Marley, Magee & Associates, LLC

Political Genius!

When Congress resumes debate this week of the Defense Authorization Bill, H.R. 1585, they will also debate a new amendment to the bill – the DREAM Act. The DREAM Act was part of the lofty Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR). It appears as though Congress, realizing a comprehensive immigration bill would be nearly impossible to pass, has decided to break up CIR and attach pieces of it to other important legislation likely to win approval. This is a bit of pure genius from a political standpoint. Both parties believe they will need the Hispanic vote in future years but neither party wants to offend immigrants who came to the United States legally, nor do they want to offend American citizens opposed to a perceived amnesty-like path to legalization. Breaking up CIR allows the politician to tell his Hispanic constituents that he supported immigration reform as evidenced by his vote for in favor of H.R. 1585. Likewise, this same politician will declare to those who opposed immigration reform that he did as well and was forced to vote for the DREAM Act because he didn’t want to let our troops down who were serving in harm’s way. Genius!    

Shadow Politics - Danbury and New Haven Deal Differently with Illegal Immigration

Excerpt from an article originally printed in Connecticut Magazine, August 2007

    The mayors of New Haven and Danbury may not see eye to eye on very much these days, but on one thing they are in total agreement: Federal immigration policy is a gigantic mess and they have the mean streets to prove it.  While the White House and Congress struggle haplessly with yet another major reform proposal, Mayors John DeStefano and Mark Broughton have been left to their own devices.
    DeStefano speaks smoothly and earnestly about his efforts to provide safety and security to an estimated 15,000 people without documents.  "We're not making a political statement here," he explains.  "The federal government is not enforcing the law and we are merely  dealing with the consequences."  Broughton's staccato delivery emphasizes the burdens imposed on Danbury's taxpayers by an estimated 14,000 illegal immigrants: "You have as many as 25 people living in a single-family house.
    [Two events have put Danbury on the map.]  The first occurred during the last World Cup soccer tournament in June 2006, when a game won by Brazil sparked a spontaneous demonstration by the large Brazilian population, many presumed to be undocumented.  Careening down Main Street in honking automobiles, the revelers brought downtown to a standstill and created considerable political momentum for a new statute requiring parade permits for such demonstrations. 
    The second, and far more serious incident, occurred last year in Kennedy Park, when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested 11 Ecuadorian day laborers.  One of the agents was dressed like a contractor seeking workers.  Since then, periodic raids by ICE agents have resulted in a number of arrests, including a group of 10 in May.
    [Mayor Broughton takes a populist approach.] Working for the people includes introducing several programs affecting the immigrant community.  The most important by far is the Unified Neighborhood Inspection Teams, a city initiative to strictly enforce health-code issues like overcrowding in rental housing, unsafe fire hazards like jerry-rigged kitchen appliances, and informal and illegal businesses conducted out of homes.  The teams were authorized in part to do away with Ecuadorian volleyball games - conducted in backyards with widespread betting and unauthorized food and beverage sales.
    The main reason Danbury has such a large undocumented population is that the city is a veritable job machine, with unemployment in the 2 percent range and close proximity to some of the wealthiest communities in America - communities that wouldn't be cleaned, mowed, raked or otherwise cared for without immigrant labor.
    In many respects, Mayor Boughton probably reflects what the pollsters say most Americans and, presumably, most Dandury residents think:  People who broke the law to come here should not be welcomed or rewarded.
    Like his counterpart in Danbury, DeStefano has been forced to develop new policies to accommodate thousands of illegal newcomers, but his concerns have been more directed to the immigrants themselves than to the community-at-large.
    "Because they lack social security numbers, they can't use banks, so they often have large amounts of cash.  We begin to notice a surge in home invasions and other forms of robbery.  We also heard about buses picking up the undocumented to take to nearby farms, and that they were paid differently.  Then we notice that some of the landlords were packing them into houses and charging high rents."
    To deal with the identification issue, the city in June began offering its own ID cards.  By producing a birth certificate or consular document, an immigrant is able to obtain official status at least as far as the City of New Haven is concerned.  Although some advocates for immigrants worry that the new ID cards will, in effect, brand illegals, others are convinced that the liberal New Haven community will respond by getting ID cards as well, and the city hopes to encourage this by persuading local businesses to offer discounts for card carriers. 

District Court Finds Ordinance Regulating Presence and Employment of Illegal Aliens is Unconstitutional

Originally posted by AILA at www.aila.org

A U.S. District Court in Pennsylvania found a city ordinance regulating the presence and employment of illegal aliens unconstitutional, stating "We cannot say clearly enough that persons who enter this country without legal authorization are not stripped immediately of all of their rights because of this single act."

"Ya es Hora!" - Or Maybe It's Not, At Least In Rhode Island

This past Saturday, several non-profit groups spent their time helping immigrants complete their applications for naturalization ahead of the projected 69% increase in filing fees that are scheduled to take effect July 30, 2007. According to the Executive Director of the International Institute of Rhode Island, there are approximately 70,000 legal immigrants in the state who are eligible for their citizenship. Despite this rather large number and the generous offer of free assistance, the event was relatively non-eventful. Approximately 200 people turned out, representing two tenths of one percent of those who could have benefited from the assistance. So what went wrong?

First, immigrants in Rhode Island come from all over the world, not just from Spanish speaking countries. Hispanics have become the face of illegal immigration but they are not the only face of immigration. Somewhere mixed in with those 70,000 eligible immigrants are Australians, French, Irish, Italians, Nigerians, Polish, Swedes, and the list goes on and on. I wonder what they thought when they heard, “Ya es Hora!”

Second, the organizers profiled the wrong person in the Providence Journal when seeking publicity for the event. The proud gentleman the newspaper profiled is a Guatemalan immigrant who has been in the
United States, legally mind you, for some 22-years. Nevertheless, the man had to speak through an interpreter because he presumably doesn’t speak English. Undoubtedly, my Guatemalan friend will seek a waiver of the English requirement at his naturalization interview since he is over the age of 50 and has been a lawful permanent resident for more than 20-years. Americans love people who come to this country legally and who desire nothing more than to be an American. But to be an American, you have to assimilate and you cannot assimilate if you do not speak the language. So while there may be 8 million immigrants in the United States eligible for U.S. citizenship, it’s important to remember, there are more than 208 million Americans already eligible to vote. While not your constituents, these Americans are part of your audience, and what motivates them to pick up the phone and call their Senator in opposition to Comprehensive Immigration Reform, is a person getting their citizenship who cannot speak English despite having been here for 22-years.

Third, immigration should be a uniting issue and not the exclusive providency of one ethnic group. Hispanic organizations within the state have done a tremendous service for their clients. Now it’s time for them to join with other groups and put a multi-cultural face on the immigration debate. Although the organizers of “Ya es Hora!” did not actively exclude other ethnic groups from participating in Saturday’s event, they certainly did so constructively. Perhaps next time, referring to the event in the English vernacular will actually bring action to, “Now’s the Time!”   

DREAM Act May be a Dream Come True

Senators Richard Durbin, Chuck Hagel, and Richard Lugar plan to resurrect the DREAM Act as an amendment to the newest Defense Authorization bill. The DREAM Act would allow undocumented immigrants, including those who have overstayed their visa, to adjust their status to that of a lawful permanent resident on a conditional basis. The condition would be in effect for a six-year period and must be removed prior to the immigrant applying for naturalization.

To qualify under the DREAM Act, an immigrant must show they (1) have been physically present in the United States for a continuous period of at least 5-years, (2) were under the age of 16-years at the time of their initial entry, (3) maintained good moral character, (4) are not otherwise inadmissible or deportable, (5) have graduated from high school, received their GED, or have been admitted to an institute of higher education in the United States, and (6) have never been under an administrative or judicial order of exclusion, deportation or removal. In certain circumstances where an immigrant is inadmissible or deportable, a waiver may be obtained from the Secretary of Homeland Security.

Contact the law office of Marley, Magee & Associates, LLC, toll free at (866) 573-5941 or (401) 608-2687 to determine if you’ll qualify for immigration benefits under the proposed DREAM Act.   

America's Proud Congressional Mugwumps

The inability of Congress to pass Comprehensive Immigration Reform means many undocumented immigrants, including those who have overstayed their visas, will have to wait until at least 2008 before they can embark on a pathway to legalization and begin the process of assimilating into mainstream America. What’s most offensive about the non-passage is that for the foreseeable future, America will continue to grow less and less secure as people continue to stream across our open borders. Truth be told, the American people should have been less concerned with the façade of amnesty and instead, focused on what this bill would have provided – security.

Exploitation, human rights violations, extreme family hardships, human trafficking, dangerous border crossings, drug smuggling, terrorist infiltration – these are just a sampling of the problems that won’t be fixed because our borders won’t be secured. Congress shirked their responsibility to the American people claiming they weren’t given enough time for debate.  The truth is, Congress has had well over a year to get this bill together. But much like social security reform, education reform, and healthcare reform, Congress would rather cry amnesty and do nothing lest they be forced to make hard decisions that might jeopardize their chance at re-election. Our self-righteous Senators sit with their priggish mugs on one side of the fence all the while, their wumps remain on the other.

CIR Once Revived...Dead Again

Cloture Fails, CIR Bill Withdrawn

Originally posted on: www.AILA.org

The Senate failed to invoke cloture on S. 1639 by a vote of 46-53, most likely forfeiting the opportunity to move forward with immigration reform this summer. Majority Leader Reid withdrew S. 1639 from the Senate floor, but reminded his colleagues that the 110th Congress is only six months into a two-year session and much work on this vitally important issue remains to be done.