With the President’s supporters pleading for action, Barack Obama at last has pivoted to jobs. “Pass this bill [the American Jobs Act]” has become his oft-shouted mantra. Surprisingly, however, career bureaucrats within the Departments of State and Homeland Security apparently haven’t read his September 8 speech to Congress and instead are taking affirmative steps to prevent
Foreign policy
A Decade after 9/11: The Fear of Lax Immigration Enforcement Still Haunts America
Today, the 10th anniversary of the terrorist savagery of September 11, 2001, the nation pauses to remember the fallen and reflect on how our country has changed in the decade past. PBS and The New Yorker offer worthy contemplations on the changes since 9/11 and today, and two immigration lawyers, Cyrus Mehta and Jonathan Montag…
Immigration Thought Leadership – Needed Now More Than Ever
Writing for The Hill, pundit Kathy Kemper just published a thoughtful piece on “Debt and immigration.” In it she contrasts American policy-makers’ obsession with the financial Sword of Damocles, set to behead us on August 2, with Norway’s all-consuming focus on the aftermath of a xenophobic madman’s gutless acts of murder and mayhem.
Americans, it seems, can…
Revenue-Raising Immigration: The $$$ Visa
As the debt-ceiling crisis causes America to plunge headlong into the lemming-led abyss of a credit default, Congress and the country are reminded of a timeless truth. “Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.”
In these parlous times, our nation is regularly compared to the nearly deadbeat country of Greece, which tried…
Time to Replace Put-up-and-Shut-up Immigration Policies with Real Customer Service
I’m no fan of the U.S. Department of State’s policies and actions in the immigration space. State’s approach, as manifested by the behavior of U.S. consular officers and the apparatchiks within the Visa Office at the Bureau of Consular Affairs, too often comes off as a mix of treacly haughtiness and callous indifference.
These Ugly American attributes…
Hillary’s New Arsenal of Immigration Drones
The attention given the Obama Administration’s expanded use of aerial drones (of late in Pakistan, Yemen and Libya, at the U.S. border, and perhaps over other points unknown) to bombard unsuspecting targets and predictably, if not wilfully, cause civilian casulaties, may have distracted from other important meanings of the word. Webster’s Dictionary defines “drone” in four distinct…
Demystifying Immigration Myths
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…
America’s Creaking, Crotchety Immigration System — Not Ready for the Globalized World
Few observers predicted the profundity of global political changes in the first quarter of 2011.
The Middle East, still the source of most of the world’s energy, has witnessed civilian protestors toppling despots and prompting autocrats to invite foreign-state and mercenary armies to quell peaceful demonstrations and slaughter citizens. Libya’s never-predictable Muammar el-Qaddafi, having nearly routed indigenous rebels centered around…