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October 2008
PIERCE'S IMMIGRATION LAW E-NEWSLETTER is free. It is published by the Law Offices of Curtis Pierce, Certified Specialist, Immigration & Nationality law, The State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization. 523 W. 6th St., Ste. 348, Los Angeles, CA 90014. (213) 327-0044.
Are you "ready for change?" We have made some changes in our newsletter to make it more entertaining, visually appealing, and intellectually stimulating. As always, your comments are welcome. The Editors IMMIGRATION INTELLECTUALS .. ______________________
IMMIGRATION ITEMS OF INTEREST
IMMIGRATION NEWS & INFORMATION FOR IMMIGRATION ATTORNEYS ONLY:
IMMIGRATION INTELLECTUALS How Does It Feel To Be A Problem? Being Young and Arab in America? In How Does It Feel To Be A Problem? Being Young and Arab in America, Moustafa Bayoumi explores the rich, complicated lives of seven men and women who are completely different in every way but two: They are all from Brooklyn, and they are all Arab. Their stories are American stories, with kaleidoscopic views. Samie is a Christian who signed up for the Marines. He was on a bus headed to basic training when the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacked. After two deployments to Iraq, his sense of identity developed from amorphous into impassioned. Syrian-born Rasha comes from a secular Muslim family. As part of the xenophobic response to September 11, she and her family were rounded up in a raid and imprisoned for months alongside criminals. Yasmin was a devout 15-year-old Muslim and a popular kid at her high school. When she couldn't attend a school dance because of her religious beliefs, she was pressured to resign from the student council. (Yasmin is now in law school.) The author, himself, is young, Arab and Brooklynese. He began writing the book at a moment when hate crimes spiked 1,700 percent against Arabs and Muslims, and when a USA Today/Gallup poll found that 39 percent of Americans believed all Muslims — including U.S. citizens — should carry special IDs. Bayoumi turned to such writers as W.E.B Du Bois, Joan Didion and Barbara Ehrenreich for inspiration, and he concentrated on Brooklyn in part because it had been a home for Arab immigrants since the 1880s, and because, according to the 2000 census, the largest number of Arab-Americans in a city is in New York. (Dearborn, Mich., has a higher concentration of Arab-Americans, but Brooklyn's population is larger.) In writing How Does It Feel To Be A Problem?, Bayoumi draws from his own rich history and rigorous training. Born in Zurich, Switzerland, and raised in Canada, Bayoumi is now on the faculty of Brooklyn College after earning his Ph.D. at Columbia. He's published widely in academic journals and popular periodicals like The Nation, New York Magazine and The London Review of Books. PODCAST OF AUTHOR BAYOUMI DISCUSSING AND READING HIS BOOK US CITIZEN IN SEATLLE ACCUSED OF WAR CRIMES AND BELONGING TO A SERBIAN DEATH SQUAD MAY LOSE HIS US CITIZENSHIP.
The U.S. Department of Justice's attempt to strip the citizenship from an elderly Bellevue man for belonging to a Nazi-run Serbian death squad during World War II is a case of guilt by association and should be thrown out, according to lawyers for 86-year-old Peter Egner. "Mr. Egner vehemently denies any involvement in persecution or mistreatment," wrote Seattle lawyer Robert Gibbs, whose firm is representing Egner. "The government seeks to denaturalize the defendant through incendiary allegations of wartime atrocities committed by others." In an unusual legal move at this point in the litigation, Gibbs is asking U.S. District Judge James Robart to find the government's case lacking on its face and throw it out. The Department of Justice's Office of Special Investigations, which hunts war criminals, filed a lawsuit against Egner in July alleging that he lied on immigration documents when he applied for citizenship in 1965 after coming to the U.S. in 1960. He lived for many years in Portland, and moved to be near family in Bellevue after his wife died in 2005. According to the complaint, Egner said he was a member of the German army, omitting his involvement in the notorious Nazi-run Security Police and Security Service (SPSS) in Belgrade, Serbia (then Yugoslavia), from 1941 through the fall of 1943, when he was wounded. The complaint alleges that Egner was a guard and interpreter for the police service, which participated in the roundup and systematic killings of tens of thousands of Serbian Jews, Gypsies and political dissidents. The Office of Special Investigations (OSI) identified Egner's participation through Nazi documents, the complaint says. Court documents allege that during the first nine months that Egner was a member of the SPSS, the unit operated as the Belgrade Einsatzgruppe, a special mobile death unit undertaking early efforts to systematically murder Jews as part of Hitler's Final Solution. The SPSS "played a leading role" in the gassings of more than 6,200 Jewish women and children at the Semlin concentration camp near Belgrade, according to OSI officials. Most were killed in specially disguised trucks rigged to pump exhaust fumes into an enclosed compartment. The prisoners would be loaded into the trucks, ostensibly to be taken to another camp, and then driven around until they had suffocated. Gibbs points out that the complaint never alleges that Egner participated in any SPSS atrocities. Moreover, immigration law in effect in 1966, when Egner won his citizenship, would not necessarily have barred him from becoming a citizen even if he had disclosed his SPSS membership, Gibbs said. The government, Gibbs argues, has an extraordinarily high burden of proof in trying to strip someone of his citizenship and must meet it with "clear, unequivocal and convincing" evidence .
Instead, the complaint "includes only conclusory allegations of law and unwarranted interferences of fact." BARACK OBAMA PROVIDES HIS VIEWS ON IMMIGRATION IN RESPONSE TO A QUESTIONNAIRE In response to a questionnaire distributed by The Sanctuary, Barack Obama spells out his views on immigration. Here below are excertps from the interview. To read the entire interview, click here. 1. Could you please articulate what you think are the most pressing issues for the U.S. immigrant community, at home AND abroad, and how you would hope to address those issues as President?
2. Do you support comprehensive immigration reform? Yes. 3. What policy conditions would comprehensive immigration reform have to meet in order for you to support it? Please be specific? I fought in the U.S. Senate for comprehensive immigration reform. And I will make it a top priority in my first year as president. Not just because we need to secure our borders and get control of who comes into our country. And not just because we have to crack down on employers abusing undocumented immigrants. But because we have to finally bring the 12 million undocumented out of the shadows. We should require them to pay a fine, learn English, abide by the law, and go to the back of the line for citizenship – behind those who came here legally. But we cannot – and should not – deport 12 million people. That would turn American into something we're not; something we don't want to be.
IMMIGRATION NEWS AND INFORMATION USCIS: RESOURCES FOR NEW IMMIGRANTS. USCIS provides newly arrived immigrants with important settlement information under the “Resources for New Immigrants” a comprehensive orientation guide, Welcome to the United States: A Guide for New Immigrants available in 13 languages. Welcome to the United States provides practical information to help immigrants settle into everyday life in the United States, as well as basic civics information that introduces new immigrants to the U.S. system of government. Here below is an excerpt explaining how Lawful Permanent Residents may lose their residency by certain criminal activity. Consequences of Criminal Behavior for Permanent Residents The United States is a law-abiding society. Permanent residents in the United States must obey all laws. If you are a permanent resident and engage in or are convicted of a crime in the U.S., you could have serious problems.You could be removed from the country, not allowed back into the U.S. if you leave the country, and, in certain circumstances, lose your eligibility for U.S. citizenship. Examples of crimes that may affect your permanent resident status include: • A crime defined as an “aggravated felony,” which includes crimes of violence that are felonies with a one-year prison term. • Murder. • Terrorist activities. • Rape. • Sexual assault on a child illegal trafficking in drugs, firearms, or people.
• A crime of “moral turpitude,” which in general is a crime with an intent to steal or defraud; a crime where physical harm is done or threatened; a crime where serious physical harm is caused by reckless behavior; or a crime of sexual misconduct. There are also serious consequences for you as a permanent resident if you: • Lie to get immigration benefits for yourself or someone else. • Say you are a U.S. citizen if you are not. • Vote in a federal election or in a local election open only to U.S. citizens. • Are a “habitual drunkard”—someone who is drunk or someone who uses illegal drugs most of the time. • Are married to more than one person at the same time. • Fail to support your family or to pay child or spousal support as ordered. • Are arrested for assaulting or harassing a family member, including violating a protection order.This is called domestic violence. • Lie to get public benefits. • Fail to file tax returns when required. • Willfully fail to register for the Selective Service if you are a male between the ages of 18 and 26. • Help someone else who is not a U.S. citizen or national to enter the United States illegally even if that person is a close relative and even if you are not paid. Those already on the path to naturalization can find important civic learning materials under “Civics and Citizenship Study Materials.” These educational resources are designed to help immigrants prepare for the naturalization test while also inspiring further civic learning. Permanent residents can use the materials as study tools and educators can adapt each of the materials for use in the classroom. FOR ALIENS ON THE PLANET EARTH ADVANTAGES OF NATURALIZATION Abraham Lincoln said, "Let us at all times remember that all American citizens are brothers of a common community, and should dwell together in bonds of fraternal feeling". If I am a Green Card holder or if I am an undocumented alien, why should I aspire to be a citizen? What are the advantages of being a brother of the common community? Naturalization provides practical benefits to the alien. Many new immigrants are concerned with family reunification. Citizens have much greater ability to sponsor relatives for U.S. immigration benefits (visas, Green Card, etc). Also, many jobs, such as federal government jobs and government contracts require the applicant to be a United State citizen. Citizens have unique rights and privileges. Other benefits are as follows:
If you are interested in becoming U.S. citizen, see Curtis Pierce's website, www.cpvisa.com, and click Citizenship and Naturalization. Find out the requirements and responsibilities of citizenship. IMMIGRATION ATTORNEY ALERT AND MAY NOT DO IN A LABOR CERTIFICATION CASE
They stated as follows: September 17, 2008 The Department has been presented with evidence indicating that prior to its recent audits, many immigration attorneys believed that the Department’s rule regarding consideration of U.S. workers did not apply to them unless they represented not only the employer seeking the labor certification, but also the alien for whom the certification was being sought. That interpretation is incorrect, as the Department’s recently issued PERM program clarifying guidance makes clear. Nevertheless, the Department will apply the requirements of the consideration rule as interpreted by its recent guidance only to labor certification applications the recruitment for which was begun after August 29, 2008, the date on which the Department’s final guidance was issued. All pending audits triggered exclusively by consideration rule concerns are therefore being released and will be processed in accordance with their original filing date. O f particular importance from Restatement is the following:
One of our colleagues, who prefers to remain nameless, reportedly confided to one of our sources (who also prefers anonymity) that he likes to have one day during the week when he can come to his office and catch up on work and review files without interruption. Unfortunately, he has never been successful because of constant distractions, including unexpected visitors (i.e. solicitors, office neighbors, etc.) appearing at his office without an appointment. We can all relate. But this attorney has taken an unusual step to address this problem.
On days when no appointments are scheduled, he brings his pet pooch "Ferocious" (pictured on the left) to the office and has him sit in the waiting room. When unexpected visitors arrive, they are greeted by "Ferocious" (pictured on the left) who, while tethered, growls for several seconds then barks loudly and repeatedly. According to our colleague, "Ferocious is harmless. He only barks but does not bite." Of course, the visitors do not know that. So far, there have been no mishaps. Perhaps our colleague should consult with one of the psychologists to whom he refers his clients in hardship/waiver cases. Of course, not without an appointment. Processing Times · To view processing times and your case status, click one of the links below to connect to the correct U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services information page. · California Service Center · Nebraska Service Center · Texas Service Center · Vermont Service Center
If you have an application receipt number, you can use the Internet to check the status of your case with the USCIS. The IMMIGRATION LAW E-NEWSLETTER is free. It is published by the Law Offices of Curtis Pierce, 213-327-0044.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this newsletter is analysis and commentary of a general nature. Nothing in this newsletter applies to a specific case nor does it constitute legal advice. Schedule appointment: For legal advice on your case, please schedule an appointment with Curtis Pierce, Certified Specialist, Immigration & Nationality Law, The State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization. “The only title in our democracy superior to that of President (is) the title of citizen”. Former Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis. (In the case Ng Fung Ho v. White, 259 U.S. 276, 284 (1922), Justice Brandeis wrote that deportation can deprive an individual of "life, or of all that makes life worth living.")
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