Musings on Immigration

By:  Hiba Ghalib, Esq. Associate Attorney TPS (Temporary Protected Status) is a temporary immigration status available to foreign nationals present in the United States whose home countries are designated by the Department of State to be temporarily unsafe or extraordinarily dangerous.  On March 23, 2012, it was announced that Syria would join the list of nations currently designated TPS status.  During the period for which a country is designated, TPS beneficiaries from that country may not only remain in the United States lawfully, but they may also obtain work authorization. TPS differs from asylum because while it allows its beneficiaries to remain in the United States to avoid a forced return to their home country’s unsafe conditions, it is not a way to obtain permanent residency status in the United States. By its very nature, TPS is temporary. While the initial approval is generally for 18 months, the Department may designate a particular count...

The Georgia State Senate acted recently to pass an anti-immigration measure aimed at stopping 300 Georgia residents who happen to not have legal status from attending public colleges and universities in Georgia, despite the fact that they are paying out-of-state tuition.  The Georgia House is moving to pass similar legislation at the behest of House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee Chair, Cobb County resident, and AllState Insurance Attorney Rich Gollick. THE RATIONALE The rationale behind this bill (besides the red herring argument that local governments needed clarification on whether they could accept electronic copies of "secure and verifiable documents"), is that the undocumented students are somehow using taxpayer dollars and taking spots from U.S. citizens.   You heard these arguments from all the sponsors of this bill  in the Senate.  These reasons for supporting this bill are not based in either reality or facts.  In Georgia, no undocumented student ca...

Kuck Immigration Partners - The Immigration Law Firm, Welcomes Tim Wheelwright and Barbara Melendez as Partners in New Salt Lake City and Provo Offices !

As   reported  extensively over the last two weeks, and in a way that was grossly misunderstood by the average person,  the Obama administration plans to issue a regulation that would address a long-standing problem in immigration law—a Catch 22 created by requiring the spouses and children of U.S. citizens who entered the country unlawfully to depart the U.S. before completing the processing of their application for lawful permanent residence. The trouble is that once they leave the country, they are subject to a   three or ten year bar   for unlawful presence and need a waiver to get   back   into the US earlier than the 3 or 10 year bar would allow.  The new proposal would allow them to submit the waiver application to the USCIS in the United States and receive a decision before departing the U.S., thus reducing the time, anxiety, and sometime danger inherent in waiting abroad for a decision. This Catch-22 is one of the most notorious pro...

Newt Gingrich introduced a unique concept into the Republican primary debate—an attempt at a quasi-rational approach to fixing our broken immigration system.  While Newt has received mostly derisive comments from the Right, focused almost exclusively on calling his idea an “amnesty” plan, the reality of his plan is very different.  It is NOT an amnesty plan.  But more importantly for those who understand the urgent need, Newt’s plan will NOT fix our broken immigration system.  Start with the obvious, there must be willing participants in Congress to work with any president to solve a problem of this magnitude.  As Newt himself has pointed out, both President Bush and President Obama have tried a “comprehensive” approach to immigration reform, and failed miserably.  In today’s Congress, with a large contingent of elected representatives who view any law that in any way assists an immigrant as “amnesty,” Newt’s plan is dead on arrival.  A recent “p...

Recently the Alabama Attorney General called on the Alabama State Legislature to repeal parts of Alabama's horrid anti-immigration law ( HB 56), because of the "unintended" consequences of the bill (frankly, what happened was not unintended). Because of the similarity between the two laws, Georgia's Speaker of the House, David Ralston was asked whether Georgia Legislature would repeal part or all of HB 87, Georgia own anti-immigration law. HB 87 has caused almost a half a billion dollars in damage to the Georgia economy (along with untold suffering in Georgia's immigrant communities) without any noted or reported positive effect. Speaker Ralston plainly stated that the Georgia Legislature would NOT do anything to repeal HB 87 . While it understandable why a politician would not admit that a pet bill he shepherded and pushed through the state legislature was simply bad law, it is also clear that Speaker Ralston is facing a challenge on his RIGHT in th...

If you are in the United States without proper immigration papers, it is important that you prepare for the possibility, particularly in today's environment, that you will be arrested by ICE and deported from the United States. You SHOULD MAKE A PLAN NOW for what you would like to have happen to your children and your property in case you are arrested or deported. You do this by completing a "Power of Attorney" form. In doing so you are designating someone to be your agent and giving them power of attorney over everything you own. This can be a scary thing. You must pick someone you trust, particularly because their powers become effective the moment you sign the power of attorney form. That means that they can go into your bank accounts and sell whatever property you have here in the United States. (You can offset this by keeping the documents locked in your house and tell your agent where the forms are once you are arrested. You can also give it to your attorney for...