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1. Openers   Dear Readers:   The last few weeks have certainly been eventful in immigration. First, four major bills have been introduced in Congress – two in the House and two in the Senate. In the House, Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith introduced a bill that would require that all employers use E-Verify and would increase I-9 fines tenfold. A similar was introduced shortly after this in the Senate by Senator Grassley. In the House, ranking Immigration Subcommittee member Zoe Lofgren introduced a skilled immigrant bill that would have profound effects on various non-immigrant and immigrant visa categories. In the Senate, New Jersey Democrat Robert Menendez introduced a new comprehensive immigration reform bill. The enforcement bills have a better chance than the other two, but there does seem to be renewed interest in Congress in reforming employment immigration. One of the key things to watch is whether Democrats who have opposed any piecemeal solutions in favor of promoting comprehensive legislation are ready to relax that stance. It’s still too early to say. A second major development was the release of a memo from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that instructs ICE officials to avoid placing in deportation proceedings individuals who do not fit in to ICE’s enforcement priorities. The memo lists a number of categories of factors to be considered and appears to favor excluding DREAM Act potential beneficiaries and military family members from the removal process.   Finally, there was a shocker in the immigration world. Pulitzer Prize winner Jose Vargas, a former Washington Post reporter, wrote a major article for the New York Times Magazine confessing that he entered the country illegally from the Philippines at the age of 12 and had been in the US illegally in all the years since. The article gives Americans an insider’s view of what DREAM activists face on a daily basis. The decision to come forward was certainly courageous on Vargas’ part and he now faces a very uncertain future. Even if ICE decides not to place him in removal proceedings, it is not clear how he can earn a living since all of America now knows his secret.   Immigration never seems to stay out of the news for long.   *****   In firm news, several of our lawyers have just returned from the American Immigration Lawyers Association annual meeting in San Diego. Three lawyers in the firm now serve on AILA’s Board of Governors – myself, Ari Sauer and Yvette Sebelist. I’m also now serving on three separate AILA committees – the planning committee for the 2012 annual conference in Nashville, the Transformation Liaison Committee which is dealing with USCIS’ conversion to an all electronic filing system, and the AILA Media Advocacy Committee which works to promote AILA’s pro-immigration views in local and national media.   I also was recognized by Who’s Who Legal in its annual ranking of top corporate immigration lawyers in the world. Who’s Who placed me sixth on its global list and also listed three other Siskind Susser lawyers on the list. Yvette Sebelist and Lynn Susser were listed with me amongst five attorneys in Tennessee and Karen Weinstock was one of ten lawyers listed in Georgia. You can read more at www.whoswholegal.com.news/analysis/article/28997/most-highly-regarded-firm-corporate-immigraton-2011.   *****   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

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