Dear Readers:

If the immigration reform debate were a football game, last week would probably be considered the kickoff. The Senate Immigration Subcommittee held hearings that included a number of well known witnesses. On the pro-immigration side, Alan Greenspan, the former Chairman of the Federal Reserve testified on how critical immigrants are to the future of the country. He especially highlighted the need for more H-1B workers in the years to come. Also testifying in favor of immigration reform was Doris Meissner, the former INS Commissioner.

The Republican Party’s ranking member on the committee- Senator Jon Cornyn of Texas, didn’t do much to help restore his party’s image with Hispanic voters by inviting the anti-immigrant law professor Kris Kobach who has crafted much of the anti-immigration legislation being passed around the country. After the Arlen Specter defection last week and the shellacking Republicans took in the election last year (mostly due to a dramatic shift in Hispanic voters to the Democratic Party), one is left to wonder whether the GOP is learning the lesson of the 2008 race or not.

The other big immigration news this week was the release of a press statement that the Obama Administration is shifting its immigration enforcement emphasis. It will move away from work site raids largely targeting illegally present immigrant workers to more civil and criminal actions against employers. But the White House is warning that workers will still be arrested. This could very well signal that the Bush Administration’s Social Security no-match rule and the E-Verify contractor rule – both tied up in the courts – could be supported by the new President. 

Finally, a number of extreme right wing pundits and news sites have been pounding the drum blaming immigrants for the Swine Flu epidemic spreading around the planet. The evidence is, of course, that Americans traveling in Mexico brought back the virus. But it is a reminder that anti-immigrants will blame just about every problem in the world on the immigrant. I’ll put this in the same vein as stories put out recently by one anti-immigrant group that global warming was a consequence of illegal immigration. Amazing! 

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President Obama finally named a new Director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services. He is Alejandro Mayorkas, a Cuban immigrant who most recently hails from Los Angeles, California. He’s been a litigator at the large O’Melveny and Myers law firm and prior to that served as a US Attorney in Central California. Good luck, Mr. Mayorkas. 

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In firm news, Elaine Witty, an attorney in our Memphis office, has just returned from speaking at the American Immigration Lawyers Association’s Overseas Chapter meeting which was held in Tel Aviv, Israel.  

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Finally, as always, we welcome your feedback. If you are interested in becoming a Siskind Susser client, please call our office at 901-682-6455 and request a consultation. We are a national immigration law firm and work on a broad range of immigration matters for clients locating across the country.

Kind regards,