Normally, the second half of October in a presidential election year means Congress is not going to be busy. They’re typically totally consumed with the election and have recessed by this point. That is largely true this year, but there are bills still hanging out there that could be passed this year either in a special session of Congress right before the election or in a “lame duck” session in the weeks after the election.

One bill that is still being addressed is H.R. 10, the bill implementing recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. Were the provisions in the bill limited to this task, however, it would not be so controversial. But anti-immigrant forces in Congress have been able to slip in a number of provisions that take the bill way beyond what the 9/11 Commission envisioned.
Both Houses of Congress have passed a version of the bill. The House version is the much more anti-immigrant of the two. According to the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the House version would result in
a radical expansion of drive-by-deportations,
heightened burdens for asylum seekers,
repatriation of foreign nationals to countries where they will be tortured,
more mandatory indefinite detentions,
limitations on First Amendment rights for non-citizens,
suspension of the Great Writ of habeas corpus for the first time since the Civil War, and
restrictions on driver's licenses and consular identification cards
From time to time we urge our tens of thousands of readers to take a stand on an immigration issue. It has been a while since there was a bill that warranted urgent action. But H.R. 10 is one of them. Please contact your members of Congress. AILA has put up an excellent web page to help you do this. Go to http://capwiz.com/aila2/mail/oneclick_compose/?alertid=6540936 to get information on how to contact your member of Congress and see talking points for your letter.

*****

We’ve received word that the H-2B cap for fiscal year 2005 is close to being hit. If you’re planning on filing an H-2B case, you better plan on doing it soon.

*****

I hope many of you had the opportunity to see the CNN special “Immigrant Nation, Divided Country” yesterday. The hour-long special was hosted by Maria Hinojosa, one of the nation’s best reporters on the American Hispanic community. The story was balanced in its coverage interviewing immigrant families, their employers, those who oppose giving rights to immigrants and those in their communities who provide services – doctors, teachers, etc. The special will be re-broadcast next Saturday night, October 23rd, at 6 am eastern time, 8 pm eastern time and 11 pm eastern time.

*****

Many of you have been asking when PERM is coming for labor certification-based green card cases. We still don’t have an answer, but we do have some hints based on a memorandum released by the Department of Labor instructing state workforce agencies on what to expect over the course of this fiscal year. We report on this news this week.

*****

In firm news, my law partner David Jones and I have written one of our regular Tech Notes columns for Immigration Law Today, the bimonthly magazine of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. You can see the article at www.visalaw.com/news on our web site. AILA’s magazine is superb and one more reason why our immigration lawyer readers out there should join (though I suspect most of you already are members). You can find information on joining AILA at www.aila.org. The rest of you should check out the site anyway because there is a lot of excellent information on grass roots activism and how the average person can have a voice in the national immigration debate.

20030930
20031001
20031002
20031007
20031009
20031015
20031017
20031030
20031031
20031114
20031120
20040107
20040210
20040211
20040212
20040216
20040217
20040218
20040219
20040220
20040223
20040224
20040226
20040227
20040302
20040303
20040305
20040309
20040310
20040315
20040316
20040317
20040318
20040325
20040328
20040329
20040331
20040401
20040408
20040412
20040413
20040416
20040421
20040422
20040423
20040426
20040504
20040507
20040511
20040513
20040517
20040518
20040519
20040520
20040524
20040525
20040602
20040603
20040607
20040608
20040610
20040614
20040617
20040618
20040621
20040622
20040623
20040624
20040628
20040629
20040630
20040706
20040707
20040708
20040709
20040712
20040713
20040714
20040715
20040719
20040721
20040726
20040727
20040728
20040802
20040803
20040804
20040809
20040812
20040817
20040818
20040819
20040823
20040824
20040825
20040830
20040831
20040901
20040907
20040909
20040913
20040920
20040921
20041005
20041013
20041015
20041018
20041019
20041021
20041022
20041025
20041101
20041103
20041104
20041109
20041110
20041112
20041115
20041116
20041117
20041119
20041123
20041129
20041130
20041201
20041203
20041206
20041209
20041215
20041216
20041222
20050119
20050125
20050202
20050204
20050210
20050216
20050217
20050224
20050401
20050407
20050412
20050503
20050504
20050506
20050511
20050513
20050516
20050523
20050524
20050603
20050606
20050616
20050627
20050630
20050808
20050811
20050812
20050817
20050912
20050914
20050920
20050923
20050925
20051003
20051011
20051014
20051017
20051024
20051025
20051028
20051101
20051107
20051115
20051116
20051117
20051118
20051128
20051130
20051202
20051206
20051207
20051212
20051219
20051220
20060118
20060121
20060125
20060126
20060127
20060202
20060207
20060208
20060216
20060217
20060221
20060222
20060227
20060228
20060301
20060302
20060303
20060306
20060308
20060313
20060315
20060316
20060317
20060320
20060323
20060324
20060329
20060330
20060331
20060401
20060402
20060403
20060404
20060405
20060406
20060407
20060409
20060410
20060411
20060412
20060413
20060414
20060415
20060416
20060417
20060418
20060420
20060421
20060422
20060423
20060426
20060427