Blog: Think Immigration
We believe that immigration law is an integral part of America’s past, present and future. We also know that immigration law is complicated. Here you’ll find experts writing in an accessible way about immigration issues, from big, broad ideas down to specific cases. Our members bring knowledge they’ve gleaned from the daily practice of immigration law to this space and offer their expertise to readers.
Browse the Blog: Think Immigration collection
Travel Ban – An Update
The “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States“ Executive Order has once again been modified. From its original far-reaching, chaotic launch on January 26, to its initial limited injunctions, to its nationwide stay, withdrawal and replacement, to more injunctio
New World Requires New Strategies
I had heard a rumor that it was a fire-able offense for anyone in Ira Kurzban's firm to concede a conviction in immigration court. So while talking to Ira at a conference once, I asked him if it was true. He informed me I had heard wrong. He explained that it is a fire-able offense […]
Guardians of our Constitution
Adapted from the installation speech of Annaluisa Padilla, 2017-18 President of AILA
New Name, New Look, New Content – This Blog’s for You!
Welcome to Think Immigration, the new blog from the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). Here you'll find insightful commentary from legal experts - the folks who see firsthand every single day what immigration law and policy mean to our nation. They see the good, the bad, and the ugly,
Dollars and Sense
SB1070 made my state of Arizona about as unwelcoming as you'd imagine for a then-young Latino guy like me. I can recall being called an “illegal“ in an aisle of a Home Depot by an old woman who was surprised that I spoke English, and that I called her out, asking her who she was […]
Walking the Talk – Why AILA Moved the 2018 AC Out of Texas
Faced with the reality of SB-4's ugly shadow hanging over Texas, AILA has made the decision to move its Annual Conference (AC) in 2018, originally scheduled to take place in Texas, to another state. As a member of AILA's Executive Committee, I worked with my colleagues on the Board of Governors to
Take Action to Combat the Crisis in Post-Release Representation
Since July 2014, when the Obama Administration began detaining women and children crossing the southern border at a makeshift detention center in Artesia, New Mexico, more than 35,000 women and children from the Northern Triangle have been processed at detention centers near the southern border of t
Dangerous Exceptions?
In a recent op-ed in The Hill, James Tomsheck, former head of the Office of Internal Affairs for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) lays out in detail why House and Senate efforts to weaken CBP hiring standards by waiving the polygraph test for certain applicants is a bad idea. Mr. Tomsheck ha
Access to Counsel Should be Non-Negotiable
“Wait, you mean to tell me you are not allowed to contact a lawyer at the airport?“ That is a familiar response when I tell people of the lack of any protocol for allowing access to counsel to those who are coming into the United States from abroad. The fact is, when someone enters the […
Fair Treatment Under the Law
Indiana's highest court handed down a unanimous ruling earlier this month protecting the rights of injured unauthorized immigrants to seek recovery of lost wages and decreased earning capacity and importantly, making their undocumented status inadmissible at trial in most cases. I represented the In
MAVNI: A Successful Program Currently SNAFUed
Imagine you are a Polish- or Punjabi-speaking graduate of a United States school and you volunteered to join the U.S. Armed Forces, ready to serve this country and America's interests. Your recruiter told you about the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (MAVNI) Pilot Program which al
5 Questions and Answers about the EB-5 Program
It's pretty rare that an investor visa gets press attention from all over the world. But this is exactly what happened when reports surfaced of Jared Kushner's sister promoting the EB-5 visa in China. What I saw repeatedly in coverage was confusion about the EB-5 program, what it is designed to do,
Despite the Odds
On a Sunday in February 2016, I was at the San Francisco airport ready to travel to the family detention center in Dilley, Texas, to meet with my new pro bono clients, Marta and her two young sons. Moments after I arrived at SFO, I received word that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was tra
The Courage of Mothers in Family Detention
Over the past two years, hundreds of volunteers have given up a week or more of their lives to help nearly 30,000 mothers and more than 33,000 children detained by the federal government as they seek asylum as our laws allow. Pro bono attorneys, joined by translators and legal assistants, help them
Standing Up for One Family and Making a Difference
A few weeks ago, we had a chance to stand up for one Central American family and make a real difference. We, one law professor and one law student, were the latest in a chain of connections that helped ensure that this vulnerable family will have a meaningful chance to claim asylum. Each semester, l
It’s time to tackle the 3/10 year bar!
Perhaps not since the Japanese internment camps of the 1940's, or during the aftermath of 9/11, have immigrants been more fearful than they are now. Never have I seen immigration attorneys and advocates more concerned about what might happen to their clients and communities. And never has an admini
Say It with Me: It Is Not Illegal to Seek Asylum
Reading this recent Reuters article, from the headline to the end, I'm not sure what offends me most. Is it the Trump Administration's concerted effort to scare people away from seeking safety in the U.S.? That's pretty disgusting. Is it the fact that those threats only work if people believe our go
Our Immigration Laws Are Bad for Small Businesses
We've just wrapped up another H-1B lottery season, during which United States companies submit H-1B petitions on behalf of skilled workers to fill professional-level positions. This year, nearly 200,000 petitions were submitted for just 85,000 visas. Once again, the government must resort to a compu
ICE Enforcement in Courthouses is a Dangerous Mistake
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been stepping up its enforcement operations, this time in and around courthouses. There have been reports of ICE officers increasingly showing up in courthouses across the country to arrest unsuspecting immigrants. This is a misguided policy…and a
Our Battles Are Only Beginning
Regardless of the veracity of President Trump's negative immigration rhetoric, it is undoubtedly sparking and emboldening anti-immigration groups. Constitutional battles that have long been over and won are creeping back with validation from the new administration. In California, the American Childr
Kids These Days
A child can be sweet, mad, smart, hilarious, whiny, silly, or sad. A child can be an angel, a terror, a silly goose, Captain America, Wonder Woman, a kitty cat, or a Tyrannosaurus Rex. A child cannot be an immigration lawyer. And yet… In immigration courts across the United States, every singl
Block the Money, Block the Wall
The Trump Administration has developed an immigration-related agenda that rejects long held American values, our country's commitment to due process, and what our economy needs to keep America working. His first Executive Orders related to immigration have one important theme in common: to be imple
Staining America’s Image
Tuesday night, I spoke at a “Know Your Rights“ event in Tucson, Arizona, to a large group of concerned and fearful refugees from all over the world, including countries such as Iraq, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia. Afterward, I spoke individually to several of the attendees who expressed anguis
Why You Need to be in D.C. Next Month
The actions and rhetoric throughout the first weeks of the Trump Administration have placed immigration at the top of the national agenda. Beginning with the three Executive Orders the first week, followed by the chaos at the airports due to the Muslim/refugee ban, and the stark realization that Can
Reactions to the President’s Joint Address to Congress
Several members of AILA's Executive Committee share their reactions to President Trump's Joint Address to Congress on February 28, 2017: “We agree that we have to restore integrity and the rule of law to our borders, and especially to the agencies responsible for enforcing that law. The record of di