Tag Archives: immigration

International Human Rights Day

Posted on by

International Human Rights Day

On December 10 of every year since 1950, the United Nations has commemorated International Human Rights Day. The theme this year is Human Rights 365 – a reminder that every day is Human Rights Day. Of course, commemorating a day once a year is a starkly different action from pursuing the goal of fewer human rights violations every day, but the day should serve as a poignant reminder that human rights violations occur every day throughout the world.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (celebrating its 66th birthday) has three articles concerning immigration and migration. Article 13 announces the right of freedom of movement and residence with an individual’s country. The second clause of Article 13 declares that, “Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.”

Many forced migrations are the result of human rights violations. Asylum as a process (in which the recipient is green card eligible after a year) in the immigration system that is designed to accommodate some individuals who have been victims of human rights violations. The United States has a ceiling of 70,000 asylum acceptances this year. Article 14 recognizes that persecution causes people to seek safety, declaring everyone has the right to seek asylum (unless they themselves are persecutors).

Article 15 asserts that everyone has the right to a nationality and that “no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.”

Thirty articles comprise the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They are not all immigration-related, but many are connected to immigration and its consequences (standard of living, education). On this day, it is important to recognize the important of human rights in our modern world and that immigration is a basic, fundamental human right worthy of protection.

 

Happy Thanksgiving – Wood Immigration Law

Posted on by

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Happy Thanksgiving !!

Thanksgiving is a quintessential American holiday, combining copious amounts of food, football, and family members into a one day celebration of gratitude and togetherness. Cutting across religious, racial, and cultural divisions, the holiday has been celebrated since the famed 1621 Plymouth feast between Native Americans and passengers of the Mayflower who had arrived in an unknown land. The feast celebrated a successful harvest and collaboration between the Natives and immigrant Europeans. The day was celebrated on all different days until President Franklin Roosevelt decreed that the fourth Thursday of November was Thanksgiving in 1939.

 

The Macy’s Parade and bottomless buffets of football and food boost the holiday’s fun qualities, but there is a deeper significance buttressing the holiday’s purpose and meaning. The story of Thanksgiving, even if slightly apocryphal, has multiple dimensions of resonance for us today, even a full four centuries later. Colonial America was rife with conflicts between the newly arriving Europeans and established Native Americans, who had created civilizations of their own for hundreds of years. Thanksgiving symbolizes harmonious interchange between the Native Americans and immigrant Europeans. As elementary schoolchildren are taught every year, the immigrant Europeans

 

had come from England via Holland, escaping religious persecution and an oppressive government. Their story resembles a modern day asylum, as they were fleeing extreme stress and strife to a country where they would be safe (and religion is a protected ground for asylum). The overall history of European immigration, settling, and expansion throughout the continent boded poorly for Native Americans, who were overwhelmed by settlement, wars, and diseases. However, the day of feasting that we now celebrate as Thanksgiving represents the promise of a bright, harmonious future between the various groups that make up the United States of America – whether they are generations of Americans whose grandparents entered through Ellis Island or newly minted Americans who are recent immigrants, lawful permanent residents, and citizens.

 

The Law Offices of Andrew Wood wishes you a Happy Thanksgiving.

Immigration Reform!

Posted on by

President Barack Obama Announces Executive Action on Immigration Reform

Barack Obama Announces Immigration Reform: Relief for Immigrants

Speaking (full speech) from the White House Thursday night, President Obama announced to the nation his plan to issue an executive order, taking a multi-faceted approach to the bevy of immigration issues facing the nation.

  • Additional resources for law enforcement personnel at border to apprehend better and return quicker.
  • Easier and faster for high skilled graduates to stay and contribute to businesses.
  • Responsibly deal with the millions of undocumented immigrants here already. Deportations of criminals up are 80%, so he will keep focus on criminals and gang members, not children and families. Prioritization is key.

As reported last week, Obama’s order will protect up to 4.5 million people from deportation. This is a minimal measure compared to the proposals and nearly passed laws (DREAM Act) that Congress has considered over the past eight years. Every president since Eisenhower in 1956 has granted relief to immigrants through executive action. The executive order does not change actual laws, but it re-directs executive agencies to shift their priorities. Here are some of the highlights:

  • Deferred Action for Parents (DAP): Following Deferred Action for Children (DACA), DAP will allow for parents of lawful permanent residents and US citizens continuously present since January 1, 2010 to apply for three years of deportation protection, following the successful completion of a background check and payment of back taxes.
  • Enforcement priorities: Suspected terrorists, convicted felons, convicted gang members, people apprehended at the border, people who have convicted of multiple or serious misdemeanors, and those who have failed to leave after a removal order from 1/1/2014 onward.
  • DACA is expanded to eliminate the age cap and include continuous residence since January 1, 2010. It will also be three years of protection.
  • The provisional waiver will be expanded to include children and spouses of lawful permanent residents.
  • Optional Practical Training (OPT) will be elongated for STEM graduates (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics). H4 visa holders will be able to receive work authorization. Entrepreneurs, investors, and researchers will be eligible for national interest waivers.

Congress has debated and postured over immigration reform intensely during the past two years. President Obama challenged the legislative body to pass comprehensive immigration reform. In the interim, these tweaks to the immigration system should repair some broken components and provide relief for millions of deserving immigrants.

The Law Offices of Andrew Wood is pleasantly encouraged by the president’s plan and his focus on immigration reform. Immigration attorneys, advocates, and DREAMers in Pittsburgh and the around the country have been pushing for action for years. Perhaps this is the opportunity for real improvement.

Executive Order – Millions of Immigrants Could Stay and Work

Posted on by

Work Authorization for 5 Million Unauthorized Immigrants

 

Although President Obama is currently globetrotting around Asia, his immigration policy as it pertains to people in the United States is grabbing national headlines. Obama promised an executive order (history of executive actions) on immigration in September. This was in response to two developments. The first was the inability of the House of Representatives and Senate to agree on comprehensive or piecemeal immigration reform, even though the prospects of immigration reform were imminent after the 2012 general election. Immigration reform is a broad term that includes border security, pathways to residency and citizenship for undocumented migrants, and changing aspects of our immigration system, be it employment- or family-based.

 

After two years of legislative inertia and grandstanding, it is painfully obvious that immigration reform will not occur through Congress. A stalemate was also achieved in 2007, when President Bush and Senator McCain supported plans resembling the DREAM Act were halted by virulent opposition. The president did not issue an executive order prior to the election, as cowering Democrats supplicated him not to, fearing that their party association would tarnish their election chances.

 

Many of those electorically-driven Democrats have been voted out of office in favor of a more Republican Senate and House that is vocally opposed to Obama’s forthcoming actions on immigration. While promising to do whatever lawful actions possible to improve the immigration system, the president will be unveiling a plan for protecting up to five million unauthorized immigrations from deportation and provide them with work permits. The protected will be parents of children who are American citizens or legal residents. The foundation of American immigration policy is family togetherness, so this comports with that goal. The parents will be able to obtain legal work documentation, not have to worry about living “in the shadows” with deportation threats, and separated from their families. According to media reports, the White House is debating whether that plane should be for people living in the United States for at least five years or at least ten. They are also hatching plans to extend protections to undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children, in the vein of a DREAM Act. An additional aspects of the order will expand opportunities for legal immigration possessing highly sought after tech skills, increase border security, and further mobilize a controversial enforcement program called Secure Communities. The 12,000 agents part of the immigration enforcement apparatus will receive clearer guidance as to who is a high priority and who is a low priority for deportation. Convicted criminals, foreigners who pose national security threats, and recent border-crossers will be the high priority threats.

 

The extra dimensions at play in this upcoming order are their connection to budget negotiations and the nomination of Obama’s Attorney General nominee, Loretta E. Lynch. Hopefully, the executive order will not be jettisoned for the sake of other political considerations. Immigration reform has been debated, resisted, weakened, delayed, imminent, and gridlocked over the past seven years. The president has promised an executive order, and it seems one is coming next week. The Law Offices of Andrew Wood is optimistic that this executive order will be beneficial and applauds this way overdue but critical action in alleviating the fears and burdens of millions of unauthorized immigrants. If the president follows through, this would be an excellent measure in providing relief to deserving millions.Immigration Reform Now!

November 2014 – Where Is Immigration Reform?

Posted on by

And what of Immigration Reform?

November 2012 seemed to represent a sea of change in the immigration reform stalemate, tilting the balance in favor of comprehensive changes. Recalcitrant opposition at various points following the 2012 election seemed to have blunted any positive impact and in the last two years, all attempts to make comprehensive changes have fallen short somewhere in the legislative process. Many areas demand pressing reform: undocumented migrants (11-12 million), low caps on H1B visas, absurdly long processing times. Even piecemeal attempts have come up empty. An executive order possibility was shelved in September, possibly waiting until after the November 2014 midterm elections to make an appearance.

The executive order possibility was tabled for the sake of scared Democratic congresspersons who feared a presidential action on immigration injuring their chances at re-election. Democrats lost control of the Senate after holding it for eight years and ceded even more seats in the House, giving Republicans an even larger majority. With the Senate and House firmly in Republican control and the White House Democrat for the next years, the signs are inauspicious for immigration reform.

An executive order is promised, but whether that will be able to effect comprehensive change is questionable. President Obama’s June 2012 executive order – DACA (read more about DACA – Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals –  here) – has been the most significant piece of immigration action recently, but it is only a nibble where a larger bite is required to attack the overall plate of problems.

President Bush and Senator McCain were maligned for supporting DREAM Act-esque immigration reform in 2007. Despite the widespread acceptance of the need to solve the myriad of immigration problems throughout the political spectrum, implacable and vociferous opposition seems poised to delay action even more. Considering the adeptness and fortitude that reformers have shown in their efforts to keep specks of immigration reform alive when prospects seem bleak, it is unwise to count on the door being shut on meaningful immigration reform. However, the optimism of November 2012 has definitely been eclipsed.