Thread: Heated Exchange at Utah Legislature

It seems they've been seduced by the dark side of the force...

or the green back side of the force

An Interview with Congressman Chris Cannon - Part I
By Michael Phulwani, Esq.
News India-Times
Attorneys Michael Phulwani, Allen Kaye and other Immigration Attorneys hosted a fund raising dinner reception for Congressman Chris Cannon (Dem-Utah) [sic], member House Judiciary Committee and Deputy Chair of House Immigration Committee, at Shaan Restaurant, New York on May 21, 2002.

Congressman Chris Cannon was elected as congressman on November 15, 1996. He possesses a Bachelor's Degree in Science and a Bachelor's Degree in Law. He worked as an attorney for about 4 years. President Reagan appointed him as Solicitor General for Department of Interior. He was appointed as Associate Solicitor in 1984. Congressman Cannon is pro immigrant and has positive views on Immigration.

Mr. Phulwani discussed the issue of extension of Section 245(i) and urged Congressman Cannon that it should be made permanent. Mr. Phulwani explained that Section 245(i) is not an amnesty program as misinterpreted by some of the members of the congress. [sound familiar?] All it does is to permit [illegal] aliens to adjust status as [sic, should be "to"] permanent resident in the U.S. rather than going abroad to apply for Immigrant visa at American Consulate. 245(i) application can only be made by an alien who meets the eligibility requirements based upon marriage to a U.S. citizen or permanent resident alien or someone who qualifies for Immigrant visa under other relative categories or employment categories. Such individual must meet all other requirements of the law including waiting in line [in the United States] for a visa number to become available before an application for adjustment of status can be filed. Additionally 245(i) applicant is also required to pay an additional fee of $1000, which is a great source of revenue for INS [not to mention immigration attorneys like Mr. Phulwani]. It is true that the aliens who need section 245(i) is for the reason they have either entered the U.S. without inspection OR overstayed their authorized stay and/or engaged in unauthorized employment in the U.S. [i.e., they are illegal aliens]. In most cases such violations have occurred due to reasons of family reunification, providing financial support for family members (which in may cases are U.S. citizens or permanent residents) or due to their home country conditions making it difficult for them to go back [an argument every illegal alien can make]. Additionally imposing 3/10 year bars, congress has made it difficult for them to apply for Immigrant visa at American Consulates abroad, leaving them with no option but to resort to section 245(i) for adjustment of status in the U.S. [Congress imposed the bar reasoning that, in order to discourage illegal immigration, there should be some sort of penalty for being in the United States illegally. Representative Cannon argued against that idea in a radio debate with ProjectUSA director, Craig Nelsen]. Ideally congress should seriously consider making section 245(i) a permanent feature of the law. Congressman Cannon stated that he was in favor of making section 245(i) a permanent feature and was aware of the 3/10 year bar problem preventing such individuals from traveling to their home country to apply for Immigrant visa abroad.

The INS backlog of applications has increased 5 times from one million to 5 million during the last 5 years. At the same time the funding for INS has also been increased by congress about 5 times. So in spite of such increase in funding, if the INS backlog has increased 5 times, there is something seriously wrong with INS. And for us to say that INS cannot have authority to provide adjustment of status for such aliens, makes no sense.

Congressman Cannon said "I would like to see section 245(i) a permanent feature [i.e., a permanent amnesty]. Hopefully Senate would pass the legislation extending section 245(i) and we can improve this legislation in the conference. We hope we will have something this year about extension of section 245(i)."

Mr. Phulwani thanked [remember, this is a fundraiser] Congressman Cannon for his support of 245(i) extension or making 245(i) a permanent feature. He reminded congressman Cannon that 3/10 years bars were imposed by the Congress together with elimination of 245(i) thus making it impossible for aliens who entered the U.S. unlawfully to obtain permanent resident status even if they are married to a U.S. citizen, having U.S. citizen children, are good citizens, pay their taxes and have other equities.

Congressman Cannon advised about restructuring of INS. He said because INS has not kept with the information and technology that is available to them, House has passed legislation for re-organization of INS, which would bifurcate the enforcement from services side of INS. It also does a lot of other things. We have discussed with Tom Ridge, Homeland security has a plan, INS Commissioner James W. Ziglar has a plan and Senator Ted Kennedy has also introduced a plan in the Congress. From my perspective, what is important is that the new INS Commissioner has the ability to actually enforce the change. Most companies when they want to introduce technology can get it done, because if their people won't do it, they can be fired. Therefore in the House Bill we have given INS powers to INS Commissioner to fire those who do not perform. We have also given the INS Commissioner appropriations to provide him with the ability to bring in several more political appointees, so that he can enforce his vision through those people, and bring the proper kind of technology environment rather than paper shuffling environment, where inevitably papers get lost. This has been a big problem we have had where people file papers with INS, somebody moves the papers around, can't find them and never track them down. It will take some time to get these changes done and hopefully soon.

Mr. Phulwani invited Congressman Cannon's attention to the problem of aging out children, who are waiting in line for their immigrant visa processing and age out (became over 21) due to long delays in the processing of their applications. The children who age out cannot obtain Immigrant visa as derivatives and also loose their eligibility for K or V visas. Congressman Cannon responded that he is aware of this problem and will certainly look into this and advised that a written representation may be given to him on this subject.

With regard to the functioning of INS District offices specially New York and New Jersey, it was mentioned to him that while they were working hard, some of the delays and other problems were due to resources and manpower problems and urged him for additional resources to INS. Congressman Cannon responded that we have increased the budget 5 fold, but the progress in INS backlog hasn't made in proportion to the increase in the budget. It looks like there are more fundamental problems that we are watching carefully. Hopefully, a significant improvement in the workflow will take place when information and technology are in place.


http://www.projectusa.org/Library/artic ... nesty.html

Found this when I did a google search on the jerk. Someone had already critiqued it

Clearly, in two years, Cannon needs be ousted.