Category: Articles

DACA success stories provide strong support to create a path to legal status for undocumented immigrants #PositivelyImmigration #DACA

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) has been a controversial policy ever since Obama brought it about via executive order in 2012. DACA is not perfect by any means. It is limited to individuals who entered the United States within a certain time period and before he or she turned 16, among various other requirements. Click here to see all of the DACA eligibility requirements.

Although DACA does not provide a path to a green card, it has been a saving grace for many young undocumented immigrants. DACA has enabled these individuals to apply for financial aid and go to college and to work in the U.S. legally.

The existence of DACA is at risk pending the outcome of the next election. As an executive order, the next President can completely due away with the program, leave it be or attempt to change it. While the constitutionality of the DACA extension and of DAPA (Deferred Action for Parent Arrivals) remains a question mark due to the infamous non-decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in U.S. v. Texas, 579 U.S. _____ (2016), the initial DACA program has had an overall positive impact on the United States.

DACA

Interested in learning more about how DACA has helped ambitious and resilient undocumented immigrants? See, “Immigrants Fuel Innovation. America Should Not Was Their Potential, ” featured in Wired magazine.

Find out if you are eligible for DACA – Contact the experienced immigration attorneys at The Shapiro Law Firm, LLC, today!

6 of the 7 American Nobel laureates for 2016 are immigrants. #PositivelyImmigration

The 2016 presidential election has shone a very negative light on U.S. immigration. The U.S. immigration system certainly has its’ share of flaws and is due for some serious reform. For example, in regards to the administrative process, 2016 Nobel prize winner in physics and Princeton University professor, Duncan Haldane, described the U.S. immigration system as a “bureaucratic nightmare.”

But it is short-sighted to suggest that the U.S. immigration policy does not have a positive effect on our country and way of life. The fact is, America still attracts the best and the brightest from around the world. The U.S. immigration system is set up to favor skilled labor and higher education (particularly the sciences). This has led to a lot of the innovative scientific innovations that have taken place in this country over the past century.

As further evidence of the positive impact of immigrants in the U.S., this year 6 of the 7 Nobel Prize winners were born outside the United States (Bob Dylan, the Nobel Prize winner in literature, was the 1 domestic-born winner). Read more here.

Nobel Prize

**Nobel Prize Winning Physicist and Princeton University Professor Duncan Haldane is right, the U.S. immigration system is a “bureaucratic nightmare.” Let the experienced immigration attorneys at The Shapiro Law Firm, LLC, guide you through the process and put that nightmare to rest! Contact us today.**

**Attorney Advertising”

An Immigration Attorney Fact Checks the Second Presidential Debate

The Second Presidential Debate once again lacked specific policy provisions for each candidate’s immigration plan.

The obvious exception was the discussion about Trump’s previous promise to temporarily ban all muslims that he refers to as “extreme vetting.” Sunday night, Trump expanded on this notion stating that his plan would temporarily suspendimmigration from regions that export terrorism and possibly that he would allow some immigration of muslims provided that they face additional screening.

It should first be noted that immigrants looking to come to the United States legally from countries that are known to harbor terrorists face a litany of additional screening processes already. For example, a Syrian Refugee will face 18 -24 months of intense screening before he or she is admitted to the United States. During the screening process, Syrian Refugees stay in UNHCR Refugee Camps, anxiously awaiting placement in a safe country. Our country already has a lot of safeguards in place to prevent terrorists from entering the U.S. Here is an infographic published by the U.S. Federal Government explaining the Refugee Screening Process:

The Screening Process for Refugee Entry into the U.S.

Is our current vetting process effective? There are varying answers to this question. Some say that we have had very few terrorist-related arrests and no terrorist attacks on U.S. soil by Syrian Refugees in recent memory. Others point to the involvement of Syrian Refugees in the recent Paris bombings along with proof that ISIS has, and continues to, attempt to infiltrate the Refugee system in order to get into the U.S. and other Western Nations to commit future terrorist attacks.

One thing is clear, although America continues to witness horrific acts of terror on its’ own soil, 55 of the 68 people indicted over alleged ISIS ties were born in U.S. and none came from Syria (of the remaining 13: 6 were born in Bosnia, 4 in Uzbekistan, 3 in Somalia and 2 were born in Sudan). Read more about this here.

What is important here is to realize that the fact that so many domestic-born Americans have engaged in such horrific acts against their fellow American citizens is evidence of a much larger issue here at home. An issue, that I truly believe, needs to take a good look at the mental health of terrorist actors here and abroad.

I agree with Mr. Trump that we need to ensure that our borders are safe and that our people are not at risk, but in order to do that we need to really understand why people want to attack us in the first place and how we can stop it at the source. It is easy to scapegoat a particular religion or group of people, but pointing fingers does not solve the problem at hand.

An Immigration Attorney Fact-Checks Last Night's Presidential Debate

Although the issue of U.S. immigration was not a main topic in last night’s presidential debate, Mr. Trump managed to get in some of his talking points. Secretary Clinton was largely quiet on this topic, not responding to Mr. Trump’s remarks. Below are the two main points that Mr. Trump made and how his statements stand up to the facts:

1. Immigrants do not commit more crimes

When asked about race relations in America, Trump responded, “We have gangs roaming the street. And in many cases, they’re illegally here, illegal immigrants. And they have guns. And they shoot people. And we have to be very strong. And we have to be very vigilant.”

My Verdict = FALSE: As the CATO Institute Report shows, Mr. Trump is promoting a false narrative by alleging that illegal immigrants, or immigrants for that matter, are more likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans.

For more see the TIME magazine article posted last night in response to Mr. Trump’s comments here.

2. Over 858 individuals with final deportation or removal orders were Naturalized

Mr. Trump stated, “The other day we were deporting eight hundred people and perhaps they pressed the wrong button –they pressed the wrong button– or perhaps worse than that it was corruption. But these people we were going to deport … for good reason ended up becoming citizens–ended up becoming citizens. And it was eight hundred and now it turns out, it might be fifteen hundred and they don’t even know.”

My Verdict = MOSTLY FALSE: The 858 people mentioned in the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) Report, “Potentially Ineligible Individuals Have Been Granted U.S. Citizenship Because of Incomplete Fingerprint Records,” that Mr. Trump is referring to, had final orders of deportation or removal at the time their naturalization application was reviewed and adjudicated. Mr. Trump is correct about that and he is correct that the number is actually higher (1,811 total), if you include the number of individuals who had final orders of deportation or removal who are now naturalized citizens who may not have had digital fingerprints on file at the time they naturalized.

Mr. Trump, however, is incorrect to allege that corruption is to blame or that we do not know what happened. Before 2008, there was no federal digital fingerprint process and it was much harder to affirm that an applicant did not have another identity. The digital fingerprint system has been in place in full for a few years and now and has greatly improved USCIS’s ability to verify who a person is. I can tell you first hand that USCIS has its problems and the immigration system is very confusing and a tedious process to navigate, but this is clearly a result of antiquated technology taking time to be replaced. No immigration system will ever be perfect, perfection is idealistic.

Mr. Trump also implies that all 858 of these individuals should not be citizens. The fact is that just because you have a previous order of deportation or removal does not, in and of itself, mean that you are ineligible for citizenship. It also does not mean that any of these people committed fraud or misrepresentation in obtaining their citizenship. All it means it that their immigration history shows a deportation or removal order. Removal and Deportation Orders can be terminated or vacated at a later date for any number of reasons (Hence the title of the OIG Report that begins, “Potentially Ineligible Individuals…”).

Immigration Is Probably the Best Way to Fight Crime

As immigration attorneys, we have represented immigrant clients across all backgrounds: from violent illegal criminals to religious leaders, and all kinds of people in between. This has caused us to become intimately familiar with the kinds of people that come into this country, both legally and illegally. As such, I want to share this article to clarify some of the misconceptions currently circulating in America’s heated political climate leading up to the 2016 Presidential election. The facts (and these facts come from the FBI crime statistics) speak for themselves, and my experience with immigrants back the facts up. Irrational fear breeds discontent and makes us less safe by focusing our efforts to keep ourselves, our family and our neighborhoods safe in the wrong place. For those interested, I hope you enjoy this article and share it with others. A good electorate is an informed electorate. Know before you vote.

Click here or click on the picture for the article.

Control and Fear: What Mass Killings and Domestic Violence Have in Common

The Shapiro Law Firm, LLC, would like to send our thoughts and prayers to the victims and families who were effected by the horrific Orlando shooting. #StandWithOrlando. I highly recommend this article and hope that sociologists and psychologists continue to study the possible correlations and causations discussed therein. As an attorney who handles domestic violence issues often, I can honestly say every case involved some sort of element of control or fear.