Wednesday, December 29, 2010

The sadness of the season

It is the greatest time of year, and I should be thinking about my wonderful family, and my fortunate life here in Tampa. Yet I sit in my office frustrated to the maximum because I have a non-criminal alien client (from Canada) who remains in jail almost 60 days after I filed a motion to reopen his immigration case. My client was deported because he did not report for court more than five years after his application for permanent residence was denied. In most cases, this long delay between denial and entry into proceedings has been found to violate the alien's rights. I expected this case will be reopened.

The delay is partly the fault of a recent move by the Orlando immigration court. My clients immigration file was sent to Orlando, but to the wrong address. From there the file returned to central storage, and it has not been seen since. The chief administrator of the court is aware of the problem and is working to get that file so that I get my client out of jail.

But I cannot help thinking, how many other people, with no criminal record, are sitting in immigration detention facilities right now, at a time when they should be with their family and friends. Conspiracy theorists may believe that these non-criminals are in jail because the US government has jailers to pay, and without people (even non-criminals) in jail, there is no need for the jailers.

Merry Christmas.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Frustrating stalemate

It is frustrating to know that CIR is the best for everybody,and to know that business leaders know this is true, and to know that most elected officials know this, and that there is nothing being done about it.


Wednesday, December 8, 2010

When does the bad news end?

The atmosphere in Congress is violently anti-immigrant because of fear of the tea partiers. The Dream Act is soon to die, and so will immigration reform. I am not pleased.

From Politico.com:

“The next two years will be a very, very bleak period for immigration reform and for immigrants,” said Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice, which has been urging passage of the DREAM Act.

In January, Sharry added, Reps. Lamar Smith of Texas and Steve King of Iowa, the Republicans driving immigration policy in the House, “literally want to expel 11 million undocumented immigrants in our country, to make life so miserable they can’t get work, get an apartment, go to school or survive here, so they pick up and go home.”

When the Senate roll-call vote comes up Wednesday, there may be few, if any, GOP supporters, and even some politically vulnerable Democrats may vote against the bill, fearing a 2012 backlash.



Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1210/46052.html#ixzz17XYWz8zo


Thursday, December 2, 2010

Americans and Immigration

In a recent Washington Post article, a condo association was motivated to act on immigration when they learned that the condo maintenance man for 15 years was an illegal alien who was ordered deported. Story here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/16/AR2010111606640.html

This just points out the truth of what I know. Americans love immigrants individually, and they dislike them in groups. Why can't these condo owners realize that the "illegals" they want to deport and kick out of this great country are EXACTLY THE SAME as their maintenance man. They are generally nice people who just want a chance to live without fear or want or war or violence.

We should not be upset about that.