Thread: NC -Legal status: Not as easy as most think

Local Hispanic rights advocacy groups held a "symposium" yesterday at the Elon University campus, one day after the Sarah Palin campaign visit.

Many of the local OBL mouthpieces (several of which are employed as faculty at the University) were said to either be in attendance or featured speakers. Below is the local newspaper account of the event, sketchy at best but certainly biased enough to center on the political criticisms of the legal pathway into the country.

Feel free to follow the link to the story and leave a comment on it. The local Board of Commissioners is under heavy fire right now from these liberals who are hoping to gain a majority on the Board during the coming election and subsequently dismantle the 287g program which has been the envy of the rest of the state since it's inception.


Legal status: Not as easy as most think

Immigration attorney speaks at Sister Cities Symposium
October 17, 2008 - 4:59PM
By Robert Boyer / Times-News

ELON - Obtaining legal status to live in the U.S. is a difficult, complicated and costly process, one that involves navigating through the labyrinth of a system badly in need of repair, an immigration attorney said Friday.

Jack Pinnix, a Raleigh lawyer and former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, gave a keynote address at Friday's Burlington-Alamance Sister Cities immigration symposium at Elon University.

"Immigration law in the United States is broken. It does not really work. It hasn't for a long time," he said.

Attendees to "Understanding the Facts: Latinos in Alamance County," included District 63 Democratic Rep. Alice Bordsen, GOP commissioner candidate Tom Manning, Burlington City Councilman Jim Butler and county Health Director Barry Bass.

For more than an hour, Pinnix walked the crowd of 30 or so through the paths undocumented immigrants can take to get legal residency or citizenship.

He primarily used two examples - "Donna," a prospective college student from an Eastern bloc country and "Anna," an 18-year-old who came to the U.S. illegally from Mexico with her family nine years before.

In Anna's case, her brother, Carlos, a U.S. citizen, sponsors her application to obtain residency under the Family Forth preference, which allows close relatives (siblings or closer) to sponsor. Mexico is under a more restrictive quota when it comes to such applications.

Anna's place in line is based on when she filed, Pinnix said. If everyone keeps their place in line, 20 to 40 years could pass by the time the U.S. government "finally gets around" to processing her application.

The government terminates Anna's if Carlos dies before it is processed.

When she turns 18, Anna wants to marry a U.S. citizen, "Joe," her prospective spouse might be able to file on her behalf. How this process plays out can vary, Pinnix said. "The devil is in the details in all these cases."

For example, if Anna files within 180 days of turning 18, she can go through processing in Mexico and come back into the U.S. with an immediate relative.

If Anna waits to file until she is older than 18½, she will have to file in Mexico and wait at least three years before coming back. If she waits until she is 19 or older, she must remain in Mexico 10 years.

Sometimes a waiver for the 3- or 10-year bar can be obtained if applicants can show "exceptional and unusual hardship of a family member such as Joe."

But the U.S. government doesn't typically consider Joe's case a hardship, Pinnix said.

Another option for Anna is a grandfather provision in the law concerning her brother's petition.

The program penalized those overstaying their U.S. visas or otherwise here illegally, but let them remain in the U.S. during the filing process. Critics said the program was "an outrage" that served as a magnet for illegals. The program lapsed and was re-enacted twice; it's final incarnation ran from the end of 2000 to April 2001. Subsequent congressional efforts to revive the program failed.

Despite this, those filing such petitions can use them, provided they filed on or before April 30, 2001, and "you can find some other way to emigrate."

That means Anna can marry Joe and should be able to remain in U.S. during processing, provided she pays a $1,300 processing fee and a $1,000 fine.

Donna's case is also complicated, fraught with tight quotas and depends largely on sponsorship of U.S. schools and employers.

The U.S. college that accepts Donna issues her an I-20 form. Aside from qualifying academically, she must have sufficient English skills (or the school offers English-teaching programs) and she must have sufficient financial resources.

After graduating from the U.S. college, Donna wants to stay in the U.S. for further training and work. She gets a job at a school and begins seeking a non-immigrant H1B visa. The visa, which is for professionals who have at least a four-year degree, requires employers sponsor the applicant and pay a prevailing wage for the position.

In the mid-1990s, Congress raised the annual quota for the visas to 119,000 from a 1990 law that set the ceiling at 65,000, but later dropped it back to 65,000.

Critics bash the program, Pinnix said, saying it takes jobs from Americans.

Employers are sponsoring foreign applicants because a shortage in the domestic labor market, despite the fact "these are horribly expensive visas to process."

Aside from attorney costs, filing fees can run $3,200 or more, Pinnix said.

After gaining sponsorship, Donna still faces a complicated process chock full of red tape and long backlogs, one that is largely dependent on her remaining in the good graces of her employer.

In both women's cases, once legal residency is established, getting citizenship is much easier, Pinnix said. Both women can file for citizen status within five years of getting their green card.

The tangled system underscores the need for major reform, Pinnix said.

Ignorance about the issue also works against reform, Pinnix thinks. "Americans are open-minded and fair to good neighbors and good friends, and they can't understand why (they) ... don't want to become Americans. We've failed in education ... the system doesn't let them become Americans."

http://www.thetimesnews.com/articles/an ... ation.html

For more than an hour, Pinnix walked the crowd of 30 or so through the paths undocumented immigrants can take to get legal residency or citizenship.

There is NO way for illegal aliens to get legal status and there should not be.

The only way to get legal status is to STAY in your own country until you are given permission to enter. The system works that way for a reason and is not broken.

Illegal aliens MUST leave. NO illegal must be given legal status for the simple reason that they have no desire to follow the law!

Where is it written that acquiring legal status should be easy?

Why do these people seem to think it's a 'right' to be able to live in a country that is not their own? It is a privilege, and to 'earn' that privilege there are rules to follow. Anything that is worth having has to be worked for, otherwise it's true value is never appreciated!

Originally Posted by scottiemum

Why do these people seem to think it's a 'right' to be able to live in a country that is not their own? It is a privilege, and to 'earn' that privilege there are rules to follow. Anything that is worth having has to be worked for, otherwise it's true value is never appreciated!

How true!!

I don't doubt there's problems......but amnesties over and over sure isn't the answer either. These guys act like being in the US is the ONLY option. Take your American citizen husband home to your country!!!!! I know it may not be what you WANT......but you can't always get what you want either.

It is NOT a right to be able to come here. There is NOTHING that states citizenship should be easy, cheap and no requirements except the ability to WANT it and get here.

Wait a minute now crazybird , I'm one of those American husbands (snicker)!

Ignorance about the issue also works against reform, Pinnix thinks. "Americans are open-minded and fair to good neighbors and good friends, and they can't understand why (they) ... don't want to become Americans. We've failed in education ... the system doesn't let them become Americans."

That bolded statement is an insult to my intelligence, and that of every other LEGAL citizen. And personally, I would love to see no more need for immigration lawyers trying to legitimize criminals that came into this country illegally--searching for a better life and living off the dole from American taxpayers.