The legal cannabis business is spreading like weeds.  As several states and foreign countries have enacted laws decriminalizing or legalizing marijuana for medicinal or recreational use, a fresh rush of reefer madness has overtaken the business world.  Investments in the cannabis industry are now available as ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds), and marijuana startups are

If the U.S.’s dysfunctional and baffling immigration laws were a bemusement park, one of the scariest rides would be that tottering roller-coaster, “Worksite Enforcement.”  The ride is rickety and showing its age (having been constructed long ago through the enactment of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 [IRCA]).  This law — like every

Vintage inscription made by old typewriterTerabytes of text have already been generated in the course of extolling or excoriating President Obama for his November 20 Executive Actions on Immigration.  The prolific foaming of bloviating mouths has mostly been prompted by the promise of deferred action and work permits for undocumented immigrants under the DACA and DAPA programs.  Surprisingly, however, his

stopwatches set isolated on white with 15, 30, 45 seconds period“Politics at bottom is not all that complicated. It’s all about timing.”

Mark McKinnon

Facing a recalcitrant House of Representatives controlled by Republicans, President Obama made an historic announcement on November 20th outlining an array of executive actions he would take to fix as much as he could of our broken immigration system.

Understandably, public

Fingers crossed

In the 1997 film, Liar Liar, Jim Carrey starred as Fletcher Reede, a scruples-free lawyer whose young son, Max, wishes that, for just one day, his dad would tell the truth.  Max’s wish is granted. Fletcher flips from mendacity to veracity.  He tries persistently to lie; his Silly-Putty® face contorts wildly, but he can

Ellis Island photo.jpgHindsight, the armchair pundits say, is 20-20.  The year 2013 has proven them wrong.

The end-of-year’s rear-view mirror onto the world of U.S. immigration shows impenetrable fog.  Unsurprisingly, as filmgoers know, vapory views of the recent past tend to diminish the apparent significance of events occurring early in the year (“never has a film

Obama's mojo.jpgThe last few weeks have witnessed severe shocks to the health care system known as Obamacare. The President has issued mea culpas for the not-ready-for-prime-time web site, Health.gov, and for his campaign promise to Americans that if they liked their health insurance plan, they could “keep it. Period.” Americans who’ve lost their preferred health

Investigator.pngSamuel Herbert, Her Majesty’s Home Secretary from 1931-32 (the British equivalent of the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security), could well have been speaking about two recent immigration-related events when he quipped that “bureaucracy” is “a difficulty for every solution.”

One is an October 30 Settlement Agreement between Indian It consulting giant, Infosys, and the

Raj 2.JPGOver the 4th of July weekend, I devoured a fascinating book and, in the course of it, learned a new synonym for “bureaucracy”  — “cutcherry” — taken from Hindi and apparently originating with the British East-India Company’s bureau office in what is now Chennai.

The book, The Professor and the Madman ~

dolphins.jpgThe word in Washington is that S. 744, the Gang of Eight’s immigration bill, must move to the right if it is to pass the Senate by a 70-vote, bipartisan margin, and thereby pressure the House to approve a (no doubt rightward-leaning) version of comprehensive immigration reform (CIR).  

Some Members of Congress, however, Senator