[Blogger’s Note: Today’s post originates from a discovery – a gem hidden in plain sight – first brought to my attention by Gabe Mozes, my immigration partner at Seyfarth Shaw, and co-author of this piece. Great immigration lawyer that he is, Gabe raised a particularly galling example of how U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) pursues extralegal, pretextual grounds, … Continue Reading
Category Archives: Guest Columns
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Immigration Voices: “Gambling on Immigration at a Dangerous Intersection (Merry Christmas, Ninja Squirrel!)”
Posted in Enforcement/USICE, Guest Columns, I-9s, Obama Administration on Immigration[Blogger’s Note: Today we have a dandy guest post from the ever insightful, prolific and droll, Nici Kersey. Don’t be put off by her introductory paragraphs. There’s an immigration gem awaiting — one that employers, and the lawyers who counsel them, will not want to miss.]
Gambling on Immigration at a Dangerous Intersection(Merry Christmas, Ninja Squirrel!) By Nicole (Nici) Kersey… Continue Reading
Immigration Voices: Coming out of the Shadows with the U Visa
Posted in Administrative Appeals Office - USCIS, Family Immigration, Guest Columns, Immigration Lawyers, Legal Representation, U visa, USCIS[Blogger’s note; Probably the most gratifying element of practicing immigration law is watching clients flourish. Obtaining immigration benefits, especially lawful permanent residency, often unleashes a wave of innovation and creativity. Less often, it produces a humanitarian “pay it forward” moment. This is the story of today’s guest blogger, Protima Pandey. Many years ago, I represented a technology company that … Continue Reading
Immigration Voices: Baring My Teeth at I-9 Enforcement Inequalities
Posted in Enforcement/USICE, Guest Columns, I-9s, State Immigration Laws[Blogger’s note: Here we go with another guest column from Nicole (Nici) Kersey who offers a witty, wise and worthy post on the inequities and inanities of the worksite enforcement scheme concocted by Congress in 1990, a flawed system of employer deputization of governmental functions largely maladministered by various agencies of the Executive Branch. Worse yet for employers, the states … Continue Reading
Immigration Voices: Dr. No vs. the League of Extraordinary Aliens
Posted in Extraordinary Ability, Guest Columns, O-1 Visas, Requests for Evidence (RFEs), USCIS, USCIS Ombudsman
[Blogger’s note: An anonymous immigration lawyer offers this lament on the woeful quality of adjudications at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). For related wailing, see: “ ‘I Hate [Bleep]ing Immigration Law’ — Whenever I Get an Unjust Request for Evidence,” “End the Tyranny of Immigration Insubordination,” and “Immigration Indifference – The Adjudicator’s Curse.”]… Continue Reading
L-1 Petitioners Beware: USCIS Confirms Plans to Expand FDNS Site Visit Program
Posted in Fraud Detection & National Security (FDNS), Guest Columns, L-1 Visa, UncategorizedHistory is about to repeat itself. Fraud Detection and National Security (FDNS), a directorate of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), is set to embark on another foray of surprise visits to Corporate America, seeking to determine whether employers … Continue Reading
Immigration Voices: Egads! I-9 Questions that Keep Me Up at Night
Posted in Guest Columns, I-9s[Bloggers note: Today’s post comes from the vivid imagination and prolific keyboard of frequent guest blogger and immigration-compliance maven Nicole “Nici” Kersey who shares her introspectively humorous musings at almost a TMI level while informing us of anxiety-inducing Form I-9 issues that stress her (and likely most employers) out. By the way, the photo image is not of Nici but … Continue Reading
Immigration Voices: “E-Verify’s New Lock ~ Like it or Not, This is a Big Deal!”
Posted in E-Verify, Enforcement/USICE, Guest Columns, I-9s, National ID card[Blogger’s Note: Once again, the wonderfully insightful, witty and quirky Nici Kersey — I-9 and E-Verify expert extraordinaire — offers the straight scoop on the new E-Verify “lock-down” feature. Though she sometimes publishes unfounded rumors about me (let the record reflect, I’ve not begun a chauffeur service on the side), she kindly gave me a weekend respite from blogging to share … Continue Reading
Immigration Voices: “Visa Now Needed for U.S. Citizens to Enter the Beltway?”
Posted in Guest Columns, Immigration Humor
Shutting down the government for a couple weeks gave Congress time to turn to our immigration laws this month. Reports have been leaked that at the top of Congress’s agenda is a proposal to introduce a visa requirement for US … Continue Reading
Bordering on the Absurd: Immigration Expertise Lacking at U.S. Border Agency
Posted in Border Issues & CBP, Border Security, Congress on Immigration, Customs and Border Protection, Guest Columns[Blogger’s note: Today’s post offers a shocking analysis of how the decision by Congress some ten years ago to combine the functions of U.S. Customs, Immigration and Agricultural inspectors into a single agency, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), has led to disastrous consequences for applicants seeking admission to the U.S. under our nation’s immigration laws. Written by a senior … Continue Reading
Immigration Voices – Careen Shannon: “Stop the Birther Nonsense Now”
Posted in Citizenship and Nationality, Constitutional Law, Democrats on Immigration, GOP on Immigration, Guest Columns, Obama Administration on Immigration[Blogger’s Note: Today’s post comes from the prodigious and talented Careen Shannon, a frequest guest blogger and blogger in her own right, who is Of Counsel at Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, LLP and an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York. Careen Shannon . I’ve covered similar terrain … Continue Reading
Prosecutors, Aim Your Weapons — Targeting Fraud upon Immigrants
Posted in Guest Columns, Immigration Reform, Unauthorized Practice of Immigration Law, USCIS[Blogger’s note: Today’s post is authored jointly by Angelo A. Paparelli and Ted J. Chiappari with editorial assistance from Olivia Sanson. It is reprinted with permission from the August 28, 2013 edition of the New York Law Journal. © 2013 ALM Properties Inc. All rights reserved. Further duplication without permission is prohibited. The authors thank the Journal for permission to … Continue Reading
Immigration Mystery Revealed: The Occult Process behind Nonimmigrant Visa Waivers
Posted in Border Issues & CBP, Guest Columns, Immigration Reform, Waivers of Inadmissibility
[Blogger’s note: Today’s post is by guest columnist, John Klow. John is one of the most knowledgeable private citizens who understands the inner workings of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. In the post below, John elucidates the often opaque, behind-the-scenes process whereby an individual who is found inadmissible to the U.S. may apply for a temporary waiver, and, if … Continue Reading
Immigration Voices – Careen Shannon: “Edward Snowden and the Politics of Asylum”
Posted in Asylum, Foreign policy, Guest Columns[Blogger’s note: Our guest blogger today is Careen Shannon, Of Counsel at Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, LLP and an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York. Careen Shannon and Austin Fragomen blog about immigration issues at Fragomen on Immigration. She writes to offer a background on the law of … Continue Reading
Guest Blog: “Objection! (To Wearing Suits, Growing Up, and Immigration Law in TV and Film)”
Posted in Guest Columns, Immigration and the Arts[Blogger’s note: Today’s post comes from the prolific keyboard of Nici Kersey, a friend and colleague whom I number among the best in I-9 and E-Verify compliance issues. She writes about our shared reluctance to grow up (as I write this, I’m singing my anthem — a certain song from the musical, Peter Pan) and our mutual … Continue Reading
No Longer Illegal, But Still An Alien
Posted in Congress on Immigration, Guest Columns, Hate speech, Immigration and Journalism, Immigration Discrimination, Immigration terminology[Blogger’s Note: Our guest blogger today is Careen Shannon, who is Of Counsel at Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, LLP and an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York. This is an updated and condensed version of an article Careen wrote for the online magazine Salon.com. Careen Shannon and Austin Fragomen … Continue Reading
A New Immigration Recipe: Specialty Chefs Need a Dream Act Too!
Posted in Adjustment of Status, Congress on Immigration, Consular Officers, DOL, DREAM Act, Guest Columns, I-9s, Immigration Reform, State Department, Trade in Services, Unlawful Presence, USCIS, Waivers of Inadmissibility[Blogger’s note: Today’s guest blog is by my friend and scholarly colleague, Nathan Waxman. Nathan revisits an issue he first considered eight years ago in this space when he bemoaned the increasingly poor quality of ethnically authentic food in New York City, and laid the blame upon our immigration laws. Having suffered through several more years of culinary displeasure, … Continue Reading
Guest Blog: All I Got for Christmas Was a Crumb-y Immigration Compliance Checklist
Posted in Enforcement/USICE, Guest Columns, I-9s, Immigration Regulations[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 Awards — The IMMIs. … Continue Reading
Immigration D-Day for DACA: Get Protection!
Posted in DREAM Act, Enforcement/USICE, Guest Columns, Immigration Law Complexity, Immigration Reform, Immigration Regulations, Obama Administration on Immigration, Unauthorized Practice of Immigration Law, Unlawful Presence, USCIS[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 hyperbolic to some, I remember … Continue Reading
Hot from Miami: Four Fresh and Seasoned Immigration Reform Proposals
Posted in Border Issues & CBP, Employment-Based Immigration, Enforcement/USICE, Global Migration, Guest Columns, Immigration Reform[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 of insights from the immigration … Continue Reading
Immigration Law — Moving away from Individual Rights
Posted in Congress on Immigration, Enforcement/USICE, Extreme Hardship, Guest Columns, Immigration Discrimination, Immigration Law Complexity, Immigration Reform, Obama Administration on Immigration, Waivers of Inadmissibility
[Blogger’s Note: This week’s guest column is by Jennifer Oltarsh, an immigration lawyer practicing in Manhattan. She writes about how the tendency of Congress and the Obama Administration to require the incarceration of low-level immigration law violators without providing individualized determinations of whether a detainee will be released from custody has led to massive increases in the population of incarcerated immigrants.]
Immigration … Continue Reading
Immigration Lawyers Arguing: “Can I Work from Home for a Foreign Employer?”
Posted in Courts on Immigration Law, Employment-Based Immigration, Foreign policy, Guest Columns, Immigration Law Complexity, Immigration Regulations, Immigration terminology[Blogger’s note: Whether by dint of nature or nurture, lawyers love to argue; immigration lawyers perhaps more so. Unlike our colleagues (outside of immigration practice) for whom sources of law are better defined, immigration attorneys can access a wider array of law and non-law sources with which to fashion our pro and con arguments.
As a change of pace … Continue Reading
Guest Post: What Fried Okra, F.A.O. Schwartz, Staplers, and Immigration Have in Common
Posted in Guest Columns, I-9s, Legal Representation[Blogger’s Note: Nici Kersey, my colleague at Seyfarth Shaw who directs its Immigration Compliance Center, offers another distinctive and entertaining guest post. (Her earlier posts can be found here and here.)
Today, Nici (on the right in the photo [the infant on the left is from a Hollywood casting agency]) shares the stories behind her resume, blaming … Continue Reading
Immigration-Agency Lawbreaking Revealed: USCIS’s EB-5 “Tenant-Occupancy” Scandal
Posted in Congress on Immigration, Guest Columns, Immigration Agency Expertise, Investor Immigration, Requests for Evidence (RFEs), USCIS[Bloggers Note: This post is authored jointly by Brandon Meyer and Angelo A. Paparelli]
Some scandals raise eyebrows; others cause real economic harm. The one we’re about to reveal — known as “tenant occupancy” — does both. It makes the GSA’s Las Vegas cavorting pale in comparison. (Immigration lawyer alert: For those with prurient interests [you know who you are], “tenant occupancy” … Continue Reading