Musings on Immigration

The Immigration and Nationality Act generally requires visitors and immigrants into the U.S. to obtain a visa. H umanitarian parole enables those who are otherwise unable to obtain a visa to enter the United States for up to one year, provided they convince the government that exigent circumstances exist such that this special permission is warranted. Typical applications for humanitarian parole involve life-threatening medical emergencies, the reunification of young children with families, or the emergent need to attend to a close relative who either is dying, or has recently passed away. The attorneys at Kuck Casablanca have extensive dealings with the Humanitarian Parole Board, and have experienced extraordinary success in obtaining parole for people in dire circumstances. As such, the attorneys at Kuck Casablanca have served as mentors for immigration attorneys nationwide on the process and strategies surrounding applications for parole. Recent successful cases have resulte...

Time after time the phone in my office rings with the same story. “My husband / fiancé/ brother/ friend/ cousin was just arrested…we went down and paid the bond at the jail but we told that we couldn’t get him out because immigration has a hold on him. Is there any way we can get him out…?” My hear sinks with each phone call and I gear myself up to give them the bad news. “Well the problem is immigration will not consider giving him a bond until all his criminal issues are resolved. Once all his criminal issues are taken care of, meaning his charges are dismissed or he is found guilty and serves his time in jail, immigration then has 48 hours to come pick him up and place him in their custody. Once he is in immigration custody immigration might consider giving him a bond. A lot of it depends on what happens during his criminal case. When immigration is considering giving someone a bond they look at their criminal history, ties to the community, possible relief under immigration law...

I was fortunate to be invited to speak on the Salt Lake City affiliate of National Public Radio last Friday. We had a chance to discuss the national picture on immigration reform, as well as some of the Utah specfic legislation that was pending before their state legislature. Most of that legislation was sponsored by politicians wanting their 15 minutes of fame at the expense of immigrants, but one of the bills was quite interesting–a proposal for a Utah-specific temporary/guest worker program. Listen to the program for the details of my discussion: h ttp://kcpw.org/article/7475

Charlotte, North Carolina opened its new immigration court on November 4 th , 2008. We have an experienced immigration judge who has been adjudicating cases for over the past 10 years. She is fast and she is smart. She is also a former prosecutor who has NO TOLERANCE for domestic violence or marriage fraud. If your case has either of these two issues, hire a lawyer and get it taken care of LONG before you enter into her court room. If you have a conviction for domestic violence, find a lawyer and get it reopened and plead down to anything else. Disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct, jay-walking, whistling under water…anything…! Or make sure that you get lawyer that can explain that there was never an actual conviction for domestic violence. For example, the lawyer will explain that you were charged with domestic violence and took some anger management classes but you never actually admitted any guilt. Under this scenario you do not have a “conviction” for domestic violence. ...

In the early 1990s thousand of thousands of people immigrated to the United States from El Salvador due to the civil war that was raging in the country. People were dying by the thousands, and innocent civilians were being forced to take sides in the conflict, or face death themselves. Young men were forced, against their will, to enlist in the Salvadoran armed forces. Many of the young men fled to the United States after spending a short time in the military. A vast majority of Salvadorans came to the United States and sought political asylum, claiming fear of returning to El Salvador. Because of the enormous amount of asylum applications received from the fleeing Salvadorans, the Asylum Office of U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services only recently began calling people for their asylum interviews (first step in the process of gaining asylum), nearly 20 years after the applicants came to the United States. Even more shocking than the delay is that many asylum applicat...

Immigration Issues Related to Corporate Downsizing We are frequently asked what obligation does an employer have when it terminates a foreign national employee, and what options are available to the foreign national employee if he is terminated. This is some guidance to employers in dealing with immigration matters during the downsizing process. Employers terminating foreign employees should also consider arranging for immigration counsel to advise foreign employees on the consequences of termination as one of the services provided to workers being terminated. The foreign national employees referred to here do not include lawful permanent residents or U.S. citizens. Foreign national nonimmigrant workers usually fall under the H-1B, L, E, O, and TN temporary work visa categories. The most common nonimmigrant work visa, H-1B, is used for an “alien who is coming to perform services in a specialty occupation”. L visas are used for intra-company transferees that enter the...

The Associated Press ran an absolutely poorly researched piece on H-1B visas and the Banks receiving Bailout money from the Federal Government on Sunday. The article implied that as the Banks were taking bailout money they were simultaneously firing US workers and hiring cheap foreign labor. After I finished laughing out loud, I began to weep. I was stunned that a veteran reporter at the AP would be willing to draw this conclusion from the biased numbers drawn up by a group opposed to immigration in general and to H-1B visa holders specifically. The piece makes no effort to talk to an independent source, or to check the information against publicly available data. The article notes that the banks benefiting from bailout monies “requested visas for more than 21,800 foreign workers over the past six years for positions that included senior vice presidents, corporate lawyers, junior investment analysts and human resources specialists. The average annual salary for those jobs was $90,7...