Dear Readers:  

This week we got a taste of the debate that will take place this spring as Congress considers immigration reform legislation. The Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony from Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff and Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez. The two promoted the concept of comprehensive immigration reform (CIR), though it now appears that the Administration may be backtracking a bit in terms of whether they will push for immigrants to be put on a path to citizenship or not. Chertoff noted that only a third of legalization beneficiaries from the 80s went on to become citizens. The White House has not commented on whether their earlier endorsement of the concept of a path to citizenship may be fading. We are publishing Chertoff’s and Gutierrez’s statements in this week’s issue.  

We have also now heard that the Senate will begin marking up the CIR bill on March 19^th and will schedule floor debates to begin in the second week of April.  

Nolan Rappaport, who served as the Democrats’ chief lawyer on the Immigration Subcommittee while the party was in the minority, has co-written with me a proposal for a transition “pre-registration” program to precede the massive legalization program that will likely be included in the immigration bill. We debut that proposal in this week’s issue and hope it generates discussion on Capitol Hill as the immigration bill is shaped.  

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In firm news, we are hosting an organizational meeting today for a new business immigration coalition in Tennessee , our headquarters state. The new organization will include representation from many of the major trade associations in the state as well as individual companies. The new organization is the subject of an article in this week’s Memphis Business Journal - http://memphis.bizjournals.com/memphis/stories/2007/03/05/story9.html?t=printable.

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Finally, as always, if you are interested in becoming a Siskind Susser Bland client, please feel welcome to email me at gsiskind@visalaw.com or contact us at 800-748-3819 to arrange for a telephone or in person consultation with one of our lawyers.

Kind regards,

Greg Siskind

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