The two-year presidential campaign created new legions of policy wonks.  Now, with the Bush-to-Obama interregnum in full swing, the wonks have turned into an avid audience observing the jo-ha-kyū movements of Kabuki theatre as performed by the new administration-in-waiting. 

On the immigration front, the thoughtful and deliberate character of the President-elect is on full, if subtle, display.  During the campaign, he took counsel from two pro-immigration heavyweights — Bill Ong Hing and Jennifer Chacón.  Now, he’s announced the appointment of a duo of leading lights to head his immigration advisory group: Alexander Aleinikoff, who has long argued for the fundamental restructuring of our immigration system and Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, reported by the ABA to be the next Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), who has argued forcefully for the restoration of habeus corpus.

In a spirit of bipartisanship (much like the rumored retention of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates), President-elect Obama should consider keeping in place the current Ombudsman to USCIS (Michael Dougherty) who despite a very short tenure has made great strides in keeping USCIS on its toes.

I spent this week on a three-city speaking tour in Asia with a delegation from the County of San Bernardino (California) Economic Development Agency. Our purpose was to promote foreign investment into the county and outline the advantages of the EB-5 (Employment-Creation) immigrant investor visa category. Speaking in Seoul, Shanghai and Hong Kong to enthusiastic audiences, I was struck by several moments of irony.

The audiences were amazed that in America a man raised in Indonesia, the biracial son of a Kenyan father and a Kansan mother, could become President of the United States. Despite the economic turmoil the world faces, these audiences still see America as a land of stability in a sea of uncertainty. They appreciate not just the improbable ascendancy of our President-elect. They also marvel at how the prolonged and hotly contested primary and general election races could result in such a smooth and peaceful transitioning of power.

I was impressed with the dynamism and plentiful opportunities in Asia, and reminded that America is not necessarily the sole destination of choice.

I was also struck by the farsightedness of San Bernardino County. While many local governments compete to display machismo toughness in immigration enforcement, San Bernardino promotes the economic benefits that employment-based immigration affords.

If only our leaders in Congress were so enlightened. They just kick the football a few yards ahead by approving an extension of the EB-5 regional center program only to March 6, 2009 rather than grant a permanent extension. As unemployment soars well past six percent, our tentative federal leaders ignore the job-creation benefits that a permanent EB-5 regional-center extension would produce.

Why should foreign investors be bullish on America when Members of Congress are short sellers?

[Disclosure: With Steve Yale-Loehr and Nelson Mamey (a lawyer who prefers real estate finance and development over law practice), I own a recently approved regional center in Southern California.]

What message is conveyed when, in less than 24 hours after the election of Barack Obama, the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Julie L. Myers, immigration raider extraordinaire, announces her resignation? 

What does it signify when two days after the vote, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) rushes out a self-congratulatory press release that tells nothing of its recent vendetta against the H-1B and L-1 visa categories?

What does it mean when the Department of Labor (DOL) stipulates to dismissal of the Fragomen suit rather than defend its chameleon-like blunders from June to September on the attorney’s role in PERM recruitment?

It means that the immigration bureaucrats are running scared.   They realize that their extra-legal practices will soon face sunlight and scrutiny. They know that a new day is dawning in this nation of immigrants.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker — interviewed on MSNBC after President-elect Obama’s victory was confirmed — said it best:

“I reject the idea of a post-racial America. I want to luxuriate in the racial deliciousness of our country: the Italian-Americans, the Irish-Americans, the Mexican-Americans. I mean, that’s what makes America great. We are a nation that celebrates racial diversity. We’re not Norway. We’re not South Korea. We are the United States of America. The story of America is bringing such differences together to manifest a united set of ideals, not a united culture, not a united language, not a united religion, but a united set of ideals. That was what made America dramatic when it was founded, the first country of its kind in humanity. So I reject that [the idea of a post-racial America]. I want to celebrate all of America: its richness, its diversity, its deliciousness.”