Last Wednesday, Senator Bob Casey from Pennsylvania tried to stop a deportation on Twitter. The senator had been informed about the plight of a Honduran woman and her son who had tried to seek refuge in the United States after hit men killed her cousin in Honduras. She crossed the US/Mexico border in Texas in December 2015, but failed to pass her credible fear interview, which is necessary to seek asylum. After being held at a detention center in Pennsylvania with her son for over a year, she was going to be returned to Honduras that day.
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Our New Italian Outpost
Puglia, a southern region forming the heel of Italy’s “boot," is famous for its whitewashed hill towns, old farmland, and miles of beautiful Mediterranean coastline (the most coastline of any region in mainland Italy). Alberobello, picture here, and the Itria Valley feature many “trulli,” white-washed stone huts with those distinctive conical roofs. Lately we've been thinking that perhaps it would be a good idea to open up a location abroad, and so I took it upon myself to look for potential new office spaces. Think this might be a good place? Before you answer have another glass of red wine, some homemade orecchiette with cime di rapa (broccoli rabe) and garlic, and, to finish it off, a pasticciotto, a traditional regional dessert with a flaky outer crust filled with creamy custard. Yes, this would be a good place.
New York Times: "Office to Aid Crime Victims Is Latest Step in Crackdown on Immigrants"
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) last week announced the creation of an office to assist victims of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants, part of an effort by President Trump to aggressively curtail undocumented immigration. The office, called Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement (VOICE), is part of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency tasked with deportations, and was created in response to President Trump’s January executive order, Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States, which also prioritized the removal of large numbers of the unlawfully present immigrant population and expanded the “expedited removal” process.
Read moreImmigrants (We Get the Job Done)
Gulliver's Gate
A mix of our old and new neighborhood.
Gulliver's Gate, located in Times Square, is a fascinating new $40 million miniature exhibit featuring scenes from fifty nations around the world. The miniatures include iconic landmarks, monuments, and world wonders, all brought to life with a blend of modern technology that includes self-driving cars, trains, and moving trams, coupled with stunning attention to old-fashioned model craftsmanship. Top artists from around the world came together to create the buildings and scenes that include 1,000 trains, 10,000 cars and 100,000 tiny people. The New York City section, titled "Metropolis," took nearly a year to make.
"Gulliver's Gate is both tiny and fascinating and overwhelming all at the same time," Jason Hackett, the attraction's chief marketing officer, tells CNet. "A big theme for us is this idea of reveal and how scale can help you understand the world better." While not geographical correct, we enjoyed the part of the New York City scene that mixed buildings from our old neighborhood in the Meatpacking District (hello, Standard Hotel and Whitney Museum!) with our new neighborhood (hello, Penn Station!). Also check out the rooftop party and that one hotel room in the Standard which may or may not feature exhibitionists!
Meena Roldan Oberdick: The DLG-Proust-Actors Studio Questionnaire
Meena, a paralegal at the firm, is a big fan of memes. She is very pleased to let me know that she was watching the Dr. Phil Show when the “Cash Me Outside” girl first uttered her now infamous words. “I was actually in a laundromat when it first aired,” Meena says. “I saw it live! I didn’t realize though what an internet sensation it was going to be at that moment.”
Read moreWashington Post: “A ‘dreamer’ claims he was secretly deported. The government claims it never happened.”
Juan Manuel Montes Bojorquez, a twenty-three-old Mexican man living in California, is one of the first “DREAMers” to be deported by President Trump, immigration advocates and lawyers are claiming; a removal that would contradict the stated policy by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that does not prioritize DACA recipients for removal. The US government and lawyers for Montes have differing versions of the story surrounding Montes’s removal from the US. The US government is claiming that Montes voluntarily left the US and illegally tried to reenter, thus violating the conditions of his DACA status, and lawyers for Montes allege that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents removed him from the US despite his valid DACA status.
Read moreBlood, Sweat and Tears
USCIS: Change of Filing Addresses and Workload Transfers
Every so often, US Citizenship & Immigration Service Centers—located in California, Nebraska, Texas, Vermont, and Virginia—experience lengthy backlogs and delays in processing cases. To balance workloads and “promote timely processing,” USCIS occasionally changes filing addresses for certain petitions to direct cases away from the service centers experiencing these significant delays, as well as transfers cases from center to center. USCIS announced this week they are doing both.
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