Mark Noferi on the Proposed Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill
Prof. Mark Noferi from Brooklyn Law School has a really good summary of the new bill's provisions relating to appointed counsel, detention, bond, and stipulated removal provisions. Follow this link to read it.
Immigration Reform Bill
Comprehensive Immigration Reform Proposal A so-called comprehensive immigration reform bill has been proposed. It is over 800-pages long and, if passed, will drastically alter the legal and human landscape of the U.S. From the first reports, it seems like there is a lot to like in the bill, but it still comes up woefully short of providing a humane, equitable, and fair immigration system. Remember, this is just the proposed bill. Contrary to rumors in some communities, no bill has passed and it will be at least months (if at all) before anything passes. We will post a more detailed summary
Two Wrongs Take Away Rights
We've written before about the frightening number of ineffective lawyers in the immigration field. A study commenced by Robert A. Katzmann of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and published by the Cardozo School of Law, revealed that immigration judges believe that immigrants received “inadequate” legal assistance in 33 percent of the cases between mid-2010 and mid-2011 and “grossly inadequate” assistance in 14 percent of the cases. The New York Times documented that "Judge Katzmann blames predatory lawyers who are not familiar with immigration law for much of the poor representation. The immigrants who hire them often do
Friday Quote of the Day
"Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else? The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broke, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation." "This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy." "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is
Proposed changes to departure bar waivers
We’ve been fielding calls over the past two days about the new proposal by the Obama administration relating to waivers of unlawful presence for people applying for lawful permanent residency. The issue is pretty complex, but we’ll try to give a bit of insight into what the proposal is all about. (as a caution, this primer is very general and omits a lot of details for the sake of simplicity and coherence). A background on the terms: “Unlawful Presence” A person who enters the United States without being inspected by an immigration officer at the border (enters without inspection or “EWI”) accrues “unlawful