In its latest newsletter , the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) – a unit of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security – suggests that migrants crossing the border illegally from Mexico into the scorching Arizona deserts are driven to do so by “emotions” and “machismo”:

“Intellectually, those considering jumping the U.S.-Mexican border realize how hot it is in the southwest during mid-summer. But somehow their emotions, their machismo, win out and they make a run for it, only to be faced with the desperate realization of just how hot the desert summer is: Deathly hot.

“When much of the U.S. was under heat advisories this summer for temperatures in the high 90s, the southwestern deserts were baking under temperatures consistently reaching 120 degrees. No shade, no pools, no air conditioning, just 120 life-sapping degrees. “

Continue Reading The U.S. Must Repudiate Life-Threatening Psycho-Babble and Instead Enact Reality-Based Immigration Laws

Planning to work, engage in business or research, tour or study in the United States? Thinking about entering the country from one of the land borders in Arizona, New York or Washington State? Well if you are, then you will be enrolled in a new Homeland Security Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) pilot program at the land ports of Nogales East (Deconcini) and Nogales West (Mariposa) in Arizona; Alexandria Bay (Thousand Islands) in New York; and Pacific Highway and Peace Arch in Washington State. Continue Reading RFID and the Immigration Surveillance Society: New DHS U.S. Visit Pilot Program to Use RFID Tagging to Track I-94 Admission Documents for all Nonimmigrants

Today, lawyers worry about many looming threats.

  • Competition for clients has never been greater;
  • The demands on lawyers to bring in new and profitable business continue to mount;
  • The pressure grows to improve client service while holding the line on fees in a globally competitive environment.

It’s enough to spoil the few stolen moments of recreation that we harried lawyers can snatch. You sit at the theatre and can’t even enjoy the action on stage, because the lack of action back at the firm creates terror scenarios in your mind. What should you do? Well, perhaps, the lessons of the theatre offer hope. Perhaps you would benefit from the skills and talents that come from stagecraft. Take a look at this American Bar Association article for a few clues. STORIES ON STAGE: How Acting Classes Helped These Lawyers Hone Their Craft by Arin Greenwood

The line between Madison Avenue, the home of the advertising industry, and Pennsylvania Avenue, the center point of the Executive Branch of government, seems increasingly blurred. When these two avenues, however, are intersected by Baker Street, the residence of Sherlock Holmes, the blur becomes an unsolved puzzle of intrigue.

This small stroll down the Grid begins in the most pedestrian way. As a matter of routine, when government functions are changed and federal agencies given new monikers by act of Congress, the agencies and the affected public are often left with the detritus of stockpiled old forms bearing the former agency’s official name. The logical bureaucratic solution is to publish the forms anew with the name of the successor agency at the masthead, while allowing the public a reasonable period to continue using the old form so that paper is not wasted and forests are not clear-cut any sooner than necessary.

That was then, this is now. Enter Madison Avenue. Today, government forms are not merely published with the name of the new agency; they are instead “rebranded.” Witness the June 21, 2005 proclamation by press release of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) which announces the rebranding of the Employment Eligibility Verification (Form I-9) used by every U.S. employer to legitimize the employment eligibility of each newly hired worker. As these two units of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced: Continue Reading Untruth in Advertising: The Mysterious “Rebranding” of Immigration Form I-9

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services – the unit within the Department of Homeland Security authorized to provide immigration, naturalization and visa benefits – has just issued its 10-year strategic plan.

In a letter announcing the plan, Eduardo Aguirre, Jr., the USCIS Director, offers a commendable description of how a robust commitment to providing immigration benefits will continue to enrich our nation:

The opportunity for social equality, for economic independence, for a brighter future; these are the beacons that have attracted people throughout history and from every part of the world to become Americans. Their contributions have enriched the fabric of our society, formed the ideal of the American dream and helped to shape a nation built upon the deep foundations of morality, pillared by codes of justice, with a roof of freedom and liberty overhead. With the Strategic Plan as our blueprint, we will ensure that the spirit of every citizen, both native-born and naturalized, can be harnessed to drive the next chapter of our great American story and continue our historic legacy.

Continue Reading Immigration Agency’s 10-year Strategic Plan Outlines New, Chilling Uses for Information Technology

Blog readers may not be aware of the challenges the key players involved in a merger, acquisition or other corporate restructuring encounter when they try to understand the secret immigration law affecting M & A deals. The law is secret because it exists primarily in old memoranda issued by the former Immigration and Naturalization Service – an agency abolished in February, 2003. The key foreign workers (whether they are the executives, managers, or critically important technical staff) must file one-at-a-time and in advance to transfer to the payroll of the successor company and continue to be lawfully employed. Often, the immigration requirements are considered as an afterthought. If the deal closes and the immigration niceties have not been followed, then the transferring employees must rely on the kindness of strangers, the folks at the successor agency, the unit within the Department of Homeland Security known as U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. To avoid the potential risks and miseries of relying on folks whose primary mission is homeland protection, readers of this blog may want to read No Broom and Shovel Brigade: Cleaning Up Immigration Messes in M & A Transactions Before They Occur by Teri A. Simmons, David Grunblatt and Angelo A. Paparelli

When it comes to the divisive subject of immigration, on one point the competing camps, surprisingly, agree. The body politic is inflamed and afflicted. The carbuncle that is illegal immigration must be lanced. The fester must be allowed to drain and the wound to heal. Americans must discover a way to get back on our collective feet if we are to stand any chance of competing successfully in the flattened and increasingly borderless global economy.

Many pundits have addressed the hot-button issues. This blog and writers of similar sentiment have tried to debunk the immigration apocrypha that masquerade as news in the print, cable and broadcast media. This posting will take a different tack, and examine the fine points of recent reform proposals. Like so much vaporware, immigration-fix proposals have been floated for years, but little has been offered in the way of proposed legislation; still fewer of the bills have had any realistic chance of enactment. Continue Reading Comprehensive Immigration Reform: Bipartisan Cure or Beltway-Spawned Pandemic?

Guest Column By Peter Schey
President, Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law
pschey@centerforhumanrights.org

Whether made out of an abysmal ignorance or reckless disregard of fairly well-known facts regarding immigration policy, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenneger’s recent comments on this subject are hopelessly misguided, profoundly embarrassing to California, and virtually guarantee that the State with the most at stake on migration issues in this country will have no voice at the negotiating table when it comes to immigration policy.

Gov. Schwarzenneger, who has never answered questions regarding the legality of his own employment when he arrived here as an immigrant in 1971, or authorized the release of his immigration files for public scrutiny, has now launched a xenophobic and senseless crusade against the migrant community living in California while at the same time claiming to be “the champion of immigrants.” If he is their champion, then immigrants in California feel they have been hit and seriously wounded by friendly fire. Continue Reading California Immigrants: The Victims of Friendly Fire

Guest Column By Nathan A. Waxman

It’s hard to feel nostalgic about the days when eating out in Manhattan meant choosing from pastrami, cheeseburger, or two slices of pizza. Today we, and our friends on the mainland of the US, can partake of a veritable cornucopia of world cuisines, authentic or naturalized to New World tastes, ranging from Uzbek shashlik to a multitude of Chinese regional cuisines through Colombian – or, if you prefer, Venezuelan – arepas, all the way to the newly discovered “authentic” gourmet Sicilian cuisine.

The efflorescence of exotic cuisine choices in this country was fueled by the entrepreneurship of recent immigrants from Bogotá to Bangkok, Jaipur to Jogjakarta, who brightened up the American landscape with stores and restaurants purveying the foods and goods of their homelands. These restaurants flourished by employing the labor certification/immigrant visa process to secure the employment of qualified chefs from the old country. This mechanism assured the immigration and continuing services of innumerable “specialty chefs,” thereby allowing the expansion of restaurant cuisine offerings, even in middle-American shopping center and strip malls. Continue Reading Is That Chipotle in My Sushi? – U.S. Immigration Laws Spoil the Flavor of Dining Out