usa_circa_1955_great_lakes.jpgWill comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) die a slow and ignominious death in the House?  Will the Republican Party, whose thought leaders on the far right chant “Kill the Bill,” face a near-term visit by the Grim Reaper?

Are conservatives abandoning conservatism over immigration, as David Brooks and this blogger maintain? Are lobbyists who

India - Americans.jpgThe drums of war are pounding.  Prominent American companies, through a variety of business associations, are urging the Obama Administration and Congress to punish the Government of India for mounting hostile actions in a brewing trade war.

For its part, the Indian government cannot be pleased with the dramatically increased filing fees and restrictions

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

Voltaire 2.jpgFrench philosopher and aphorist, François-Marie Arouet, better known by his nom de plume, Voltaire, wrote in Italian that “Il meglio è l’inimico del bene [the perfect is the enemy of the good].”

The wisdom of this saying, championed by pragmatists everywhere, comes to mind upon reading a May 30, 2013 Policy Memorandum (PM)

Man with files.jpgImmigration law and tax law, although at first glance strikingly different, share much in common.  Each rivals the other in complexity.  Each permeates every nook and cranny of human behavior — from commerce and criminality to love and divorce, from mental illness to extraordinary brilliance, from birth to death and everything in between. Though each

Stuart Smalley.jpgEver since the people of Minnesota elected Al Franken their U.S. senator, there’s been a hole in my comedic heart.  The good Senator doesn’t keep counsel with me, but I’ve discerned that he’s made a personal vow to never again offer a hint of his former incarnation as one of the nation’s most hilarious comedians

Thumbnail image for grand vin Lafite.jpgWhile most of the nation fixated this week on black and brown American heroes in Cleveland, the attention of immigration advocates diverged.  They vacillated between delight with the imploding anti-immigration conservative movement and nail-biting over votes on a flood of amendments to the massive, bipartisan Gang of Eight bill in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

PORTFOLIO 1.jpgMuch has been written since April 17 when the bipartisan Gang of Eight senators introduced S. 744, a brobdingnagian immigration reform bill that overlays 844 pages of turgid text on top of the already gargantuan and complex Immigration and Nationality Act.  The Migration Policy Institute, the National Immigration Law Center, and the American

No more hurting people.jpg

The usual xenophobic suspects made the usual noises after the tragic events in Boston last week.  Perhaps the most premature outcry came from electrified-border-fence proponent, Rep. Steve King, Republican from Iowa, who a day after the marathon explosions linked a report (ultimately untrue) that a Saudi national had planted the bombs with King’s mission

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