Archive for 2011

What if he was a foreigner – Wait, he is! Russell Brand

Sunday, December 25th, 2011

British actor, comic, author, singer, et al., Russell Brand, who is also the husband of Katy Perry, has suffered eleven arrests according to media reports, I can find no information about the final disposition of these arrests, i.e., what he was actually convicted of. Media reports include two arrests for shoplifting and several marijuana arrests, including one for cultivating marijuana. Interviews of him also contain admissions to his having been a drug addict. Assuming some of the reported arrests led to…

Prosecutorial Discretion: Some immigration judges may not want to play

Saturday, December 17th, 2011

Much has been written  and adorably dramatized by me and others about the new prosecutorial discretion policy announced by President Obama and his administration. Despite continued skepticism in the media, the policy is being boldly implemented, at least in San Diego, where I practice. Pilot programs are underway in Baltimore and Denver and files are being reviewed nationwide. Implementation is being carried out by the Office of Chief Counsel (OCC), a.k.a., Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Office of the Principal Legal…

Newt’s pro-immigration line may appeal to real Republicans

Saturday, December 10th, 2011

In a recent New York Magazine article, David Frum,  a former George H.W. Bush speech writer, wrote, “The reality is, however, that the big winners in the American fiscal system are the rich, the old, the rural, and veterans — typically conservative constituencies.” He was pointing out the irony that these Conservatives, associated with a belief in small government, actually benefit from big government most. They are big winners because of the government largesse they receive – be it tax…

The BIA reverses the Ninth Circuit and expands the reach of the stop-time rule

Sunday, December 4th, 2011

The Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review’s Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) laid one on us Friday, in what Matt Drudge might call a Friday document dump. In this case, the dump was a decision about the stop-time rule, Matter of Camarillo. The stop-time rule, found at INA § 240A(d), states, in part, that “… any period of continuous residence or continuous physical presence in the United States shall deem to end … when the alien is served a…