Green Card, Visa, Citizenship News: July 2015 Immigration Tidbits And Rumors

10 Essential Immigration News
Stories You Should Know About
http://www.bataraimmigrationlaw.com
July 2015

1
Recent Deportation
Study Is Misleading

The Migration Policy
Institute study is too
simplistic.
MPI projects 13% of 11
million immigrants without
papers have criminal records
or recently crossed the border
illegally - making them
priorities for deportation
under new guidelines.
The other 87%, not falling
under the highest priorities,
have a “degree of
protection.”

The new policy is an old
policy.
The 13% who have serious
criminal conviction or
recently entered without
permission have long been
the highest deportation
priorities. It has been a policy
not followed.
Others who have not been
convicted of any crimes, or
are not public safety threats,
have been a focus of ICE
operations, despite existing
policy. This is unlikely to
change.

Most recently, DHS issued
new guidelines focusing on
the following:
• National Security
Threats
• Gang Members
• Convicted Felons
• Recent Border Crossers
• Repeat Offenders With
Lesser Crimes
• Illegal entrants After
January 1, 2014

2
U.S. And Cuba Reopen
Diplomatic Relations

After more than a
half-century of cold
war hostilities, the
U.S. reopened its six-
story embassy in
Cuba.
The resumption of
diplomatic relations
was the culmination
of several months of
negotiations.

Various questions on the
relations between Havana
and Washington remain:
Will the trade embargo be
lifted?
Will Cuba improve its
human rights record?
How much and how fast
will the lives of ordinary
Cubans improve?

Secretary of State John
Kerry called it “a historic
day and a day of removing
barriers”
This milestone does not end
differences between the two
governments.
But it does reflect the reality
that the cold war has ended
and the interests of both are
better served by engagement
than by estrangement.

3
Immigration Reform
2015: U.S. Asylum
Backlogs Soaring

Two primary reasons
exist for the increased
number of U.S. asylum
seekers:
Traditionally, thousands
of refugees seek to escape
persecution and violence
in their home countries.
In recent years, the U.S.
border has faced a large
influx of migrant youth
from Central America.

The number of pending asylum
petitions has increased 800 % over the
last four years.
There are two types of asylum filings:
Affirmative cases are requests for
asylum made within a year of entering
the U.S. As of March, USCIS had
82,000 pending cases, up from 9,000
in 2011.
Defensive cases are requests for
asylum made when an immigrant is
facing deportation charges at
immigration court. The exact increase
in asylum claims is unknown, but the
Central American crisis added 68,000
new cases last summer.

The huge increase has flooded
asylum offices and immigration
courts, leaving lawyers, judges
and asylum officers with
mushrooming caseloads while
immigrants spend months and
years mired in uncertainty.
The review period of asylum
petitions, formerly six months to
two years, now takes two to four
years.
The longer time frames are
eroding lawyers’ ability to help
asylum applicants because costs
go up as cases are extended for
years, and clients cannot afford
higher fees.

4
GOP Leader Says
Immigration Reform
Is Top Priority

While in Ireland,
House Speaker John
Boehner said reform is
still a top priority.
Given the resistance of
fellow Republicans,
and his refusal to
support a vote on
reform, some observers
found his remarks
surprising.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny,
the Irish equivalent of a
prime minister, urged
Boehner to fix the U.S.
immigration system.
Kenny said "the lack of
reform has left Irish
immigrants listening to
a parent's funeral by
phone."

Many Republicans are weary
when it comes to debate on
immigration reform.
No issue has bedeviled the
GOP in recent elections
cycles more than illegal
immigration.
Republicans have been
snared by the difficulty of
appealing to conservative
voters who dominate the
primary process.

5
San Francisco Shooting
Reignites Deportation
Policy Debate

Francisco Sanchez, 45, is an
undocumented immigrant.
He had been booked into the San
Francisco jail on a 10-year old
drug related warrant.
Despite his undocumented status
he was released from custody
after it was confirmed he had no
active warrants and completed a
federal prison sentence on
separate charges.
Sanchez was arrested after
shooting Kathryn Steinle at a
popular tourist destination.

San Francisco adopted
a law in 2013 limiting
the immigrants who
could be detained for
federal authorities.
Local police and law
enforcement can only
hold violent criminal
offenders.

A national outcry for
tougher deportation laws
followed the shooting.
When questioned a few days
ago later, Steinle’s parents
said they supported stricter
punishment for immigrants
who break our laws.
They did not blame all
immigrants and felt the
issue should not be
politically overblown.

6
Decision-Making In
Overbooked Immigration
Courts

The two busiest courts
are Los Angeles and
New York.
The Los Angeles court
added 18,000 cases in
2014. 51,878 cases are
pending.
The New York court
added 17,700 cases last
year. It has 60,538 cases
pending.

18 new immigration judges
were hired last month,
bringing the total to 235.
A recent Human Rights
First report estimates 500
new judges are needed to
reduce the backlog of
pending cases.
At present, there are
450,000 immigration cases
nationally. The average
wait for a hearing is 599
days.

Defendants in immigration
cases may be represented
by an attorney. However,
they are not entitled to free
public counsel as in
criminal cases.
In some matters, fewer
than 2% of defendants
without lawyers avoid
deportation, compared
with 25% for those with
lawyers.

7
The Battle For Adequate
Criminal Defense Of
Immigrants Continues

A plea withdrawal request
by an Egyptian national,
Hatem Shata, was recently
denied by the Wisconsin
Supreme Court.
Shata was told his guilty
plea would trigger a “strong
chance” of deportation. But
given the charges, removal
was a certainty if he pled to
them.
The court ruled counsel’s
advice was not deficient.

Shata’s attorney advised him to
plead guilty because he had
“no defense,” noting that Shata
had confessed to the crime.
Shata said his attorney
promised probation and said he
would not be automatically
deported.
He testified that he would not
have pled guilty otherwise.
Shata’s attorney did not
research immigration laws
before giving Shata legal
advice.

The Wisconsin ruling falls short
of the Supreme Court decision
in Padilla v. Kentucky,
requiring lawyers to inform
clients of the deportation
consequences of pleas.
In dissent, two Justices wrote
the majority lowers the
professional standard for
Wisconsin lawyers below
national standards and leaves
clients “with only vague and
incomplete advice about the
immigration consequences”
before entering a plea.

8
Skateboarding To Flee
Gang Violence In El
Salvador

Four young Central
Americans recently fled
from El Salvador on
skateboards. The four
skaters – patinetos –
made it to the United
States.
Skating is a sign of
protest in their home
country. Shredding in the
park meant not cowering
from gangs. http://www.bataraimmigrationlaw.com

Along their journey, the
skaters learned an unlikely
advantage: attention-
grabbing ollies and kick flips
can be a form of camouflage.
Officials tend to have certain
qualities in mind when
looking for migrants: poor,
haggard and lost. The
skaters, with their devil-may-
care swagger, often coasted
by authorities without
prompting a second glance.

In Mexico the skaters
stayed in free shelters run
by the Catholic church.
Sometimes they slept on
the streets, relying on the
generosity of local skaters
for food.
“We break borders with
skating, we connect with
other guys practicing our
sports.”

9
A New Country To House
All Refugees?

Jason Buzi, a millionaire
Israeli businessman, has
proposed an innovative
solution to the world’s
refugee crisis.
His Refugee Nation idea
suggests creating a new
country “which any
refugee, from anywhere
in the world, can call
home.”

For critics, the downside….
• The idea is similar to treating
refugees like lepers.
• The idea meant “we have to set
them apart from us, that we
don’t want them among us, so
let’s put them on an island
somewhere.”
• Shipping people off to isolated
islands could send a dangerous
message that the rest of the
world was closing its’ doors to
refugees.

According to Buzi:
• There are large areas of
uninhabitable land around
the world that could be
used.
• The new country would be
a democratic society and
English should the major
language.
• The plan should instill a
strong work culture as well
as include job and training
opportunities.

10
Latino Baseball
Players Invade
American Sport

Baseball, until recently, was
America’s # 1 sport. Over
the past few decades, many
outstanding players from
Latin American nations
made it to the big leagues.
Some have become U.S.
citizens. Others go home at
the end of baseball season,
often donating money and
working as volunteers on
community projects for their
countrymen.

According to fans, the best Latino
baseball players:
• Robert Clemente, Puerto Rico
• Fernando Valenzuela, Mexico
• Pedro Martinez, Dominican
Republic
• Mariano Rivera, Panama
To round out my top five, I would
add one of these former All Stars:
• Camilio Pascual, Cuba
• Luis Aparicio, Venezuela
• Juan Marichal, Puerto Rico
• Luis Tiant, Cuba

Unknown to
most baseball
fans, the great
Ted Williams is
of Mexican
descent from
his mother’s
side.

Do You Want To Know How To Choose
An Immigration Attorney?

Do You Want To Know
More About Immigration?
Carlos Batara
Attorney at Law
Tel: (800) 646-0667
Fax: (951) 929-0782
Email: carlos@bataraimmigrationlaw.com
Web: http://www.bataraimmigrationlaw.com
Helping Immigrants Live And Work Legally In
The United States

Carlos Batara
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Green Card, Visa, Citizenship News: July 2015 Immigration Tidbits And Rumors

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Green Card, Visa, Citizenship News: July 2015 Immigration Tidbits And Rumors