DREAM Act protesters arrested at Senator Hutchison's office

L-1 approved at the border in only 13 days after B-1 refusal

Our client is a Canadian citizen residing in Canada. He is the CEO of a Canadian corporation that is a subsidiary of a major U. S. company.  The client has entered the United States on many occasions as a business visitor to attend meetings and to oversee the affairs of the U. S. corporation.

Recently our client was questioned about his business activities in the United States at Pearson International Airport in Toronto. He was denied admission by immigration officers because they determined that his activities were going to benefit the U. S. corporation as well as the Canadian subsidiary. At this point we were retained.

After investigation of all of the facts and circumstances, we concluded that the client was eligible for L-1A intracompany transferee status as an executive, which would allow him to supervise the activities of the U. S. corporation on an as needed basis.

We prepared a petition and supplemented it with all of the necessary documents.  Because he is a Canadian citizen, under the NAFTA we did not need to apply for a visa for him to be admitted in L-1A status, and we appeared with him at the United States border when he presented himself for inspection.

L-1A status was approved on the spot for a period of three years and the client was admitted to the United States.

White House DREAM Act event

The Matthew Kolken Daily

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Dream Act Debate - MSNBC w/ Cenk

Pelosi Keeping DREAM Alive?

Security expert Fred Burton examines the role of human trafficking in the operations of Mexico's drug cartels.

Number of Detained Grow, as Immigrants in Nevada wait 11 months in Deportation Cases

The Las Vegas Review-Journal has reported that in 2010 there has been an 80% increase in the backlog of cases at the Las Vegas Immigration Court.   In President Bush's last year in office (2008) there were 1,028 backlogged cases in Las Vegas.  In President Obama's second year in office the number of backlogged cases at the Las Vegas Immigration Court exploded to 2,080.  I wonder what Harry Reid has to say about this?

These statistics were compiled by Syracuse University's nonprofit Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC).  According to TRAC, nationwide the number of backlogged immigration cases (261,083) in fiscal year 2010 has grown to record numbers under President Obama.

This clearly is the direct result of the Obama administration's 400,000 deportations per year mandate.  Unfortunately, President Obama has neglected to add a sufficient number of Immigration Judges to compensate for the exponential jump in deportation cases that stem from his change in immigration policies. The end result of this backlog is that certain immigrants are forced to remain incarcerated for longer periods of time while awaiting the outcome of their immigration hearing, which inevitably is a boon to the prison industry.

NPR has recently reported that the Arizona immigration law may have been architected by lobbyists for the prison industry.  It would be interesting to see if the Obama administration has any similar ties.

Tens of Thousands of Migrant Children Deported to Mexico

Waiver of Inadmissibility Granted

Our client is a native of Pakistan and citizen of Canada. He came to the United States with a visitor’s visa in the 1980’s when he was a Pakistani citizen and then overstayed. Eventually, he was apprehended and Immigration Court proceedings were instituted against him, and he was ultimately able to obtain a grant of Voluntary Departure in lieu of an Order of Deportation.  However, he did not depart when he was required, and as a result, the Voluntary Departure Order automatically con-verted to an Order of Deportation.

Years later, he left the United States and entered Canada. Shortly thereafter, he re-entered the United States by walking across one of the bridges connecting the United States and Canada, without being inspected by U. S. immigration. Later that day he was apprehended by the U. S. Border Patrol and returned to Canada.
A month or two later he re-entered the United States as a fully visible back seat passenger in an automo-bile operated by a friend, which stopped for inspection at a checkpoint on the U. S. – Canada border. He remained in the U. S. for two years and then returned to Canada with his wife and family, where he has resided ever since.

We were retained for the purpose of having the client re-admitted to the United States in conformance with our laws. Upon investigation of the case, we determined that his wife is a U. S. citizen. We had her petition for him as an immediate relative, which petition has been approved.

Unfortunately, the client is inadmissible to the United States for life because he was unlawfully present in the United States for more than one year, as well as being ordered deported, and re-entered the United States without being inspected and admitted. He is unable to apply for an immigrant waiver to utilize his wife’s approved petition until he has been outside of the United States for 10 years, which has yet to elapse.

Notwithstanding, he is eligible to apply for a Nonimmigrant Waiver of Inadmissibility which will allow him to visit the United States and for other valid nonimmigrant purposes, if approved. We carefully prepared an application for a waiver and supported the same with a legal brief and appropriate documentation to persuade U. S. Customs and Border Protection to approve the same.

The waiver has now been granted and the client is able to enter the United States as a visitor from time to time while he waits for 10 years to elapse so that he may apply for an immigrant visa along with an application for an immigrant waiver.

How will the Mid-Term Elections Impact Immigration Enforcement and Reform?

Micheal E. Hill has put together a fantastic analysis of the 2010 mid-term elections as they affect immigration enforcement, and the likelihood of comprehensive immigration reform in the rest of the Obama Presidency.

He analyzes the following key factors that will directly impact potential immigration lawmaking in the immediate future:

• Congressional Hispanic Caucus losses in the House.
• Election of immigration restrictionist-oriented Hispanic Republicans.
• Dramatic increase in the number of immigration restrictionists in the House.
• Loss of key pro-immigrant Democrats in the House.
• More difficult path to a bipartisan filibuster-proof immigration majority in the Senate.
• Uncertainty about the makeup of the House Democratic Leadership.
• Likely aggressive anti-immigrant agenda coming out of the House. 

As I have been predicting for quite some time, President Obama's broken campaign promise to address comprehensive immigration reform in his first year in office does not bode well for the prospect of immigration reform in the near or distant future.  The reality is that President Obama chose health-care reform over immigration reform.  We all must live with this choice that he made for us.  I do not anticipate that we will see any meaningful immigration reform until well after 2012.

Click here to read Mr. Hill's entire analysis.

Immigration dominates Arizona polls