Immigration Law

500 EMPLOYER AUDITS COMING THIS WEEK

Posted on September 19, 2010
The American Immigration Lawyers Association is reporting that Immigration and Customs Enforcement informed the bar organization that 500 employers will receive audit notices this coming week. And the audits are not random. They'll be based on leads that companies are employing illegally present workers or violating labor laws.

WHY ATTACHING THE DREAM ACT TO THE DEFENSE BUDGET BILL IS APPROPRIATE

Posted on September 19, 2010
The Wall Street Journal quotes my friend Margaret Stock who explains why. In an interview, Rep. Steve King (R., Iowa) accused Sen. Reid of attempting to use a "must-pass" defense bill to ram through an amnesty. Supporters of the bill, including many with close ties to the military and higher education, see it differently...

SEIU UNION AND PROGRESSIVE ACTIVISTS TO BLAST CONGRESS ON MONDAY

Posted on September 17, 2010
A major development and this could be the most widespread grassroots pro-immigration effort to date. The SEIU has a strong record for supporting immigration reform as does the Daily Kos blog. Glad to see they're teaming up.

KOBACH MOVING ON TO A NEW AREA OF UNCONSTITUTIONAL LAW DRAFTING

Posted on September 16, 2010
Now he's discovered restricting the rights of natural born US citizens who have parents with immigration problems. I highly suggest any states or local governments working with him get indemnified for the costs of defending the lawsuits which will inevitably be lost.

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

BENNETT AND HATCH TO VOTE NO ON DREAM ACT

Posted on September 16, 2010
This is really hypocritical. Three years ago, Utah Republicans Orrin Hatch and Robert Bennett voted to add the DREAM Act to that year's defense spending bill. After all, there are provisions in the DREAM Act that permit eligibility in exchange for serving in the military...

IS DREAM BACK ON THE TABLE?

Posted on September 15, 2010
Readers have already posted in the comments, but it's worth bumping up to its own post. Harry Reid is going to try to get a vote as early as next week to include the DREAM Act on a Department of Defense appropriations bill. The measure could fail because Republicans who are potential supporters but afraid to take a pro-immigration position could argue that including the measure in the Defense bill is the wrong way to proceed...

H-1B EXHAUSTION TARGET: MARCH 15, 2011

Posted on September 15, 2010
New numbers are out on H-1B usage and the past week showed last week's substantial pickup was just noise. Only 800 visas were claimed against the 65,000 cap, half of last week's total and somewhat less than the typical weekly usage we've seen over the summer...

GUTIERREZ: SUPPORT FOR RAHM'S MAYORAL RUN TIED TO DREAM ACT

Posted on September 15, 2010
Very intriguing. Here's the lowdown from HuffPostHill: Luis Gutierrez, Nydia Velazquez and Bob Menendez will meet with the president tomorrow at 2:30 to talk immigration reform. Gutierrez says he'll push Obama to use his muscle to get the DREAM Act through Congress...

NYT EDITORIAL: REVAMP LEGAL IMMIGRATION SYSTEM WITH AUCTIONS

Posted on September 14, 2010
A little out of the box thinking. There are some useful ideas here even if there are many practical questions on how the plan would work. For one, is a highest bidder system necessarily the best indicator of which employers are most deserving of securing visas...

CHAMPION TENNIS PLAYER REGULARLY SUBJECTED TO GRILLING AT US PORTS OF ENTRY

Posted on September 13, 2010
Reuters talks to Pakistani tennis star Aisam ul-Haq, who made it to the men's doubles finals of the US Open this week about his immigration problems entering the US. He seems to maintain a positive attitude despite being regularly grilled by US immigration officials...

NATIONAL PARKS ACROSS AMERICA TO HOST NATURALIZATION CEREMONIES

Posted on September 13, 2010
Two of my favorite things about America joined up! From the Grand Canyon to Yosemite to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to Great Smoky Mountains National Park in my part of the world, the United States has one of the world's great national park collections with spectacular beauty and millions of square miles protected from development...

CALL FOR INFORMATION

Posted on September 12, 2010
Have any experienced or know of others who have experienced the situation where a university has refused to accept a US passport as proof of citizenship and demanded a certificate of citizenship? This is likely unlawful and I'm trying to help a lawyer working on trying to resolve this problem...

CONSULATES SUDDENLY TARGETING K-1 FIANCÉ APPLICANTS

Posted on September 12, 2010
My friend Paul Parsons, an immigration lawyer in Austin, sent me recent correspondence sent to the Department of State regarding a disturbing new trend. Jeff Gorsky letter

IS ENSIGN READY TO BE THE NEXT GOP SENATOR TO BACK IMMIGRATION REFORM?

Posted on September 10, 2010
He just gave a talk in Mesquite, NV that sure makes it sound like he's backing the basic plan. [Hat tip to Peter Ashman in Las Vegas for this].

DHS TO DEVELOP SINGLE, SEARCHABLE IMMIGRATION DATABASE

Posted on September 09, 2010
Nextgov.com reports: The Homeland Security Department plans to establish a database of immigration data that will identify fraud in applications for benefits, and provide information to intelligence and law enforcement agencies. DHS will create a mirror copy of multiple databases the Citizenship and Immigration Services uses to award federal benefits to immigrants and nonimmigrants and develop a single user interface employees use to access the stored information, according to a notice the department published in theFederal Register on Wednesday...

SHERIFF JOE TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT?

Posted on September 09, 2010
Now that would be entertaining. If you're a Democrat, you should be smiling. Tom Tancredo did some serious damage to the Republican brand with Hispanic citizens when he ran in 2008. Joe Arpaio has the potential do even more.

OCTOBER VISA BULLETIN IS OUT

Posted on September 09, 2010
Here are my notes from the latest State Department Visa Bulletin in comparison to last month's: Family 1st- modest improvements across the board Family 2A - Solid improvements; world numbers jump from January 2010 to April 2010; Mexico moves up a year to January 2010...

APPEALS COURT STRIKES DOWN HAZLETON, PA LAW

Posted on September 09, 2010
This is a major setback for the antis and for Kris Kobach, the architect of these laws who has assured city councils that these laws are designed to withstand legal challenges. From the ACLU: This is a major setback for the antis. From the ACLU: The U...

ONE WAY TO ADDRESS THE OBESITY EPIDEMIC

Posted on September 08, 2010
The New York Times has an in depth article this morning in the Dining Section talking about the impact of the immigration crackdown on America's restaurants. Nearly 1.5 million immigrants work in the country's food service industry, nearly 15% of all workers...

H-1B EXHAUSTION TARGET: MARCH 8, 2011

Posted on September 08, 2010
New numbers are out on H-1B usage and the past week showed a substantial pickup in usage with more than 1700 numbers counted against the cap of 65,000. 36,600 H-1Bs have been counted now. I'm moving my exhaustion projection date up about two weeks. My target is based on a rolling four week usage average so variations from week to week are discounted...

IMMIGRATION HUMOR: THE ARIZONA PASSPORT SHIRT

Posted on September 06, 2010

THE TRAINWRECK

Posted on September 03, 2010
Now we know why some in the GOP were nervous about how Governor Jan Brewer would do when the spotlight was shining on her. After she stumbled in what can only be called an embarrassing performance in last night's debate with AG Terry Goddard, she made the mistake of talking to reporters...

ILLEGALLY PRESENT IMMIGRANTS PROPPING UP SOCIAL SECURITY

Posted on September 03, 2010
This is really astonishing. A Washington Post columnist is reporting that illegally present immigrants may have already contributed a quarter TRILLION dollars in to the Social Security system - money that they will never collect and which presumably will eventually support American seniors.

FIORINA SUPPORTS DREAM EVEN THOUGH SHE OPPOSES "AMNESTY"

Posted on September 02, 2010
Good that the GOP nominee for the Senate in California is taking a centrist position, but its annoying to hear about being opposed to amnesty. So is just about everyone who favors comprehensive immigration reform. The question is not whether you're against legalizing people and not punishing their behavior...

ARPAIO SUED BY JUSTICE DEPARTMENT

Posted on September 02, 2010
Yay! Hat tip to reader AV for getting this news to us.

PEW STUDY: ILLEGAL IMMIGRATON DOWN SHARPLY

Posted on September 02, 2010
Pew confirms what we've already assumed is happening. The number of illegally present immigrants has dropped 8% since 2007. The number is now about 11 million, down from peaking at 12 million. The annual migration of illegally present immigrants has dropped from about 850,000 a year a few years ago to just 300,000 a year today...

FED: IMMIGRANTS NET PLUS FOR ECONOMY, WORKERS

Posted on August 31, 2010
The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco has released a report showing immigration helps boost overall wages for US workers and improves worker productivity. From Bloomberg: ?There is no evidence that immigrants crowd out U.S.-born workers in either the short or long run,? Giovanni Peri, an associate professor at the University of California-Davis and a visiting scholar at the San Francisco Fed, said in the paper released today...

THE DEFINITION OF LONELY

Posted on August 31, 2010
The LA Times reports on the Nevada governor's race which has Latino Brian Sandoval seeking to become the next Republican governor of the state. Sandoval has risked alienating his Latino base by endorsing the Arizona law and tougher drivers license rules...

H-1B EXHAUSTION TARGET: MID-MARCH 2011

Posted on August 31, 2010
USCIS reports that 1000 H-1Bs were receipted over the past week with 34,500 now counted. 400 masters cap cases were added bringing the total to 13,000 in that category. That's about on pace with the last several weeks and the exhaustion target in that category remains February 2011...

FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF NO DUH

Posted on August 30, 2010
A Democratic Senator working on immigration reform says a bill is not happening this year. Is this news?

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.