Archive for the ‘Politics/Current Events’ Category
The Start-Up Visa Buzz
While comprehensive immigration reform currently seems a distant dream, there is some support in Congress for a new immigrant visa for entrepreneurs. Called the Start-Up Visa, this new category of immigrant visa would require a $250,000 investment in a start-up venture. At least $100,000 of that capital would need to come from a U.S. investor. An entrepreneur would receive a conditional green card for two years, and at the end of those years, he or she would need to show that the start-up venture created at least 5 jobs for U.S. workers.
Modeled on the EB-5 program, which currently requires a $1,000,000 investment in most cases and the creation of 10 jobs, the Start-Up Visa is a brilliant idea which recognizes that scrappy entrepreneurs (not just those investors who have $1,000,000 in cash to plunk down) create the companies that are an engine of huge growth in our economy. The idea has generated a lobbying effort by Silicon Valley, and appears to have some key Congressional support. To learn more, visit www.startupvisa.com . Let’s hope the xenophobes in Congress don’t kill this one.
Tags: entrepreneurs, start-up visa
Posted in Alternative Visa Categories, Politics/Current Events | Read More »
Temporary Protected Status for Haiti
We have all seen horrific images of the devastation wrought by this week’s earthquake in Haiti. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano has temporarily suspended all deportations to Haiti. While this is a positive step, the U.S. government should also immediately grant temporary protected status to Haitians in the U.S.
Frankly, Haiti can use all of the help it can get, and Haitians in the U.S. can and will play an integral part in the recovery process there. We should help that recovery effort by giving undocumented Haitians one less thing to worry about-their immigration status. With temporary protected status, or TPS, and through it a right to work legally in the U.S., Haitians will be able to send more money home. Please send a message to your elected officials and ask them to grant TPS to Haitians in the U.S.: ttp://capwiz.com/aila2/home/.
Tags: Haiti earthquake, TPS
Posted in Politics/Current Events | Read More »
Immigration Reform: Follow the Money
The Associated Press reported last week that pro-immigration political action committees have, for the first time in recent memory, raised more money in this election cycle than their anti-immigration counterparts. Specifically, Immigrants’ List, founded by immigration attorneys and ImmigrationPAC, founded by immigrant advocates, have together raised nearly $100,000. In contrast, groups hostile to the cause of immigration reform have raised only $71,000. Hopefully, this is the sign of a turning tide that will be reflected in the national debate, which, during the Bush era, seemed to be hijacked by right-wing extremists. With a Democratic administration and Democratic Congress, this is the perfect time to begin the process of reforming our immigration system. Hopefully the opportunity will not be squandered.
Tags: immigrants' list, immigration, immigration reform, pro-immigration political action committees
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Number of International Students in the U.S. Rising
The number of international students at colleges and universities in the United States increased by an average of 8% for a total 671,616 students, for this academic year, according to the Open Doors report, which is published annually by the Institute of International Education (IIE). This is the largest percentage increase in international student enrollment since 1981, and marks the third consecutive year of growth.
Here’s how it breaks down, according to the Open Doors report, in terms of the top 15 sending countries:
| India | Increased by 9% | 103,260 students |
| China | Increased by 21% | 98,510 students |
| South Korea | Increased by 9% | 75,065 students |
| Canada | Increased by 2% | 29, 697 students |
| Japan | Decreased by 14% | 29, 264 students |
| Taiwan | Decreased by 3% | 28, 065 students |
| Mexico | No increase | 14, 850 students |
| Turkey | Increased by 10% | 13, 263 students |
| Vietnam | Increased by 46% | 12, 823 students |
| Saudi Arabia | Increased by 28% | 12, 661 students |
| Nepal | Increased by 30% | 11, 581 students |
| Germany | Increased by 9% | 9679 students |
| Brazil | Increased by 16% | 8767 students |
| Thailand | Decreased by 3% | 8736 students |
| United Kingdom | Increased by 4% | 8701 students |
While on many levels this is great news, it highlights the inadequacy of our current immigration system, which is based on an antiquated visa quota system that has no relationship to the globalized world in which we live. These international students, who disproportionately obtain degrees in the sciences, are in a position to make enormous contributions to our society. For instance, the Wall Street Journal recently reported that between 1990 and 2007, 25% of all publicly traded companies in the U.S. that were started with venture capital financing had an immigrant founder (“The Other Immigrants”, WSJ, Nov. 18, 2009). Basically, it’s in our interest to keep the best and the brightest of these students here in the U.S. But as the system currently stands, an Indian national graduating with a U.S. degree would need to wait many years (upwards of 10 in some cases) to be eligible for an immigrant visa. Why would this person choose to immigrate to the U.S. , if Canada, Germany, and a whole host of other countries offer a more streamlined and user-friendly system? In short, does it make sense for us to offer the best universities in the world (ours) to the world’s best and brightest, only to watch them take their skills and talents elsewhere?
Tags: colleges, immigrant visa, immigration, international student, quota, universities, visa
Posted in Politics/Current Events, Uncategorized | Read More »
Widow Penalty: The End of Insult to Injury
Congress has just voted to put an end to the “widow penalty”, that provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act that rendered surviving spouses and their children deportable following the death of the U.S. citizen spouse. President Obama is expected to sign the bill into law. This new legislation allows surviving spouses who were married for less than two years at the time of the U.S. citizen spouse’s death to self-petition for permanent residency within two years of the enactment of this new law. (Surviving spouses who were married for more than two years at the time of death of the U.S. citizen spouse already had the ability to self-petition). The new law does not require that an immigrant visa petition be on file, and it applies both to surviving spouses who live in the U.S., and to those who live abroad. Additionally, in cases there the surviving spouse was already a beneficiary of an immigrant visa petition filed on their behalf prior to the death of their U.S. citizen spouse, it is expected that such immigrant visa petition will automatically convert into a self-petition situation. For more information, see http://www.ssad.org. It’s nice to see a positive development from Congress in the immigration arena . Now, how about that comprehensive immigration reform?
Tags: comprehensive immigration reform, green card, immigrant visa, permanent residency, self-petition, surviving spouse, widow penalty
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Poetic Justice
The following is a true “only in America” story. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently recovered more than $1.4 million in back wages for 237 workers of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ Vermont Service Center. Apparently, the workers were misclassified and not paid the prevailing wage as required. Perhaps DOL should seize the momentum and conduct an audit of other government worksites. Maybe some unannounced visits to other service centers are in order. Yes, this one does give me a great big chuckle.
Tags: back wages, Department of Labor, DOL, service center, USCIS
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Don’t Treat Immigrants Like Criminals, Part II
I received an email from a former client today, a lawful permanent resident of the U.S. She was coming back from the Bahamas with her U.S. citizen husband over the weekend, and was interrogated at secondary inspection at the airport. According to her, she was treated disrespectfully, so she told the inspector that she did not appreciate being treated like a criminal, to which he responded: “Most immigrants are criminals-that’s why we treat you that way.” Besides being appalling, this statement is plain wrong. Immigrants commit crimes at rates lower than the general population. This has been proven in study after study. Anti-immigrant nuts like Bill O’Reilly and Lou Dobbs and the idiots who listen to them continue to perpetuate the myth that immigrant crime is rampant in order to garner support for their scapegoating. However, the negative tone is established at the highest levels of government. As I mentioned in my last post, immigrant detainees are often treated in an identical manner to criminal detainees. This practice needs to change, or else this attitude will continue to trickle down to the lowest level officials in our government.
Tags: Bill O'Reilly, criminal, immigrant, immigrant detainees, lawful permanent resident, Lou Dobbs, U.S. citizen
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To the Obama Administration: Stop Treating Immigrants Like Criminals
The Obama Administration recently commissioned a report on immigration detention. The report, written by Dora Schriro, an expert on correctional policy, examines some of the fundamental flaws in the current system, and makes some important recommendations for reform. As any immigration attorney who has ever represented a detained client knows, immigration detainees are too often treated like criminals, even when they have no prior criminal record.
Dr. Schriro made an important observation in her report: “As a matter of law, Immigration Detention is unlike Criminal Incarceration. Yet Immigration Detention and Criminal Incarceration detainees tend to be … managed in similar ways. Each group is ordinarily detained in secure facilities with hardened perimeters in remote locations at considerable distances from counsel and/or their communities.”
Based on the report’s findings, the Obama Administration is considering reforming the current system by housing some detainees in alternative facilities such as converted hotels and nursing homes. While this is a step in the right direction, it does not go far enough. The Administration should expand alternatives to detention, such as electronic monitoring and mandatory reporting. In addition to being more humane, these programs save the taxpayers money.
Tags: detention reform, Dora Schriro, electronic monitoring, ICE, immigration detention, incarceration, mandatory detention
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An Inspiring American Story-Astronaut Jose Hernandez
Every once in a while, I read a story so inspiring, it renews my belief that the American Dream is alive and well. Jose Hernandez is one such inspiring story. The California-born son of Mexican migrant workers from Michoacan, Jose grew up picking cucumbers and tomatoes in the San Joaquin Valley.
As a kid, he excelled in math, and eventually became an astronaut after earning degrees in engineering. Now a celebrity in Mexico, he recently appeared on Mexican television following a space shuttle voyage. Jose was quoted as advocating for immigration reform and the legalization of the millions of undocumented immigrants in the U.S.
Apparently, NASA didn’t take too kindly to Jose’s remarks and tried to reign him in. Hernandez responded as quoted in the The Los Angeles Times: “I work for the U.S. government, but as an individual I have a right to my personal opinions…[h]aving 12 million undocumented people here means there’s something wrong with the system, and the system needs to be fixed.”
Thank you, Jose, for telling it like it is and for inspiring millions of other immigrants and children of immigrants to pursue their dreams.
Tags: astronaut, immigration reform, jose hernandez, Mexico, Michoacan, NASA
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