Dear Readers:

This week my law partner Lynn Susser and I will join our American Immigration Lawyers Association colleagues from around the country to go to Capitol Hill and advocate on behalf of immigration to America. There are a lot of important issues on the agenda this year. Among the important ones will certainly be:

-         President Bush’s immigration proposal

-         The DREAM Act

-         Problems with religious worker applications

-         Health care immigration problems

-         The H-1B and H-2B caps

-         Continuing service problems at USCIS

Of course there are many more issues on our minds. As immigration lawyers, we’re often in a better position to spot problems with the status quo and are able to see the bigger picture when it comes to the shortcomings of our immigration system. And since we usually represent a broad spectrum of the immigrant public, we can address the broad range of issues affecting this population. We look forward to seeing fellow immigration lawyers in DC.

This week we also are running an updated version of our ABCs of Immigration article on health-related grounds of inadmissibility to cover recent USCIS pronouncements on drunk driving, alcoholism and this particular admissibility issue.

We also cover a new report from Carnegie Mellon University warning that limiting access to foreign knowledge workers right now could come back to haunt the US if Europe takes advantage of the situation and becomes the destination of choice for the world’s brightest young professionals.  The report, of course, raises a notion that is really just common sense. In a globally competitive world, the US can only maintain its lead by either producing the most talented people or bringing them in from abroad. Right now we’re jeopardizing both by diverting resources from our educational system and also making it tougher for employers and universities to recruit foreign talent.

In firm news, my partner Lynn Susser has been assisting with the immigration aspects of a very controversial child custody case here in Memphis that is now being covered by the national media. You can read more about the case in a USA Today quoting Lynn at http://www.visalaw.com/news/susserusatoday_22feb04. The case is also covered in this morning’s New York Times at www.nytimes.com.

Finally, as always, we remind readers that we're lawyers who make our living representing immigration clients and employers seeking to comply with immigration laws. 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