Thumbnail image for rainbow arc.jpgAll of us at times become dispirited.  

As I’ve viewed immigration over the last 40 years, passionate advocates have come and gone, fortunate foreign citizens have been granted green cards and then naturalized; but the harshness and hard-heartedness of immigration law as a reflection of American cultural norms hasn’t really diminished.

For example, back

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The New I-9:

Why Now When We Need Immigration Amnesty for Employers?


By Nicole Kersey and Angelo A. Paparelli


Irony was plentiful last week in Washington and around the country. 

One particularly hawkish Republican, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (who never met a war-on-terror strategy he disliked), glommed onto Senator Rand Paul’s filibustery

Thumbnail image for soccer suit 3.jpg[Blogger’s note:  Today’s guest column is by my colleague at Seyfarth Shaw, John Quill. Three abiding passions animate John — love of family, sports (hockey in particular) and immigration law.  His passion for sports and frustration with U.S. immigration law’s employer-sanctions enforcement regime combine today to bring us this insightful and wistful post.] 

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As we count out the final hours of 2012, let’s recall the highs and lows of the past year in America’s dysfunctional immigration ecosphere.

Nation of Immigrators is pleased to confer its third annual IMMI Awards. (Full disclosure: As in past years, these are my personal choices. If you disagree or believe I’ve missed an

[Blogger’s Note:  Today’s post brings a bit of holiday cheer from my colleague and I-9 expert, Nicole (“Nici”) Kersey.  I want to publicly thank her for allowing me a Christmas break from blogging, and for the delicious chocolates.

Also, there’s still time to nominate Immigration’s Winners and Losers for the 2012 Nation of Immigrators

road closed sign.jpgAs 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Revitalizing our broken and outdated 20th Century immigration laws to respond to the needs of 21st Century America will turn in large

Thumbnail image for robot pen and sword.jpgAndrew Jackson had his “Kitchen Cabinet,” Franklin Roosevelt his “Brain Trust.”   Seth Godin has his “Tribes,” web-based “silos of interest.” 

I’ve been a member of many tribes (as I write this I’m recalling my tattered T-shirt from my own and my adult daughter’s Indian Princess days, many moons ago [click here

Invasion of Normandy.jpg[Blogger’s note:  Tomorrow, August 15, 2012, is perhaps as momentous to DREAMers as D-Day, June 6, 1944, was to The Greatest Generation.   The invasion of Normandy marked the end of World War II in Europe and the fall of a tyrannical Nazi regime that made mincemeat of the rule of law.

Though the comparison may seem

boy_looking_up_and_scratches_his_head.jpg[A] riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma”  ~ Winston Churchill

The most quotable of British Prime Ministers could well have been talking about the American immigration system rather than describing Russia in 1939.  U.S. immigration law is like stratified rock, revealing layer on layer of Congressional accretions laid down over many years

notebook with seashells.jpg[Bloggers note:  Today’s guest column is co-authored by two shining stars in the immigration firmament, Roxana Bacon and Esther Olavarria, who offer four innovative proposals for immigration reform conceived by their law students at the University of Miami Law School. The post is longer than usual but well worth your time.  

The melding