Dear Readers:

As of press time, Congress is poised to pass the border fence legislation we discussed last week. The legislation is, in this observer’s opinion, an embarrassment for this Congress. The legislative year began with an ambitious effort to overhaul the immigration system and finally get a handle on the nation’s immigration problems. The Congress was close at one point to passing a bill that would have created a strong enforcement system, regularized the immigration status of millions of undocumented workers who are not going anywhere, ended ridiculously long backlogs in family immigration categories and created a workable guest worker program to provide employers a legal way to bring in needed workers. Instead, all Congress was able to pass was a relatively modest bill to add several hundred miles of border fencing. No one seriously believes the legislation will seriously change the status quo.  

But as we head into the final month before the November election, many are starting to believe that we’ll have a much different Congress after the polls close. The chances of the Democrats taking over the virulently anti-immigrant House subcommittee appear to be growing. Even if they lose, Congressman Hostettler is facing one of the tightest elections in the country so there may very well be a new chair of the committee. The Senate could also change party control. While there are many Democrats who are not exactly ardently pro-immigration, the party is, overall, far more sympathetic on comprehensive immigration reform measures, particularly bills to create a path to citizenship for the undocumented.  

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In firm news, this week I attended annual meeting of the International Bar Association in Chicago , Illinois . I moderated a panel on treaty and nationality-based immigration law that included lawyers from eight other countries. One of those lawyers was Sergio Karas of Toronto . Sergio is the Canadian lawyer in Visalaw International, the global immigration lawyers alliance. Our firm represents the US in the alliance.  

Sergio also deserves congratulations for being selected as the new chair of the Immigration Committee of the International Bar Association. Well done, Sergio.  

This past week I also moderated a national telephone seminar on E-1 and E-2 visas conducted by ILW.com. This was the second in a series of three seminars I am moderating on investment visa categories for ILW.  

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Finally, as always, we remind readers that they are welcome to contact us to set up consultations via telephone or in person. Just call us at 901-682-6455 to set that up. Also feel free to contact me at gsiskind@visalaw.com.  

Kind regards,  

Greg Siskind