DREAMERS

In the long-running and contentious political debate surrounding immigration reform, one of the most widely discussed issues has been how to resolve the immigration status of those brought to the United States as children. While pundits often argue that passing comprehensive immigration reform will reward law breakers, few seriously contend children should be punished because their parents or guardians may have violated immigration law in bringing them to the United States illegally or overstaying their visas. It is hard to insist that young people who have grown up almost exclusively in the United States should abandon their homes, families, jobs--and the only lives they’ve known--in order to come into compliance with immigration law.

Read more

NY Daily News: "Immigration reform activists vow to ramp up pressure on Congress to pass reform legislation"

Immigration reform activists say there will be an increase in civil disobediance actions in the coming weeks, reports the NY Daily News:

“We have been lied to by Republicans time and time again and I’ve come to believe that we need extreme measures for something to happen,” said Linda Sarsour, executive director of the Arab-American Association on New York, located in in Brooklyn, one of 211 people arrested during Washington’s actions last week. “This was my first time in jail but it may not be the last. Peaceful civil disobedience is what will make things move and there will be more such actions in the coming weeks here in New York and other cities.

Meanwhile, Obama heads toward deportation milestone--two million people deported since he took office. NBC Latino presents two conflicting views of this milestone.

LA Times: "Immigration legislation's prospects bleak after bitter budget fight"

Now that the government shutdown is over, the LA Times reports on the "bleak" prospects of Immigration reform:

Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho), who earlier this year had been working with lawmakers from both parties to write an immigration bill, said that President Obama’s refusal to negotiate with House Speaker John Boehner over funding the government and increasing the country’s borrowing limit made him unwilling to enter into talks over immigration.

The NY Times also reports on the difficulties Immigration reform now faces, since "many conservative Republicans are fuming with frustration over their meager gains from the two-week shutdown and turning their ire against Mr. Obama, saying he failed to negotiate with them."

New York Democratic Senator Charles E. Schumer, however, thinks Republicans might come around. He says: "'When the Republican polling numbers are at 20 percent, there’s a pretty strong argument to do something to get those poll numbers up, and immigration is a good way to do that...'”

 

FILM REVIEW: The Visitor

The Visitor, a 2007 film written and directed by Thomas McCarthy, begins with Walter, a college professor in Connecticut, working through the mundane tasks of his everyday life. He is again teaching the economics course he has taught for many years, never updating the material or injecting any enthusiasm. He wakes up, lectures, goes home, and then does it again the next day. Without any real skill or passion, he spends his free time attempting to learn piano. When a faculty member tells Walter that he must attend a conference in New York City, he doesn’t want to go, but he does not have a choice. A few days later, he finds himself back in the city at an apartment he owns but rarely visits.

Read more

Cannabis Culture: "US Immigration Officials: Pot Smokers Get Out; Rapists You Can Stay"

Cannabis Culture, which is not exactly required reading for most immigration attorneys, notes a report suggesting that "a suspected undocumented immigrant convicted of possessing pot may be more likely to face immigration detention than one who’s been convicted of rape." The report is from the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, a non-profit and non-partisan organization whose mission is to reduce society’s reliance on incarceration as a solution to social problems.  The center reviewed data on requests by ICE to law enforcement agencies to detain adult suspected undocumented immigrants. Salon has a take here including a response from ICE:

...ICE told Salon that because the report “only focuses on detainers issued on convicted criminals,” it “fails to recognize the issuance of ICE detainers on other public safety threats such as transnational criminal street gang members, international fugitives, human rights violators, national security threats and those who repeatedly violate our immigration laws.” The agency argued that the report “does not take into account detainers placed on immigration law violators charged with serious crimes who have not yet been convicted of a crime in the United States,” and noted that some people detained are ultimately released.

You can read the report in PDF here. The report also notes that "traffic offenders are more likely to be booked into ICE detention (75.8 percent) than violent offenders (67.5 percent)."

NYC Immigration Rally

Thousands rallied for immigration reform this past Saturday, October 5, 2013, in Brooklyn. This rally (one of many across the nation) formed at Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn and ended in a march over the Brooklyn Bridge. Holding such signs as "El Momento Es Ahora," "No More Death at the Border," and "I heart Immigration Reform," protestors listened to such speakers as Democratic mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio. Speaking of the undocumented in the US, he said, "They deserve a chance too. Eleven million people who make this country work." He added, "We are the city of immigrants." Attorney Elizabeth Brettschneider and I were on hand to capture a few shots from the rally and march.   

Ashley Emerson: The DLG-Proust-Actors Studio Questionnaire*

Associate Attorney Ashley Emerson grew up in Ashford, Connecticut, a town, she says, that “has more cows than people.” She first became interested in law during high school. “I had an amazing teacher,” she says. “He had this elective law class. It was so interesting, ethically and morally. Everything about it was fascinating. Before that I wanted to be a vet. But I realized you couldn’t just specialize in one type of animal, you had to be a vet for all animals. I didn’t want to deal with creepy animals like snakes and other things.” She went onto undergraduate studies at Wheaton College in Massachusetts. “I was looking for a school that was small and liberal arts,” she says. “I also wanted to be somewhere I could be really involved in campus life. It was a Division III School, so I could play volleyball and sing a cappella. Being a student was my first priority, of course, but I wanted to find a balance.”

Read more

Yahoo News!: "Court: Applicants Wrongly Denied US Citizenship"

What happens if despite your claims that you're a US citizen, you are deported four times and at one point detained for nearly two years? Yahoo News! has the story of Sigifredo Saldana Iracheta who was born to an American father and a Mexican mother in a Mexican city south of the Texas border. After a prison sentence for a drug conviction, he was deported, and denied his applications for a certificate of citizenship.

In rejecting Saldana's bid for citizenship, the government sought to apply an old law that cited Article 314 of the Mexican Constitution, which supposedly dealt with legitimizing out-of-wedlock births. But there was a problem: The Mexican Constitution has no such article.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this month ruled that Saldana had been a citizen since birth. Saldana's key to success? He was "persistent."