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Curtis Pierce, Attorney At Law
Certified Specialist, Immigration & Nationality Law
The State Bar of California Board Of Legal Specialization
The Pacific Center
523 West Sixth Street, Suite 348

Los Angeles, CA 90014

(213) 327-0044

curtis.pierce@cpvisa.com

Success Story: Approval of Unusual Adjustment of Status Case Based on Marriage

We at the Law Offices of Curtis Pierce are pleased to report the recent approval of a difficult Adjustment of Status case. The applicant was a national from the Philippines who sought residency based on his marriage to an American citizen. This was his second marriage.

His prior marriage was a same sex marriage (entered in California in 2007) that ended when his spouse, a man in his forties, died suddenly from an aneurism. HIs second marriage to a woman created challenges because there were questions of whether it was in fact a bona fide marriage. The marriage certificate and death certificate pertaining to spouse number 1 were submitted to CIS with the application. After the interview, we were informed that we would have to wait 180 days before making further inquiry.

Due to the full disclosure of the applicant about his marital history and his wife's openness, awareness, and complete acceptance of her husband's past, the case was approved within weeks. Although the Law Offices of Curtis PIerce were prepared to litigate and use every legal tool at our disposal to achieve the desired result, we were pleasantly surprised that this case was granted without a protracted struggle.

Inside this month's issue:

Immigration: Politics and Facts Don't Match on the Border The No-Brainer Issue of the Year: Let High-Skill Immigrants Stay

Featured Books:

No Undocumented Child Left Behind: Plyler v. Doe and the Education of Undocumented Schoolchildren

Marginal Workers: How Legal Fault Lines Divide Workers and Leave Them without Protection

IMMIGRATION NEWS

Immigration: Politics and Facts Don't Match on The Border

By: Edward Alden

Featured in: The Daily Beast, Newsweek Magazine, December 19, 2011

Illegal Immigration and what to do about it has emerged as one of the more controversial issues as America heads into the 2012 election year. Republican presidential candidates have vied for th toughest response--from more military troops to electrified fences along the border with Mexico. The Obama administration is busy setting records for deporting illegal immigrants. Yet figures released last week by the Department of Homeland Security show that illegal immigration may not be such a big problem after all.

In the fiscal year through the end of September, just 328,000 people were caught trying the difficult and dangerous border crossing, a 27 percent drop from 2010 and the lowest number since the early 1970s. The combination of high U.S. unemployment and the collapse of the construction sector; brutal gang violence in much of northern Mexico; and a gauntlet of drones, cameras, and Border Patrol agents on the U.S. side of the border has stopped large-scale illegal crossings, say immigration experts.

Notable as well is the fact that more Mexicans are returning home as their country's economy continues to outpace the United States'. In 2010, Mexico's economy grew nearly twices as fast as that of the U.S. and has continued robust gains this year. Mexico's government census date and surveys suggest that almost as many Mexicans are heading south-either voluntarily or because they were deported--as are heading north for the United States.

Mark Adams, U.S. coordinator of Frontera de Cristo, a Presbyterian ministry that straddles the border towns of Agua Prieta in Sonora, Mexico, and Douglas, Ariz. says that most of the border crosses he now sees heading north are somewhat older men and women seeking to reunited with families in the United States. The teenage hopefuls who used to make up the bulk of those sneaking across the border no loner see potential wage gains as worth the risks of crossing the border, Adams says.

But the politicians have yet to catch up with the facts on the ground. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has border security the center of his immigration platform, promising to add another 1,400 miles to the nearly 700 miles of fencing on the Mexican border. He also wants to block the children of illegal immgirants from paying in-state tuition at universities.

Newt Gingrich, now a leading resurgent campaign and vying for the position of frontrunner for the nomination, has backpedaled on his stance on immgiration after facing criticism from GOP hardlines. During the Nov. 22 debate he suggested a "humane" policy that could legalize some of the 11 million undocumented immigrants who had already lived many years in the country. But after charges that he favored "amnesty" he declared there was a "national-security crisis" along the border, promising to fence the entire border and pledging support for laws in Georgia, Alabama, and elsewhere that have sent illegal immigrants fleeing from those states.

While Republicans play to their base by stoking fear of a border out of control, President Obama is hoping Hispanic voters will overlook his record on immgiration and side with him again. They gave him a majority of their votes in 2008 in such key swing states as Florida, Colorardo, and Nevada. Obama had promised that immgiration reform would legalize most of the unauthorized immigrants still in the United States would be a top priority in his first year. But the economic crisis, the stimulus plan that followed and the health-care overhaul robbed the oxygen from legislative initiatives.

Instead, his administration has been carrying out one of the tougher crackdowns on illegal immigration in U.S. history. Led by former Arizona governor Janet Napolitano, DHS has champtioned a program called Secure Communities that requires immigration checks on anyone picked up by police and booked on suspicion of a crime.

While this has resulted in a higher percentage of criminals being deported, the administration also has set a target removing some 400,000 illegal immigrants each year, and about half of those have no criminal history at all, according to DHS's own data. Cecilia Munoz, formerly a top advocate with the Hispanic rights group La Raza who is now Obama's senior immigration adviser, defended the policy to PBS's Frontline in September, saying that "even broken laws have to be enforced."

Munoz and others in the administration insist this approach is sensible and targeted, because it focuses on deporting those who have committed crimes. In November, DHS began a review of nearly 300,000 people awaiting deportation to dozens of different countries to determine if they have any criminal background or other history that makes them a priority.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/12/18/immigration-politics-and-facts-don-t-match-on-the-border.html

The No-Brainer Issue of the Year: Let High-Skill Immigrants Stay

By: Prof. Alex Tabarrock

Featured in: The Atlantic, December 20, 2011

Behind Door#1 are people of extraordinary abilitiy:scientists, artists, educators, business people and athletes. Behind Door #2 stand a random assortment of people. Which door should the United States open?

In 2010, the United States more often chose Door #2, setting aside about 40,000 visas for people of extraordinary ability and 55,000 for people randomly chose by lottery.

Its just one small example of our bizarre U.S. policy toward high-skill immigrants. Every year we allow approximately 140,000 employment visas, which cover people of extraordinary ability, professionals with advanced degress, and other skilled workers. The number is absurdly low for a country with a work force of 150 million. As a result, it can be years even decades, before a high-skilled individual is granted a U.S. visa. Moreover, these 140,000 visas must also cover the spouse and unmarried children of the high-skilled worker, so the actual number of high-skilled workers admitted under these programs is less than half of the total. Perhaps, the most bizarrely there is a cap on the number of visas allowed per country regardless of population size. How many visas are allocated to people of extraordinary ability from China, a country of over 1 billion people? Exactly, 2,803. The same number as are allocated to Greenland.

A rational immigration policy would open the United States to many more high-skill immigrants. High-skill immigrants innovate, patent, and start new firms at higher rates than natives. At least one-quarter of the new firms in technology and science fields, from software and semiconductors to biotech, are founded by immigrants. In Silicon Valley, more than half of the high-tech start-ups were founded by immigrants. High-skill immigrants especially with degrees in fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (aka STEM) create more jobs and higher wages for Americans. Increasing high-skill immigration is such a win-win policy for increasing innovation that it's tempting to call it a no-brainer. Instead a "no-brainer" turns out to be a better description of our current policy.

At a minimum, we should shift from family-based immigration to work-based immigration, using a point system for skills, such as used by Canada, Australia, and Hong Kong. At the same time as we limit skill-based visas to 140,00, we have over 1.1 million legal immigrants per year,most based on familly immigration. Even the harshest critics of immigration cannot fault a policy that keeps the number of immigrants constant while shifting toward more high-skill immigrants.

We also should created a straightforward route to permanent residency for foreign born students who graduate with advance degrees from American universities, particularly in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. We educate some the best and brightest students in the world in our universities and then on graduation day we tell them, "Thanks for visiting. Now go home!" It's hard to imagine a more short-sighted policy to reduce America's capacity for innovation.

In an election year, no one expects any major immigration reforms. But support for fixing our high-skill immigration system is widespread and bipartisan. A bill to lift the country cap on employment visas ("Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act"(H.R. 3012)) sailed through the U.S. House in November on a 389-to-15 vote, although it was later blocked in the Senate for tactical reasons by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). Senator Charlers Schumer (D-NY) and U.S. Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) have both put forward proposals to "staple" a green card to the diplomas of foreign students graduating from U.S. universities with advanced degrees in STEM fields, an idea that has been endorsed Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney and President Obama. Few people defend the current system.

We should debate the issuse on which we do not agree. But shouldn't we also agree to act on the issues over which there is no debate? The time to increase high-skill immigration is now.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/12/the-no-brainer-issue-of-the-year-let-high-skill-immigrants-stay/250219

FEATURED BOOKS

No Undocumented Child Left Behind: Plyler v. Doe and the Education of Undocumented Schoolchildren

Author: Michael Olivas

Published on January 1, 2012 (NYU Press)

The 1982 U.S. Supreme Court case of Plyler v. Doe, which made it possible for undocumented children to enroll in Texas public schools, was a watershed moment for immigrant rights in the United States. The Court struck down both a state statute denying funding for education to undocumented children and a municipal school district's attempt to charge an annual $1,000 tuition fee for each undocumented student to compensate for the lost state funding. Yet while this case has not returned to the Supreme Court, it is frequently contested at the state and local level.

In No Undocumented Child Left Behind, Michael A. Olivas tells a fascinating histore of the landmark case, examining how, 30 years later, Plyler v. Doe continues to suffer from implementation issues and requires additional litigation and vigilance to enforce the ruling. He takes a comprehensive look at the legal regime it established regarding the education of undocumented school children, moves up through its implementation, including direct and indirect attacks on it, and closes with the ongoing, highly charged debates over the Development, Relief, and Education for Minors (DREAM) Act, which aims to give condition citizenship to undocumented college students who graduated from U.S. high schools and have been in the country for at least five years.

Marginal Workers: How Legal Fault Lines Divide Workers and Leave Them Without Protection

Author: Ruben J. Garcia

Published on January 1, 2012 (NYU Press)

Description: Undocumented and authorized immigrant laborers,female workers, workers

of color, guest workers, and unionized workers together compose an enormous and diverse

part of the labor force in America. Labor and employment laws are supposed to protect

employees from various workplace threats, such as poor wages, bad working conditions,

and unfair dismissal. Yet as members of individual groups with minority status, the rights

of many of these individuals are often dictated by other types of law, such as

constitutional and immigration laws. Worse still, the groups who fall into these cracks in

the legal system often do not have political power necessary to change the laws for better

protection.

In Marginal Workers, Ruben J. Garcia demonstrates that when it comes to these workers, the sum of the law is less than its parts, and, despitie what appears to be a plethora of applicable statutes, marginal workers are frequently lacking in protection. To ameliorate the statys of marginal workers, he argues for a new pradigm in worker protection, one based on human freedom and rights, and points to a number of examples in which marginal workers have organized for greater justice on the job in spite of the weakness of the law.

Curtis Pierce's 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.")

In the words of President Kennedy,
the United States is a "nation of immigrants."

We at the Law Offices of Curtis Pierce are pleased to report the recent approval of a difficult Adjustment of Status case. The applicant was a national from the Philippines who sought residency based on his marriage to an American citizen. This was his second marriage.

Inside this month's issue:

The No-Brainer Issue of the Year: Let High-Skill Immigrants Stay

By: Prof. Alex Tabarrock Featured in: The Atlantic, December 20, 2011

By: Prof. Alex Tabarrock

Featured in: The Atlantic, December 20, 2011