Musings on Immigration

United States Citizenship and Immigration Service has recently added their own blog to the blogosphere. It is called The Beacon and can be accessed at the following URL: http://blog.uscis.gov/ Besides covering important issues like advanced parole, immigration is now publishing stories about adoptions and recognizing our veterans under their “wounded warriors” program. It is nice to see that immigration is away of the thoughts and questions that are on people’s mind.

Another bad decision issued by the Board of Immigration Appeals, February 19, 2010 — more often in recent months the Department of Homeland Security is trying (successfully sometimes) to go behind a state court’s conviction records to sustain removability charges against an individual in immigration proceedings. Obviously the line between federal and state is becoming very blurred, and it seems as though regardless of the conviction issued by a state court, federal court judges have free will to re-define the actual meaning of a conviction!! It is difficult enough when the immigration laws treat certain misdemeanor convictions as felonies, but the added burden of having to argue against the admission of facts, evidence, police reports, etc., is ridiculous!! Why not just combine state court and immigration court proceedings, and make life that much easier for the government?! This is absurd and immigration judges should not have discretion to re-try a case which has already been decided...

Okay, so I completely understand and fully support the need for a watch list to protect the safety of all of those who fly, and for protecting the United States in general. What I don’t understand is why they didn’t pat down the Nigerian underwear bomber to the same degree that they have been patting down this eight year old U.S. citizen from New Jersey since he was two years old? Apparently, the name Mikey Hicks is on the second tier watch list which requires high level security screening. The poor kid has gone through intense scrutiny every single time he and his family have flown into and out of the United States. The question I have then is, which list was the Nigerian listed on? Was he on the second tier list, or the first tier? My argument is not that they failed in discovering the powder in his underwear – what I learned in watching the reports is that powder substances are nearly undetectable, but what I want to know is, what type of screening was he subject to? Anything beyond...