Openers

Dear Readers:

The major immigration story this week is the Department of Homeland's decision to temporarily pull the plug on the Transit Without Visa and International-to-International programs that have been in place in this country for more than half a century. These programs allow passengers coming from outside the US to connect in the US to flights to other international destinations without having to have a visa. The Bush Administration received very specific warnings that terrorists might try to exploit security holes in the program to hijack a plane in the US. So they have decided to temporarily halt the program while they review the security gaps. We think this is a prudent step as long as the suspension is truly viewed as a way to fix the problems rather than an excuse to kill an economically important program.

Readers may be interested in knowing that I was invited by USA Today to author an editorial in today's newspaper on the end of the transit programs. The articles are linked on the web at http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2003-08-03-oppose_x.htm. I know there are many opinions on this issue and I'd be interested in getting reader feedback. Feel free to email your thoughts to me at gsiskind@visalaw.com.

The nearly 40,000 readers of this newsletter represent a wide range of expertise on immigration. Many people are completely unfamiliar with immigration and our newsletter is the vehicle for educating themselves on the topic. Our ABCs articles are designed to help novice readers and others learn the basics of immigration law. Today we get back to the real basics - understanding the terminology of immigration law. We begin a series of ABCs article this week helping readers to understand immigration terms.

We also report this week on hearings in Congress on the L-1 visa. Some in Congress are concerned that employers are using the L-1 visa to avoid hiring otherwise qualified US workers. We don't think there are any "legs" to this theory and, hopefully, rashly considered changes are not on the way. My friend Steve Yale-Loehr was invited to testify. Steve is one of America's brightest immigration lawyers and is also the co-author with me of the J-1 Visa Guidebook.

Finally, as always, we remind readers that we're lawyers who make our living representing immigration clients. We would love to discuss becoming your law firm. Just go to http://www.visalaw.com/intake.html to request an appointment or call us at 800-748-3819 or 901-682-6455.

Regards,

Greg Siskind