It’s the President’s duty to fix a broken system through executive action.

Sunday, September 7th, 2014

There was immigration-practice-related developments in the main stream news this week. First, the President announced that any executive orders he will make about immigration law will be after the November (2014) elections.  Also, it was reported that the immigration court backlog has reached 400,000. The popular wisdom is that the President needs to issue executive orders to placate the pro-immigration forces that are part of his base. As the President cannot run for president again, why he has to keep…

What if he was a foreigner?

Sunday, March 17th, 2013

Trey Anastasio Trey Anastasio of the rock group Phish was arrested in December 2006 in Whitehall, New York, for illegally possessing hydrocodone, Percocet and Xanax. He went through drug court and afterwards his conviction was reduced to a misdemeanor. A conviction for possessing drugs is a deportable offense and also subjects one to mandatory detention while the case is pending. Being a drug addict or abuser is also a grounds of deportability and a ground of removability  which requires detention while…

212(c) sometimes available for post IRIIRA convictions

Monday, March 28th, 2011

In this posting I would like to discuss an arcane issue – 212(c) and Cancellation of Removal relief. Cancellation of Removal came about on April 1, 1997, after the passage of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Alien Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA). Because IIRIRA came into effect such a long time ago, by this time most people facing deportation are in post-IIRIRA removal proceedings rather than pre-IIRIRA exclusion or deportation proceedings . In exclusion and deportation proceedings, aliens could seek 212(c)…

What if he was a foreigner?

Thursday, January 20th, 2011

Darrell Issa Darrell Issa is a Congressman from California’s 49th Congressional District, a district  to the North of the City of San Diego. He has held this seat for the last 10 years. A January 24, 2011, New Yorker Magazine article about Darrel Issa, states: On March 15, 1972, three months after Issa allegedly stole Jay Bergey’s car and one month after he left the Army for the first time, Ohio police arrested Issa and his older brother, William, and charged…