What the Election Means for Immigration Reform
Published November 04, 2009 @ 11:24AM PT
While the GOP won gubernatorial elections in the states of New Jersey and Virginia, there was no second Republican wet-dream 'Contract with America.' Voters seemed mostly uninspired and voted against incumbents for the most part.
The gubernatorial elections do not bring good news for immigration reforms in those states. Virginia is among the top 10 states with new residents. The winner Bob McDonell is the grandson of an Irish immigrant but wants to extend 287g across the state and enable state troopers to enforce immigration laws.
In New Jersey, passing a much-needed instate-tuition bill for undocumented students as part of the recommendations of the Corzine blue ribbon commission is about to get harder with the election of Chris Christie since he opposes the legislation. But both Governor Corzine and Christie oppose granting driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants. They also expressed reservations for local enforcement of federal immigration laws and looked to federal government for direction on immigration.
After all, the votes for immigration reform won't come from Governors. Democrats won the two House seats up for grabs, wrestling a little more power from the bluedogs and making immigration reform a bit easier in the House of Representatives.
Making Immigrant Detention Comical
Published November 04, 2009 @ 09:26AM PT
If New Jersey airport officials could detain Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan, Dr. Jorge Cham is just a small fish in the sea for British immigration officials.
Cham of PhD Comics had a deportation scare in the United Kingdom recently. He took it in stride and produced some wonderful comics called PHD Tales from Heathrow Detention Facility that are somewhat telling of the American immigration system as well.
Enjoy them here: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
Responding to the comics, if the 9-11 perpetrators did hate us for our freedoms, they got their wish. Our response was to fulfill their dying wishes by shredding our constitutional protections, destroying civil liberties, casting suspicion at every 'Other' and growing our archipelago of immigrant detention.
(Photo Credit: MIT)
Deportation Today: Helen Mejia Speaks
Published November 04, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
This is Helen Mejia, a citizen of the United States. If Senator Feinstein fails to introduce a private bill for the Mejia-Perez family today, Helen Mejia will be deported back to Guatemala--a place she has never seen.
Help stop this atrocity by taking the actions outline here.
(Video Credit: DreamActivist)
Senator Feinstein, Why Are You Deporting U.S. Citizens?
Published November 03, 2009 @ 01:07PM PT
Since the young promigrant blogosphere and twitterverse is asking this question, it felt prudent to bring attention to this atrocity.
During the past decade, 109,000 parents deported had U.S. citizen children who belong here in the United States. Will the Mejia-Perez family become another statistic in our broken immigration system?
The Mejia-Perez family, hailing from Novato California, is facing its last few days in the United States after living here for close to 20 years. It is a mixed-status family with two U.S. citizen children, Helen and Dulce. Gilbert Mejia, a DREAM-eligible youth and currently going through asylum proceedings, gets to stay for another year. The rest of the family, including Helen and Dulce, will be deported to Guatemala this Thursday.
Thus far, ICE has refused to take action. One can hardly blame ICE, given the bad morale and behavior in the agency. They have their hands full with their own incompetency and various criminal activities, not to mention subsequent lawsuits. And besides, they have deported more U.S. citizens wrongly than they can track down.
NY Report Finds 39% Immigrant Detainees Eligible for Relief
Published November 03, 2009 @ 10:14AM PT
A newly released NYC Know Your Rights report from New York City Bar Justice Center claims that 39% of immigrant detainees at the Varick detention facility in New York have ways to adjust their status. They are only allegedly 'illegal aliens.' Of the 250 kidnapped by the U.S. government, 100 detainees were jailed without facing charges while working on a $1 per day, however, the Department of Homeland Security sees the jail as a 'good model' to emulate.
The NYC project could only help 10 detainees per week. 27 of the detainees were lawful permanent residents while some had claims to relief for being born to citizen parents. 39% have claims to adjustment of status via cancellation of removal; asylum; withholding of removal, and/or relief under the Convention Against Torture, non-immigrant visas including U and S visas, 212(c) relief; and adjustment of status under 245(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
Ninth Circuit Hearing For CSPA Lawsuit Sparks Optimism
Published November 02, 2009 @ 12:12PM PT
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is getting set to hear an appeal from immigrant families regarding the Child Status Protection Act. Last month, Judge Selena from a federal district court in Los Angeles ruled against the petitioning families and upheld a strict USCIS re-interpretation of the law, but several sources are confident of winning this appeal.
Attorney Carl Shusterman justifies his optimism by discussing a prior INS regulation that restricted waivers for eligible physicians under the National Interest Waiver (NIW). Congress enacted the law to provide that "all physicians" working in medically-underserved areas were eligible for NIWs, but INS regulations limited this immigration benefit to only primary care physicians. A federal district judge upheld this re-interpretation but upon going to the Ninth Circuit, the judges were incredulous at the arguments put forth by the government. The Appeals Court judges overturned the decision of the district judge and ruled in favor of the plaintiff physicians.
Since the CSPA lawsuit is equally straightforward, Shusterman is confident that "the Judges on the Court of Appeals will not let an administrative agency unlawfully restrict who benefits from a law passed by Congress and signed by the President." Additionally, the Ninth Circuit has a good record on immigration cases, most recently ruling against the widow penalty, which spark a nationwide revoke of the law. The CSPA case has the backing of legal statutes enacted by Congress and it would not require mental gymnastics to overturn the USCIS re-interpretation.
New Immigration Legislation Resuscitates More Than Surviving Spouses
Published November 02, 2009 @ 08:00AM PT
Last month, I reported the elimination of the widow penalty through H.R.2892. But the 2010 Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act goes a step further in allowing the surviving beneficiaries of all approved family and employment-based petitions to be protected as "survivors" and allow them to continue their applications for adjustment of status despite the death of the original petitioner.
This is a crucial fix in immigration law because due to long immigration waits, original petitioners sometimes pass away, leaving entire families in perpetual limbo. Additionally, under the new law, if the principle beneficiary passes away while the petition is pending, the spouse and derivative beneficiaries can still immigrate. If the family is abroad, then they can request a reinstatement of the visa petition on "humanitarian" grounds.
Specifically, these are the categories affected by the new legislation:
(A) the beneficiary of a pending or approved petition for classification as an immediate relative (as described in section 201(b)(2)(A)(i));
(B) the beneficiary of a pending or approved petition for classification under section 203 (a) or (d);
(C) a derivative beneficiary of a pending or approved petition for classification under section 203(b) (as described in section 203(d));
(D) the beneficiary of a pending or approved refugee/asylee relative petition under section 207 or 208;
(E) an alien admitted in `T' nonimmigrant status as described in section 101(a)(15)(T)(ii) or in `U' nonimmigrant status as described in section 101(a)(15)(U)(ii); or
(F) an asylee (as described in section 208(b)(3)).'.
President Obama is widely expected to sign the legislation soon. Actual interpretation of this bill and guidelines on how to claim relief under Sec. 568 will come from USCIS after passage of the bill.
(Photo Credit: WTL photos on Flickr)
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