President Trump’s October 9, 2019 overtures landed as music to the ears of many grizzled immigration lawyers who persistently suffer battle fatigue from the culture of virtually never. On that day the President released a double album, each with artfully penned liner notes:
The dictionary defines the adjective, “passive-aggressive,” as “a type of behavior or personality characterized by indirect resistance to the demands of others and an avoidance of direct confrontation.” That is an apt characterization describing how federal bureaucrats work their will in the immigration ecosphere. The passive-aggressive behaviors show up in efforts by federal immigration officials
Samuel 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
One of the most challenging elements of comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) has long been the need for consensus on the legal, temporary entry of essential foreign workers. This plan for “future flows” of guest workers is critical if we are to reduce the incentive of unauthorized migrants to crash the border.
The lack of agreement between
As Republicans join Democrats in contemplating reform of the nation’s dysfunctional immigration system, the final line of the Pledge of Allegiance (“with liberty and justice for all”) is the best place to start.
Revitalizing our broken and outdated 20th Century immigration laws to respond to the needs of 21st Century America will turn in large
Youthful fans of Saturday Night Live may be forgiven for assuming, however mistakenly, that SNL invented satirical television comedy. The patent for this invention probably ought to go instead to other earlier contenders, Jack Paar, Sid Caesar, Imogene Coco or Steve Allen. While I love these past and present paragons of humor, I’ll never
One of the most durable historical myths, Potemkin’s villages, involves the trompe-l’œil hamlets purportedly created at the direction of Grigory Potemkin to impress Catherine II during her 1787 trip to Crimea. If director James Cameron of Avatar fame were to reimagine and modernize the fable of Potemkin’s villages, he might well place the story, in 3D no
Are we a trustworthy nation? The world waits to see if the American government becomes a deadbeat on August 2, when the debt ceiling is hit. Will the country break faith with its creditors? Will it stiff Social Security recipients, the ill and disabled, fallen warriors and others whose lives or fortunes depend on Uncle Sam’s unflagging
A trip abroad, as I took recently for a speaking gig, often allows intellectual curiosity to gallivant more freely. It also provides opportunities to question accepted truths or cause germinating notions to blossom into convincing arguments, especially if serendipity or divine providence creates chance meetings with strangers. These thoughts crystallized after my return as
On February 18 and 19, the University of California (Irvine) hosted a symposium where many of U.S. immigration’s Rock-Star professors came together to try and solve “Persistent Puzzles in Immigration Law.” The topics covered a wide expanse. A subject discussed that particularly interested me is Congress’s often inexplicable delegation of regulatory authority among a surfeit of
