Born in the USA, but not an American? - The Boston Globe

An interesting article for anyone who has heard about the current movement to strip citizenship from people born here, unless their parents are legally here.

Born in the USA, but not an American? - The Boston Globe

Obama moves on policy.

President Obama has made moves that show he is interested in showing a kinder face to the unfortunate illegals here. This is just on of the many President Obama can use his law enforcement power to act to save aliens when Congress refuses to act.

Students Spared Amid an Increase in Deportations
"The Obama administration, while deporting a record number of immigrants convicted of crimes, is sparing one group of illegal immigrants from expulsion: students who came to the United States without papers when they were children." Julia Preston, NYT, Aug. 9, 2010.

Immigration Amnesty for some

The New York Times reports that now illegal immediate family members of US citizens in the military may qualify for parole and may apply for their green cards here. Awesome!

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/us/01immig.html

Dream the impossible dream

I have a number of outstanding victories lately that I would like to share with you.

Case #1. A Family torn apart.

USC husband, Mexican wife and two USC kids. They went to an "attorney" in Pinellas and the result of his fine representation was that the wife was banned from the US for ten years with no waiver available. The couple came to hire me. I did not like their chances, but the truth still matters, doesn't it? While we worked on the case the wife and older son lived in Mexico, and the Husband and younger son lived here. This untenable situation was a great motivator.

Among other things we did, we reapplied for permanent residence as the wife of a USC. One year later my client got her interview, where she was able to convince the reviewing officer (thanks to great documentation from the family) that the previous application was wrong, and that she had only been in the US illegally once. Her application for a waiver of the ten year bar based on illegal stay was approved immediately and she returned and is currently living with her husband and two children -- all together like they should be.

Case #2. We are not waiting for the waiver.

My USC client is married to an Ecuadorian. The alien has previous immigration issues and will need a waiver to return. I was hired only to assist with the waiver. While we were working on the waiver, the USC wife refused to put her plans for family on hold had her second child, which she raised along with her first child with her parents help. The husband remained in Ecuador. I worked closely with the wife preparing and submitting the waiver, and I was confident it would be approved.

Imagine my dismay when the employee of the US Embassy took the waiver, and told my client "That's all you got? That waiver is never going to be approved!" After I calmed my client down and let them know that the decision would not be made in Ecuador, but in the central waiver processing office, we settled in for the interminable wait. One and one half years later (and yet another baby for the couple) the waiver was approved, and my client and his reunited family are back together.

Miami CIS - Orlando CIS

I have now been to the new digs of Orlando and Miami CIS. They are awesome! The offices are large, with ample waiting rooms and plenty of room for people to wait inside (!!) out of the heat and rain while they wait to get in. When will it be Tampa's turn to have the new great office?

My sources tell me that Tampa CIS is close to moving, but they do not know where. Maybe to Brandon to be close to the ASC? Maybe downtown, because there is a glut of space there? As soon as I know, I will let you know.

How many clients can they serve?

This question struck me the other day when I was in immigration court. I had my usual one client and was well prepared for what I wanted to do at that hearing. I could not help noticing that some attorneys had many clients for each hearing. That must mean they have good business, or their rates are inexpensive, but I wonder what kind of service their clients receive.

All too often I see attorneys immigration court question their clients when the judge asks them "what language does your client speak?" or "where does your client live?". I know this about my clients before we get to court.

I have heard horror stories about aliens who only know that they are at their final deportation hearing on the day of their hearing. I have heard stories about aliens who met their lawyer twice during their entire case, once when they paid him, and once for the final hearing. By the time I am finished with a deportation case, my clients of often had enough of me. with the assistance of my partner Krista, and my assistant Sasha, we meet continually with our deportation clients up until the final hearing date, always preparing for the final hearing. No client of mine is ever surprised on the witness stand, because they've heard all the questions before, from me. In my last case, my client had a list of 178 questions that I expected he would see that day.

I am much more concerned about quality of representation, then the quantity of my clients, and I think that is the proper attitude to have.

Dragon helps me out!

Forgive me for being absent so long, my friends. It is been a crazy couple of months.

I recently purchased the Dragon voice-recognition software, and I could not be more pleased. This software can even determine what I am saying, which is a step up from our last attempt at voice-recognition software.

New things in immigration:

TPS for Haitians - it's about time that the nice people from Haiti got a break. It is too bad that it took a devastating earthquake to give them that break. This is great news for those from Haiti facing deportation, as this process will stop for a while.

CRI -- comprehensive immigration reform has been presented and is pending in Congress and the Senate. I certainly hope the president is more successful with this endeavor than he was with healthcare reform.

In recent cases, I have won quite a few 240 A(b) applications for my clients, and although the government is starting to appeal every loss, we are undefeated on appeals. You may remember these cases involve non-permanent residents who have been in the US for more than 10 years, who can show exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to their qualifying US citizen or lawful permanent relatives.

At Citizenship and Immigration Services, they remain very leery of every marriage case, and the decisions on petitions to remove conditions remain as baffling as ever. I saw a decision recently, during a consult, where the immigration service officer called the US citizen wife a lesbian, and said this was why he could not approve the case. If your petition to remove conditions has been denied, do not feel special. Too many good people are having their lives disrupted and their bank accounts destroyed because of poor decisions from the local office.

I hope to write more often in the future. Sorry I have been absent for so long.

Neil