Immigration Newsletter

Monday, December 20, 2010

A DREAM deferred again...

The US Senate again failed to reach cloture on a vote for the DREAM Act. The DREAM Act is a bill that would allow students who came to this country as children but who do not have a valid immigration status to gain a conditional legal status if they achieve in high school and get accepted to college or the US military.

It is now clear that Maine Senators Snowe (R) and Collins (R) would rather stifle the future of thousands of young people who were brought to this country as children and raised here - than cross their party leadership. Another heroic failure to stand up for those who cannot vote. So another graduating class will fail to reach its potential through no fault of their own -- and we as a country will stubbornly fall farther behind our EU, Chinese and Indian competitors in the race to educate our people and prepare for the economic reality of the new century.

There were a handful of DINOs who also voted against the DREAM Act (enough to pass the bill if they had the will) but only two Republicans voted for the measure. It appears after all that this was a fait acompli and simply a show vote by both sides to try to drum up support from the various interest groups for the next election. The Democrats could have passed the measure if they voted in unison - but they would rather try to rally the Latino vote next time around. The Republicans could have taken the issue out of play by allowing a few more "moderates" to break ranks but they would rather rally and raise money from the T-Party and others with Nativist tendencies.

What a cynical waste of young people's aspirations to do well for themselves and the only country they call home -- all for petty political pandering. Nicely done Senators!

Friday, December 3, 2010

Napolitano Drums for Dream Act - NYTimes.com

Napolitano Drums for Dream Act - NYTimes.com: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Julia Preston writes:

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano called on Congress on Thursday to pass a bill granting legal status to thousands of illegal immigrant students, saying it would help immigration authorities focus their resources on deporting dangerous criminals. In a telephone call organized by the White House, Ms. Napolitano told reporters that the students who would benefit “have no fault for being here in the United States” because they were brought here as children. “No one who poses a threat to public safety will be able to adjust their immigration status,” she said, under a revised version of the bill, known as the Dream Act, which was introduced Tuesday. Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, a Republican who is a leading opponent, said he would resist it “with every strength and every ability that I have.”

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Trying to get anything worthwhile through Congress these days seems like a futile gesture. Perhaps they should call it the DREAM ON Act. Still, until the Dems. inevitable next "epic fail" I will hold out a modicum of hope.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Show Me The Money! The big business of Immigration Detention.

http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/11/09/31714.htm

The link above is to just one of the many recent stories about how the US government is putting record numbers of non-citizens in jail. This particular article focuses on how many of these detainees are moved (without notice or hearing) away from their families and their lawyers to detention facilities in the South and the Southwest.

There is big money to be made by for profit prison contractors in those states (at tax payer expense of course). That is one reason why our elected representatives have stalled and blocked any meaningful plans for immigration law reform. There is plenty of campaign money for candidates with a "get tough on immigration" platform and the massive media drumbeat for increased immigration enforcement isn't just going to pay for itself.

The South and the Southwest, or more accurately the corporations in those regions, want to continue cashing in on transfers of taxpayer money from the Northeast and the Northwest. So they will need to keep us afraid of Latino immigrants -- that way we will continue to pay up to make them disappear.

There is really no good reason not to reform the US immigration laws. There are rational policy changes that can be adopted that will make the system better. Not surprisingly, I favor increasing legal immigration and creating a process for legalizing the status of many of the people who are now here illegally. However, some proposals to fix the system that might restrict more immigration and strengthen enforcement are at least rational.

But as long as there are vast sums of money to be made by exploiting the current dysfunctional immigration system -- there will be a strong incentive to work against fixing it.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Immigration Court Caseload Tool: Pending Cases and Length of Wait in Immigration Courts

Immigration Court Caseload Tool: Pending Cases and Length of Wait in Immigration Courts: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

In ten years the case backlog at the Boston Immigration Court has basically doubled from just over four thousand pending cases in 2000 to over eight thousand pending cases in 2010. I have been requesting that the Department of Justice open a court in New Hampshire to serve the Northern New England States for all of that time to no avail.

The Department of Homeland Security has enough money to build a nice, new, two story building across the street from my office...and to refurbish the Norris Cotton Federal Building in Manchester so that ICE can move in next year.

But apparently DOJ has no money (or no interest, it is hard to tell which) to set up a single judge that could handle the cases from the three Northern New England states and reduce the bottleneck at the Boston Immigration Court.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

DHS/ICE reveal highest immigration enforcement numbers on record in fiscal year 2010

DHS/ICE reveal highest immigration enforcement numbers on record in fiscal year 2010: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

In fiscal year (FY) 2010, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) removed more illegal aliens than in any other period in the history of our nation. ICE removed more than 392,000 illegal aliens-half of them, more than 195,000-were convicted of crimes, including murder, sex offenses and drug violations.

( I guess that means half were not convicted of any crimes then.)

Enforcement is alive and well -- now where is the reform and improvement of the immigration laws that politicians said would come after the enforcement issue was dealt with?

Friday, October 8, 2010

Lou Dobbs: American Hypocrite - from The Nation magazine

Lou Dobbs: American Hypocritehttp://www.thenation.com/print/article/155209/lou-dobbs-american-hypocrite

You will no doubt have heard about this before you see it here. What a shocker! Lou Dobbs was deriding undocumented migrant workers and the employers who hire them for years while he benefited from the labor of -- wait for it -- yup, undocumented migrant workers.

This should be surprising...but with a seemingly endless stream of firebrand ministers who - after making a career of denouncing homosexuals - turn up in gay bars or are found with same sex "escorts" they discovered online...hypocrisy in American public life has become somewhat par for the course.

It is apparently no different with Nativists like Dobbs or the recently outed Meg Whitman in California. Maybe "Do as I say, not as I do!" should be what the anti-immigrationistas paint on their signs at their next hate the immigrants rally.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Abercrombie & Fitch lose their shirts in immigration paperwork audit

From Immigration & Customs Enforcement Press Release

Abercrombie & Fitch fined after I-9 audit

DETROIT - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) announced today a $1,047,110 fine settlement reached with the clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch for violations of the Immigration and Nationality Act related to an employer's obligation to verify the employment eligibility of its workers.
The settlement is the result of a November 2008 Form I-9 inspection of Abercrombie & Fitch's retail stores in Michigan. The audit uncovered numerous technology-related deficiencies in Abercrombie & Fitch's electronic I-9 verification system. The company was fully cooperative during the investigation and no instances of the knowing hire of unauthorized aliens were discovered. Since the initial inspection, Abercrombie & Fitch has taken measures to revise its immigration compliance program, and has begun to implement new procedures to prevent future violations of federal immigration laws.
"Employers are responsible not only for the people they hire but also for the internal systems they choose to utilize to manage their employment process and those systems must result in effective compliance," said Brian M. Moskowitz, special agent in charge of ICE HSI for Ohio and Michigan "We are pleased to see Abercrombie working diligently to complete the implementation of an effective compliance system; however, we know that there are other companies who are not doing so. This settlement should serve as a warning to other companies that may not yet take the employment verification process seriously or provide it the attention it warrants."
Employers are required to complete and retain a Form I-9 for each individual they hire for employment in the United States. This form requires employers to review and record the individual's identity and employment eligibility document(s) and determine whether the document(s) reasonably appear to be genuine and related to the individual. Additionally, an employer must ensure that the employee provides certain information regarding his or her eligibility to work on the Form I-9.
In 2009, ICE implemented a new, comprehensive strategy to reduce the demand for illegal employment and protect employment opportunities for the nation's lawful workforce. Under this strategy, ICE is focusing its resources on the auditing and investigation of employers suspected of cultivating illegal workplaces by knowingly employing illegal workers. In the last year, ICE has leveled a record number of civil and criminal penalties against employers who violate immigration laws.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

www.Drewpllc.com


In addition to my active blog: www.immigrationblog.us

I also have a web site for the immigration law firm. It can be found at: www.drewpllc.com

If you searched for "immigration lawyer" or "immigration attorney" and found this site before you found my firm site then I need to work on my SEO (search engine optimization) but the links are here just in case.

Drew Law Office, pllc
82 Palomino Lane, Suite 602
Bedford, NH 03110

(603) 644-3739
(603) 644-DREW

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

www.immigrationblog.us

The postings that would be at this blog can now be found at my own domain...