According to INA § 212(a)(6)(C)(ii)(I), “[a]ny alien” who makes a false claim to United States citizenship “for any purpose or benefit under this [Immigration and Nationality] Act or any Federal or State law is inadmissible.  There is no waiver to this ground of inadmissibility, thus making it a permanent bar to admission to the United States. According to INA § 212(a)(9)(C)(i)(I), “[a]ny alien”  person who has accrued more than a year of unlawful presence, departs, and then comes back, or…

News reports indicate that under a policy started under the George W. Bush administration and expanded greatly under the current Obama administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers interview aliens in jails. If they are deportable based on their criminal records or if they are undcoumented, ICE takes them into their own custody for deportation. So far, according to a November 13, 2009, New York Times story, 110,000 such aliens have been identified. The program is lauded as a low-cost way…

To illustrate the frustrations of immigration law, both for foreigners and their attorneys, allow me to describe what came in the mail one day last week. There were three items. Today I will describe the first one. Item 1 A client was deported in his absence. In the late 1990’s or early 2000’s he had applied for permanent residence based on his professional employment. He waited and waited for an interview and finally despaired and returned to his country. A…