“America is back, the trans-Atlantic alliance is back.” – So declared President Biden on February 23, 2021. Apparently, however, Antony J. Blinken, the newly installed U.S. Secretary of State (DOS), didn’t get the memo. On March 2, 2021, he “rescinded the previous national interest determination regarding categories of travelers eligible for exceptions under Presidential
State Department
Pursuing a National Interest Exception to the Presidential Entry Bans on Economic Grounds ~ Not A Fool’s Errand
We’ve seen this movie before.
Scene 1: The President issues a proclamation in reliance on his authority to restrict the entry of certain noncitizens under Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) § 212(f) so long as he asserts that allowing them in would be “detrimental to the interests of the United States.”
Scene 2:…
Eyes off the Prize: White House Oblivious to Immigration Bureaucrats’ Running out the Clock
Two hundred days ago President Obama stoked the hopes of immigration advocates with his announcement of wide-ranging executive actions to try — as far as his authority would carry him — to change America’s broken immigration system for the better.
Generating most of the media fanfare and Republican outrage were his plans to expand eligibility…
Immigration Howling, Hope, Hype and Hodgepodge: USCIS’s New L-1B Memo
Social media flamed with expressions of outrage, relief and tepid optimism ever since President Obama announced on March 23, 2015 the release of long-awaited policy guidance on a key temporary worker visa category:
Today, I’m pleased to announce a new action I’m also taking to make it easier for global companies who are present here…
Tips from an Immigration Insider: How to Excel at a U.S. Visa Interview
Ellis Island, which opened as an immigration processing post on January 1st 122 years ago, symbolizes for many Americans of immigrant descent the place where would-be entrants to the U.S. learned whether they would be admitted to the country. Perhaps the most famous and wrenching location within this hallowed landmark are the “stairs of…
Immigration Triangulation — Another Dysfunctional Government Policy
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…
The Immigration-Abandonment Ploy — Fallout from a Fiddling Congress and Bickering Allies
The times they are a-mournin’ for proponents of immigrant rights and immigration reform. While Pope Francis shows the world how to love by embracing and praying with a tumor-scarred man, immigrants-rights activists and immigration-reform pragmatists are at war among themselves over tactics in the battle to achieve just solutions to our nation’s dysfunctional immigration problems.
The L-1 Intracompany Transferee Visa Facing Attack — from All Branches of the Federal Government (Part I)
[Bloggers Note: My two-part blog post below first appeared in Seyfarth Shaw LLP‘s September 10 and September 12 “Employment Law Lookout” Blog]
The L-1 Intracompany Transferee Visa Facing Attack
— from All Branches of the Federal Government (Part I)
By Angelo A. Paparelli
U.S. employers have likely grown accustomed to the longstanding controversy…
Arcing toward Immigration Justice: “Illegals” No More
All 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…
Immigration Quota Reform: Waste Not, Want Not
Frugality, something second nature to our colonial forebears, is a trait we Americans seem to have forgotten. We are profligate in our material acquisitions and in their disposition. (Witness the growing mountains of toxic electronic waste that are almost as hard to be rid of as spent nuclear fuel.) Saving for a rainy day…