Documentation for the Undocumented

President Obama decreed that students and those who at least graduated high school, has a clean record, and had arrived here illegally as a minor through no fault of their own would not be deported and can get temporary work permits.  The children had to have arrived before 2007,  before the age of 16, and have been present continuously present in the country and been here on June 15, 2012. This sounds good, and many people qualify.  But the problem for many kids is getting the documents.  If they were registered in school since 2007 to present, then school records should suffice.  But the problem comes in where the children graduated from high school before June 2012.

After they graduate, many children simply live with their parents.  They dont have lease, or utility bills under their name.

They work illegally for cash. Their employers dont want to say that to the government, and understandably so.  Since they deal in cash, they dont have receipts, bank accounts or credit cards.

They are generally in good health and don't visit doctors or hospitals.

Although they attend church regularly, what United States Citizenship and Immigration Office is looking for is baptism, first communion or wedding records. Just letters from pastors stating that he has seen them attend church may not be enough.

Some of the other evidence would be maybe Facebook records or phone records for texting, or maybe internet postings.  But not all children are computer savvy enough to get this from 2007. And  many may not have Facebook accounts in 2007, and many may not have kept their MySpace accounts from 2007.  Also those records must somehow establish that the children were in the United States. These children certainly did not think, let me post, "Beautiful day in Houston" in 2007, in the hope that maybe sometime in the distant future this would establish that they were living in Houston since 2007.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, or Houston Immigration Attorney Annie Banerjee, for more information

Dream Deferred a little more, Please Wait

Last Friday, June 15th, the Department of Homeland Security announced, following President Obama's announcement that "dreamers" people who were brought into this country by their parents through no fault of their own, and have studied here will get a work permit under what is called deferred action.  However immediately after the announcement  our phones kept ringing with all types of people asking to get work permit.  And I'm sure that there are lots of 'notarios' who are waiting to pounce on illegal people and getting their money.

First its still too early to file anything.  The Citizenship and Immigration Service has said that they will start offering deferred action from August 2012. Please wait for regulations to come out before handing over money to anybody.

Second one has to meet the categories below:

Eligible individuals must:

• Have arrived in the U.S. when they were under the age of sixteen
• Have continuously resided in the U.S. for at least five years prior to June 15, 2012 and have been present in the U.S. on June 15, 2012
• Currently be in school, have graduated from high school, have a GED, or be an honorably discharged veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard or the U.S. Armed Forces
• Not have been convicted of a felony offense, a “significant misdemeanor offense,” three or more non-significant misdemeanors, or otherwise pose a threat to national security or public safety
• Have been under thirty-one years old on June 15, 2012

So lets make this clear.  This is not a work permit for all illegal people. This is not even a green card for eligible dreamers. Its just a temporary work permit to people who meet the above categories.

Filing now by anybody will hurt their case.  They can be deported without ever getting the chance to come back to the US.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, or Houston Immigration Attorney  Annie Banerjee, for more information

Health Care and Immigrants

Last night during Pres. Obama's speech on health care to the joint session of Congress, when President Obama said that the new plan would not cover illegal immigrants, Republican Senator Joe Wilson fro South Carolina could not hold back and shouted "You lie." Without going into the fact that this was totally disrespectful, and not the way any US Congressman should behave, and reminiscent of those town hall meetings where conservatives just wanted to shout down any debate, we can safely assume that Mr. Joe Wilson hates illegal immigrants.

For the record, Obama's administration is much harder on illegal immigrants than Bush'.

The E verify program has been extended in Obama's time to encompass ALL federal contractors. The ICE crackdowns on illegal workers are much harder and frequent than the previous regime. For the first time, the money used to prevent fraud on H-1B categories is being utilized to see if any employer is violating the terms of the H-1B visa. And the health care bill in Congress now SPECIFICALLY prohibits illegal immigrants from the bill.

Yes, illegal immigrants are here. They work for us. Many pay taxes and get sick. Most of them wind up in emergencies when they have something serious. The price tag for that is staggering? So what does Republicans like Joe Wilson want to do? Make the illlegal workers work in out kitchens, our gardens, and as soon as they become sick, deport them post haste? Are we becoming Nazis ?

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

VOTING and IMMIGRANTS

Record number of new naturalized citizens will vote this year. The democratic congress made sure that as many people as possible got through the immigration process as possible before the voter registration deadline. Since IKE struck Houston the scheduled Naturalized ceremony was postponed. The Houston District Office rescheduled the oath ceremony just before the registration deadline, and called every applicant personally to make sure they came to the ceremony.

Generally Naturalized Citizens are more interested in American politics and vote in record numbers. These are people who chose to become American and was not simply born in America. Thus they are more interested and more aware. Most of them will probably vote democrat. The republican party seemed to do better in rural white conservative areas.

Realizing that though the Republican run USCIS promulgated a new test that makes it harder for citizens to pass. I think they hope that people who pass the test are more educated, and therefore richer and vote Republican.

I doubt whether candidates like Sarah Palin would pass this hard test. Please check it out at:

www.uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments/100q.pdf

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

Please leave this country, Please?

The Department of Homeland Security is really out of touch with reality. In a Program called Operations Scheduled Departure, they are asking illegal immigrants who already have their final order of deportation to surrender and depart the United States. It has been started as a pilot program in California, Chicago and Phoenix on August 5. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is advertising in local media in those places. However, only 6 of thousands of immigrants have departed so far.

Of course ICE is calling this a success. Which means that it will continue to use your tax dollars for this program. Mr Hayes, the Acting Director of Detentions at ICE, said he is disappointed at the lack of support of community based organizations.

Mr Hayes, if illegal immigrants wanted to leave the US, why would they be here illegally in the first place? Like you and us, they have children to feed, many of those children are US Citizens. And unlike "welfare bums" they have to actually work to feed their children.

The Reality of Immigration

According to a recent posting by the American Immigration Lawyer's Association, illegal immigrants comprise of about 5 % of the US workforce and contribute about $520 billion to the Social Security System, an amount that they wont ever get back. Even at the State level, these "undocumented immigrants still pay more in taxes than they use in public services." This money will go towards payment of social security benefits of US workers.

Most undocumented immigrants come to the United States to work. They come here because they can find work. If the work dries up, they will NOT remain in this country and be far away from their families. Thus sheer free market forces, and restrictive immigration laws control the whole phenomena of undocumented workers.

US was founded on the principle of Free Market System. Ben Bernanke espouses it. Yet the raids on businesses by Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) is actually hurting the already battered US economy further by shutting down businesses. Why is ICE going after people simply working for a better living and paying taxes in the US, instead of going after aliens who are criminals? Because unlike what Lou Dobbs preaches, there are very few illegal aliens who are actually criminals. The agency would not need to have that many officers if the only people they deport were criminals.

So, ICE, whose parent is the Department of Homeland Security, makes work a crime and a security issue, arrest and deport men and women who are working, and thereby hurt the US economy. We have a Government that has already hurt us by going into a costly war against Iraq. When will they stop?