As the Biden administration takes the reins of the executive branch in Washington this week, immigration advocates have noted that immigration is one of its top priorities. After the inauguration, Romben Aquino was asked to appear on ABS-CBN News Channel in the Philippines to…
Obama immigration policy changes… what’s to come in 2015 In November 2014, the President announced a number of changes to immigration policies. With the Republican party in charge of both chambers of the U.S. Congress, there have been some rumblings about their plans to try to nullify the President’s actions. However,…
What do Republicans have planned with regard to immigration reform? Last week, Congressional Republicans held a bicameral retreat to discuss their plans for advancing their priorities, now that the party controls both the House of Representatives and the Senate. At the end of the retreat, there was no unified front on…
President Obama takes action to help keep families together On Thursday evening, President Obama announced that he would issue executive actions in order to fix certain aspects of the immigration system. The executive orders are expected to affect up to 5 million undocumented immigrants inside the United States. However, the…
A Republican Congress What will this mean for Immigration Reform? This is the new reality: in 2015 and 2016, Republicans will control both houses of Congress – the House of Representatives and the Senate. And to that, I say: It’s time for the Republicans to show us – the American…
“I brought Hassan’s son from Afghanistan to America, lifting him from the certainty of turmoil and dropping him in a turmoil of uncertainty.” – Khaled Hosseini, “The Kite Runner” Rather than speculation about whether there is going to be a new immigration law this year, the recent headlines about immigration…
All that glitters is not gold So don’t believe what you’ve been told — Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark Last Tuesday as I was leaving court, I reached for my phone to find that it was blowing up (as the kids say these days). Apparently, there was an internet article that…
What do the current discussions on immigration reform mean for immigrants? Last week, on Tuesday, the President gave his fifth SOTU address (State of the Union for hashtag challenged among us). In each of his prior SOTUs, the President mentioned the need for comprehensive immigration reform. And so it was…
What changes can we expect to see in immigration law in 2014? New laws affecting immigrants have already gone into effect as of January 1, 2014. Previously, under the “Secure Communities” program, many immigrants were placed on an “ICE hold” even for low-level offenses. Under the California Trust Act, state…
Will there be immigration reform in 2013? Every now and then, when a judge is writing a decision, that judge will add a footnote about a question that is NOT being considered by the court. It’s a way of signaling that a particular legal issue remains an open question. Or…