immigration reform

25 07, 2019

Expedited Deportation for Undocumented Recent Arrivals

By |2020-05-01T14:26:47-05:00July 25th, 2019|Categories: Amnesty for Immigrants in the U.S., Asylum in the United States, Customs and Border Patrol / Travel to and from the U.S., DHS / Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), General, Immigration and Criminal Law / Detainees, immigration reform, Removal / Deportation Proceedings and Court Hearings, U.S. Immigration Law and Legislation, Undocumented Immigrants and Workers in the U.S.|

Published July 24, 2019 The number of foreign nationals living in the U.S. in violation of our immigration laws is estimated to be in the area of 12 million. Whether they overstayed their visa status or entered without any visa or inspection at all, these are the individuals our society deems “undocumented”, or in some circles, “illegal aliens”.  No matter the label, the vast majority of these individuals have a right to a hearing before a judge where a variety of defenses can be considered, including cancellation of removal (for longtime undocumented residents with qualifying U.S. family) and asylum. Among the [...]

11 07, 2019

DACA’s Future Hangs in the Balance At the U.S. Supreme Court

By |2020-05-01T14:31:00-05:00July 11th, 2019|Categories: Amnesty for Immigrants in the U.S., Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), DHS / Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), DHS / Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Employment Authorization / Work Cards in the U.S., Green Cards, immigration reform, Lawful Permanent Residence in the U.S., Removal / Deportation Proceedings and Court Hearings, U.S. Immigration Law and Legislation, Uncategorized, Undocumented Immigrants and Workers in the U.S.|

Published July 11, 2019 In recent weeks, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it has accepted several consolidated DACA related cases for consideration and in October will hear arguments about DACA’s future. Obama Giveth, Trump Seeks to Taketh Away: To review, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was instituted in 2012 by way of then President Obama’s Executive Order.  Through the DACA program, individuals who arrived in the U.S. while under the age of 16, completed high school here (or equivalent), are without any serious criminal convictions and met other requirements, became eligible to obtain a version of legal [...]

29 06, 2019

Deporting Millions, Deporting 2,000 – Same Thing

By |2020-05-01T14:35:34-05:00June 29th, 2019|Categories: Customs and Border Patrol / Travel to and from the U.S., DHS / Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), General, Immigration and Criminal Law / Detainees, immigration reform, Lawful Permanent Residence in the U.S., Removal / Deportation Proceedings and Court Hearings, U.S. Immigration Law and Legislation, Uncategorized, Undocumented Immigrants and Workers in the U.S.|

Published June 29, 2019 On June 17, 2019, President Donald Trump tweeted one of the scarier official presidential communications I have heard in my lifetime: “Next week ICE will begin the process of removing the millions of illegal aliens who have illicitly found their way into the United States. They will be removed as fast as they come in. Mexico, using their strong immigration laws, is doing a very good job of stopping people.......” Once I read this, I was trying to figure out exactly what that meant.   I know there are approximately 12 million foreign nationals residing in the U.S. [...]

20 06, 2019

As Expected – Expanded Supply of H-2B Temporary Workers Visas Is Quickly Exhausted

By |2020-05-01T14:37:52-05:00June 20th, 2019|Categories: DHS / Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Employment Authorization / Work Cards in the U.S., immigration reform, Non-Immigrant Visas for Temporary Workers / H-1B, U.S. Immigration Law and Legislation, Undocumented Immigrants and Workers in the U.S.|

Published June 20, 2019   Ask anyone who works as a manager in the manufacturing or service industries and they will tell you that it is next to impossible to find U.S. workers to fill positions, both skilled and unskilled, and even at a competitive wage.   This speaks volumes about many societal issues, including that our economy appears to be robust, and there is a shortage of workers ready, willing and able to fill positions at companies.  The latest barometer of this state of affairs is that the expanded supply of an additional 30,000 just released visas for H-2B Temporary Foreign [...]

30 05, 2019

Social Security Administration Issues More Than 500,000 “No Match” Letters To Employers

By |2020-05-01T14:54:17-05:00May 30th, 2019|Categories: General, Amnesty for Immigrants in the U.S., DHS / Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), DHS / Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Employment Authorization / Work Cards in the U.S., Employment-Based Immigration Law, Green Cards, Immigrant Health Care Workers in the U.S., immigration reform, Non-Immigrant Visas for Temporary Workers / H-1B, U.S. Immigration Law and Legislation, Uncategorized, Undocumented Immigrants and Workers in the U.S.|

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Published May 30, 2019   When a company lists an employee on their payroll, pays payroll taxes and issues them a Form W-2, the federal government is officially notified of that individual's status as a U.S. worker.    For an estimated 8 million workers though, this process is an avenue through which the federal government is UNofficially notified of the employment of undocumented workers.  That is because many of these workers are either providing fake names, fake social security numbers or another person’s identification – all necessary means for the employer to offer them a job and for the worker to take [...]

19 05, 2019

Making U.S. Immigration Great Again

By |2020-05-01T15:02:45-05:00May 19th, 2019|Categories: Amnesty for Immigrants in the U.S., Asylum in the United States, Citizenship / Naturalization and the N-400 Application, Conditional Permanent Residence Based on Marriage, Customs and Border Patrol / Travel to and from the U.S., Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), DHS / Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Employment Authorization / Work Cards in the U.S., Employment-Based Immigration Law, Family-Based Immigration Law, Green Cards, immigration reform, Lawful Permanent Residence in the U.S., Non-Immigrant Visas for Temporary Workers / H-1B, Removal / Deportation Proceedings and Court Hearings, U.S. Immigration Law and Legislation, Undocumented Immigrants and Workers in the U.S.|

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Published May 19, 2019   I started practicing immigration law in the decade that followed the Reagan era’s 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, the last large scale immigration amnesty in the U.S. Through this legislation, roughly 3 million undocumented, but otherwise law abiding, individuals were able to come out of the shadows and officially start their lives as U.S. lawful permanent residents. Eventually, the vast majority eventually went on to become U.S. citizens. Existing statutory avenues toward U.S. residence have allowed for approximately 1 million new permanent residents to the U.S. per year. In addition to these avenues to legal [...]

3 04, 2019

No Dark Courtrooms

By |2020-05-01T15:38:42-05:00April 3rd, 2019|Categories: DHS / Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), immigration reform, Removal / Deportation Proceedings and Court Hearings, U.S. Immigration Law and Legislation, Undocumented Immigrants and Workers in the U.S.|

  Published April 3, 2019 No Dark Courtrooms is a U.S. Department of Justice/Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) initiative to “reduce and minimize the impact of unused courtrooms and docket time” in the administration of removal proceedings.   The launch date of the initiative is May 1, 2019 and its goal is to allow DOJ/EOIR (the agency overseeing our nation’s removal proceedings) resources to be used more efficiently and to tackle the 850,000+ docket of cases now pending.     To take advantage of new Immigration Judge hiring in the past few years and the abundance of open courtrooms in many jurisdictions, EOIR will be scheduling more […]

3 04, 2019

U.S. Senate Once Again Proposes Path to Legalization for Dreamers

By |2020-05-01T15:39:35-05:00April 3rd, 2019|Categories: Amnesty for Immigrants in the U.S., Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), DHS / Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Employment Authorization / Work Cards in the U.S., immigration reform, Lawful Permanent Residence in the U.S., Removal / Deportation Proceedings and Court Hearings, U.S. Immigration Law and Legislation, Undocumented Immigrants and Workers in the U.S.|

  Published April 3, 2019 The Dream Act of 2019 was recently introduced by U.S. Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill, 2 Senate leaders who introduced the same legislation in years past.   If enacted, the Dream Act would make available a path to lawful permanent residence (green card) to certain longtime residents who arrived in the U.S. as children, completed or are completing high school diploma requirements, worked legally for at least three years or served in the military, pass a background check, and demonstrate proficiency in English and U.S. history.  Applicants will be required to pay a filing fee and […]

24 03, 2019

The Top 6 Reasons to Hire An Immigration Lawyer

By |2020-05-01T15:42:07-05:00March 24th, 2019|Categories: Citizenship / Naturalization and the N-400 Application, Conditional Permanent Residence Based on Marriage, DHS / Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), DHS / Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Employment Authorization / Work Cards in the U.S., Employment-Based Immigration Law, Family-Based Immigration Law, General, Green Cards, Immigrant Health Care Workers in the U.S., Immigrant Visas for Spouse / Fiancee / Child Visas, Immigration and Criminal Law / Detainees, Immigration and PERM / Labor Certification, immigration reform, Lawful Permanent Residence in the U.S., Non-Immigrant Visas for Temporary Workers / H-1B, Removal / Deportation Proceedings and Court Hearings, U.S. Immigration Law and Legislation, Uncategorized, Undocumented Immigrants and Workers in the U.S.|

  Published March 24, 2019 Whether the goal is U.S. citizenship via naturalization, lawful permanent residence (green card) or the issuance of a temporary visa – such as a work visa, having an immigration lawyer be a part of the legal process can sometimes be extraordinarily helpful and in other times, absolutely essential.  The job of the immigration lawyer can best be summed up as follows:  A) to keep simple, straightforward cases…..simple and straightforward, B) to devise and implement a thoughtful strategy for cases involving more complex factual or legal issues and C) to provide a client with the type of […]

2 11, 2018

Trump Looks To End Birthright Citizenship

By |2018-11-02T20:01:10-05:00November 2nd, 2018|Categories: Citizenship / Naturalization and the N-400 Application, Family-Based Immigration Law, General, immigration reform, U.S. Immigration Law and Legislation, Uncategorized, Undocumented Immigrants and Workers in the U.S.|

Published November 2, 2018   The experts have already chimed in to advise that his plan is contrary to basic constitutional law, but that has not stopped Donald Trump from announcing in recent days that he will issue an executive order putting a halt to birthright citizenship, i.e. the rule that all children born in the U.S., with few exceptions, are born as U.S. citizens.   Most see the President’s announcement as a purely political stunt in order to bolster support among his base to vote Republican in the coming midterm elections and to maximize their chances of maintaining control of Congress.  […]

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