Dear Readers:

Our winter hiatus is over and we’re glad to be back. When last we left you, we reported on the passage of the harsh bill H.R. 4337 passed by the US House of Representatives. The Senate will come back into session from its winter recess this week and the House comes back at the end of the month. The Senate is expected to take up immigration legislation almost immediately and word is that Senator Specter and other immigration moderates will seek to pass a bill with guest worker provisions. If that happens, the House and Senate will have to negotiate a compromise bill. Expect a huge battle over the final language. It is very possible no compromise will be reached and a bill will not be passed at all.

One change in congressional dynamics that could affect the outcome is the sudden shakeup in the leadership of the House of Representatives. Representative Tom DeLay announced last week that he is giving up his position as Republican Majority leader. While DeLay is certainly not known for being particularly pro-immigration, his nickname “The Hammer” was earned for a reason and he certainly had the power to twist arms and deliver votes for the President.

Just prior to press time, Missouri Representative Roy Blunt announced that he had secured enough votes to take over as the next Majority Leader. Who is Roy Blunt? He has been in Congress for nine years and has risen through the Republican ranks and is now the Majority Whip, a position DeLay previously held. As far as his immigration record, he normally votes to toughen immigration enforcement (for example, he voted for H.R. 4337, the bill noted above) but he has voted in the past for more H-1B numbers and in favor of Section 245(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. His main opponent, Ohio Representative John Boehner, on the other hand, voted against H.R. 4337, one of the few Republicans to break ranks and vote pro-immigration.

The key, of course, is how Blunt will deal with Majority Leader Frist and the White House. If the White House and the Senate push for a guest worker program, will Blunt push back and defy the other leaders of his party?

*****

US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced this week that it is preparing to dramatically alter the way it processes benefits applications. According to USCIS, they will be moving from “an outdated, paper-driven system to one where customers create on-line accounts.” Individuals, employers and attorneys will set up web accounts and provide information that can be linked to all of their applications. The accounts will resemble in many respects the PERM online system used by the US Department of Labor in green card petitions. USCIS will collect more information on the front end than it does in the current system, but, according to the agency, it will eliminate redundancy because customers will not have to give the same information repeatedly.

USCIS has posted proposed account registration forms as well as sample forms for H-1B filing at http://uscis.gov/graphics/lawsregs/whatsnew.htm . Comments are being accepted until February 13, 2006. Instructions for sending comments are included in the Federal Register notice linked on the web site noted above.

http://www.abanet.org/abastore/index.cfm?section=Main&fm=Product.AddToCart&pid=5110500

*****

The big news in Washington this week has been the confirmation hearings of Judge Samuel Alito to assume the seat of retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Judge Alito’s record on many issues has been closely analyzed since he was nominated including immigration. The reviews are mixed. An analysis of Judge Alito’s immigration opinions published by professors from Yale Law School had this view:

“While other appellate courts recently have criticized the Board of

Immigration Appeals’ (BIA) failure to make reasonable decisions regarding the

deportation or asylum claims of immigrants, Judge Alito was prepared to uphold the

BIA’s decision to deport immigrants in seven of eight deportation decisions reviewed and

to uphold the BIA’s decision in seven of nine asylum cases.”

But others come to Alito’s defense. Pepperdine Law Professor Roger Alford criticizes the Yale report’s conclusion:

“A comparison with other federal appellate judges reveals that Judge Alito is 44 percent more likely to reverse the BIA than the typical federal appellate judge. Judge Alito has affirmed the BIA in seven of eight deportation decisions, and affirmed the BIA in seven of nine asylum cases. That's a reversal rate of 3 out of 17 cases, or 18 percent. That may sound harsh to the folks who wrote the Alito Project. But it is not. According to an article in the New York Times today, the government wins more than 90 percent of immigration cases in federal appeals courts. So while the average federal appeals judge will reverse no more than 10 out of 100 immigration cases, Judge Alito would on average reverse 18 out of 100 immigration cases, or 44 percent more cases than the typical appellate judge.”

Immigration did come up during the hearings, but not in the enforcement context.  New York Senator Chuck Schumer asked Judge Alito about whether a baby born in the US to undocumented parents has a constitutional right to citizenship. Alito refused to answer the question saying it would be inappropriate since the question may come before him on the Supreme Court.

*****

In firm news, my law partner David Jones and I have just returned from our annual pilgrimage to the Consumer Electronics Show. We’re at work now on our annual articles on our show visit for publications distributed by the American Bar Association and the American Immigration Lawyers Association. This is always a fun article to write and we were overwhelmed, as we always are at CES, by the incredible gadgetry.

This week I was named for the third year straight as one of the 150 best lawyers in Tennessee by Business Tennessee Magazine (see www.visalaw.com/news/). Congratulations to my friend Linda Rose who was the only other immigration lawyer to make the list. 

*****

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