The other night I was watching television and saw a recruitment commercial for the border patrol. Officers were moving at high speed on horseback, dune buggy, truck, and helicopter. Curiously, while the voice-over discussed generally the role of protecting the border, it was hard to figure out what the officers were running and riding around doing. At one point it looked like they were putting someone or something in an ambulance. Few would argue that the Border Patrol does not…

Tim Allen Tim Allen, star of Home Improvement, was convicted of conspiracy to deliver a controlled substance on November 26, 1979. Because his crime was a drug trafficking offense, he would be deportable both for a controlled substance violation, INA § 212(a)(2)(A)(i)(II), and pursuant to INA § 237(a)(2)(A)(iii), an aggravated felony. Because the crime is an aggravated felony, he would be ineligible for the current relief, Cancellation of Removal. Because his conviction was before April 24, 1996, he would be…

On November 30, 2007, USCIS, through Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, made some promises about speeding up the name check problem applicants are facing. It promised to put more resources into clearing name checks, or more accurately, paying more to the FBI to speed things up. It is hard to tell if name check clearances have actually sped up since. We will need more statistics to see. The problem for permanent resident applicants went away when USCIS announced on February…

Eliot Spitzer Eliot Spitzer has not been convicted of a crime. An alien need not be convicted of a crime to be inadmissible to the United States. An alien, for example, can be denied admission to the United States if he admits committing acts which constitute the essential elements of a crime involving moral turpitude (other than a purely political offense) or an attempt or conspiracy to commit such a crime. INA § 212(a)(2)(A)(i)(I). It is not clear from the…