Posted by Matthew Green | Sep 26, 2013 |
President Obama has professed his support for progressive immigration policy throughout both of his campaigns, and activists are currently applying maximum pressure in hopes that he'll make good on those promises. As the comprehensive immigration reform bill languishes in the House, activists are...
Posted by Matthew Green | Sep 21, 2013 |
Arizona's latest stunt in a nearly-constant stream of attacks on immigrants is to ban the issuance of driver's licenses to youths who have qualified for deferred action. Because of the newly expanded ban, announced last week, Arizona is one of only two states to deny DACA youths driver's licenses...
Posted by Matthew Green | Sep 11, 2013 |
Despite the major push this year by immigration activists supporting comprehensive immigration reform, it looks as though Congress will delay immigration reform until the end of the year or later. The delay is due to the events in Syria and the choice now facing Congress on whether to take milita...
Posted by Matthew Green | Sep 07, 2013 |
Senator John McCain, one of the co-authors of the Senate bill outlining a proposal for comprehensive immigration reform, is now putting the hard sell on Arizona's four Republican House members, Paul Gosar, Matt Salmon, Dave Schweikert and Trent Franks.
McCain has enlisted a variety of influentia...
Posted by Matthew Green | Aug 29, 2013 |
Amongst immigration activists and legal scholars, there has been much recent criticism of the way in which detained parents are deprived of their rights to participate in parenting and family court proceedings while being detained. Due to insufficient communication, it has become common for detai...
Posted by Matthew Green | Aug 25, 2013 |
The Eighth Circuit recently issued a case based on the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) in favor of five undocumented workers who were denied backpay and overtime wages by their employer. The case, Elmer Lucas et. Al. v. Jerusalem Café, LLC et. al., marks an important step in the progress towards...
Posted by Matthew Green | Aug 16, 2013 |
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has just issued a recent decision that will likely have an impact on the future adjudication of derivative citizenship suits.
In the past, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) has held that minors would only be eligible for derivative citizenship if they bec...
Posted by Matthew Green | Aug 10, 2013 |
A group of young immigration reform activists known as the DREAM Nine have been released from Eloy Detention Center after being held there for about two weeks.
The group voluntarily crossed the border from Mexico to the U.S. on July 22 and openly declared their undocumented status to officials a...
Posted by Matthew Green | Jul 10, 2013 |
The United States made a historic decision last week, in United States v. Windsor, declaring the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional. As a result, LGBT couples in the U.S. will now enjoy equality in all realms of federal law, including estate taxes, income taxes, health care issues an...
Posted by Matthew Green | Jul 02, 2013 |
Since the Obama administration pushed through Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals in June of last year, recent statistics reveal that only about half of the eligible candidates in Arizona have applied thus far. The Immigration Policy Center has estimated that around 34,836 people in Arizona wo...
Posted by Matthew Green | Jun 18, 2013 |
As much national attention is being paid to S.744, the comprehensive immigration reform bill being debated in the Senate, New York City immigration lawyer Alan Lee says we should not forget about the I 601A provisional waiver as a means of helping immigrants remain in the United States. In compar...
Posted by Matthew Green | Jun 10, 2013 |
The comprehensive immigration reform bill before the Senate now contemplates a vast increase in militarization of the border between Mexico and the United States. For the first time ever, the idea is to close up every inch of the 1,969-mile border and have a system of "persistent surveillance" to...
Posted by Matthew Green | Jun 07, 2013 |
This week the American Civil Liberties Union filed a class action lawsuit against the federal government on behalf of immigrants who have been subject to alleged abuses regarding the policy of voluntary departure.
Specifically, the lawsuit alleges that immigration officials do not properly i...
Posted by Matthew Green | May 29, 2013 |
In a federal court ruling last week, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio was found guilty of racial profiling against Latinos, hopefully bringing to a close an era of fear and discriminatory policing in Arizona. Immigrant rights advocates also hope the ruling will send a strong message to other st...
Posted by Matthew Green | May 26, 2013 |
Amidst the controversial deliberations of the comprehensive immigration reform debate, one of the most tragic outcomes of America's border policy is often forgotten. Despite a dramatic decline in border apprehensions in recent years, indicating a correlating decline in people crossing the border ...
Posted by Matthew Green | May 19, 2013 |
As the Senate debates potential amendments to its comprehensive immigration reform bill, the House of Representatives has been formulating one of its own. A bipartisan group of Representatives has reportedly come up with an "agreement in principle" on immigration reform, and that agreement is now...
Posted by Matthew Green | May 08, 2013 |
The recently announced bipartisan Senate immigration bill on Comprehensive Immigration Reform is now being debated amongst Senate members, and has drawn a flood of proposed amendments. Of the 301 amendments, two-thirds are from Senate Republicans, the Washington Post reports.
The most threatenin...
Posted by Matthew Green | May 06, 2013 |
Posted by Matthew Green | May 01, 2013 |
Last week, a U.S. District Court judge, Dolly M. Magee, made a historic ruling giving legal aid to mentally ill or mentally incompetent immigration detainees. This is the first time that there has been a right to counsel for any class of immigration detainees, so the step is quite symbolic and ho...
Posted by Matthew Green | Apr 25, 2013 |
The long-awaited comprehensive immigration reform bill is currently being debated in Congress. But judging from the summary released by the Gang of Eight, it's shaping up to meet the demands of the technology sector through additional visas as well as provisions to prevent outsourcing and wage pr...
Posted by Matthew Green | Apr 21, 2013 |
As could be expected, many initial reactions to last week's horrific bombings in Boston turned to the immigration debate once it became evident that the two suspects grew up in Chechnya. While some politicians reacted with measured thoughtfulness, others came forth with the usual sound and fury.
...
Posted by Matthew Green | Apr 14, 2013 |
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg recently spoke out in favor of progressive immigration reform, and others in his industry have echoed this opinion. Zuckerberg explained in an editorial in The Washington Post that he favors a "welcoming immigration policy" for both business and personal reasons.
...
Posted by Matthew Green | Apr 13, 2013 |
It's official. The senate will hold its first hearing on comprehensive immigration reform next week, on April 17. Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy announced the hearing, as confirmed by NBC news. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Reno will testify at the hearing.
T...
Posted by Matthew Green | Apr 10, 2013 |
USCIS has issued a press release indicating that it has reached the cap of 65,000 for H-1B visas for the 2014 fiscal year. In fact, there were about 124,000 applications filed within only one week of the filing period. In addition, USCIS states that it has received about 20,000 applications from ...
Posted by Matthew Green | Apr 07, 2013 |
Congress has given the go-ahead to grant the E-Verify Program an additional $11 million for the year. The funding decision was part of H.R. 933, the Full Year Continuing Appropriations Act of 2013, which will provide for continued funding of defense related spending until the end of the fiscal ye...