Musings on Immigration

1.      I am not married to my partner, but we have kids together.  Can I still apply ? a.      Yes.  You do not have to be married to qualify for DAPA.  The only time this would be an issue is if the father’s name is not on the birth certificate because the parents were not legally married.  If that is the case, you can simply have the birth certificate corrected in the county where the child was born to reflect the father’s name.  If the child’s mother will not go along with that, a DNA test may be required. 2.      I don’t have any children of my own, but my wife has children that we have been raising together.  Do I qualify ? a.      Yes.  As long as you were married before the children turned 18, immigration considers them your children for purposes of all immigration applications.  If you are not actually legally married, you cannot count these ch...

By Anna Erwin, Associate Attorney Has your employment been terminated while under H-1B status or have you terminated an H-1B employee? The standards under immigration law for what a previous H-1B employee can receive in back wages after termination are now significantly affected by whether the employee obtains subsequent employment after termination. H-1B status is of particular benefit to foreign national employees in the U.S. because they can transfer their status to a new employer. An H-1B transfer employee also benefits the employer because that transferred employee does not count against the H-1B visa cap for that year.  But if the employer/employee relationship is terminated during the employee's H-1B status, both sides must be aware of back wage eligibility or liability. The Basis for Back Wage Liability In Amtel Group v. Florida, Inc., the Administrative Review Board found that for an employer to avoid liability after the termination of an H-1B employee, th...

El 20 de Noviembre del 2014, el Presidente Obama anunció que estarían brindando acción diferida a ciertos padres de ciudadanos de Estados Unidos o residentes permanentes. se llama DAPA por el USCIS.  La DAPA tiene los mismos beneficios que se les brindó a los llegados en la infancia (DACA- Acción Diferida) que ha sido expandida a otro grupo mayor de personas. CALIFICO YO? Usted debe de tener un hijo (a) ciudadano o residente permanente legal en esta fecha. Hijos      nacidos después del 20 de Noviembre del 2014, no serán elegibles.  Usted tiene que haber vivido continuamente en los Estados Unidos desde el 1º de Enero del 2010. Usted debe de estar físicamente en los Estados Unidos el 20 de Noviembre del 2014 y la fecha que usted aplique para DAPA.  No debe de tener un estatus legal en el 20 de Noviembre del 2014.  No debe de ser una prioridad para ICE por problemas criminales. Esto significa que no puede tener una condena por delito mayor, o un ...

On November 20, 2014, President Obama announced that he would be granting deferred action to certain parents of U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents.  Deferred action is the same benefit that was offered to childhood arrivals (DACA) that has essentially been extended to another, larger group of people.  DO I QUALIFY? ·        You must have a U.S. citizen child or lawful permanent resident child on this date.  Children born after 11/20/2014 will not make you eligible. ·        You must have lived continuously in the U.S. since before January 1, 2014. ·        You must be physically in the U.S. on November 20, 2014 and the date you apply for DAPA. ·        You must not be in lawful status as of November 20, 2014. ·        You must not be an enforcement priority to ICE because of criminal issues.  T...

President Obama recently leaked plans to exercise his executive action in revising immigration policy and procedure.  One of his “ten points” involves extending the application of “parole in place” (PIP) to assist people in lawfully immigrating to the United States. To understand PIP you need to understand that immigration law treats people who entered the U.S. legally differently than people who entered the country illegally.  Specifically, if a person enters the U.S. states with a tourist visa, remains in the U.S. after the visa expires and later marries a U.S. citizen, that person would be allowed to apply for their green card while remaining in the U.S. and without having to risk indefinite separation from their families or pay fines. On the other hand, a person who entered the U.S. illegally and later marries a U.S. citizen is not able to apply for a green card in the U.S., but instead must leave the U.S. and wait outside the country anywhere from seven days to t...

There is a lot going on with immigration law these days.  President Obama is reportedly set to move on taking executive action soon to help reform immigration policy.  This is no doubt the biggest hot-button immigration topic right now, as the shift couple help several million currently undocumented individuals.  However, another lesser-known change is on the horizon that could help some children in El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. Starting December the U.S. government will launch a program that would grant refugee status to minor children (under 21) who live in one of the listed countries, but have parents that reside in the U.S. with valid status.  As has been reported over the last year, many youth from these three countries have arrived at the U.S. border seeking to escape extreme violence in their home countries.  In recognition of the fact that these three countries lead nearly the entire world in murder and overall violence, the U.S. government ...

A través de Fox News nos enteramos de que el presidente Obama está considerando una acción ejecutiva de 10 puntos sobre la inmigración. Vamos a repasar cada uno de estos 10 artículos y darles una perspectiva practica de cada uno, a quien puede afectar y realmente que bueno puede ser.  Pero, ten en cuenta, lo más importante que puede hacer no está en esta lista - sólo contar principales solicitantes en lugar de todos los miembros de la familia cuando se trata de cuotas totales por familias solicitando legalización de estatus migratorio.  Esa opción parece estar fuera de la mesa, por ahora. Los 10 puntos del proyecto de plan, como se reporta por Fox News, son los siguientes, con mi comentario de cada artículo. Expandir "Acción Diferida " Para Los Inmigrantes Ilegales Jóvenes Esto ampliaría un importante paso dado por Obama en junio de 2012 cuando se ofreció un alto a la deportación – también conocido como la Acción Diferida - para los inmigrantes indocumentados q...

From FoxNews  we learn that President Obama is considering a 10 point Executive Action on immigration.  We will walk through each of these 10 items and give you a real life perspective of what they mean, who it would affect, and how "good" it is.  But, to note, the most important thing he can do is not on this list--count only principal immigrant applicants, rather than all family members when it comes to family legal immigration quota totals. That appears to be off the table, for now. The 10 points of the draft plan, as outlined by FoxNews, are as follows, with my commentary on each item. Expand ‘deferred action’ for young illegal immigrants This would expand a major step taken by Obama in June 2012. In June 2012, Obama offered a deportation reprieve – a.k.a., deferred action -- for undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children, entered before June 2007 and were under 31 as of June 2012. The change would expand that to cover anyone who entered before ...

En las últimas décadas, las leyes de inmigración de Estados Unidos han cambiado en forma que tienen más parecido a las leyes criminales.  Hay exigencias extremas que se deben cumplir para permanecer en los EE.UU., sin importar los vínculos familiares en el país o la cantidad de tiempo que se pase aquí, y es aún más difícil de permanecer en los EE.UU. con antecedentes penales. Debido a la naturaleza extrema de nuestras leyes actuales, la Corte Suprema de Justicia en el caso de Padilla v. Kentucky, 559 EE.UU. 356 (2010), decidió que los abogados de defensa criminal deben aconsejar a sus clientes sobre las consecuencias de inmigración de sus convicciones con el fin de cumplir con la norma de " la asistencia efectiva de un abogado".  Este fue un paso audaz por la Corte Suprema; históricamente, los abogados defensores no tenían que asesorar a nadie sobre consecuencias fuera de las de la misma convicción, como su sentencia y sus términos. La ley de inmigración es muy compl...

THE GOP AND IMMIGRATION REFORM The GOP will control both the Houses of Congress come January 19, 2015.   Mitt Romney , in a massive shift from his 2012 presidential campaign position, says that one of the first things the GOP will do is pass some sort (unclear what exactly) of "immigration reform" and put it on the President's desk in 2015.  Two things about this. First, if Mitt Romney had said this during the campaign in 2012, we would be calling him President Romney today.  It is rather off of Romney to say this now, particularly since he is taking heat from the likes of Glenn Beck in doing so.  If Romney really believed this, one has to ask, did he have a change of heart? Or, is he cynically duping people into supporting GOP candidates, with no real intention to address a key part of our economic future as a country? Second, what does "immigration reform" mean when used by Mitt Romney and the GOP today? Inspired by the classic line uttered by Inigo Mont...