Month: September 2007

The Washington Post carried an article on the Immigration Voice rally that took place in Washington, DC yesterday.   My favorite quote is from a placrd that read:  “A green card delay keeps the doctor away”.

According to a Reuters article:  “A small New Jersey town repealed a law designed to crack down on illegal immigration in the latest setback for U.S. cities seeking to enact similar measures, civil rights campaigners said on Tuesday.”

As lawmakers have realized for some time, the immigration debate stirs a great deal of emotion from people on both sides of the issue. On this blog I share my opinions while respecting the fact that some readers may disagree with them.  I welcome comments regardless of one’s stance on the issue as it makes for a more interesting site. However, I have recently received some comments awaiting moderation that either contained profanity or that I would characterize as hateful.  I will therefore adopt the following comment policy for the site:

1. No profanity or name-calling;

2. No suggestions on how to deport and/or cruelly punish undocumented aliens; and

3. No specific questions regarding individual cases.

There are many forums that would welcome comments that violate my first two restrictions (I see them every day). The third is for malpractice reasons, I cannot offer legal advice on a blog, especially without knowing all the particulars of a case.  Also, the goal of this site is to provide information of a general nature that is of interest to most readers.

The DREAM Amendment is expected to be offered by Sen. Richard Durbin (D) this week.  DREAM would allow thousands of undocumented aliens who:  (1) entered the US before the age of 16, (2) lived in the country for at least five years, and (3) graduated from High School  to legalize their status.  Over the next two years, the applicants would have to spend at least two years in college or in the US military to be eligible for a green card.

Most of these young adults came to the US with their parents and had no choice in the matter.  The amendment is expected to pass the Senate.  Beyond that, let’s hope the DREAM doesn’t become a nightmare for those who came here through no fault of their own at a young age, made it through High School, are willing to attend college or join the military and in many cases, know no other country than the US.

Please call you Senators and urge them to support the DREAM amendment.

Immigration Voice has organized a legal immigration rally that will take place in Washington, DC on September 18, 2007.  According to the organization’s webiste:  “This is a historic rally and happening for the first time by High-skilled immigrants in DC. Don’t forget to tell your children and grandchildren that you were part of a movement that brought about a major change in the high-skilled legal immigration system in this country.”

Looks like a very well-organized event.  I hope it will help bring about improvements to our nation’s immigration system.

This from Blogger News Network:  “While we’re not normally a big fan of Hillary Clinton, we have to give her credit: at last, a politician has called the likes of Lou Dobbs, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly et al. on their breathtakingly mean-spirited comments and constant diarrhea of the mouth when it comes to Hispanics.”

According to an  in interesting article on MSNBC.com:  “The GOP may erase the gains its made with Hispanics.”  If the GOP does lose the Hispanic vote and consequently lose some swing states, the party’s hard-line stance on immigration would be mostly to blame.

The USCIS issued its weekly Receipting Update. As predicted, the Texas Service Center made significant progress and is now processing receipts for EB I-485s that were received on July 19, 2007.

The USCIS issued a Fact Sheet providing for Deferred Enforced Departure for Liberian Nationals.

Also, today the USCIS should be releasng its weekly Receipting Update, although it has been issued late in the past. I predict some progress from the Texas Service Center on the Receipting front. I will try to post the Update as it becomes available.

According to an article on CNN.com:  “It would cost at least $94 billion to find, detain and remove all 12 million people believed to be staying illegally in the United States, the federal government estimated Wednesday.” (Emphasis added)

Roughly $10,000 per undocumented alien (assuming 10 million undocumented aliens)?  Seems like a lot of money.  If this figure doesn’t include court costs and other expenses as ICE claims it does not, it would be a lot more than that.  Also, considering some estimates put the number of undocumented in the US at 20 million, maybe ICE’s estimate should be even higher.

Perhaps Congress should revisit CIR and have ICE concentrate on removing those undocumented who have been convicted of serious crimes and let the others pay fines, be voluntarily photographed, fingerprinted and accounted for in the system.   This week being the anniversary of 9-11, it would make sense for Congress to do something that was at once cost-effective and sensible from a national security point of view.  However, you and I know that nothing substantial will happen until after the 2008 elections.  Hopefully there will be a batch of new Congresspeople with common sense who will do the right thing.  If not, it will be more of the same.