Dear Readers:

When I was a kid, I was a big fan of the Peanuts cartoons and comic strip. I’ve found over the years that lots of situations in life remind me of Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the gang.  Like when Lucy holds the football for Charlie Brown. You’ve got to admire Charlie Brown for his limitless optimism that Lucy’s finally going to keep the ball in place long enough for Charlie Brown to kick the field goal. But sometimes I feel like Congress – particularly Republicans – are the Lucy when it comes to finally making progress on immigration issues.

Just look at the last few weeks. First, the Republicans surprised pro-immigration groups when they decided to pass firebrand Steve King of Iowa up as chair of the House Immigration Subcommittee. Granted, the replacement was the more subdued, but still very tough Elton Gallegly of California. But the message sent was still clear.

Then we got a surprise when President Obama decided to bring up the DREAM Act and visa relief for science and technology professionals in the State of the Union address. He was very careful to pick to issues where Republicans have historically showed an interest in cooperating with Democrats. And then this week there have been hints that Republicans John McCain and Lindsey Graham may be ready to come back to the table to talk about comprehensive immigration reform.  

I’m trying to be like Charlie Brown, honest I am. You never know when Lucy will finally come around. Of course, it’s easy to be cynical about immigration politics. Even with the positive words coming from the President and a couple of Senators, there is still the House and state legislatures around the country on a relentless pursuit of passing ever more radical anti-immigration legislation. But it’s still possible to hope.

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In firm news, I participated on an interesting panel last week sponsored by the Nashville Business Journal where I was matched with two legislators promoting anti-immigration legislation and was joined by two others on the pro-immigration side. I’m not sure we changed any minds or just affirmed what people in the audience already believed, but civil discussions of the subject of immigration are always better than the alternative. [http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2011/01/26/panel-discusses-immigration-reform.html]

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Lawyers from Visalaw International, our global immigration alliance, have co-written a book on immigration law and I’ve co-written the US chapter with Elaine Witty. The book is published by Carswell, a subsidiary of West, and has chapters covering immigration rules in a variety of countries. [http://www.carswell.com/description.asp?DocID=7026&pgid=description]

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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