News Update - May 10, 2007NEXT TWO WEEKS TO BE CRITICAL IN THE IMMIGRATION DEBATEBeginning Monday May 14th, Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has set aside two weeks of floor time for debate on comprehensive immigration reform. Senators, White House officials, and the Chief of Homeland Security have been working to cobble together a bill which can be presented to the Senate. Some areas have been agreed upon, but principal areas of disagreement remain concerning the Republican-led proposal to restructure the the immigration quota system by having zero increase in numbers and eliminating most family based categories, AgJobs (legislation for farmworkers), the fate of a temporary worker program (whether they can eventually be allowed to immigrate), and the level of fines and penalties undocumented workers would have to undergo for earned legalization. Unfortunately the highly restrictive White House proposal of March 28th appears to be advocated by the Republican side. (See Mr. Lee's comment to the White House proposal on this website 3/31/07 and 4/7/07). Senator Reid has threatened to place last years Senate bill (S.2611) on the floor if Senate negotiators are not able to put together a new bill in time for Monday, but Republicans are threatening to block such a move. † The author is a 26+ year practitioner of immigration law based in New York City. He was awarded the Sidney A. Levine prize for best legal writing at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in 1977 and has written extensively on immigration over the past years for the ethnic newspapers, World Journal, Sing Tao, Pakistan Calling, Muhasha and OCS. He has testified as an expert on immigration in civil court proceedings and was recognized by the Taiwan government in 1985 for his work protecting human rights. His article, "The Bush Temporary Worker Proposal and Comparative Pending Legislation: an Analysis" was Interpreter Releases' cover display article at the American Immigration Lawyers Association annual conference in 2004, and his victory in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in a case of first impression nationwide, Firstland International v. INS, successfully challenged INS' policy of over 40 years of revoking approved immigrant visa petitions under a nebulous standard of proof. Its value as precedent, however, was short-lived as it was specifically targeted by the Administration in the Intelligence Reform Act of 2004. ‡ This article © 2007 Alan Lee, Esq.
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Copyright © 2003-2012 Alan Lee,
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