1.     Openers

Dear Readers:

I hope you all had an enjoyable Labor Day weekend. While most of us are returning from three days out of the office, Congress is returning after nearly a month away from Washington. While earlier there was hope that they would address immigration reform this fall, hopes fraction in that area of all but been written off.

At this point we've reached a critical crossroads in the quest for fixing the US immigration system. Most responsible people understand that the best way to address our incredibly outdated immigration system is to focus on comprehensive solutions that address enforcement, unworkable visa laws and a strategy to deal with the millions of individuals living illegally in the United States. However, members of Congress are trapped by the toxic politics surrounding the issue of immigration and are unable or unwilling to look at solving the problem.

I've noted before in this column that I believe pursuing comprehensive immigration reform, while the best solution, has not been the best strategy if the goal is actually to make progress. Better strategy in my view is to pursue piecemeal immigration reform. That means going back to the way immigration legislating used to happen. Small bills were introduced, debated and passed and problems didn’t necessarily take years to solve. In a given year, dozens of immigration bills might pass. Today, only a handful of measures actually get a final vote. And often, needed fixes have to be inserted in budget bills and other “must pass” pieces of legislation since stand alone immigration bills usually go nowhere.

More and more pro-immigration advocates are recognizing that this may be the better way to go. Comprehensive legislation by its nature is going to have plenty of measures that opponents will be able to point to in order to stop progress. Smaller bills are less likely to face that problem. Also, anti-immigrant groups have an easier time rallying supporters to fight single large pieces of legislation as opposed to dozens of smaller bills.

I suspect that neither comprehensive nor piecemeal immigration law making will happen this fall. We'll probably be waiting to see what happens after the election. If the Republicans win back the House of Representatives, as many are predicting, then they will have to make a choice whether they want to continue in the anti-immigration direction they been headed for the last few years or want to turn back to the center. And the first indicator of this will likely be who Republican leaders choose to serve and chair the House Immigration Subcommittee.

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In firm news, I was recently elected to the board of governors of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. In that capacity, I wrote a blog column on the idiotic and dangerous proposal to scrap the 14th Amendment guarantee a birthright citizenship. You can find the article here –http://ailaleadershipblog.org/2010/08/09/10-reasons-amending-the-constitution-to-end-birthright-citizenship-is-a-terrible-idea/.

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This Readers are reminded that they are welcome to contact my law office if they would like to schedule a telephone or in person consultation with me or one of my colleagues. If you are interested, please call my office at 901-682-6455.

Regards,

Greg Siskind