Legalization

Educator Workshops

The Community Education Center offers day-long Education Workshops to youth, educators and community leaders who are interested in integrating the subject of immigration into their communities, professional and educational spheres.

Each workshop features an immigration attorney who discusses the historical and contemporary aspects of immigration in the United States, an immigration activist/ author, educational experts and other expert lecturers. Workshops have been held in Washington, D.C., New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago, Miami and San Francisco.Read more...

Immigration Judge Jurisdiction over INA § 204(j) Portability

Because the process for an immigrant worker to become a lawful permanent resident can be quite lengthy, Congress enacted a provision in 2001 that gives immigrant workers needed job flexibility. A worker with an approved visa petition and a pending application for permanent residence can change jobs during the transition period if the new job is the same or similar to the job for which the original visa was approved. In a precedent decision issued in 2005, the BIA ruled that an immigration judge did not have jurisdiction to decide whether an applicant’s new job was the same or similar to the prior job. Matter of Perez-Vargas, 23 I&N Dec. 829 (BIA 2005). This effectively prevented many noncitizen workers who had changed jobs in accordance with the law from having their permanent resident applications approved.

The Legal Action Center successfully challenged this decision in several courts of appeals. These decisions and our arguments, in turn, persuaded the BIA to withdraw Matter of Perez-Vargas and issue a new decision finding that immigration judges do have jurisdiction to decide this issue.

CASES

Ahmad v. Mukasey, No. 08-4081 (2d Cir. amicus brief filed Jan. 16, 2009) (remanding case to BIA for new decision in light of the Board’s decision in Matter of Neto).

Matter of Neto, No. A095-861-144 (BIA amicus brief filed Aug. 27, 2009). In a precedent decision, the BIA adopted the position of the Legal Action Center and vacated Matter of Perez Vargas. Matter of Neto, 25 I&N Dec. 169 (BIA 2010).Read more...

Deportations Under New U.S. Policy Are Inconsistent

Published on Sat, Nov 12, 2011

A new Obama administration policy to avoid deportations of illegal immigrants who are not criminals has been applied very unevenly across the country and has led to vast confusion both in immigrant communities and among agents charged with carrying it out.

Since June, when the policy was unveiled, frustrated lawyers and advocates have seen a steady march of deportations of immigrants with no criminal record and with extensive roots in the United States, who seemed to fit the administration’s profile of those who should be allowed to remain.

But at the same time, in other cases, immigrants on the brink of expulsion saw their deportations halted at the last minute, sometimes after public protests. In some instances, immigration prosecutors acted, with no prodding from advocates, to abandon deportations of immigrants with strong ties to this country whose only violation was their illegal status.

For President Obama, the political stakes in the new policy are high. White House officials have concluded that there is no chance before next year’s presidential election to pass the immigration overhaul that Mr. Obama supports, which would include paths to legal status for illegal immigrants. But immigration authorities have sustained a fast pace of deportations, removing nearly 400,000 foreigners in each of the last three years.

With Latino communities taking the brunt of those deportations, Latino voters are increasingly disappointed with Mr. Obama. White House officials hope the new policy will ease some of the pressure on Latinos, by steering enforcement toward gang members and convicts and away from students, soldiers and families of American citizens.Read more...

Published in the New York Times

Leila Cabib Illustration of Immigration in the Classroom

"Sixty-two nationalities are represented by the students of Paint Branch High School, a Montgomery County Public School in Burtonsville Maryland."

Video by Leila Cabib (http://www.leilacabib.org)

White House Plan on Immigration Includes Legal Status

Published on Fri, Nov 13, 2009

The Obama administration will insist on measures to give legal status to illegal immigrants as it pushes early next year for legislation to overhaul the immigration system, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Friday.

Published in the New York Times

Court of Appeals Agrees with the Legal Action Center that USCIS Imposed Arbitrary Requirements for Workers

Released on Thu, Mar 04, 2010

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals adopted the arguments of the Legal Action Center (LAC), of the American Immigration Council, that the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) unlawfully imposed extra-regulatory requirements on a petition for a worker of "extraordinary ability" (EB-1).

View Release

Unreliable databases could cost even citizens their jobs

Published on Thu, Jun 07, 2012

IPC Senior Policy Analyst Michele Waslin wrote an article published in the Orlando Sentinel highlighting the problems with E-Verify:

Read more...

Published in the The Orlando Sentinel

Winning Entry 2010 Creative Writing Contest

The American Immigration Council is happy to announce the winner of the 2010 National Creative Writing Contest.

Julia Culbert a fifth grader from Santa Clara Valley was selected from thousands of entries with her piece, "America's Fried." Read more...

Justice Alma L. López

Justice Alma L. López was born in Laredo, Texas on August 17, 1943, and was raised and educated in San Antonio, Texas. Justice López was appointed to the Fourth Court by Governor Ann Richards in October 1993, becoming the first Hispanic woman to serve on the Fourth Court of Appeals and the first Hispanic woman to serve as Chief Justice in the State of Texas. She was elected to a full term of six (6) years on November 8, 1994, taking office on January 1, 1995. She was re-elected to a second term in November 2000.

Justice López graduated from St. Mary’s University with a B.B.A. in 1965 and from St. Mary’s Law School with a J.D. in 1968. Justice López practiced law for twenty-five years, twenty of those as a sole practitioner prior to being appointed to the Court.

Justice López is the recipient of many awards including the Award for Outstanding Achievement from the Mexican American Bar Association in 1998. She was inducted into the San Antonio Women’s Hall of Fame for Public Service in 2002 and received the National Association of Women Lawyers President’s Award for Excellence in 2004. She is listed in the Who’s Who Among Outstanding Americans.Read more...