Immigration Tariff: Reforming a Broken System:

America’s immigration system is broken. Years of overregulation aimed at micromanaging the system has produced nearly 100 different types of visas, each with its own complex rules, regulations, and requirements. These rules and regulations hold back American economic growth by discouraging the hardworking and entrepreneurial to come to this country. With unemployment persisting above 9 percent and escalating government deficits, an immigration tariff to replace the current regulatory labyrinth is both sensible and pragmatic.

The immigration tariff is a fee levied on every work visa or green card issued. The tariff approach would streamline immigration procedures, increase federal revenue, and remove most of the cumbersome, economy-killing immigration restrictions now on the books. Ideally, the government immigration services would just interdict criminals, suspected terrorists, and those with deadly transmittable diseases. All others would be eligible for work visas or green cards, for which they would pay the tariff.

Our immigration laws are crammed with silly requirements and anachronistic rules that prevent entrepreneurial immigrants from setting up shop here. For example, EB-5 visas, which are issued to entrepreneurs, require that applicants invest between $500,000 and $1 million in a new U.S. commercial enterprise depending on the region of the country, directly create 10 new jobs within two years, or significantly expand an existing U.S. business. No wonder EB-5 visas are underused.

These problems are compounded by quotas, which create a massive backlog in the migration process. Quotas are rigid in the face of an increasingly dynamic economic reality. Replacing visas like the EB-5 visa with a background check and a tariff of, say, $10,000 makes things a lot easier on American business and foreign investors. For example, if the wages for computer programmers were to skyrocket because American firms are expanding, current quotas do not adjust to accommodate the increased demand. But if a computer programmer had merely to comply with a background check and pay an immigration tariff, he would be able to fill the spot in no time.

To read more about this topic, click on the following link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alex-nowrasteh/immigration-tariff-reform_b_937065.html?ir=Politics.

Sarpong Law Offices represents Immigration clients throughout the United States from Los Angeles California to Philadelphia Pensylvania. Our Immigration Lawyers and Attorneys counsel clients with regard to Green Card Applications, US Citizenship, Non-Immigrant Visas, Family and Employment Visas, and Immigration Court Representations.

Justice Department Sues Ala. Over Immigration Law:

Reaction was swift in Alabama on Tuesday after the Justice Department filed a lawsuit to block a new immigration law set to take effect next month.

Alabama’s new law — considered the toughest in the country — requires authorities to confirm the status of anyone they stop if there’s reasonable doubt that person could be in the U.S. illegally. The law makes it a crime for undocumented immigrants to work, rent an apartment or get a driver’s license.

Just before noon on Tuesday, Birmingham police dispatcher Carol Bryant had already fielded more than 100 calls. Bryant and other dispatchers would be responsible for checking records with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement — or ICE.

“It would, like, be more work, you know, doing the ICE check when it goes into effect,” Bryant says. “Then they’ll probably give us some kind of heads-up, you know, about [looking] for the extra workload.”

In the lawsuit filed Monday, Birmingham’s police chief said his department would have to reallocate scarce resources for something that’s not a city priority. The Justice Department argues the law unconstitutionally interferes with the federal government’s authority over immigration.

A group of religious leaders has also filed suit, claiming the law inhibits free exercise of religion. They cite one provision that makes it a felony — punishable by up to 10 years in prison — to transport undocumented immigrants.

To read more about this topic, click on the following link: http://www.npr.org/2011/08/02/138935775/justice-department-sues-alabama-over-immigration-law.

Sarpong Law Offices represents Immigration clients throughout the United States from Los Angeles California to Philadelphia Pensylvania. Our Immigration Lawyers and Attorneys counsel clients with regard to Green Card Applications, US Citizenship, Non-Immigrant Visas, Family and Employment Visas, and Immigration Court Representations.

Hispanic Family Terrorized By Immigration Agents:

Seven members of a Hispanic family from Los Angeles became victims of a mistaken drug raid at a home in the city of Norco in Riverside County by nearly 40 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Homeland Security, Immigration (HSI) agents.

“Where’s the money? Where are the drugs?” the agents shouted at a terrified Carmen Bonilla. At about 3:45 in the afternoon, Bonilla, of Mexican origin, and her daughter-in-law, Leticia, were cooking in anticipation of their husbands’ arrival from work. The agent insurrection would end at 7 that evening.

“I heard pounding and kicking at the door; I became very frightened and when I opened the door, I saw that it was the police,” recalled Bonilla tearfully, as she showed areas of her body where she’d allegedly been struck by agents. “I asked them, ‘What did we do? What did we do? What did we do?’ ” she intimated. “I didn’t open the door out of fear.

They simply grabbed me by the arm, threw me on the ground, handcuffed me and slammed me up against the wall.”

Bonilla said she implored the agents to let her turn off the stove and grab her granddaughter, who was screaming in fear. “Shut up or we’ll shoot you! We have orders to shoot,” she said at a news conference. “I begged them to let me get to my granddaughter, but they did not understand me and continued to beat me,” she said.

Michael Martinez, a 16-year-old Norco High School student, said he was in back of the house when he heard the commotion. He was getting ready to go to a football game.

“Get down on the ground!” he remembered, as four agents descended on him and immediately handcuffed him. “I heard my mother’s screams as the baby was crying in fear, not knowing what to do. When they finally left, we had to take my mom to the hospital; she suffers from diabetes.”

Armed with a search warrant, ICE and HSI agents scoured the Bonilla home. The agents produced the warrant to Josefina Martinez, Carmen Bonilla’s daughter, after the odyssey was over and they were retreating.

“I was in the kitchen when they said to open the door or they would shoot,” said daughter-in-law Leticia Hernandez. “I saw them hit her [Carmen Bonilla]. They said they had orders to shoot. I saw them kicking her. I was inside and the baby was crying. They aimed their guns at me if I wasn’t quiet,” she said. “Where are the guns? Where is the money?”

“I told them there was nothing in the house,” Hernandez said.

The agents found neither the dealer, nor evidence of any crime. However, the Bonilla family must appear Tuesday before immigration officials, who seek to deport them from the United States.

To read more about this topic, click on the following link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/02/hispanic-family-terrorized_n_916474.html.

Sarpong Law Offices represents Immigration clients throughout the United States from Los Angeles California to Philadelphia Pensylvania. Our Immigration Lawyers and Attorneys counsel clients with regard to Green Card Applications, US Citizenship, Non-Immigrant Visas, Family and Employment Visas, and Immigration Court Representations.

Illinois’ Bad Dream:

Immigration: An insolvent state hemorrhaging jobs enacts its version of the federal DREAM Act, holding out another carrot to illegal aliens by setting up a college scholarship fund for their children.

Illinois’ Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn on Monday illustrated why liberals tend to run governments and economies into the ground by signing into law Monday the Illinois DREAM (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors) Act, a seemingly innocuous and compassionate piece of legislation that sets up scholarships for anyone with a Social Security number or taxpayer identification number.

At a time when the Land of Lincoln is driving away business and jobs through increasingly burdensome taxation, liberal ideology trumps practicality by seeking to attract illegal immigrants to a state struggling to meet the needs of its citizens.

It seeks to educate the children of illegal aliens to compete for jobs American citizens can’t find. An estimated 95,000 children of illegal aliens will benefit.

Supporters say that since the scholarships are privately funded, and Quinn was quick to make his own $1,000 donation, no state money is involved.

Yet state money will go to support a nine-member commission to establish and dispense these scholarships. State money goes to fund another interesting part of the law, the requirement for high school teachers and counselors to get special sensitivity training on the needs of illegal immigrants.

Our health care and education systems, as well as other public services, are already overburdened by the demands of serving a growing illegal alien population, yet states such as Illinois as well as the Obama administration constantly seek new ways to ring the dinner bell.

Illinois, like other states, already offers in-state tuition rates to illegal immigrants at public universities, making it easier for the child of an illegal alien from Guadalajara to attend an Illinois university than, say, the child of a Marine in Des Moines just back from Afghanistan.

To read more about this topic, click on the following link: http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/580303/201108021906/Illinois-Bad-Dream.htm.

Sarpong Law Offices represents Immigration clients throughout the United States from Los Angeles California to Philadelphia Pensylvania. Our Immigration Lawyers and Attorneys counsel clients with regard to Green Card Applications, US Citizenship, Non-Immigrant Visas, Family and Employment Visas, and Immigration Court Representations.

Obama Tells Latino Voters He ‘Needs a Dance Partner’ on Immigration:

On Monday President Obama took a break from debt ceiling talks to address immigration, education and the economy in a speech at the National Council of La Raza’s annual conference in Washington, D.C. And while the president insisted that he remains an ally of immigrant communities, his administration’s deportation numbers tell an entirely different story.

Obama committed himself once more to “the unfinished business” of immigration reform, and asked Americans who want change to keep pressing Republicans on the issue.

“We have a system that separates families, and punishes innocent young people for their parents’ actions by denying them the chance to earn an education or contribute to our economy or serve in our military,” Obama said.

“So yes, feel free to keep the heat on me, and keep the heat on Democrats,” Obama said. “Here’s the only thing you should know. The Democrats and your president are with you.”

“Are with you,” Obama repeated. “Don’t get confused about that. Remember who it is we need to move in order to actually change the laws.”

When the DREAM Act failed a Senate filibuster threat in December, five Democrats voted against allowing the bill to move ahead to a vote. Three Republican senators backed the narrow legalization bill for undocumented immigrant youth.

Obama also said by design, American democracy didn’t allow him to exercise any power over deportation policies in the country, a claim that immigration advocates and legal experts dispute. Under President Obama, deportations have reached record highs.

On Friday, numbers from ICE confirmed, yet again, immigrant communities’ criticisms of the Obama administration deportation agenda. A little more than half of the 243,821 people who were deported from the country between October 2010 and May 23, 2011 had no criminal record whatsoever. And for those who had been convicted of some crime, those numbers were driven by a spike in deportations of people who had been convicted of drunk driving or some other traffic violations, the Christian Science Monitor reported. Under President Obama, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has rapidly expanded the program Secure Communities, which allows immigration officials to peer into the databases of anyone who’s booked in any local or county jail that has a standing agreement with the federal government allowing them access to that information.

Obama said that while he wanted to push ahead with immigration reform overhauls, he needed “a dance partner here.” “And the floor is empty,” Obama said, chastising Republicans who have turned away from any kind of non-enforcement immigration bill, even though plenty of Republicans have backed reform policies in years past.

Obama’s speech, widely seen as an address to the nation’s Latino voters and immigrant communities, was punctuated by a silent protest led by undocumented youth and shouts from the audience of “Yes, you can!” urging Obama to use his administrative authority to provide relief for the hundreds of thousands of immigrnat families who are being separated by deportation.

To read more about this topic, click on the following link: http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/07/obama_tells_latino_voters_he_needs_a_dance_partner_before_he_can_move_on_immigration.html.

Sarpong Law Offices represents Immigration clients throughout the United States from Los Angeles California to Philadelphia Pensylvania. Our Immigration Lawyers and Attorneys counsel clients with regard to Green Card Applications, US Citizenship, Non-Immigrant Visas, Family and Employment Visas, and Immigration Court Representations.