Immigration Reform

I applaud the fact that President Obama has accepted the piecemeal approach instead of Comprehensive Immigration Reform (read citizenship to Mexicans so they vote Democratic) approach. For many the Immigration issue consists of ONLY illegal people from Mexico. Yet Immigration is a complex issue.
And to the heckler in the crowd who said that his family has been separated for 19 months because apparently they were deported, I say, go live with your family wherever they are. 11 million people are not being deported. It’s the people doing crime who are being deported. And the Democrats scream against it, as if possession of drugs is so insignificant, that it’s USA’s fault for deporting the drug users. The Democrats also put up pictures of Jose Antonio Vargas, as the quintessential dreamer, yet most dreamers have barely a high school certificate.

And as for the Republicans, they are deeply divided. The tea party just wants Obama to fail, no matter what the issue. The conservative Christians want immigration for the illegal Mexicans. And the business factions want Business Immigration reform.
Immigration as it is now is based on country quota. A person born in India, holding a Bachelor’s Degree, and completely legal has to wait right now for more than 10 years to become a Green Card (Permanent Resident Card) holder. Then she has to wait another 5 years to become a Citizen. A master’s Degree holder, even from the USA, has to wait for 14 years to become a citizen if he was born in India. How can I look them in the eye and tell them that an illegal immigrant with no education will get citizenship in 13 years?

The Senate bill, which the House rejected, had a point system. But it was more generous with the point system based on family than on education and experience. When people choose to come into this country, they make a conscious decision to leave their family. Why should someone with no education come in simply by being adult siblings of a United States Citizen, or worse, simply by lottery, when it takes 14 years for Master’s Degree holders whose ONLY crime was being born in India?

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

Back of WHICH line, Mr. President?

The draft bill that the White house has been drafting which was recently “leaked” to the media has the President stating that the illegal immigrants will have to go to the “BACK OF THE LINE.”   But there are many lines in Immigration.  My question is Which line?

The ways to get Residency for legal people is through employment,  family, Asylum or by lottery (Diversity).  Visas have per country restrictions.  The same number is given to every country, irrespective of the size of the country. Thus for skilled professionals from India and China, there is a long lineup for educated legal people.  People born in India for instance, with a Master’s Degree (and this applies to people with Master’s Degree from an American University) has been waiting in line since 2004 just to get their Permanent Residency. Thats 9 years.  How does this jive with a “Path to Citizenship within 8 years ” that the administration has been promising? Lets face it, most illegal immigrants have at best a high school degree. Should they be allowed to jump over the legal non immigrants from India with a Master’s Degree?

In the family category,   brothers and sisters of  United States Citizens from Philippines   have been waiting since 1989.  They are patiently waiting in Philippines and did not enter illegally as did the people who crossed borders.  Should they now just enter this country illegally?

There is No line up for Asylum and Diversity visas.

The second question is how will we grant this “path to citizenship” to the 11 million illegal residents. Most of them are uneducated and don’t have steady permanent employers. Their relatives are most often illegal. Its not like Mexico will persecute them if they went back to Mexico, so no need to give them Asylum. (note: Asylum has no lines, and if amnesty is asylum then there would be no “back of the line.” ) And if Mexicans needed to enhance “diversity” , we would not even be having this conversation.  It’s only their voting power that is motivating this whole legislation.  So will we create a new category?

Will we clear ALL backlog by artificially increasing the numbers this one time?  If so, what about that very bright Master’s Degree holder who just happened to be born in India and just happened to have not applied before the passing of this legislation? Would the next Sergey Brin have to stand behind these 11 million people? Will they then not simply leave and go to EU?

Also Mr. President, any legislation that is passed WITHOUT the input of 2 parties is not the way our system is supposed to work.  We stand for the checks and balances. Did you not teach Constitutional Law?

However that is not to say that the the Republican plan is all good either.  Granting non immigrant visas to some of these 11 million people is like telling them to self deport.  They wont leave when their visas expire.

But my last plea is to the Democrats. Why do you hate Computer Professionals on H-1B?  Because unless you hate them, why do you still have the completely absurd, unconstitutional “Control” memo from 2010? And why are you selectively enforcing it to the computer consulting industry ONLY? Where is the rule of law that we all fought to reinstate from the Presidency of W Bush?

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

Red State, Blue State

Increasingly, United States is divided into the Red State and Blue State.  One is liberal, asking for social rights, the other is conservative, asking for less governmental interference. Yet immigration was an issue that transcended party lines.  And for the most part it still does.  The doing away with per country quota for Green card passed the house and senate with support from both sides.  Business Immigration for the most part is supported by both sides. Yet the difference is becoming increasingly evident in the illegal immigrant field.

While Arizona, Alabama, and Georgia, the red states passed anti immigration local laws, California for instance has a bill termed "Anti Arizona."  California feels that if local law enforcement has the right to check immigration documents of people they stop for probable cause, it will lead to impermissible targeting of minorities. 

Yet in the final analysis, the decision to restrict illegal immigration is a financial one. If immigrants feel threatened in one state, they will just go into another.  Arizona businesses are already feeling the sting of the Immigration Act, and even Governor Brewer  was backing down on some of the principles of the bill. And Georgia had half its crops going bad, with no one to pick the crops.  And Republicans love businesses. 

If the Republican party can concede to their financial segment rather than their extreme right wing militia, they can come to terms with illegal immigration. Then the Congress can pass a comprehensive immigration reform.  If so, at the least, the American public will not hate Congress, at the best, everyone, from Mexican immigrants to big business will be happy with both parties. 

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

My hats off to Arizona and Alabama

When Arizona enacted the most restrictive Immigration Laws in the book, I was wondering why the deep south was lagging behind. They just take time to think up legislation, and Alabama delivered with a far more severe punch than Arizona. The law even  forbids undocumented school children from attending schools.

The common concern of all these States is that we have too many illegal immigrants. The Federal Government is not going to do anything for it. So these States take Federal law enforcement in their own hand.

Yet these States bring forth the importance of Comprehensive Immigration Reform. The only problem is that the legislature cant agree on anything. Even the Dream Act, which gives amnesty to children brought over illegally here by their parents, and educated here have  not passed. They don't have any criminal records. Yet the Republicans don't want to give the Permanent Residency to these people.

The Democrats are no Saints either. They have effectively killed the work visa process for small businesses. Especially hit is the small IT industry, where the Obama Administration "legislated on their own" stating that employers should "control" their employees. They effectively nullified third party contracts for H-1B employees for smaller employers in IT industry.  Yet such contracts are Ok for the health care industry.  Talk about the Rule of Law and Obama's lofty principals.

In a Country where even economic reforms gets shot down, willl there be a Comprehensive Immigration Reform? I dont think so.

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

Hold off on Immigration Reform

The one party Health Care bill was signed into law today. Although I applaud Mr. Obama's attempt to work in a bipartisan manner, he should have slowed down the process to concede to the republican demands. He refused to compromise with the republicans, courted the democrats and rammed a bill down the throats of an unwilling population. That is NOT democracy. What will happen to that health care bill is that Republicans will file a court challenge to it. The conservative Supreme Court will declare it unconstitutional. In the meantime, in October the make up of the Senate and House will change. And the health care issue will die.

Our Separation of Powers works if the legislative majority and the Executive are not of the same party. With a single party holding swing over the Executive and Legislature the checks and balances are gone.

Yet probably unlike health care, Immigration can be bipartisan. There were at least two bills jointly put forward by a Republican and a Democrat. And former president Bush wanted immigration reform as much as President Obama does. Yet the parameters are different for different parties. The democrats want to legalize the undocumented aliens who are illegally here. They do mainly manual jobs, work hard, and are necessary for the country. However the democrats frown upon the intellectual jobs being done by mostly Indian and Chinese professionals, who are here legally on H-1B visas, giving into protectionist labor organizations.The H-1B visas have been attached ever since Mr. Obama took office. First there were the workplace raids, whose main purpose was to see if businesses were following the letter of the law minutely. Then came the January 08 memo, which virtually ended consulting companies (mainly IT companies) ability to hire foreign nationals on H-1B. These people are legal, have valid visas and work in professional jobs. They too are necessary for the American economy. American colleges do not generate a high volume of Computer Professionals necessary to keep American businesses going. The Republicans support these work visas, the democrats don't.

Comprehensive Immigration Reform has to be COMPREHENSIVE. Just as health care bill did not include provisions to curb tort lawyers, an Immigration bill which only addresses the illegal immigrants supplying manual labor and not the legal immigrants supplying intellectual labor is simply unacceptable.

For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee