Wednesday, February 28, 2007
SENATE KICKS OFF DEBATE ON COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM
The Senate Judiciary Committee got the ball rolling yesterday on comprehensive immigration reform when it held hearings featuring testimony from Secretary of Homeland Security Chertoff and Secretary of Commerce Gutierrez. Both officials gave strong endorsements of CIR while also touting the recent successes of DHS in the area of border security and work site enforcement. We will be including the testimony of the two Cabinet members in the next Siskind's Immigration Bulletin.
Sources are telling us that the Senate will formally introduce their bill in the next several days and begin markup in committee on March 19th. Floor debate is set to begin April 7th with the hope of the bill being completely wrapped up by Memorial Day. The House is expected to introduce its bill shortly after the Senate.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 9:58 PM
Monday, February 26, 2007
GATES CALLS FOR MORE H-1B VISAS
Microsoft founder Bill Gates writes in the Washington Post that with more than 100,000 new computer science jobs being created each year and with too few graduates in the computer sciences, 65,000 H-1B visas are not nearly enough. Gates also calls on Congress to reform immigration law to make it easier for students to remain when they're finished with their studies here. In short, the piece is an unqualified endorsement of the SKIL bill.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 8:49 PM
Saturday, February 24, 2007
USCIS PAYS BIG TIME FOR EXCESSIVE CASE DELAY
USCIS recently tried to send a message to its customers that they better not complain to the courts when they delay cases excessively due to security delays or other reasons. USCIS officers are under order to fight all mandamus cases. In the past, USCIS would often complete processing and avoid going to court.
The strategy may be backfiring. There have been several major defeats in the court recently in mandamus cases including the latest involving a case delayed for security clearances for eight years. A judge ordered USCIS to adjudicate the case and also is forcing USCIS to pay the lawyer $19,000 in attorneys fees. That's taxpayer money, by the way.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 8:35 PM
Friday, February 23, 2007
COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM BILL TO BE INTRODUCED WITHIN NEXT FEW WEEKS
Folks on Capitol Hill are working feverishly to complete drafting comprehensive immigration reform bills in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Sources in the House tell me that the Senate will most likely introduce its bill first. The Senate passed a comprehensive immigration bill last year and it will likely start with a bill resembling that one. While the Washington Times is reporting the bill will be introduced in the Senate this week, our sources think it will not be until at least next week. The Times is also reporting unhappiness amongst pro-immigration Republican Senators who have apparently been excluded from the re-drafting. Senator Kennedy's staff is denying this charge saying that they have been consulting with many from both parties. And the Times does acknowledge that Senator McCain has been closely involved in the drafting process.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 1:41 PM
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
USCIS ADMITS IT SENDS BOGUS EVIDENCE REQUESTS
This press release is really stunning. USCIS announced that they had issued "generic" requests for evidence in religious worker immigrant visa petitions. These RFEs simply called for the petitioner to resubmit all of the documentation required in the case regardless of whether the evidence was submitted before. The tone of the email suggests this is a rare occurrence. But take it from me, it happens ALL the time and and it has been going on for years. Hopefully, USCIS is finally ending this ridiculous practice. It is tantamount, in my opinion, to fraud on the part of the examiner. The hope is, presumably, that the petitioner will just go away and not bother applying again. Or that the RFE will buy more time for the examiner in the case of a premium processed case.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 11:28 PM
NASHVILLE CITY COUNCIL CHANGES MIND AND SIDES WITH MAYOR ON ENGLISH ORDINANCE
Last week Nashville, Tennessee Mayor Bill Purcell made national news vetoing an English-only bill. Attempts to override veto in the city council were defeated handily yesterday and Nashville's rather complicated referendum rules will prevent a public vote until at least November 2008.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 9:57 PM
Sunday, February 18, 2007
THEY ARE AMERICA
The New York Times has an excellent lead editorial this morning calling on Americans to view immigrants humanely. The newspaper has had some of the best coverage on the immigration debate and the editorial page at the Times has been regularly writing about immigration even when it is not in the headlines. Some of the most poignant passages in the piece are below:
A lot has happened since then. The country has summoned great energy to confront the immigration problem, but most of it has been misplaced, crudely and unevenly applied. It seeks not to solve the conundrum of a broken immigration system, but to subdue, in a million ways, the vulnerable men and women who are part of it. Government at all levels is working to keep unwanted immigrants in their place — on the other side of the border, in detention or in fear, toiling silently in the underground economy without recourse to the laws and protections the native-born expect.
***
Hopelessly fixated on toughness, the immigration debate has lost its balance, overlooking the humanity of the immigrant. There is a starkly diminished understanding that hospitality for the stranger is part of the American ethos, and that as much as we claim to be a nation of immigrants, we have thwarted them at every turn. We must do better.
***
Enforcement of laws cannot be ignored. Punish immigrants who enter illegally, make them pay back taxes and fines, restrict their ability to get work through deceit and false identities. But open a path to their full inclusion in the life of this country.
The alternative — the path of immigrant exploitation, of harassment without hope — will only repeat the ways the country has shamed itself at countless points in its history.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 8:16 AM
Thursday, February 15, 2007
AP: US BLOCKED ANNE FRANK'S FATHER FROM BRINGING FAMILY TO AMERICA
Here is a case that should give some people pause when it comes to the tragedy that is America's current refugee and asylum policy. The Associated Press has reported that YIVO, the American Jewish archival agency, has recently discovered a letter from Otto Frank to a friend in the US along with 100,000 other Holocaust era documents.
One passage from Frank's letter reads:
"I would not ask if conditions here would not force me to do all I can in time to be able to avoid worse," Otto Frank wrote to his college friend Nathan Straus in April 1941. "It is for the sake of the children mainly that we have to care for. Our own fate is of less importance."
According to the AP:
"The documents show how Frank tried to arrange for his family—wife Edith, daughters Margot and Anne and mother-in-law Rosa Hollander—to go to the U.S. or Cuba. He wrote to relatives, friends and officials between April 30, 1941, and Dec. 11, 1941, when Germany declared war on the U.S.
But immigration rules were changing under the Nazi regime and in the U.S. There were nearly 300,000 people on a waiting list for a U.S. immigration visa. Besides, since Frank had living relatives in Germany, he would have been unable to immigrate under U.S. policy at the time."
After World War II, the United Nations passed an international treaty on refugees that obligates signatories, including the US, to take refugees in situations similar to the Frank family. But in recent years, the US has so tightened its asylum policies, that many are questioning whether the US is going back to its prewar ways.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 7:42 AM
DOL: EIGHT MONTHS AND THE BACKLOG WILL BE GONE ON LABOR CERTS
The US Department of Labor claims it will be done with the hundreds of thousands of backlogged pre-PERM labor certification cases in eight months. I'm pretty skeptical, but wish them well.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 12:17 AM
Sunday, February 11, 2007
PRESIDENT PUTS ANOTHER PLUG IN FOR GUEST WORKER PROGRAM
President Bush spoke Friday on priorities for Homeland Security. In comments regarding securing US borders, the President made hit home the point that it will be a lot easier to protect the country when the Border Patrol can focus on terrorists and criminals if they are not chasing people crossing for jobs:
This department works to secure our borders. I appreciate very much, Ralph, you and your department's hard work of doing a difficult job, and that is doing what the American people expect and that is to have secure borders. But we're making good progress. We're modernizing a border that needed to be modernized, whether it be through fencing or the different types of high-tech investments.
I firmly believe that in order for your Border Patrol agents to be able to do their job, we need a guest worker program so that people don't have to sneak in our country, and therefore, we can really enable your good folks to be able to focus on terrorism, drug runners, gun runners.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 2:40 PM
SENATOR COLLINS TO INTRODUCE BILL DELAYING REAL ID ACT
Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) is introducing a bill to delay implementation of the drivers license requirement from the REAL ID Act of 2005. Congress passed legislation requiring uniformity in drivers licenses and also barring out of status aliens from getting licenses.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 1:06 PM
Friday, February 09, 2007
OUR BLOG IS ONE OF THE TOP 100 MOST POPULAR LAW BLOGS IN AMERICA
We seem to make the list of the 100 most popular law blogs on Bloglines
, the largest aggregator of feeds on the web. Only a small number of the blogs are actually lawyer blogs and we're the only immigration law blog on the list. We're in nice company as well. Many of the blogs are those of the most famous legal scholars in the country including Judge Richard Posner and Professor Lawrence Lessig.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 7:48 PM
Sunday, February 04, 2007
OHIO SENATOR INTRODUCES BILL TO EXPAND VISA WAIVER TO ALLIES IN WAR ON TERROR
Senator George V. Voinovich (R-OH), a member of the Foreign Relations Committee and the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, introduced a bill to extend the Visa Waiver Program to countries that cooperate with the US in fighting terrorism.
The Secure Travel and Counterterrorism Partnership Act of 2006 has bipartisan supportwith Senators Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI), Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) all signing on as original co-sponsors.
According to Voinovich:
There are many countries helping us thwart terrorism around the world and they should be rewarded for their continued cooperation. This legislation will improve both our national security and economic interests while helping to solidify these relationships and improve good will toward the United States for years to come. I will work closely with the administration and my colleagues in the Senate as we move forward to show our allies that we appreciate their help in this historic fight.
The bill would authorize the Department of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Department of State, to expand the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) to nations supporting the United States and that "are prepared to do everything in their power to help keep terrorists from crossing our borders."
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 7:48 PM
Saturday, February 03, 2007
MAJOR REPORT CALLS FOR U.S. TO BECOME MORE WELCOMING TO FOREIGN TOURISTS
Discover America Partnership, a consortium of leaders of some of America's leading companies, has released a report entitled "Blueprint to Discover America" that lays out a number of proposals to increase the number of foreign tourists entering the country and to make the visa application process more user friendly. The report addresses the growing reputation of the US as being unwelcoming. Thousands of interviews were conducted and the conclusion was clear - America has the world's worst entry process. The report lays out dozens of practical and achievable tactics for transforming the entry process and making the US once again the world's top tourist destination.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 9:12 PM
Friday, February 02, 2007
LOFGREN QUESTIONS USCIS FEE INCREASES
Here's the first example of the new tone in Congress when it comes to immigration issues. Immigration Subcommittee Chairmen in recent years typically focused entirely on enforcement issues and could care less about how immigrants were treated. New chair Zoe Lofgren, on the other hand, seems to be interested in striking a different tone. Yesterday Lofgren released this statement regarding the shocking new fee increases from USCIS:
Although I want to ensure that USCIS has the necessary resources to carry out its mission, the scope and scale of this fee increase on immigration applications raises many questions for me. I plan to carefully examine the USCIS’s new study and the justification for this increase with my colleagues on the Immigration Subcommittee before its implementation. Changes in the current fee structure must be fair and reasonable.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 8:12 AM
Thursday, February 01, 2007
SSB FASHION, ARTS & SPORTS IMMIGRATION PORTAL DEBUTS
We are pleased to announce the completion of the new Visalaw Fashion, Arts and Sports Immigration portal at Visalaw.com. This new section of our web site is the only one of its kind on the Internet and there are numerous free resources that many will find invaluable. Unique offerings are charts of peer organizations for O-1 and P-1 cases, spreadsheets with links to more than 100 AAO cases, links to dozens of articles on fashion, arts and sports visa matters and much more. We welcome your comments, especially suggestions of links to add.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 9:43 PM
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Sources are telling us that the Senate will formally introduce their bill in the next several days and begin markup in committee on March 19th. Floor debate is set to begin April 7th with the hope of the bill being completely wrapped up by Memorial Day. The House is expected to introduce its bill shortly after the Senate.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 9:58 PM
Microsoft founder Bill Gates writes in the Washington Post that with more than 100,000 new computer science jobs being created each year and with too few graduates in the computer sciences, 65,000 H-1B visas are not nearly enough. Gates also calls on Congress to reform immigration law to make it easier for students to remain when they're finished with their studies here. In short, the piece is an unqualified endorsement of the SKIL bill.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 8:49 PM
Saturday, February 24, 2007
USCIS PAYS BIG TIME FOR EXCESSIVE CASE DELAY
USCIS recently tried to send a message to its customers that they better not complain to the courts when they delay cases excessively due to security delays or other reasons. USCIS officers are under order to fight all mandamus cases. In the past, USCIS would often complete processing and avoid going to court.
The strategy may be backfiring. There have been several major defeats in the court recently in mandamus cases including the latest involving a case delayed for security clearances for eight years. A judge ordered USCIS to adjudicate the case and also is forcing USCIS to pay the lawyer $19,000 in attorneys fees. That's taxpayer money, by the way.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 8:35 PM
Friday, February 23, 2007
COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM BILL TO BE INTRODUCED WITHIN NEXT FEW WEEKS
Folks on Capitol Hill are working feverishly to complete drafting comprehensive immigration reform bills in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Sources in the House tell me that the Senate will most likely introduce its bill first. The Senate passed a comprehensive immigration bill last year and it will likely start with a bill resembling that one. While the Washington Times is reporting the bill will be introduced in the Senate this week, our sources think it will not be until at least next week. The Times is also reporting unhappiness amongst pro-immigration Republican Senators who have apparently been excluded from the re-drafting. Senator Kennedy's staff is denying this charge saying that they have been consulting with many from both parties. And the Times does acknowledge that Senator McCain has been closely involved in the drafting process.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 1:41 PM
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
USCIS ADMITS IT SENDS BOGUS EVIDENCE REQUESTS
This press release is really stunning. USCIS announced that they had issued "generic" requests for evidence in religious worker immigrant visa petitions. These RFEs simply called for the petitioner to resubmit all of the documentation required in the case regardless of whether the evidence was submitted before. The tone of the email suggests this is a rare occurrence. But take it from me, it happens ALL the time and and it has been going on for years. Hopefully, USCIS is finally ending this ridiculous practice. It is tantamount, in my opinion, to fraud on the part of the examiner. The hope is, presumably, that the petitioner will just go away and not bother applying again. Or that the RFE will buy more time for the examiner in the case of a premium processed case.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 11:28 PM
NASHVILLE CITY COUNCIL CHANGES MIND AND SIDES WITH MAYOR ON ENGLISH ORDINANCE
Last week Nashville, Tennessee Mayor Bill Purcell made national news vetoing an English-only bill. Attempts to override veto in the city council were defeated handily yesterday and Nashville's rather complicated referendum rules will prevent a public vote until at least November 2008.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 9:57 PM
Sunday, February 18, 2007
THEY ARE AMERICA
The New York Times has an excellent lead editorial this morning calling on Americans to view immigrants humanely. The newspaper has had some of the best coverage on the immigration debate and the editorial page at the Times has been regularly writing about immigration even when it is not in the headlines. Some of the most poignant passages in the piece are below:
A lot has happened since then. The country has summoned great energy to confront the immigration problem, but most of it has been misplaced, crudely and unevenly applied. It seeks not to solve the conundrum of a broken immigration system, but to subdue, in a million ways, the vulnerable men and women who are part of it. Government at all levels is working to keep unwanted immigrants in their place — on the other side of the border, in detention or in fear, toiling silently in the underground economy without recourse to the laws and protections the native-born expect.
***
Hopelessly fixated on toughness, the immigration debate has lost its balance, overlooking the humanity of the immigrant. There is a starkly diminished understanding that hospitality for the stranger is part of the American ethos, and that as much as we claim to be a nation of immigrants, we have thwarted them at every turn. We must do better.
***
Enforcement of laws cannot be ignored. Punish immigrants who enter illegally, make them pay back taxes and fines, restrict their ability to get work through deceit and false identities. But open a path to their full inclusion in the life of this country.
The alternative — the path of immigrant exploitation, of harassment without hope — will only repeat the ways the country has shamed itself at countless points in its history.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 8:16 AM
Thursday, February 15, 2007
AP: US BLOCKED ANNE FRANK'S FATHER FROM BRINGING FAMILY TO AMERICA
Here is a case that should give some people pause when it comes to the tragedy that is America's current refugee and asylum policy. The Associated Press has reported that YIVO, the American Jewish archival agency, has recently discovered a letter from Otto Frank to a friend in the US along with 100,000 other Holocaust era documents.
One passage from Frank's letter reads:
"I would not ask if conditions here would not force me to do all I can in time to be able to avoid worse," Otto Frank wrote to his college friend Nathan Straus in April 1941. "It is for the sake of the children mainly that we have to care for. Our own fate is of less importance."
According to the AP:
"The documents show how Frank tried to arrange for his family—wife Edith, daughters Margot and Anne and mother-in-law Rosa Hollander—to go to the U.S. or Cuba. He wrote to relatives, friends and officials between April 30, 1941, and Dec. 11, 1941, when Germany declared war on the U.S.
But immigration rules were changing under the Nazi regime and in the U.S. There were nearly 300,000 people on a waiting list for a U.S. immigration visa. Besides, since Frank had living relatives in Germany, he would have been unable to immigrate under U.S. policy at the time."
After World War II, the United Nations passed an international treaty on refugees that obligates signatories, including the US, to take refugees in situations similar to the Frank family. But in recent years, the US has so tightened its asylum policies, that many are questioning whether the US is going back to its prewar ways.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 7:42 AM
DOL: EIGHT MONTHS AND THE BACKLOG WILL BE GONE ON LABOR CERTS
The US Department of Labor claims it will be done with the hundreds of thousands of backlogged pre-PERM labor certification cases in eight months. I'm pretty skeptical, but wish them well.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 12:17 AM
Sunday, February 11, 2007
PRESIDENT PUTS ANOTHER PLUG IN FOR GUEST WORKER PROGRAM
President Bush spoke Friday on priorities for Homeland Security. In comments regarding securing US borders, the President made hit home the point that it will be a lot easier to protect the country when the Border Patrol can focus on terrorists and criminals if they are not chasing people crossing for jobs:
This department works to secure our borders. I appreciate very much, Ralph, you and your department's hard work of doing a difficult job, and that is doing what the American people expect and that is to have secure borders. But we're making good progress. We're modernizing a border that needed to be modernized, whether it be through fencing or the different types of high-tech investments.
I firmly believe that in order for your Border Patrol agents to be able to do their job, we need a guest worker program so that people don't have to sneak in our country, and therefore, we can really enable your good folks to be able to focus on terrorism, drug runners, gun runners.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 2:40 PM
SENATOR COLLINS TO INTRODUCE BILL DELAYING REAL ID ACT
Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) is introducing a bill to delay implementation of the drivers license requirement from the REAL ID Act of 2005. Congress passed legislation requiring uniformity in drivers licenses and also barring out of status aliens from getting licenses.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 1:06 PM
Friday, February 09, 2007
OUR BLOG IS ONE OF THE TOP 100 MOST POPULAR LAW BLOGS IN AMERICA
We seem to make the list of the 100 most popular law blogs on Bloglines
, the largest aggregator of feeds on the web. Only a small number of the blogs are actually lawyer blogs and we're the only immigration law blog on the list. We're in nice company as well. Many of the blogs are those of the most famous legal scholars in the country including Judge Richard Posner and Professor Lawrence Lessig.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 7:48 PM
Sunday, February 04, 2007
OHIO SENATOR INTRODUCES BILL TO EXPAND VISA WAIVER TO ALLIES IN WAR ON TERROR
Senator George V. Voinovich (R-OH), a member of the Foreign Relations Committee and the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, introduced a bill to extend the Visa Waiver Program to countries that cooperate with the US in fighting terrorism.
The Secure Travel and Counterterrorism Partnership Act of 2006 has bipartisan supportwith Senators Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI), Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) all signing on as original co-sponsors.
According to Voinovich:
There are many countries helping us thwart terrorism around the world and they should be rewarded for their continued cooperation. This legislation will improve both our national security and economic interests while helping to solidify these relationships and improve good will toward the United States for years to come. I will work closely with the administration and my colleagues in the Senate as we move forward to show our allies that we appreciate their help in this historic fight.
The bill would authorize the Department of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Department of State, to expand the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) to nations supporting the United States and that "are prepared to do everything in their power to help keep terrorists from crossing our borders."
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 7:48 PM
Saturday, February 03, 2007
MAJOR REPORT CALLS FOR U.S. TO BECOME MORE WELCOMING TO FOREIGN TOURISTS
Discover America Partnership, a consortium of leaders of some of America's leading companies, has released a report entitled "Blueprint to Discover America" that lays out a number of proposals to increase the number of foreign tourists entering the country and to make the visa application process more user friendly. The report addresses the growing reputation of the US as being unwelcoming. Thousands of interviews were conducted and the conclusion was clear - America has the world's worst entry process. The report lays out dozens of practical and achievable tactics for transforming the entry process and making the US once again the world's top tourist destination.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 9:12 PM
Friday, February 02, 2007
LOFGREN QUESTIONS USCIS FEE INCREASES
Here's the first example of the new tone in Congress when it comes to immigration issues. Immigration Subcommittee Chairmen in recent years typically focused entirely on enforcement issues and could care less about how immigrants were treated. New chair Zoe Lofgren, on the other hand, seems to be interested in striking a different tone. Yesterday Lofgren released this statement regarding the shocking new fee increases from USCIS:
Although I want to ensure that USCIS has the necessary resources to carry out its mission, the scope and scale of this fee increase on immigration applications raises many questions for me. I plan to carefully examine the USCIS’s new study and the justification for this increase with my colleagues on the Immigration Subcommittee before its implementation. Changes in the current fee structure must be fair and reasonable.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 8:12 AM
Thursday, February 01, 2007
SSB FASHION, ARTS & SPORTS IMMIGRATION PORTAL DEBUTS
We are pleased to announce the completion of the new Visalaw Fashion, Arts and Sports Immigration portal at Visalaw.com. This new section of our web site is the only one of its kind on the Internet and there are numerous free resources that many will find invaluable. Unique offerings are charts of peer organizations for O-1 and P-1 cases, spreadsheets with links to more than 100 AAO cases, links to dozens of articles on fashion, arts and sports visa matters and much more. We welcome your comments, especially suggestions of links to add.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 9:43 PM
XML newsfeed
archives
09/2003
10/2003
11/2003
01/2004
02/2004
03/2004
04/2004
05/2004
06/2004
07/2004
08/2004
09/2004
10/2004
11/2004
12/2004
01/2005
02/2005
04/2005
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03/2008
06/2008
01/2009
The strategy may be backfiring. There have been several major defeats in the court recently in mandamus cases including the latest involving a case delayed for security clearances for eight years. A judge ordered USCIS to adjudicate the case and also is forcing USCIS to pay the lawyer $19,000 in attorneys fees. That's taxpayer money, by the way.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 8:35 PM
Folks on Capitol Hill are working feverishly to complete drafting comprehensive immigration reform bills in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Sources in the House tell me that the Senate will most likely introduce its bill first. The Senate passed a comprehensive immigration bill last year and it will likely start with a bill resembling that one. While the Washington Times is reporting the bill will be introduced in the Senate this week, our sources think it will not be until at least next week. The Times is also reporting unhappiness amongst pro-immigration Republican Senators who have apparently been excluded from the re-drafting. Senator Kennedy's staff is denying this charge saying that they have been consulting with many from both parties. And the Times does acknowledge that Senator McCain has been closely involved in the drafting process.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 1:41 PM
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
USCIS ADMITS IT SENDS BOGUS EVIDENCE REQUESTS
This press release is really stunning. USCIS announced that they had issued "generic" requests for evidence in religious worker immigrant visa petitions. These RFEs simply called for the petitioner to resubmit all of the documentation required in the case regardless of whether the evidence was submitted before. The tone of the email suggests this is a rare occurrence. But take it from me, it happens ALL the time and and it has been going on for years. Hopefully, USCIS is finally ending this ridiculous practice. It is tantamount, in my opinion, to fraud on the part of the examiner. The hope is, presumably, that the petitioner will just go away and not bother applying again. Or that the RFE will buy more time for the examiner in the case of a premium processed case.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 11:28 PM
NASHVILLE CITY COUNCIL CHANGES MIND AND SIDES WITH MAYOR ON ENGLISH ORDINANCE
Last week Nashville, Tennessee Mayor Bill Purcell made national news vetoing an English-only bill. Attempts to override veto in the city council were defeated handily yesterday and Nashville's rather complicated referendum rules will prevent a public vote until at least November 2008.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 9:57 PM
Sunday, February 18, 2007
THEY ARE AMERICA
The New York Times has an excellent lead editorial this morning calling on Americans to view immigrants humanely. The newspaper has had some of the best coverage on the immigration debate and the editorial page at the Times has been regularly writing about immigration even when it is not in the headlines. Some of the most poignant passages in the piece are below:
A lot has happened since then. The country has summoned great energy to confront the immigration problem, but most of it has been misplaced, crudely and unevenly applied. It seeks not to solve the conundrum of a broken immigration system, but to subdue, in a million ways, the vulnerable men and women who are part of it. Government at all levels is working to keep unwanted immigrants in their place — on the other side of the border, in detention or in fear, toiling silently in the underground economy without recourse to the laws and protections the native-born expect.
***
Hopelessly fixated on toughness, the immigration debate has lost its balance, overlooking the humanity of the immigrant. There is a starkly diminished understanding that hospitality for the stranger is part of the American ethos, and that as much as we claim to be a nation of immigrants, we have thwarted them at every turn. We must do better.
***
Enforcement of laws cannot be ignored. Punish immigrants who enter illegally, make them pay back taxes and fines, restrict their ability to get work through deceit and false identities. But open a path to their full inclusion in the life of this country.
The alternative — the path of immigrant exploitation, of harassment without hope — will only repeat the ways the country has shamed itself at countless points in its history.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 8:16 AM
Thursday, February 15, 2007
AP: US BLOCKED ANNE FRANK'S FATHER FROM BRINGING FAMILY TO AMERICA
Here is a case that should give some people pause when it comes to the tragedy that is America's current refugee and asylum policy. The Associated Press has reported that YIVO, the American Jewish archival agency, has recently discovered a letter from Otto Frank to a friend in the US along with 100,000 other Holocaust era documents.
One passage from Frank's letter reads:
"I would not ask if conditions here would not force me to do all I can in time to be able to avoid worse," Otto Frank wrote to his college friend Nathan Straus in April 1941. "It is for the sake of the children mainly that we have to care for. Our own fate is of less importance."
According to the AP:
"The documents show how Frank tried to arrange for his family—wife Edith, daughters Margot and Anne and mother-in-law Rosa Hollander—to go to the U.S. or Cuba. He wrote to relatives, friends and officials between April 30, 1941, and Dec. 11, 1941, when Germany declared war on the U.S.
But immigration rules were changing under the Nazi regime and in the U.S. There were nearly 300,000 people on a waiting list for a U.S. immigration visa. Besides, since Frank had living relatives in Germany, he would have been unable to immigrate under U.S. policy at the time."
After World War II, the United Nations passed an international treaty on refugees that obligates signatories, including the US, to take refugees in situations similar to the Frank family. But in recent years, the US has so tightened its asylum policies, that many are questioning whether the US is going back to its prewar ways.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 7:42 AM
DOL: EIGHT MONTHS AND THE BACKLOG WILL BE GONE ON LABOR CERTS
The US Department of Labor claims it will be done with the hundreds of thousands of backlogged pre-PERM labor certification cases in eight months. I'm pretty skeptical, but wish them well.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 12:17 AM
Sunday, February 11, 2007
PRESIDENT PUTS ANOTHER PLUG IN FOR GUEST WORKER PROGRAM
President Bush spoke Friday on priorities for Homeland Security. In comments regarding securing US borders, the President made hit home the point that it will be a lot easier to protect the country when the Border Patrol can focus on terrorists and criminals if they are not chasing people crossing for jobs:
This department works to secure our borders. I appreciate very much, Ralph, you and your department's hard work of doing a difficult job, and that is doing what the American people expect and that is to have secure borders. But we're making good progress. We're modernizing a border that needed to be modernized, whether it be through fencing or the different types of high-tech investments.
I firmly believe that in order for your Border Patrol agents to be able to do their job, we need a guest worker program so that people don't have to sneak in our country, and therefore, we can really enable your good folks to be able to focus on terrorism, drug runners, gun runners.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 2:40 PM
SENATOR COLLINS TO INTRODUCE BILL DELAYING REAL ID ACT
Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) is introducing a bill to delay implementation of the drivers license requirement from the REAL ID Act of 2005. Congress passed legislation requiring uniformity in drivers licenses and also barring out of status aliens from getting licenses.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 1:06 PM
Friday, February 09, 2007
OUR BLOG IS ONE OF THE TOP 100 MOST POPULAR LAW BLOGS IN AMERICA
We seem to make the list of the 100 most popular law blogs on Bloglines
, the largest aggregator of feeds on the web. Only a small number of the blogs are actually lawyer blogs and we're the only immigration law blog on the list. We're in nice company as well. Many of the blogs are those of the most famous legal scholars in the country including Judge Richard Posner and Professor Lawrence Lessig.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 7:48 PM
Sunday, February 04, 2007
OHIO SENATOR INTRODUCES BILL TO EXPAND VISA WAIVER TO ALLIES IN WAR ON TERROR
Senator George V. Voinovich (R-OH), a member of the Foreign Relations Committee and the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, introduced a bill to extend the Visa Waiver Program to countries that cooperate with the US in fighting terrorism.
The Secure Travel and Counterterrorism Partnership Act of 2006 has bipartisan supportwith Senators Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI), Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) all signing on as original co-sponsors.
According to Voinovich:
There are many countries helping us thwart terrorism around the world and they should be rewarded for their continued cooperation. This legislation will improve both our national security and economic interests while helping to solidify these relationships and improve good will toward the United States for years to come. I will work closely with the administration and my colleagues in the Senate as we move forward to show our allies that we appreciate their help in this historic fight.
The bill would authorize the Department of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Department of State, to expand the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) to nations supporting the United States and that "are prepared to do everything in their power to help keep terrorists from crossing our borders."
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 7:48 PM
Saturday, February 03, 2007
MAJOR REPORT CALLS FOR U.S. TO BECOME MORE WELCOMING TO FOREIGN TOURISTS
Discover America Partnership, a consortium of leaders of some of America's leading companies, has released a report entitled "Blueprint to Discover America" that lays out a number of proposals to increase the number of foreign tourists entering the country and to make the visa application process more user friendly. The report addresses the growing reputation of the US as being unwelcoming. Thousands of interviews were conducted and the conclusion was clear - America has the world's worst entry process. The report lays out dozens of practical and achievable tactics for transforming the entry process and making the US once again the world's top tourist destination.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 9:12 PM
Friday, February 02, 2007
LOFGREN QUESTIONS USCIS FEE INCREASES
Here's the first example of the new tone in Congress when it comes to immigration issues. Immigration Subcommittee Chairmen in recent years typically focused entirely on enforcement issues and could care less about how immigrants were treated. New chair Zoe Lofgren, on the other hand, seems to be interested in striking a different tone. Yesterday Lofgren released this statement regarding the shocking new fee increases from USCIS:
Although I want to ensure that USCIS has the necessary resources to carry out its mission, the scope and scale of this fee increase on immigration applications raises many questions for me. I plan to carefully examine the USCIS’s new study and the justification for this increase with my colleagues on the Immigration Subcommittee before its implementation. Changes in the current fee structure must be fair and reasonable.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 8:12 AM
Thursday, February 01, 2007
SSB FASHION, ARTS & SPORTS IMMIGRATION PORTAL DEBUTS
We are pleased to announce the completion of the new Visalaw Fashion, Arts and Sports Immigration portal at Visalaw.com. This new section of our web site is the only one of its kind on the Internet and there are numerous free resources that many will find invaluable. Unique offerings are charts of peer organizations for O-1 and P-1 cases, spreadsheets with links to more than 100 AAO cases, links to dozens of articles on fashion, arts and sports visa matters and much more. We welcome your comments, especially suggestions of links to add.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 9:43 PM
XML newsfeed
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# posted by Greg Siskind @ 11:28 PM
Last week Nashville, Tennessee Mayor Bill Purcell made national news vetoing an English-only bill. Attempts to override veto in the city council were defeated handily yesterday and Nashville's rather complicated referendum rules will prevent a public vote until at least November 2008.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 9:57 PM
Sunday, February 18, 2007
THEY ARE AMERICA
The New York Times has an excellent lead editorial this morning calling on Americans to view immigrants humanely. The newspaper has had some of the best coverage on the immigration debate and the editorial page at the Times has been regularly writing about immigration even when it is not in the headlines. Some of the most poignant passages in the piece are below:
A lot has happened since then. The country has summoned great energy to confront the immigration problem, but most of it has been misplaced, crudely and unevenly applied. It seeks not to solve the conundrum of a broken immigration system, but to subdue, in a million ways, the vulnerable men and women who are part of it. Government at all levels is working to keep unwanted immigrants in their place — on the other side of the border, in detention or in fear, toiling silently in the underground economy without recourse to the laws and protections the native-born expect.
***
Hopelessly fixated on toughness, the immigration debate has lost its balance, overlooking the humanity of the immigrant. There is a starkly diminished understanding that hospitality for the stranger is part of the American ethos, and that as much as we claim to be a nation of immigrants, we have thwarted them at every turn. We must do better.
***
Enforcement of laws cannot be ignored. Punish immigrants who enter illegally, make them pay back taxes and fines, restrict their ability to get work through deceit and false identities. But open a path to their full inclusion in the life of this country.
The alternative — the path of immigrant exploitation, of harassment without hope — will only repeat the ways the country has shamed itself at countless points in its history.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 8:16 AM
Thursday, February 15, 2007
AP: US BLOCKED ANNE FRANK'S FATHER FROM BRINGING FAMILY TO AMERICA
Here is a case that should give some people pause when it comes to the tragedy that is America's current refugee and asylum policy. The Associated Press has reported that YIVO, the American Jewish archival agency, has recently discovered a letter from Otto Frank to a friend in the US along with 100,000 other Holocaust era documents.
One passage from Frank's letter reads:
"I would not ask if conditions here would not force me to do all I can in time to be able to avoid worse," Otto Frank wrote to his college friend Nathan Straus in April 1941. "It is for the sake of the children mainly that we have to care for. Our own fate is of less importance."
According to the AP:
"The documents show how Frank tried to arrange for his family—wife Edith, daughters Margot and Anne and mother-in-law Rosa Hollander—to go to the U.S. or Cuba. He wrote to relatives, friends and officials between April 30, 1941, and Dec. 11, 1941, when Germany declared war on the U.S.
But immigration rules were changing under the Nazi regime and in the U.S. There were nearly 300,000 people on a waiting list for a U.S. immigration visa. Besides, since Frank had living relatives in Germany, he would have been unable to immigrate under U.S. policy at the time."
After World War II, the United Nations passed an international treaty on refugees that obligates signatories, including the US, to take refugees in situations similar to the Frank family. But in recent years, the US has so tightened its asylum policies, that many are questioning whether the US is going back to its prewar ways.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 7:42 AM
DOL: EIGHT MONTHS AND THE BACKLOG WILL BE GONE ON LABOR CERTS
The US Department of Labor claims it will be done with the hundreds of thousands of backlogged pre-PERM labor certification cases in eight months. I'm pretty skeptical, but wish them well.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 12:17 AM
Sunday, February 11, 2007
PRESIDENT PUTS ANOTHER PLUG IN FOR GUEST WORKER PROGRAM
President Bush spoke Friday on priorities for Homeland Security. In comments regarding securing US borders, the President made hit home the point that it will be a lot easier to protect the country when the Border Patrol can focus on terrorists and criminals if they are not chasing people crossing for jobs:
This department works to secure our borders. I appreciate very much, Ralph, you and your department's hard work of doing a difficult job, and that is doing what the American people expect and that is to have secure borders. But we're making good progress. We're modernizing a border that needed to be modernized, whether it be through fencing or the different types of high-tech investments.
I firmly believe that in order for your Border Patrol agents to be able to do their job, we need a guest worker program so that people don't have to sneak in our country, and therefore, we can really enable your good folks to be able to focus on terrorism, drug runners, gun runners.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 2:40 PM
SENATOR COLLINS TO INTRODUCE BILL DELAYING REAL ID ACT
Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) is introducing a bill to delay implementation of the drivers license requirement from the REAL ID Act of 2005. Congress passed legislation requiring uniformity in drivers licenses and also barring out of status aliens from getting licenses.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 1:06 PM
Friday, February 09, 2007
OUR BLOG IS ONE OF THE TOP 100 MOST POPULAR LAW BLOGS IN AMERICA
We seem to make the list of the 100 most popular law blogs on Bloglines
, the largest aggregator of feeds on the web. Only a small number of the blogs are actually lawyer blogs and we're the only immigration law blog on the list. We're in nice company as well. Many of the blogs are those of the most famous legal scholars in the country including Judge Richard Posner and Professor Lawrence Lessig.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 7:48 PM
Sunday, February 04, 2007
OHIO SENATOR INTRODUCES BILL TO EXPAND VISA WAIVER TO ALLIES IN WAR ON TERROR
Senator George V. Voinovich (R-OH), a member of the Foreign Relations Committee and the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, introduced a bill to extend the Visa Waiver Program to countries that cooperate with the US in fighting terrorism.
The Secure Travel and Counterterrorism Partnership Act of 2006 has bipartisan supportwith Senators Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI), Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) all signing on as original co-sponsors.
According to Voinovich:
There are many countries helping us thwart terrorism around the world and they should be rewarded for their continued cooperation. This legislation will improve both our national security and economic interests while helping to solidify these relationships and improve good will toward the United States for years to come. I will work closely with the administration and my colleagues in the Senate as we move forward to show our allies that we appreciate their help in this historic fight.
The bill would authorize the Department of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Department of State, to expand the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) to nations supporting the United States and that "are prepared to do everything in their power to help keep terrorists from crossing our borders."
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 7:48 PM
Saturday, February 03, 2007
MAJOR REPORT CALLS FOR U.S. TO BECOME MORE WELCOMING TO FOREIGN TOURISTS
Discover America Partnership, a consortium of leaders of some of America's leading companies, has released a report entitled "Blueprint to Discover America" that lays out a number of proposals to increase the number of foreign tourists entering the country and to make the visa application process more user friendly. The report addresses the growing reputation of the US as being unwelcoming. Thousands of interviews were conducted and the conclusion was clear - America has the world's worst entry process. The report lays out dozens of practical and achievable tactics for transforming the entry process and making the US once again the world's top tourist destination.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 9:12 PM
Friday, February 02, 2007
LOFGREN QUESTIONS USCIS FEE INCREASES
Here's the first example of the new tone in Congress when it comes to immigration issues. Immigration Subcommittee Chairmen in recent years typically focused entirely on enforcement issues and could care less about how immigrants were treated. New chair Zoe Lofgren, on the other hand, seems to be interested in striking a different tone. Yesterday Lofgren released this statement regarding the shocking new fee increases from USCIS:
Although I want to ensure that USCIS has the necessary resources to carry out its mission, the scope and scale of this fee increase on immigration applications raises many questions for me. I plan to carefully examine the USCIS’s new study and the justification for this increase with my colleagues on the Immigration Subcommittee before its implementation. Changes in the current fee structure must be fair and reasonable.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 8:12 AM
Thursday, February 01, 2007
SSB FASHION, ARTS & SPORTS IMMIGRATION PORTAL DEBUTS
We are pleased to announce the completion of the new Visalaw Fashion, Arts and Sports Immigration portal at Visalaw.com. This new section of our web site is the only one of its kind on the Internet and there are numerous free resources that many will find invaluable. Unique offerings are charts of peer organizations for O-1 and P-1 cases, spreadsheets with links to more than 100 AAO cases, links to dozens of articles on fashion, arts and sports visa matters and much more. We welcome your comments, especially suggestions of links to add.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 9:43 PM
XML newsfeed
archives
09/2003
10/2003
11/2003
01/2004
02/2004
03/2004
04/2004
05/2004
06/2004
07/2004
08/2004
09/2004
10/2004
11/2004
12/2004
01/2005
02/2005
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01/2008
02/2008
03/2008
06/2008
01/2009
A lot has happened since then. The country has summoned great energy to confront the immigration problem, but most of it has been misplaced, crudely and unevenly applied. It seeks not to solve the conundrum of a broken immigration system, but to subdue, in a million ways, the vulnerable men and women who are part of it. Government at all levels is working to keep unwanted immigrants in their place — on the other side of the border, in detention or in fear, toiling silently in the underground economy without recourse to the laws and protections the native-born expect.
***
Hopelessly fixated on toughness, the immigration debate has lost its balance, overlooking the humanity of the immigrant. There is a starkly diminished understanding that hospitality for the stranger is part of the American ethos, and that as much as we claim to be a nation of immigrants, we have thwarted them at every turn. We must do better.
***
Enforcement of laws cannot be ignored. Punish immigrants who enter illegally, make them pay back taxes and fines, restrict their ability to get work through deceit and false identities. But open a path to their full inclusion in the life of this country.
The alternative — the path of immigrant exploitation, of harassment without hope — will only repeat the ways the country has shamed itself at countless points in its history.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 8:16 AM
Here is a case that should give some people pause when it comes to the tragedy that is America's current refugee and asylum policy. The Associated Press has reported that YIVO, the American Jewish archival agency, has recently discovered a letter from Otto Frank to a friend in the US along with 100,000 other Holocaust era documents.
One passage from Frank's letter reads:
According to the AP:
After World War II, the United Nations passed an international treaty on refugees that obligates signatories, including the US, to take refugees in situations similar to the Frank family. But in recent years, the US has so tightened its asylum policies, that many are questioning whether the US is going back to its prewar ways.
One passage from Frank's letter reads:
"I would not ask if conditions here would not force me to do all I can in time to be able to avoid worse," Otto Frank wrote to his college friend Nathan Straus in April 1941. "It is for the sake of the children mainly that we have to care for. Our own fate is of less importance."
According to the AP:
"The documents show how Frank tried to arrange for his family—wife Edith, daughters Margot and Anne and mother-in-law Rosa Hollander—to go to the U.S. or Cuba. He wrote to relatives, friends and officials between April 30, 1941, and Dec. 11, 1941, when Germany declared war on the U.S.
But immigration rules were changing under the Nazi regime and in the U.S. There were nearly 300,000 people on a waiting list for a U.S. immigration visa. Besides, since Frank had living relatives in Germany, he would have been unable to immigrate under U.S. policy at the time."
After World War II, the United Nations passed an international treaty on refugees that obligates signatories, including the US, to take refugees in situations similar to the Frank family. But in recent years, the US has so tightened its asylum policies, that many are questioning whether the US is going back to its prewar ways.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 7:42 AM
DOL: EIGHT MONTHS AND THE BACKLOG WILL BE GONE ON LABOR CERTS
The US Department of Labor claims it will be done with the hundreds of thousands of backlogged pre-PERM labor certification cases in eight months. I'm pretty skeptical, but wish them well.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 12:17 AM
Sunday, February 11, 2007
PRESIDENT PUTS ANOTHER PLUG IN FOR GUEST WORKER PROGRAM
President Bush spoke Friday on priorities for Homeland Security. In comments regarding securing US borders, the President made hit home the point that it will be a lot easier to protect the country when the Border Patrol can focus on terrorists and criminals if they are not chasing people crossing for jobs:
This department works to secure our borders. I appreciate very much, Ralph, you and your department's hard work of doing a difficult job, and that is doing what the American people expect and that is to have secure borders. But we're making good progress. We're modernizing a border that needed to be modernized, whether it be through fencing or the different types of high-tech investments.
I firmly believe that in order for your Border Patrol agents to be able to do their job, we need a guest worker program so that people don't have to sneak in our country, and therefore, we can really enable your good folks to be able to focus on terrorism, drug runners, gun runners.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 2:40 PM
SENATOR COLLINS TO INTRODUCE BILL DELAYING REAL ID ACT
Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) is introducing a bill to delay implementation of the drivers license requirement from the REAL ID Act of 2005. Congress passed legislation requiring uniformity in drivers licenses and also barring out of status aliens from getting licenses.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 1:06 PM
Friday, February 09, 2007
OUR BLOG IS ONE OF THE TOP 100 MOST POPULAR LAW BLOGS IN AMERICA
We seem to make the list of the 100 most popular law blogs on Bloglines
, the largest aggregator of feeds on the web. Only a small number of the blogs are actually lawyer blogs and we're the only immigration law blog on the list. We're in nice company as well. Many of the blogs are those of the most famous legal scholars in the country including Judge Richard Posner and Professor Lawrence Lessig.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 7:48 PM
Sunday, February 04, 2007
OHIO SENATOR INTRODUCES BILL TO EXPAND VISA WAIVER TO ALLIES IN WAR ON TERROR
Senator George V. Voinovich (R-OH), a member of the Foreign Relations Committee and the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, introduced a bill to extend the Visa Waiver Program to countries that cooperate with the US in fighting terrorism.
The Secure Travel and Counterterrorism Partnership Act of 2006 has bipartisan supportwith Senators Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI), Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) all signing on as original co-sponsors.
According to Voinovich:
There are many countries helping us thwart terrorism around the world and they should be rewarded for their continued cooperation. This legislation will improve both our national security and economic interests while helping to solidify these relationships and improve good will toward the United States for years to come. I will work closely with the administration and my colleagues in the Senate as we move forward to show our allies that we appreciate their help in this historic fight.
The bill would authorize the Department of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Department of State, to expand the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) to nations supporting the United States and that "are prepared to do everything in their power to help keep terrorists from crossing our borders."
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 7:48 PM
Saturday, February 03, 2007
MAJOR REPORT CALLS FOR U.S. TO BECOME MORE WELCOMING TO FOREIGN TOURISTS
Discover America Partnership, a consortium of leaders of some of America's leading companies, has released a report entitled "Blueprint to Discover America" that lays out a number of proposals to increase the number of foreign tourists entering the country and to make the visa application process more user friendly. The report addresses the growing reputation of the US as being unwelcoming. Thousands of interviews were conducted and the conclusion was clear - America has the world's worst entry process. The report lays out dozens of practical and achievable tactics for transforming the entry process and making the US once again the world's top tourist destination.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 9:12 PM
Friday, February 02, 2007
LOFGREN QUESTIONS USCIS FEE INCREASES
Here's the first example of the new tone in Congress when it comes to immigration issues. Immigration Subcommittee Chairmen in recent years typically focused entirely on enforcement issues and could care less about how immigrants were treated. New chair Zoe Lofgren, on the other hand, seems to be interested in striking a different tone. Yesterday Lofgren released this statement regarding the shocking new fee increases from USCIS:
Although I want to ensure that USCIS has the necessary resources to carry out its mission, the scope and scale of this fee increase on immigration applications raises many questions for me. I plan to carefully examine the USCIS’s new study and the justification for this increase with my colleagues on the Immigration Subcommittee before its implementation. Changes in the current fee structure must be fair and reasonable.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 8:12 AM
Thursday, February 01, 2007
SSB FASHION, ARTS & SPORTS IMMIGRATION PORTAL DEBUTS
We are pleased to announce the completion of the new Visalaw Fashion, Arts and Sports Immigration portal at Visalaw.com. This new section of our web site is the only one of its kind on the Internet and there are numerous free resources that many will find invaluable. Unique offerings are charts of peer organizations for O-1 and P-1 cases, spreadsheets with links to more than 100 AAO cases, links to dozens of articles on fashion, arts and sports visa matters and much more. We welcome your comments, especially suggestions of links to add.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 9:43 PM
XML newsfeed
archives
09/2003
10/2003
11/2003
01/2004
02/2004
03/2004
04/2004
05/2004
06/2004
07/2004
08/2004
09/2004
10/2004
11/2004
12/2004
01/2005
02/2005
04/2005
05/2005
06/2005
08/2005
09/2005
10/2005
11/2005
12/2005
01/2006
02/2006
03/2006
04/2006
05/2006
06/2006
07/2006
08/2006
09/2006
10/2006
11/2006
12/2006
01/2007
02/2007
03/2007
04/2007
05/2007
06/2007
07/2007
09/2007
10/2007
11/2007
01/2008
02/2008
03/2008
06/2008
01/2009
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 12:17 AM
President Bush spoke Friday on priorities for Homeland Security. In comments regarding securing US borders, the President made hit home the point that it will be a lot easier to protect the country when the Border Patrol can focus on terrorists and criminals if they are not chasing people crossing for jobs:
This department works to secure our borders. I appreciate very much, Ralph, you and your department's hard work of doing a difficult job, and that is doing what the American people expect and that is to have secure borders. But we're making good progress. We're modernizing a border that needed to be modernized, whether it be through fencing or the different types of high-tech investments.
I firmly believe that in order for your Border Patrol agents to be able to do their job, we need a guest worker program so that people don't have to sneak in our country, and therefore, we can really enable your good folks to be able to focus on terrorism, drug runners, gun runners.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 2:40 PM
SENATOR COLLINS TO INTRODUCE BILL DELAYING REAL ID ACT
Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) is introducing a bill to delay implementation of the drivers license requirement from the REAL ID Act of 2005. Congress passed legislation requiring uniformity in drivers licenses and also barring out of status aliens from getting licenses.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 1:06 PM
Friday, February 09, 2007
OUR BLOG IS ONE OF THE TOP 100 MOST POPULAR LAW BLOGS IN AMERICA
We seem to make the list of the 100 most popular law blogs on Bloglines
, the largest aggregator of feeds on the web. Only a small number of the blogs are actually lawyer blogs and we're the only immigration law blog on the list. We're in nice company as well. Many of the blogs are those of the most famous legal scholars in the country including Judge Richard Posner and Professor Lawrence Lessig.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 7:48 PM
Sunday, February 04, 2007
OHIO SENATOR INTRODUCES BILL TO EXPAND VISA WAIVER TO ALLIES IN WAR ON TERROR
Senator George V. Voinovich (R-OH), a member of the Foreign Relations Committee and the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, introduced a bill to extend the Visa Waiver Program to countries that cooperate with the US in fighting terrorism.
The Secure Travel and Counterterrorism Partnership Act of 2006 has bipartisan supportwith Senators Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI), Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) all signing on as original co-sponsors.
According to Voinovich:
There are many countries helping us thwart terrorism around the world and they should be rewarded for their continued cooperation. This legislation will improve both our national security and economic interests while helping to solidify these relationships and improve good will toward the United States for years to come. I will work closely with the administration and my colleagues in the Senate as we move forward to show our allies that we appreciate their help in this historic fight.
The bill would authorize the Department of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Department of State, to expand the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) to nations supporting the United States and that "are prepared to do everything in their power to help keep terrorists from crossing our borders."
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 7:48 PM
Saturday, February 03, 2007
MAJOR REPORT CALLS FOR U.S. TO BECOME MORE WELCOMING TO FOREIGN TOURISTS
Discover America Partnership, a consortium of leaders of some of America's leading companies, has released a report entitled "Blueprint to Discover America" that lays out a number of proposals to increase the number of foreign tourists entering the country and to make the visa application process more user friendly. The report addresses the growing reputation of the US as being unwelcoming. Thousands of interviews were conducted and the conclusion was clear - America has the world's worst entry process. The report lays out dozens of practical and achievable tactics for transforming the entry process and making the US once again the world's top tourist destination.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 9:12 PM
Friday, February 02, 2007
LOFGREN QUESTIONS USCIS FEE INCREASES
Here's the first example of the new tone in Congress when it comes to immigration issues. Immigration Subcommittee Chairmen in recent years typically focused entirely on enforcement issues and could care less about how immigrants were treated. New chair Zoe Lofgren, on the other hand, seems to be interested in striking a different tone. Yesterday Lofgren released this statement regarding the shocking new fee increases from USCIS:
Although I want to ensure that USCIS has the necessary resources to carry out its mission, the scope and scale of this fee increase on immigration applications raises many questions for me. I plan to carefully examine the USCIS’s new study and the justification for this increase with my colleagues on the Immigration Subcommittee before its implementation. Changes in the current fee structure must be fair and reasonable.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 8:12 AM
Thursday, February 01, 2007
SSB FASHION, ARTS & SPORTS IMMIGRATION PORTAL DEBUTS
We are pleased to announce the completion of the new Visalaw Fashion, Arts and Sports Immigration portal at Visalaw.com. This new section of our web site is the only one of its kind on the Internet and there are numerous free resources that many will find invaluable. Unique offerings are charts of peer organizations for O-1 and P-1 cases, spreadsheets with links to more than 100 AAO cases, links to dozens of articles on fashion, arts and sports visa matters and much more. We welcome your comments, especially suggestions of links to add.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 9:43 PM
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# posted by Greg Siskind @ 1:06 PM
We seem to make the
list of the 100 most popular law blogs on Bloglines, the largest aggregator of feeds on the web. Only a small number of the blogs are actually lawyer blogs and we're the only immigration law blog on the list. We're in nice company as well. Many of the blogs are those of the most famous legal scholars in the country including Judge Richard Posner and Professor Lawrence Lessig.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 7:48 PM
Sunday, February 04, 2007
OHIO SENATOR INTRODUCES BILL TO EXPAND VISA WAIVER TO ALLIES IN WAR ON TERROR
Senator George V. Voinovich (R-OH), a member of the Foreign Relations Committee and the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, introduced a bill to extend the Visa Waiver Program to countries that cooperate with the US in fighting terrorism.
The Secure Travel and Counterterrorism Partnership Act of 2006 has bipartisan supportwith Senators Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI), Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) all signing on as original co-sponsors.
According to Voinovich:
There are many countries helping us thwart terrorism around the world and they should be rewarded for their continued cooperation. This legislation will improve both our national security and economic interests while helping to solidify these relationships and improve good will toward the United States for years to come. I will work closely with the administration and my colleagues in the Senate as we move forward to show our allies that we appreciate their help in this historic fight.
The bill would authorize the Department of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Department of State, to expand the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) to nations supporting the United States and that "are prepared to do everything in their power to help keep terrorists from crossing our borders."
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 7:48 PM
Saturday, February 03, 2007
MAJOR REPORT CALLS FOR U.S. TO BECOME MORE WELCOMING TO FOREIGN TOURISTS
Discover America Partnership, a consortium of leaders of some of America's leading companies, has released a report entitled "Blueprint to Discover America" that lays out a number of proposals to increase the number of foreign tourists entering the country and to make the visa application process more user friendly. The report addresses the growing reputation of the US as being unwelcoming. Thousands of interviews were conducted and the conclusion was clear - America has the world's worst entry process. The report lays out dozens of practical and achievable tactics for transforming the entry process and making the US once again the world's top tourist destination.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 9:12 PM
Friday, February 02, 2007
LOFGREN QUESTIONS USCIS FEE INCREASES
Here's the first example of the new tone in Congress when it comes to immigration issues. Immigration Subcommittee Chairmen in recent years typically focused entirely on enforcement issues and could care less about how immigrants were treated. New chair Zoe Lofgren, on the other hand, seems to be interested in striking a different tone. Yesterday Lofgren released this statement regarding the shocking new fee increases from USCIS:
Although I want to ensure that USCIS has the necessary resources to carry out its mission, the scope and scale of this fee increase on immigration applications raises many questions for me. I plan to carefully examine the USCIS’s new study and the justification for this increase with my colleagues on the Immigration Subcommittee before its implementation. Changes in the current fee structure must be fair and reasonable.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 8:12 AM
Thursday, February 01, 2007
SSB FASHION, ARTS & SPORTS IMMIGRATION PORTAL DEBUTS
We are pleased to announce the completion of the new Visalaw Fashion, Arts and Sports Immigration portal at Visalaw.com. This new section of our web site is the only one of its kind on the Internet and there are numerous free resources that many will find invaluable. Unique offerings are charts of peer organizations for O-1 and P-1 cases, spreadsheets with links to more than 100 AAO cases, links to dozens of articles on fashion, arts and sports visa matters and much more. We welcome your comments, especially suggestions of links to add.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 9:43 PM
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The Secure Travel and Counterterrorism Partnership Act of 2006 has bipartisan supportwith Senators Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI), Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) all signing on as original co-sponsors.
According to Voinovich:
There are many countries helping us thwart terrorism around the world and they should be rewarded for their continued cooperation. This legislation will improve both our national security and economic interests while helping to solidify these relationships and improve good will toward the United States for years to come. I will work closely with the administration and my colleagues in the Senate as we move forward to show our allies that we appreciate their help in this historic fight.
The bill would authorize the Department of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Department of State, to expand the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) to nations supporting the United States and that "are prepared to do everything in their power to help keep terrorists from crossing our borders."
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 7:48 PM
Discover America Partnership, a consortium of leaders of some of America's leading companies, has released a report entitled "Blueprint to Discover America" that lays out a number of proposals to increase the number of foreign tourists entering the country and to make the visa application process more user friendly. The report addresses the growing reputation of the US as being unwelcoming. Thousands of interviews were conducted and the conclusion was clear - America has the world's worst entry process. The report lays out dozens of practical and achievable tactics for transforming the entry process and making the US once again the world's top tourist destination.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 9:12 PM
Friday, February 02, 2007
LOFGREN QUESTIONS USCIS FEE INCREASES
Here's the first example of the new tone in Congress when it comes to immigration issues. Immigration Subcommittee Chairmen in recent years typically focused entirely on enforcement issues and could care less about how immigrants were treated. New chair Zoe Lofgren, on the other hand, seems to be interested in striking a different tone. Yesterday Lofgren released this statement regarding the shocking new fee increases from USCIS:
Although I want to ensure that USCIS has the necessary resources to carry out its mission, the scope and scale of this fee increase on immigration applications raises many questions for me. I plan to carefully examine the USCIS’s new study and the justification for this increase with my colleagues on the Immigration Subcommittee before its implementation. Changes in the current fee structure must be fair and reasonable.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 8:12 AM
Thursday, February 01, 2007
SSB FASHION, ARTS & SPORTS IMMIGRATION PORTAL DEBUTS
We are pleased to announce the completion of the new Visalaw Fashion, Arts and Sports Immigration portal at Visalaw.com. This new section of our web site is the only one of its kind on the Internet and there are numerous free resources that many will find invaluable. Unique offerings are charts of peer organizations for O-1 and P-1 cases, spreadsheets with links to more than 100 AAO cases, links to dozens of articles on fashion, arts and sports visa matters and much more. We welcome your comments, especially suggestions of links to add.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 9:43 PM
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Although I want to ensure that USCIS has the necessary resources to carry out its mission, the scope and scale of this fee increase on immigration applications raises many questions for me. I plan to carefully examine the USCIS’s new study and the justification for this increase with my colleagues on the Immigration Subcommittee before its implementation. Changes in the current fee structure must be fair and reasonable.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 8:12 AM
We are pleased to announce the completion of the new Visalaw Fashion, Arts and Sports Immigration portal at Visalaw.com. This new section of our web site is the only one of its kind on the Internet and there are numerous free resources that many will find invaluable. Unique offerings are charts of peer organizations for O-1 and P-1 cases, spreadsheets with links to more than 100 AAO cases, links to dozens of articles on fashion, arts and sports visa matters and much more. We welcome your comments, especially suggestions of links to add.
# posted by Greg Siskind @ 9:43 PM
XML newsfeed
archives
09/2003
10/2003
11/2003
01/2004
02/2004
03/2004
04/2004
05/2004
06/2004
07/2004
08/2004
09/2004
10/2004
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