News Update - June 27, 2007

By Alan Lee, Esq.

Senate Moves Forward On Comprehensive Immigration Reform (S.1639) Amid Concerns Of Move To The Right

The Senate voted 64-35 yesterday to begin considering amendments to the comprehensive immigration reform bill (S. 1639). The leadership hopes to finish debate on 10 amendments by Thursday morning before another vote to limit debate on the remaining amendments (17) to 30 hours. Of prime concern is a major Republican move to push the bill as far to the right as possible, including amendments that would require a touchback to the home country by illegals far in advance of the time proposed in the current legislation; no probationary legal status for illegals until triggers on border security are met; elimination of the ability of Z visa holders to apply for permanent residence status; and criminal punishment for those who overstay their visas in the future. (Overstay violations under current law are treated as civil and not criminal acts.) In a further signal of the hostility of the Republicans to the legislation, House Republicans voted yesterday 114-23 to adopt a resolution disapproving the Senate bill. Stay tuned for further developments.


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.

 

Copyright © 2003-2012 Alan Lee, Esq.
The information provided here is of a general nature and may not apply to any particular set of facts or circumstances. It should not be construed as legal advice and does not constitute an engagement of the Law Office of Alan Lee or establish an attorney-client relationship.