Dear Readers:

It has been an eventful last week at our firm. First and foremost, many of you readers who are lawyers and are one of the 400,000 or so members of the American Bar Association may have received your November issue of the ABA Journal. If you look at the cover, you'll find a picture of me in a rather unusual pose. We've linked the photo of the cover on our In the News page at www.visalaw.com/news.

The Wal-Mart raids were big news last week. Some may say that the government made a bold move targeting America's largest company for allowing undocumented contract cleaning workers to work in their stores. Others are left questioning whether the USICE is incredibly naive. Wal-Mart probably has more money than the federal government and the law is likely to be on their side.  The government is going to need to prove that the company knew that its contractors were bringing in undocumented workers and that Wal-Mart knowingly entered into contracts with such companies. I personally find it hard to believe Wal-Mart would have been foolish enough to do business in such a manner.

I also spent a part of last week on Capitol Hill lobbying on behalf of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. HIAS, the nation's oldest refugee agency, has a lot of respect in Washington, and I always look forward to going to DC to meet with Congressional offices to discuss issues important to the agency. This time, as a board member of HIAS, I led a group of young professionals who are future leaders of the organization. It was also rewarding working with these folks - many immigrants themselves - in their first foray into grassroots advocacy. We worked on three issues:

1. Making sure that the 70,000 refugee slots called for by President Bush for this fiscal year actually get used. Last year, only 28,000 slots were used, a major embarrassment for a country that claims leadership in this area. We asked members of Congress to sign a letter urging the Department of Homeland Security to make sure that all slots get used. You can find more information on this in the story on refugee admissions later in this issue.

2. Urging members of Congress to help Iranians who are religious minorities (Jews, Christians, Bahais, etc.) and are stuck in Vienna because their refugee applications have been denied. Specifically, we requested they sign a letter calling on the Department of Homeland Security to issue parole status to these deserving applicants. Actually, the bigger question which remains unanswered is how the US can credibly condemn Iran for its gross human rights abuses involving religious minorities and then deny refugee cases for 75% of the members of these groups by saying that the fears they claim are not real?

3. Urging members of Congress to support the DREAM Act's passage in the Senate and the corresponding Student Adjustment Act in the House. This legislation would help legalize the status of tens of thousands of children and young adults in the US who have been here for several years, have good moral character and who have graduated high school. We were actually on Capitol Hill when the Senate was debating the bill and we report this week on the results of a key vote in the Judiciary Committee.

I also wanted to take the time to offer my sincere thanks to Mick Wright, our Communications Manager here at Siskind Susser. Mick is the one who manages our web site and our publications. He not only makes sure that this newsletter gets posted each week, he has done a lot of the writing as well. Mick is leaving our firm next week to pursue a position with Youth Villages, a wonderful non-profit organization here in Memphis that helps thousands of troubled kids find long-term success. The organization's web site can be found at http://www.youthvillages.org/ and is certainly worth considering if you are looking for a worthy organization to send a donation. We'll certainly miss Mick a lot, but know that his talents will help a lot of people in his new position. Good luck Mick!

While Mick is leaving, we are also pleased to announce the arrival of Paola Palazzolo. Paola is an Italian/Israeli attorney who has come to our firm for training in the US legal system. She's going to be working on a number of projects that will give her a flavor for how the US immigration system works. She also will be helping on our various publications. Welcome Paola!

Finally, as always, we remind readers that we're lawyers who make our living representing immigration clients. We would love to discuss becoming your law firm. Just go to http://www.visalaw.com/intake.html to request an appointment or call us at 800-748-3819 or 901-682-6455.

Regards,

Greg Siskind