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.
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Doesn’t America Get It? High-Skilled Talent Helps Us!
Written by: Warren Leiden, AILA Media-Advocacy Committee One month ago, barely three weeks into the new federal fiscal year, the entire annual quota of temporary visas specially set aside for foreign national professionals with advanced degrees (at least a Master's) was used up. And as of November 2
The Cost Of Doing Business Under Alabama’s Immigration Law
You can't make this stuff up. A foreign executive from Mercedes-Benz gets arrested in Alabama and charged criminally under the state's new immigration law. Was he alien smuggling? Drug trafficking? Committing a violent crime? Nope. He left his visa in his hotel room. Under Alabama's new immigration
The Utah Compact, One Year Later
Written by: Peter Ashman, AILA Media-Advocacy Committee Recently in Salt Lake City, Utah, a diverse group of government and business leaders held a press conference to commemorate the one year anniversary of the Utah Compact. The compact was the result of a collaboration of business, religious and e
Prosecutorial Discretion – It isn’t that hard
Written by: Palma Yanni, AILA Media-Advocacy Committee On November 10, 2011, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and the American Immigration Council (AIC) issued a report chronicling the implementation of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director John Morton's June 17, 2011
Undone By His Politics Of Hate: The Political Demise of State Senator Russell Pearce
Certain politicians owe soon-to-be former Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce a big “Thank You.“ He just single handedly proved that the politics of hate, in particular the politics of hating Latino immigrants, is a sure ticket to the dustbin of history. A year out from the 2012 elections the
Making it Easier for New Immigrant Entrepreneurs – Changes in Policy and Law Can Facilitate Job Creation in the U.S.
Written By: Deborah Notkin, AILA Media-Advocacy Committee For many years, I have received inquiries from foreign students attending U.S. universities about post-graduation employment visa options. What is strikingly different this year is that many students are not interested in visas to fit prospec
USCIS Must Embrace Job Creating Immigrants
By David Leopold and Eleanor Pelta You know that your country's immigration system is really dysfunctional when . . . a job-creating entrepreneur must be the subject of a national news story in order to get his visa approved. ABC News reported this week that Amit Aharoni, an Israeli national and a g
Something’s Happening Here…
Written by: Tony Weigel, AILA Media-Advocacy Committee What it “is“ is becoming more clear. We pro-immigration advocates have a lot of work to do. Our country has had an ongoing policy war over immigration since its inception. This history includes both positive and negative periods, each infl
Have We Hit Rock Bottom?
Written by: Mo Goldman, AILA Media-Advocacy Committee October 18, 2011: A day that will live in U.S. immigration infamy. ICE proudly boasts the news that in Fiscal Year 2011 the U.S. deported a record number of individuals (396,906). On PBS Frontline: Lost in Detention, Maria Hinojosa exposes the d
Violent Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric: “It Will Kill You – Warning.”
Last January, Representative Gabrielle Giffords was shot in Arizona during a public meeting with constituents. In the wake of the shooting, the media began a national dialogue about how violent political rhetoric can spark actual violence. After reading about GOP front-runner Herman Cain's immigrati
Dehumanization of the Majority
Written by: Ally Bolour, AILA Media-Advocacy Committee A new attitude seems to have taken hold in American society these days - one that appears to be spreading through every medium and every social group. I see it on television, in newspapers, and on the internet; I hear it on the radio and in ever
Secretary Napolitano’s Immigration Policy Speech, Prosecutorial Discretion, and Decency
This week a teacher in Alabama asked a 4th grade girl for her immigration papers. That it happened in Alabama, a state whose very name still conjures up bloody images of the civil rights struggles of the 1960s, may not be surprising. That it happened in an American classroom in 2011 is horrifying. C
The Issue Has Not Changed
By: Ally Bolour, AILA Media-Advocacy Committee Two seemingly unrelated events happened recently that reaffirmed my belief in legal immigration. First, I attended a panel discussion on Secure Communities co-sponsored by the American Immigration Council and my alma mater, Southwestern Law School in Lo
IIRAIRA 15 Years Later
Today is an anniversary that will go virtually unnoticed. It marks 15 years since the Congress enacted the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRAIRA). For many practicing young lawyers who came into the field wanting to keep families united, this law suddenly chang
Silly in Alabama
This week a federal judge in Alabama enjoined key sections of that state's radical “make life miserable for the undocumented and so what if others get caught up in it too“ law. However, she let stand some other provisions of the statute, including the “papers please“ provision for traffi
Waiting For Godot…And For Senator Grassley’s Follow-up Letter to President Obama
The other day 19 Senators, lead by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), sent President Obama a letter expressing concern about his “immigration policies“ and asking that he direct the Department of Homeland Security to “overturn recent directives regarding the increased use of prosecutorial discretion.
The Language of Immigration Reform: Saying what people want to hear
By: Lori Chesser Frank Luntz, pollster, strategist, Fox news commentator, and author of The New York Times best seller, Words that Work: It's Not What You Say it's What People Hear has some advice for immigration reform advocates. It might not be what all of us want to hear, but we need to listen. L
Don’t Worry, Be Happy
Don't worry, be happy. The elevator played it each and every time we reached the lobby floor of the AILA National Fall conference hotel. I consider it the theme song for this year's conference. How apropos. Despite the fact that our conversations and panels were dominated by the fact that adjudicati
The Morton Memo: Supplemental Guidance for ICE Agents
There is a joke developing out here in the field: How many ICE agents does it take to apply the June 17, 2011, Morton Memo? Answer: Two—one to read it and another to ignore it. That's how I felt last week when the ICE Detroit Field Office issued a terse denial to a well documented application [̷
A Conservative’s Memo to GOP Presidential Candidates
To: Rick Perry (and any other Republican Candidate that wants to win in 2012) Re: Proudly Support Immigration Reform Because It Will Put Americans Back To Work As an immigration advocate and proud conservative who resides in Oklahoma City, a place that even Sarah Palin would agree is smack in the mi
Fixing Secure Communities: A View From Inside The Advisory Task Force
By Laura Lichter, AILA President-Elect Why would anyone agree to volunteer a significant amount of time to serve on an advisory task force representing nearly two dozen wildly divergent perspectives on immigration enforcement tasked with studying, analyzing, and offering solutions to a problem that
So where is the Border Security Goal Post?
By: Kathleen Campbell Walker Has the goal of immigration reform for our current dysfunctional system truly met its match in the constantly changing condition precedent of “Border Security?“ The Secure Border goal has been a consistent roadblock thrown up against any form of immigration reform
The Miracle of the Moment: Reflections On The 10th Anniversary of September 11, 2001
By the AILA Executive Committee As we go through life most of us are rarely present in the moment. Our minds are elsewhere. What shade of green was the tree you passed a month ago on the way to work? What were you thinking about? What did you feel? Were you sad, happy, or anxious? […]
It’s Time to “Work Side-by-Side with America’s Businesses”
Last night, President Obama laid out a plan to create desperately needed jobs in the United States, and made an urgent plea to Congress to pass that plan immediately. As an attorney who works every day with small and emerging businesses that seek to grow and expand opportunities in the U.S., I was
Who Won The Republican Debate Last Night?
A few days ago while channel surfing, I discovered “Me TV“ the “Memorable Entertainment Network“ which runs such classics as “The Dick Van Dyke Show“, “The Mary Tyler More Show“, “M*A*S*H“, and “The Bob Newhart Show“ to name a few. So I faced a hard choice last ni