In this blog, I have written a lot about the visa waiver program – on September 26, 2010,  October 31, 2010, January 16, 2011, and January 29, 2011  – and written other places, such on the ILW website  and the now defunct Immigration Law Today magazine.  I have also litigated the issue. The conclusion from all this writing and analysis is that for six years aliens and attorneys have been on notice, at least in the the 9th Circuit, that when…

I have written several times, here, here, and here  about the visa waiver program, similar to how most Americans visit other countries – without visas for short stays, and the ability to adjust status — that is, become a United States citizen. The issue involved is as follows:

Last week I discussed the irrational exuberance that caused attorneys to file adjustment of status applications for their clients who were deported and then came back even after it had become clear that USCIS was going to find the client ineligible for adjustment of status. This week I will discuss a similar irrational exuberance involving visa-waiver-entrant adjustments. The visa waiver program, found at INA § 217, allows citizens of certain countries to come to the United States without a visa…

President Obama commented yesterday on qualities he will look for in a Supreme Court justice to replace the retiring Justice David Souter. The President said, “I view that quality of empathy, of understanding and identifying with people’s hopes and struggles, as an essential ingredient for arriving at just decisions and outcomes.”  Senator Orrin Hatch commented that empathy is not the law. Presumably, to him, empathy is not a relevant factor in interpreting the law. The public and the media that…