The United States of America is a party to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. The treaty requires our states to inform foreign nationals who are arrested or detained that they have a right to have their consulates notified of their arrest.
Mexico sued the United States before the International Court of Justice in the Case Concerning Avena and Other Mexican Nationals. The Court ruled in favor of Mexico and found that Mexican nationals named in the case had a right to review of their state court convictions.
To his credit, President Bush ordered the states to give effect to the decision by the ICJ as it relates to the 51 Mexican nationals named in the suit.
In a very poor decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, Chief Justice Roberts held that even though the Avena judgment was an international law obligation of the part of the U.S., it was not directly enforceable as domestic law. Thus the Court held that the decision or President Bush's order preempted the State of Texas law regarding filing of successive petitions for habeas corpus.
This decision resulted in Texas executing a Mexican national, despite the violation of international law in his arrest.
Of course, by rushing to execute this person, the State of Texas permanently deprived him of any further due process consideration.
With a continuing "lynch-mob" mentality, the State of Texas continues to demonstrate a low value for due process of law.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Promising Legislation in the House!
Finally some good news from Congress!
The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration approved three appropriate pieces of immigration-related legislation:
H.R. 6020, would allow soldiers who have served in support of contingency operations to be eligible for naturalization and for other purposes.
H.R. 5882, would recapture employment-based and family-sponsored immigrant visas lost to bureaucratic delays and to prevent losses of these visas in the future.
H.R. 5924, sponsored by Representative Wexler (D-FL) would provide 20,000 employment-based visas per year for three years specifically for nurses.
All three of these bills still have to be voted on by the House Judiciary Committee, and then paired with a companion bill in the Senate, voted on by both houses of Congress, and submitted to the President for signature or veto. They have a long way to go, but the thinking towards correcting some of the problems with legal immigration is encouraging.
Here are some of the issues the House Subcommittee on Immigration should consider:
(the Maney Bill to fix legal immigration)
1. Section 245(i) is made permanent with no cut-off date. Increase the fine for those who enter with fraudulent documents or enter without inspection to $3,000.00.
2. The quota for H-1b and H-2b visas is eliminate. There are ample safeguards in place to protect American labor without the use of arbitrary quotas.
3. A special non immigrant visa category is created for nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and speech therapists that allows for admission for up to six years without any quota. Our nation is already facing a health care crisis with a severe shortage of these professionals, when they are readily available abroad. States would still govern on licensing issues.
4. The prohibition against the applicant paying for PERM labor certification fees is eliminated as violating equal protection. There never was a relationship between who paid for the labor certification and any fraudulent activity. The Department of Labor clearly violated its rule-making authority in passing this regulation.
5. Family based immigration visas annual allotment is increased from 226,000 to 450,000 per year to help eliminate severe backlogs in the family based immigration preferences.
6. Employment based immigration visas annual allotment is increased from 140,000 to 300,000 per year to help eliminate severe backlogs in the employment based immigration preferences.
7. Eliminate the 3 and 10 year bars to readmission after unlawful presence of 180 days and one year respectively. These bars to readmission most often affect relative of US citizens and lawful permanent residents. These bars actually result in more undocumented aliens remaining in the US to avoid the bars to readmission, rather than returning home.
8. Restrict the aggravated felony definitions to felonies that carry a maximum penalty of 15 years imprisonment or more.
9. Create a permanent visa category that is based on humanitarian need, that can be granted at the sole discretion of the Attorney General.
10. Recognize the doctrine of sanctuary and prohibit ICE or any other agency from entering any house of worship or temple for the purpose of questioning or arresting suspected foreign nationals.
11. Appointment a special Ombudsman to investigate and identify racial profiling or discrimination by USCIS or ICE against persons of Muslim heritage.
12. The initial grant for a "start-up" L-1a visa holder would be two years instead of one.
13. Persons entering on a K-1 visa would be allowed to change or adjust status where a marriage to the K-1 sponsor did not occur, upon showing of the bonafide nature of the original K-1 relationship.
This is just a beginning. More to come later!
The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration approved three appropriate pieces of immigration-related legislation:
H.R. 6020, would allow soldiers who have served in support of contingency operations to be eligible for naturalization and for other purposes.
H.R. 5882, would recapture employment-based and family-sponsored immigrant visas lost to bureaucratic delays and to prevent losses of these visas in the future.
H.R. 5924, sponsored by Representative Wexler (D-FL) would provide 20,000 employment-based visas per year for three years specifically for nurses.
All three of these bills still have to be voted on by the House Judiciary Committee, and then paired with a companion bill in the Senate, voted on by both houses of Congress, and submitted to the President for signature or veto. They have a long way to go, but the thinking towards correcting some of the problems with legal immigration is encouraging.
Here are some of the issues the House Subcommittee on Immigration should consider:
(the Maney Bill to fix legal immigration)
1. Section 245(i) is made permanent with no cut-off date. Increase the fine for those who enter with fraudulent documents or enter without inspection to $3,000.00.
2. The quota for H-1b and H-2b visas is eliminate. There are ample safeguards in place to protect American labor without the use of arbitrary quotas.
3. A special non immigrant visa category is created for nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and speech therapists that allows for admission for up to six years without any quota. Our nation is already facing a health care crisis with a severe shortage of these professionals, when they are readily available abroad. States would still govern on licensing issues.
4. The prohibition against the applicant paying for PERM labor certification fees is eliminated as violating equal protection. There never was a relationship between who paid for the labor certification and any fraudulent activity. The Department of Labor clearly violated its rule-making authority in passing this regulation.
5. Family based immigration visas annual allotment is increased from 226,000 to 450,000 per year to help eliminate severe backlogs in the family based immigration preferences.
6. Employment based immigration visas annual allotment is increased from 140,000 to 300,000 per year to help eliminate severe backlogs in the employment based immigration preferences.
7. Eliminate the 3 and 10 year bars to readmission after unlawful presence of 180 days and one year respectively. These bars to readmission most often affect relative of US citizens and lawful permanent residents. These bars actually result in more undocumented aliens remaining in the US to avoid the bars to readmission, rather than returning home.
8. Restrict the aggravated felony definitions to felonies that carry a maximum penalty of 15 years imprisonment or more.
9. Create a permanent visa category that is based on humanitarian need, that can be granted at the sole discretion of the Attorney General.
10. Recognize the doctrine of sanctuary and prohibit ICE or any other agency from entering any house of worship or temple for the purpose of questioning or arresting suspected foreign nationals.
11. Appointment a special Ombudsman to investigate and identify racial profiling or discrimination by USCIS or ICE against persons of Muslim heritage.
12. The initial grant for a "start-up" L-1a visa holder would be two years instead of one.
13. Persons entering on a K-1 visa would be allowed to change or adjust status where a marriage to the K-1 sponsor did not occur, upon showing of the bonafide nature of the original K-1 relationship.
This is just a beginning. More to come later!
Monday, August 4, 2008
The Time for Legal Immigration is Now!
George Will, a conservative columnist for the Washington Post, has the right idea about addressing our nation's legal immigration policy now. Too often, politicians and network news anchors confuse the topics of legal and illegal immigration.
In Will's article of July 26, "Building a Wall Against Talent," the commentator correctly points out the importance of the ability of our nation to attract and keep talented immigrants. When these immigrants are not allowed into our nation, they go to another country and help that country become more competitive in the world market.
The latest result of our highly restrictive legal immigration quotas is the exportation of business and jobs abroad. Will cites the example of Microsoft:
"Barack Obama and other Democrats are theatrically indignant about U.S. companies that locate operations outside the country. But one reason Microsoft opened a software development center in Vancouver is that Canadian immigration laws allow Microsoft to recruit skilled people it could not retain under U.S. immigration restrictions. Mr. Change We Can Believe In is not advocating the simple change -- that added zero -- and neither is Mr. Straight Talk.
John McCain's campaign Web site has a spare statement on "immigration reform" that says nothing about increasing America's intake of highly educated immigrants. Obama's site says only: "Where we can bring in more foreign-born workers with the skills our economy needs, we should." "Where we can"? We can now. "
Write your Congressman, your Senator, and your Presidential candidate and tell them you favor expanded legal immigration for the sake of our nation's future. It is no coincidence that this nation grew to be the most powerful and successful in the world by welcoming in talented immigrants from all countries. To continue to unreasonably restrict legal immigration is to sentence this nation to economic and developmental decline.
The time for expanding legal immigration is now.
Rick Maney
In Will's article of July 26, "Building a Wall Against Talent," the commentator correctly points out the importance of the ability of our nation to attract and keep talented immigrants. When these immigrants are not allowed into our nation, they go to another country and help that country become more competitive in the world market.
The latest result of our highly restrictive legal immigration quotas is the exportation of business and jobs abroad. Will cites the example of Microsoft:
"Barack Obama and other Democrats are theatrically indignant about U.S. companies that locate operations outside the country. But one reason Microsoft opened a software development center in Vancouver is that Canadian immigration laws allow Microsoft to recruit skilled people it could not retain under U.S. immigration restrictions. Mr. Change We Can Believe In is not advocating the simple change -- that added zero -- and neither is Mr. Straight Talk.
John McCain's campaign Web site has a spare statement on "immigration reform" that says nothing about increasing America's intake of highly educated immigrants. Obama's site says only: "Where we can bring in more foreign-born workers with the skills our economy needs, we should." "Where we can"? We can now. "
Write your Congressman, your Senator, and your Presidential candidate and tell them you favor expanded legal immigration for the sake of our nation's future. It is no coincidence that this nation grew to be the most powerful and successful in the world by welcoming in talented immigrants from all countries. To continue to unreasonably restrict legal immigration is to sentence this nation to economic and developmental decline.
The time for expanding legal immigration is now.
Rick Maney
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
