Everything

Everything by Hanna Linden makes me hungry.

New Yorkers love their bagels. And for good reason, as there's nothing quite like a bagel and cream cheese with lox (yum!) on a Saturday morning. To celebrate this very New York culinary item, Swedish artist and New York transplant Hanna Linden created the ingenious sculpture, Everything. The tasty-looking sculptures—a cool time-lapse video documents their molding process—are now on display through October in numerous locations throughout the city including on the Hudson River Greenway and also at Greenwich and Sixth Avenues. Calling the bagel "a great icon of urban living" in DesignBoom, Linden expounds further on its virtues, saying that the "bagel—a circle with no beginning and no end—is evocative of the eternal cycle of city life. The black spray paint is a romantic tribute to the darkness and grime, which are essential and beautiful characteristics of our city[.]"

WSJ: “Immigration and the Pope From the New World”

Amid the continued heated rhetoric about immigration and immigrants among the presidential contenders—and especially from Donald Trump who introduced an anti-immigration platform—many are wondering how Pope Francis (who just landed in the US this afternoon) will address the issue of immigration in his historic and much anticipated papal visit to the United States.

Will the Pope Encourage Immigration Reform?

In a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed, the Most Rev. José H. Gomez, archbishop of Los Angeles and author of Immigration and the Next America: Renewing the Soul of Our Nation, believes that the pope will use his brief time in the US to encourage immigration reform. A sign of this is his decision to canonize America’s first Hispanic saint, Junípero Serra, a Franciscan who spent nearly forty years in the mid-1700s “spreading the Gospel, defending the native peoples, and laying the foundations for a vibrant civil society and Christian civilization, first in Mexico and later in California.”

Noting that Pope Francis is himself the son of an immigrant father—who fled fascism in Italy to settle in Argentina—the archbishop believes the pope understands that “the immigrant spirit is a wellspring for economic and moral revitalization,” and consequently the pope is “hoping to inspire Americans to rediscover their nation’s Hispanic and Christian foundations—at a moment in our history when these foundations are being put to the test.” He goes on:

We see this in the protracted debates over immigration reform, with their undeniable racial undertones. These debates have exposed deep apprehensions about our national self-identity—caused not only by the presence of millions of undocumented Hispanics but also by the uncertainties of globalization and the country’s changing racial and ethnic profile.

100 Women, 100 Miles

While not everyone is thrilled with the canonization of Junípero Serra—some activists hold Serra responsible for the enslavement and deaths of numerous indigenous people and as a person “emblematic of the dangers of colonialism” and are strongly against the canonization—many other US clergy and immigration reform activists are also hoping that Francis’ congressional visit could lead “to the beginning of an honest debate of how to fix the broken immigration system.” In a recent press conference in Washington D.C., activists and clergy from numerous faiths expressed their hope that Congress will heed the pope’s message. “We don’t know what the Holy Father [will say]… but he’s been a strong defender for persons on the move—immigrants, refugees, trafficking victims,” Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, Archbishop Emeritus of Washington, D.C., said at the press conference.  

A group of female immigration activists is walking to Washington D.C. and hope their message will be heard by Pope Francis. Organized by We Belong Together, a non-profit immigration organization, the march is called 100 Women, 100 Miles, and includes numerous activists, such as Rosi Carrasco, an undocumented immigrant from Chicago. “The pope represents for us a hope for dignity and respect,” she said in the Patriot News. “I think he will listen to our stories and our message…I hope the people in this country will hear that things need to be different and people need to be treated with dignity.”

The Pope’s Record on Immigration

Pope Francis has a strong record of speaking out for immigrants and migrants. He has called on Europe and the United States as well as Catholic parishes, convents, and monasteries to aid Syrian migrants. And he warned European lawmakers: “We cannot allow the Mediterranean to become a vast cemetery!”

While he will not be visiting the US-Mexico border as originally hoped too, he does plan to meet with immigrants (some undocumented) on his America tour. He is expected to be, at the very least, the “anti-Donald Trump.” 

Matt and Protima at the Vermont Service Center

Excuse me, where I can deliver this H-1B petition?

Matt and Protima are in beautiful New England for the Vermont Service Center Fall Stakeholder Event. These stakeholder events are important since they allow US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) to discuss key immigration issues and topics with lawyers and other stakeholders. On the agenda for today were roundtable events related to business-related immigration case types, family-based immigration case types, student-based case types, customer service issues and concerns, as well as—the best part really—a tour of the Vermont Service Center (VSC)! For security reasons, the VSC doesn't allow photos of their buildings, but this street sign is perfect: the regular Vermont Service Center is on Lower Welden Street and H-1B cap processing is on Lemnah Drive—this truly is one of the great crossroads of the immigration world!

USCIS Introduces Emma, Their New Virtual Assistant

Emma wants to help you with your immigration questions!

US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) is getting ready to debut Emma, their new virtual assistant. Billed as an “innovative way to help you find information” on USCIS.gov, Emma will be located at the top right of the USCIS.gov homepage and when clicked, will open up into a chat window. As indicated in the preview, Emma gives an immediate written and spoken response to questions and will also look for specific pages on USCIS.gov and automatically refer the user to these pages for more information.

According to USCIS’s email announcing Emma’s debut: “Emma is still learning so that in the future she can answer many different questions about the services USCIS provides.” USCIS is thus encouraging users to ask Emma questions as the more questions Emma is asked, the “smarter” Emma will become.

Hi, Emma!

We tested Emma out briefly this afternoon with some questions:

“How do file an I-90?”

Emma sent us to the I-90, Application to Replace Permanent Resident Card page. Nice job, Emma!

“How do I apply for employment authorization?”

Emma sent us to the I-765, Application for Employment Authorization page. Again, nice work!

“My O-1 has been pending for two months. How do I quickly get the case adjudicated?”

Emma provided information on the O-1 page but didn’t address what action to take to either convert the case to premium processing or file a service request for cases pending outside normal processing times. Something to work on, Emma.

“My case is outside normal processing times. What do I do?”

This time Emma was a little more helpful. She said: “We usually processes cases in the order received. Please check our website for the normal processing times for your case type. If your case has been pending longer than the processing time posted on our website, select the link below to submit an inquiry...

• Case Outside Normal Processing Time
• USCIS Processing Times"

“How do I sponsor my employee?”

Emma rather unhelpfully gave us information on the Affidavit of Support, Form I-864, normally used for family-based immigrants to show they have adequate means of financially support. So this is another question where Emma could definitely improve her response.

“When will comprehensive immigration reform pass?”

We decided to get a little more advanced. Emma gave us the pages for applying for a Green Card and for citizenship, which doesn't quite answer it. More relevant pages would include USCIS.gov's page on President Obama's executive actions and also the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) page.

"Do you read dbvisablog.com?"

Emma's response was thoughtful if disappointing: "I don't have a favorite book, but I do enjoy reading A Guide to Naturalization. It is extremely helpful if you are becoming a U.S. citizen."

A New Way of Thinking

According to USCIS, Emma’s development team will examine every question Emma answers incorrectly or is unable to answer and then “teach” Emma how to answer that question in the future. USCIS is hoping the expanded database will mean better customer service when Emma is ready to debut and, we believe, serve as an alternative to USCIS’s 1-800 representatives, which historically have not always been as helpful or well informed in responding to clients’ more complicated questions.

USCIS states: “Emma is an example of a new way of thinking about making our online tools and services as useful as possible. Your insights and collaboration throughout this process will help make this happen.” At this time, Emma works best with Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Internet Explorer 9, USCIS reports. (We had a slight issue using Emma with Firefox, though Chrome seemed to work fine).  Users are also encouraged to send any issues or problems they experience using Emma to askemma@uscis.dhs.gov.

We look forward to working with Emma in the future!

UPDATE DECEMBER 4, 2015: Emma is live! After a few months of testing, USCIS has launched Emma this week on USCIS.gov. Emma answers questions in English with the goal of appropriately navigating users to relevant USCIS web pages. While Emma can answer many basic questions, her knowledge base is still growing, and as customers ask more questions, Emma gets smarter and can better assist future customers.
 
At this time, Emma can be accessed on a desktop or laptop, but soon she’ll be expanding to mobile devices. Her Spanish language capabilities will be arriving early next year. To ask Emma a question go to USCIS.gov and click “Ask a Question” in the upper right-hand corner of the page.

Bel18ve!

Roger Federer at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

After beating Frenchman Richard Gasquet, seventeen-time Grand Slam champion, Roger Federer, is set to face fellow countryman Stan Wawrinka today in an all-Swiss semi-final at the US Open. While I've enjoyed Stan's recent performances and wish him all the best, I am and always will be a Federer fan. Beautiful backhand!