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. Email: curtis.pierce@cpvisa.com
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. Email: curtis.pierce@cpvisa.com
A note to our readers:
The new year will bring a new administration to the White House. In the immigration community, we can only hope that the Obama administration will both introduce and sign long awaited reforms: relief to the millions of undocumented aliens in the US in form of an amnesty or guest worker program, increased numbers of H-1Bs so that America's high tech industry can compete in a global economy, increased employment and family based visas for those waiting in long immigration lines several years to obtain lawful status in the U.S.
However, immigration reform in the first year of the Obama presidency will most likely take a back set to the economy. The economic downturn was highlighted by November's unemployment statistics. U.S. Labor Department released monthly unemployment data for November 2008 and it’s not a pretty picture: the monthly unemployment rate reached a 15-year high of 6.7% in November. The last time the monthly unemployment rate was this high was September 1993. This does not encourage support for a guest worker program.
Even before the unemployment data for November was released, Jeanne Butterfield, head of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, suggested that it is unlikely that we'll see a new guest worker program as part of any new immigration bill. (OC Register, Friday, November 21, 2008.)
Hope for immigration reform still exists even though it cannot be the new administration's top priority. The issue is obviously taken seriously by the president elect. This is evidenced by the appointments of two law professors to the Immigration Policy Group for the Obama Transition Team.
TEAM OBAMA
T. Alexander Aleinikoff has been Dean of the Georgetown University Law Center and Executive
and Executive Vice President of Georgetown University since July 2004. He has been a member of the Georgetown faculty since 1997. Dean Aleinikoff served as General Counsel and Executive Associate Commissioner for Programs at the Immigration and Naturalization Service for several years during the Clinton Administration. From 1997 to 2004 he was a Senior Associate at the Migration Policy Institute, where he now serves on the Board of Trustees.
Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar has been Professor of Law and Deane F. Johnson Faculty Scholar Professor and Deane F. Johnson Faculty Scholar at Stanford Law School. His work focuses on how organizations manage complex regulatory, migration, international security, and criminal justice problems. During the Clinton Administration he served at Treasury as Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary for Enforcement, where he worked on countering domestic and international financial crime, improving border coordination, and enhancing anti-corruption measures. He has served on the boards of numerous organizations, including Asylum Access and the Stanford Center for International Security and Cooperation. He has testified before Congress on immigration policy and separation of powers, and was appointed to the Silicon Valley Blue Ribbon Task Force on Aviation Security. He holds a J.D. from Yale Law School and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Stanford. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute.
Further, it is likely that Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano will become Obama's homeland security secretary. Napolitano has a lot of credibility on this issue. She's a border governor. She has opposed the fence but called for more security. She lambasted Congress for not passing comprehensive reform that included legalization. But at the same time, as governor she signed a law requiring Arizona businesses to use E-Verify, DHS's computerized worker verification system.
Advocates hope Napolitano will do things administratively to curtail workplace raids against illegal immigrants. How she deals with such issues will be a window into Obama's true intentions on immigration.
Although the current economic crisis does not bode well for imminent immigration reform, there is, nevertheless, reason for cautious optimism that long awaited legislation will eventually come to pass in the not too distant future.
The Editors
IMMIGRATION NEWS & INFORMATION
(Click the dates below for more information.)
WHY PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA MAY SUPPORT AN H-1B INCREASE EVEN IN A PERIOD OF RECESSION. (November 6, 2008)
President-Elect Obama supports raising the H-1B cap and did so in the U.S. Senate immigration bill in 2007. It would have increased the current 85,000 cap, which includes 20,000 visas set aside for graduates with advanced degrees. The Senate effort, which died in the House, would have allowed increases of up to 180,000 H-1B visas, as well as additional visas for advanced-degree graduates. Obama also continues to support comprehensive immigration reform.
ELECTRONIC SYSTEM FOR TRAVEL AUTHORIZATION (ESTA) REQUIRED FOR ALL VISA WAIVER PROGRAM COUNTRIES BEGINNING JANUARY 12, 2009.(November 13, 2008)
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced that beginning Jan. 12, 2009, eligible citizens or nationals from all Visa Waiver Program (VWP) countries must obtain approval through the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) prior to traveling to the United States under the VWP. DHS will formally announce the addition of seven allies to the list of countries authorized to participate in the VWP: Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, the Republic of Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, and Slovakia. “We are especially pleased to welcome these allies into the Visa Waiver Program,” said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. “Expanding the number of countries whose citizens can travel to the U.S. without a visa increases business and social ties between our countries and at the same time deepens cooperation on required security measures.”
President Bush speaks with diplomats outside the White House after adding seven countries to the visa waiver program. The seven countries are:
Czech Republic
Estonia
Hungary
Korea
Latvia
Lithuania
Slovakia
IMMIGRATION INTELLECTUALS
Noteworthy among new immigration related books is Justice Across Borders: The Struggle for Human Rights in U.S. Courts by Jeffrey Davis. It was published by Cambridge University Press in 2008.
This book studies the struggle to enforce international human rights law in federal courts. In 1980, a federal appeals court ruled that a Paraguayan family could sue a Paraguayan official under the Alien Tort Statute – a dormant provision of the 1789 Judiciary Act – for torture committed in Paraguay. Since then, courts have been wrestling with this step toward a universal approach to human rights law. The book examines attempts by human rights groups to use the law to enforce human rights norms. It explains the separation of powers issues arising when victims sue the United States or when the United States intervenes to urge dismissal of a claim. Moreover, it analyzes the controversies arising from attempts to hold foreign nations, foreign officials, and corporations liable under international human rights law. While Davis’s analysis is driven by social science methods, its foundation is the dramatic human story from which these cases arise.
Excerpt: NUREMBERG-THE ROOTS OF JUDICIAL ENFORCEMENT
The practice of holding individuals accountable for human rights violations. . .was built on a foundation established by the Nuremberg trials. For example, in his opening statement in the Romagoza case, plaintiffs' counsel James Green told the jury: "For the first time in history military and political leaders were tried for their crimes at Nuremberg and in Tokyo...From these judgments at Nuremberg a large body of international law protecting civilians in time of war developed, even during war civilians cannot be hunted, murdered tortured."
OPPORTUNITY AND EXCLUSION: A BRIEF HISTORY OF U.S. IMMIGRATION POLICY
(an article published by the Immigration Policy Center)
The United States and the colonial society that preceded it were created by successive waves of immigration from all corners of the globe. But public and political attitudes toward immigrants have always been ambivalent and contradictory, and sometimes hostile. The early immigrants to colonial America—from England, France, Germany, and other countries in northwestern Europe—came in search of economic opportunity and political freedom, yet often relied upon the labor of African slaves working land taken from Native Americans.
WHAT'S NEW IN IMMIGRATION LAW that I must know about?:
Immigration Law is constantly evolving. New cases, regulations, statutes, and memoranda are published almost every day. It is extremely difficult to keep up with all the changes. This section is intended to provide immigration attorneys with information concerning at least some of the most important developments in immigration law that took place in the last month.
In other words, what happened in the last month of which I absolutely should be aware?
New rules for religious workers: The definition of religious worker has been narrowed to more traditional religious functions. An I-129 petition must first be approved before a consulate may issue a visa. New rules insuring a petitioner's ability to pay will also be implemented.
USCIS PUBLISHES FINAL RULE FOR RELIGIOUS WORKER VISA CLASSIFICATIONS. (November 21, 2008)
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it will make significant revisions to the special immigrant and nonimmigrant (R-1) religious worker visa classification regulations. The final rule will ensure the integrity of the religious worker program by establishing a requirement that employers submit a formal petition for temporary religious workers, and by providing for increased inspections, evaluations, verifications, and compliance reviews of religious organizations. The rule also fulfills the recent Congressional mandate to issue final regulations to eliminate or reduce fraud in the religious worker program.
Q. Will nonimmigrants be able to request a religious worker visa directly at a consular post or a port-of-entry?
A.No. Individuals seeking to enter the United States as a nonimmigrant minister or other religious worker will need to have a previously approved Form I-129, Petition for Alien Worker. The Form I-129 must be filed by the organization seeking to employ the beneficiary. Stateside review of the petition will allow USCIS to verify eligibility and that the petitioner and the job offer are legitimate prior to issuance of a visa and admission of the religious worker to the United States.
Q How does the final rule amend the definition of “religious occupation?”
A. The rule amends the definition of Religious Occupation by removing the list of occupations listed as examples in the proposed rule. The amended definition requires that the occupation relate primarily to a traditional religious function that is recognized as a religious occupation within the denomination.
Q. Is there a requirement that religious workers receive a salary?
A. In both the immigrant and nonimmigrant religious worker programs, compensation may include either salaried or non-salaried compensation. Verifiable evidence must demonstrate how the alien will be supported. The final rule includes self support as a qualifying form of compensation only in the case of certain nonimmigrant missionaries. Specifically, if self support is claimed, the petitioner must submit verifiable evidence that he or she is participating in an established program for temporary, uncompensated missionary work within the petitioning organization, which is part of a broader, international program of missionary work sponsored by the denomination.
Q. Will petitioners still be required to submit a letter when they file the Form I-129, Petition for Alien Worker, on behalf of a nonimmigrant religious worker?
A. No. Petitioners will be required to complete the new attestation which will be contained in a revised Form I-129. The petitioner will be attesting to, for example, the beneficiary’s intent and qualifications, the nature of the job offer, and the ability to compensate the beneficiary. The attestation will reduce the documentary evidence required and the need for issuance of Requests for Evidence to bona fide petitioners. Supporting evidence is required generally only in the form of reliable and verifiable documents. USCIS thus seeks to add efficiency, clarity and transparency to the process of obtaining a religious worker visa classification.
IMMIGRATION ITEMS OF INTEREST
ATTORNEY CURTIS PIERCE RECOGNIZED
Curtis Pierce was named a Super Lawyer in the December 2008 issue of Super Lawyers -Corporate Counsel Edition, a publication for attorneys who specialize in business litigation.
PROCESSING TIMES & CASE STATUS
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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.")
In the words of President Kennedy,
the United States is a "nation of immigrants."
IMMIGRATION LAW E-NEWSLETTER curtis f. pierce
Attorney At Law
certified specialist, immigration & nationality law the state bar of california board of legal specialization
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