday, immigration and Customs Enforcement deputy director Kumar Kibble told a House subcommittee hearing that it costs approximately $12,500 to arrest, detain, and deport each person removed from the United States. This is only one of several reasons that most immigration lawyers believe deportation of illegal immigrants is not a workable solution to our current immigration problems...

Salvadoran Consulate in Dallas Speeds Up Services

Posted on January 17, 2011
The Salvadoran Consulate in Dallas is working hard to process applications faster. This was reported in a recent article in the Dallas Morning News. Here are excerpts from the article: The last time Héctor Guatemala and Araceli Jiménez came to the Salvadoran Consulate in Dallas to request passports, they arrived at 8 a...

New, More Republican Congress Will Shift Immigration Debate to Stricter Enforcement

Posted on December 30, 2010
The incoming 2011 Congress will have a Republican majority, and the Associated Press believes (and I agree) that any immigration discussions will be focused more on border security and automatic birthright citizenship than on comprehensive immigration reform...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

2.3 Million Americans Reentered U.S. Without Proper Documents

Posted on December 28, 2010
A rather alarming report, detailed in the Los Angeles Times, shows that new travel restrictions requiring passports for American citizens to reenter the country are not being enforced. These are American citizens, so perhaps we should not get too excited about the report, but it still makes you wonder about travel enforcement in general...

Dallas County Will Resume Accepting Mexican ID Cards for Auto Transactions

Posted on December 09, 2010
In a policy change that may stir some debate, the Dallas County tax assessor-collector John Ames, has announced that his office will resume accepting identification cards issued to Mexican citizens for motor vehicle transactions such as registrations and title transfers...

USCIS Introduces New Fee Waiver Form

Posted on November 23, 2010
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has introduced a new fee waiver form, effective today. The form is supposed to make fee waiver requests simpler and less confusing. This is especially important since immigration fees have risen so dramatically in the past few years...

Editorial: Flawed, Divisive Immigration Bills

Posted on November 15, 2010
The Dallas Morning News ran an excellent editorial today about some of the proposed new immigration legislation in Austin. This is important enough to reprint in full: Picture a Texas where city police officers become foot soldiers in a push to corral and deport people who are in the country illegally...

Editorial: Latinos Still Can - And Should - Beat Vote Projections

Posted on October 11, 2010
The Dallas Morning News ran an excellent short editorial today encouraging Latinos to vote in the coming election. Historically, Latinos vote in smaller percentages than other ethnic groups. There may be cultural reasons for this, but the failure to vote hurts Latino causes -— whether that is immigration reform or economic recovery...

Texans Favor Illegal Immigration Crackdown - Up to a Point

Posted on October 04, 2010
The results of a poll of Texans conducted recently by the Dallas Morning News show that a majority favor a crackdown of some sort on illegal immigration, similar to what Arizona is trying to do. But the anti-immigration fervor in Texas doesn't appear to be as strong as in some other states...

Colin Powell Clarifies Comments About Illegal Immigrants

Posted on September 20, 2010
General Colin Powell has clarified a rather startling remark he made Sunday morning on Meet The Press. He was talking about the need for a path to legal status for those in this country without authorization. His original statement was "They're all over my house, doing things whenever I call for repairs, and I'm sure you've seen them at your house...

Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down Hazleton's Immigration Ordinances

Posted on September 13, 2010
Many of us in the Dallas area are closely following the Hazleton, Pennsylvania saga regarding that town's ordinances aimed at keeping illegal immigrants away. We do this because a local suburb, Farmers Branch, is doing essentially the same thing. Neither city is having much luck, as they keep getting shot down by the federal courts...

Editorial: Don't Be Fooled By Immigration Decline

Posted on September 09, 2010
I wrote earlier this week about a Pew report indicating a decline in illegal immigration from Mexico. But the Dallas Morning News warns that the problem is not yet solved, and will not be solved until our elected representatives find the courage to debate and pass comprehensive immigration reform...

Study: Illegal immigration from Mexico declines overall, but not in Texas

Posted on September 07, 2010
 A new study by the Pew Hispanic Center says illegal entries from Mexico are declining and the total illegal immigrant population is down by about one million, but not in Texas, which has actually seen a slight increase. A map of unauthorized immigrants state-by-state is also part of the Pew report...

Immigrant Students Spared As Deportations Rise

Posted on August 23, 2010
A recent article in the Dallas Morning News discussed the relatively "hands-off" deportation policy regarding students who are in the country illegally, but only because their parents brought them here as young children. In other words, these students did not choose to break the law and enter the U...

Ruben Navarrette Jr: GOP Finds New Way to Enrage Latinos

Posted on August 12, 2010
I don't always agree with newspaper columnist Ruben Navarrette, Jr. but his most recent column, regarding talk of altering the 14th  Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, seems so completely correct that I'm going to take the liberty of reprinting almost all of it here...

Immigration Policy Aims to Help Military Families

Posted on August 02, 2010
The Obama administration has tried to make it easier for illegal immigrant spouses and family members of military personnel to get legal immigration status. The policy changes were reported in the New York Times. Here are excerpts: The new policy was described in an internal memorandum from Citizenship and Immigration Services that was released last week by Senator Charles E...

Humane Tweak to Immigration Enforcement

Posted on July 14, 2010
 The Dallas Morning News has an excellent editorial today about a new approach to immigration "raids" at employers: Any new approach to immigration enforcement almost certainly will raise someone's hackles, and the Obama administration's latest innovation, known as "silent raids," is no exception...

At Least $800 Million Spent for 53-Mile Border Fence

Posted on July 06, 2010
The Associated Press reports that taxpayers have spent at least $15.1 million per mile for 53 miles of "virtual fence" built to secure the U.S. and Mexico border, more than 12 times the original estimate. Here are excerpts from the article: The federal government set aside $833 million for the fence of cameras, sensors and other barriers in 2007, and the vast majority of that money, at least $800 million, has been spent on a sliver, in Arizona, of the nearly 2,000-mile southern border...

Calling Immigration System 'Broken,' Obama Pushes Bill

Posted on July 01, 2010
President Obama gave a speech today calling the current immigration system "broken" and urging passage of comprehensive immigration reform. For an excellent summary of the speech, and of the issues surrounding the immigration debate, please read the article in the New York Times...

Common Sense Needed in Immigration Cases

Posted on June 28, 2010
The Dallas Morning News has an excellent editorial today pointing out the inequities in our current immigration system, particularly deportation. Few people would object to the deportation of criminals or of those who knowingly came here illegally as adults and made no effort to work within the system...

ICE Detains Fewer Suspected Illegal Immigrants from Irving Jail

Posted on June 15, 2010
As reported by the Dallas Morning News, federal immigration agents since October have cut back by about 50% the number of suspected illegal immigrants removed from the Irving city jail. The city of Irving began running citizenship checks in 2006 on all people arrested by Irving police...

Edward Schumacher-Matos: Why We Need the Dream Act

Posted on June 09, 2010
This opinion piece in the Dallas Morning News is by Edward Schumacher-Matos, the Robert F. Kennedy Visiting Professor for Latin American Studies at Harvard University.  Of all the political fights over immigration, the one that makes the least sense concerns children who came here illegally with their parents and then graduated from American high schools...

Obama to Send 1,200 Guard Troops to Mexico Border

Posted on May 25, 2010
President Obama will send up to 1,200 National Guard troops to the Southwest border and increase spending on law enforcement, yielding to demands from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers there that border security be tightened, administration officials said...

Visas for Illegal Immigrant Crime Victims Debated

Posted on May 24, 2010
Two little-known types of immigrant visas are the T and the U visas. The T visa is for people innocently involved in human trafficking, and the U visa is for victims of crime. The U visa's basic purpose is to make it easier for police to prosecute those who commit violence...

So You Want to Be an American: 5 Circles of Immigration Hell

Posted on May 17, 2010
There is a wonderful, humorous article about an Australian's frustrating passage through the immigration process at Cracked.com. Caution: the article contains some strong language. 

Five Deal-Breakers in Arizona's New Immigration Law

Posted on April 28, 2010
 Miami Herald columnist Andres Oppenheimer has an interesting take on the new anti-immigrant bill passed in Arizona. Here are excerpts from his column:  Now that Arizona has enacted the most xenophobic anti-immigration law in this country, get ready for the big Hispanic exodus...

Does Farmers Branch Have Their Spending Priorities Straight?

Posted on April 26, 2010
The Dallas suburb of Farmers Branch has been in the news for a couple of years now because of its efforts to run undocumented immigrants out of the city.  The city leaders have attempted to do this by passing ordinances making it illegal to rent apartments or houses to such immigrants...

Supreme Court Decision Protects Right to Immigration Advice

Posted on April 01, 2010
This press release was issued today by theAmerican Immigration Council: The American Immigration Council applauds today's Supreme Court decision on the right to counsel for noncitizens charged with committing a crime. The Court held that criminal defense lawyers must advise their noncitizen clients about the risk of deportation if they accept a guilty plea...

Supreme Court Decision Protects Right to Immigration Advice

Posted on March 31, 2010
This press release was issued today by theAmerican Immigration Council: The American Immigration Council applauds today's Supreme Court decision on the right to counsel for noncitizens charged with committing a crime. The Court held that criminal defense lawyers must advise their noncitizen clients about the risk of deportation if they accept a guilty plea...

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.