USCIS
Alabama Governor Rejects Changes to State’s Extreme Immigration Law, Starts Special Legislative Session
Today, Alabama Governor Robert Bentley announced his disapproval of a bill intended to change parts of the state’s extreme immigration law (HB 56) and initiated a special legislative session to address the problems. Yesterday, on the last day of the state’s regular legislative session, the Alabama Senate… Read More
Administration Takes Step Toward More Entrepreneur-Friendly Immigration Policy
BY TEJAS SHAH*. While the U.S. economy continues to recover at a sluggish pace, the administration continues to emphasize immigration reform’s critical role in promoting innovation and entrepreneurship in the U.S. This week, Cecilia Munoz, the Domestic Policy Council Director at the White House, spoke at a forum hosted by The Hamilton Project of the Brookings Institution about the administration’s commitment to immigration reform and easing pathways for foreign investors in the United States. Sadly, however, talented and dynamic foreign entrepreneurs seeking authorization to direct, operate, manage, or work for their investment vehicles often face tedious barriers. Easing these barriers would benefit our economy and enhance our ability to out-compete other countries in the modern global economy. After all, with out foreign entrepreneurs, we wouldn’t have such U.S. companies as Yahoo, Google, and Intel. Read More
Comments Due on Proposed Rule that Will Help Keep American Families Together
The administration recently published a proposed rule that will help keep American families together. The “Proposed Rule on Provisional Unlawful Presence Waivers of Inadmissibility for Certain Immediate Relatives” is an effort to streamline the application process for many relatives of U.S. citizens currently eligible for a green card by minimizing the amount of time that applicants would have to be away from their families before being admitted into the United States. The proposed rule is currently in its “comment period,” and advocates are encouraged to submit comments in support of the rule. All comments are due on June 1, 2012. Read More
House Judiciary Committee Sends Wrong Mother’s Day Message with Amendments to VAWA
The House Judiciary Committee sent the wrong kind of Mother’s Day message to women this week, proposing to roll back protections for victims of violence that have been in place even before the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was first passed in 1994. While the proposed amendments were discouraging in their own right, the fact they were targeted at immigrant women is an even sadder commentary on just how much some members of Congress will use any legislation as a vehicle for attacking and undermining the immigration system. Read More
In Heart of Texas, Sheriff Takes Heat for Honoring Immigration Detainers
A local election in Travis County, Texas, is bringing to light important questions surrounding the controversial Secure Communities program. As recently reported by the Texas Tribune, Democratic primary challenger John Sisson has criticized incumbent Sheriff Greg Hamilton for honoring federal immigration “detainers”—the lynchpin of Secure Communities—because of their harm to immigrant communities. While Hamilton has said he is bound by federal law, contrary policies in jurisdictions around the country show the sheriff is either misinformed or confused. Read More
After Justice Department Admits Mistake, Immigrant Advocates Ask Supreme Court to Fix Prior Opinion
Of the many problems with our immigration system, one of the least known—but most frustrating—is that when the government deports immigrants whose appeals are still pending, it offers little to no help returning to the United States if they ultimately prevail in court. Immigrant advocates were thus perplexed when the Justice Department filed a Supreme Court brief in 2008 claiming to have a “policy” of helping such immigrants return to the country. Now, more than three years after the brief was filed, the current administration has conceded that no such policy existed at the time—and immigrant advocates have asked the Court to modify a portion of its ruling that relied on the government’s misstatement. Read More
USCIS One Step Closer to Adopting Improvement to Immigration Waiver Process
A provision of the immigration law commonly known as the “3 and 10 year bars” has proven to be one of the most heart-breaking of the many draconian changes made to the immigration law at the time. Since its enactment in 1996, the provision—which imposes re-entry bars of 3 to 10 years on immigrants who are present in the U.S. illegally, leave the U.S., and want to re-enter lawfully—often separates family members, even if they are otherwise entitled to legal status in the U.S. Now, however, USCIS has published a proposed rule that will reduce, although not eliminate, the hardships created by this provision of law. The announcement has been received favorably, although with some skepticism, within the immigration community. Read More
Congressional Budget Cuts Threaten Vital USCIS Integration Grant Program
This month, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced $5 million in government grant opportunities available to service providers who help immigrants integrate and prepare for the naturalization exam. The money for these grants, awarded through the Citizenship and Integration Grant program, however, was not appropriated through Congress. Congress actually voted not to fund this vital program, leaving USCIS to cut costs elsewhere in order to keep the program afloat. Read More
DHS Report Finds Inadequate Information Sharing, Mission Overlap Among Agencies
Nine years after its creation, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is still hampered by mission overlap and inadequate information sharing among the various agencies within the department. So concludes a recent report by the DHS Office of Inspector General, entitled Information Sharing on Foreign Nationals: Border Security. Highlights from the report include a recommendation to scrap the controversial NSEERS database, and a call for real department-wide coordination among DHS agencies. Read More
Why the Scott Gardner Act is Unconstitutional…and a Bad Idea
Immigration hardliners never hesitate to claim the mantle of “states’ rights” when defending laws like Arizona SB 1070. But those wanting local cops to double as federal immigration agents were conspicuously silent at a congressional hearing on Wednesday on the Scott Gardner Act, a bill that (among other things) would require police to run extra background checks on foreign nationals arrested for drunk driving. Instead, it was pro-immigrant members of Congress who had to remind the legislative sponsors that the Constitution prohibits the federal government from imposing unfunded mandates on states—all while explaining the many reasons why the bill would make bad policy. Read More
All gifts are matched dollar for dollar
No one should face the immigration system alone
