Employment Based
How USCIS Calculates Processing Times and How It Could Be Improved
When people think about immigration reform, they usually think about legalization, enforcement, and updating the legal immigration system. However, there are other upgrades to the immigration system that can be implemented by agencies without legislation which would significantly improve efficiency and could ensure that immigrants, their families, and employers receive… Read More
Setting the Record Straight on the Leaked Government Memo on Work Authorization
Recently, a leaked memo related to the Department of Homeland Security’s ongoing deliberations about reforming the employment-based immigrant visa system was published online. An “investigative associate” with the restrictionist organization Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) wrote an op-ed in The Hill making grossly inaccurate statements about the contents of… Read More
ICE Policy on Parental Rights Addresses Long Overdue Problem in Immigration System
For years, leading family and children’s advocates have argued that the bond between parent and child is often a casualty of our broken immigration system. Consequently, they have argued that ensuring parental rights in the context of immigration proceedings is critical—whether the issue is about determining who should have custody of an unaccompanied minor, exercising discretion to release a sole caregiver from detention, or ensuring that a person in immigration proceedings doesn’t automatically lose parental rights. On Friday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) finally released a memorandum that offers clear guidelines on these questions. Unfortunately, some people, like House Immigration Subcommittee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, immediately tried to turn this into a political issue about immigration reform, instead of what it is—guidance for making sure the rights of parents and children are protected. Read More
Details Begin to Emerge on New Immigration Bill
Ahead of the expected release of a comprehensive immigration reform bill in the Senate this week, details were released outlining the broad strokes of the bill. The “Gang of Eight”—a bipartisan group of senators who have been working to develop the proposal—delayed a press conference that had been planned for today about the bill out of respect for the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. The Senate group could announce the final measure tomorrow Read More
Immigration Reform is an LGBT Issue
By Victoria Neilson, Legal Director, Immigration Equality. This week the U.S. Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments in two cases, Hollingsworth v. Perry and United States v. Windsor, that will forever change the course of the struggle for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) equality. While we are hopeful that the Court will strike down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) thereby clearing the way for the federal government, including U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Department of State, to honor our marriages, no one can predict with any certainty what the Court will do. Read More
Immigration Watchdogs: Keep Calm and Press On
We’ve hit a point in the life cycle of the long awaited Senate immigration reform bill that a lot of parents will remember well. It’s those last few days before the baby is born, when anxiety and excitement are present in equal measure. Rather than speculating about the baby’s eye color or who the baby will resemble, however, speculation on the Senate immigration bill revolves around the bill’s substance. Will it carry through on the promise of a reasonable path to citizenship for the undocumented? How will it balance the interests of business and labor in a temporary worker program? Will there be additional STEM visas? Are there really going to be cuts to the family system in favor of some new mechanism for admitting employment and family based immigrants? There have been a host of media reports this past week fueling speculation on these questions and others, but the bottom line is that we simply won’t know until we see the text of the bill. Read More
Skilled Immigrants Come Through All Immigration Channels
Note: Today’s blog features the oral testimony of Benjamin Johnson, Executive Director of the American Immigration Council before the House of Representatives, Committee of the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security today. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today and provide testimony on behalf of the American Immigration Council, a non-profit educational organization that for 25 years has been dedicated to increasing public understanding of immigration law and policy and the role of immigration in American society. Read More
Senators Unveil Framework for Effective Immigration Reform
Eight Senators today released a “Bipartisan Framework for Comprehensive Immigration Reform” which proposes an overhaul of our legal immigration system while expanding border security measures and hardening current employment verification procedures. Most notably, the proposal would give unauthorized immigrants already in the country a chance to earn U.S. citizenship. Although the framework is only a very rough outline of what comprehensive immigration reform legislation might look like, the principles it espouses constitute an excellent starting point for the legislative negotiations that will now being in earnest. The Senators involved in the negotiations—Democrats Chuck Schumer (NY), Dick Durbin (IL), Bob Menendez (NJ), and Michael Bennet (CO); and Republicans John McCain (AZ), Marco Rubio (FL), Lindsey Graham (SC), and Jeff Flake (AZ)—outlined four “legislative pillars” for immigration reform: Read More
Risky Business: Our Broken Employment–Based Immigration System Jeopardizes the American Economy
BY CHARLES H. KUCK* Does Congress's continued failure to fix our broken employment-based immigration system jeopardize our economy, now and in the future? Yes, it does. If we don't have enough employment-based immigrant visas, the best and brightest from around the world will start going somewhere else. We are not only a nation of immigrants; we are a nation of successful immigrants. We attract those who are willing to work hard, better themselves, and strive for success. However, our legal immigration system has made the process of immigration to the United States so difficult, so full of uncertainty, and so lengthy, that folks are now choosing not to come. Read More
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