The Wall Street Journal reported today that some lawmakers are working on legislation that would create a biometric ID card that eventually every U.S. worker would have to carry.

The idea is that the ID card could significantly dry up illegal immigration since new arrivals wouldn’t be employable since they would lack the card.

One of our immigration attorneys, Melissa Desvarieux, had this reaction to the news: “I’m so appalled by this proposal that I can’t imagine it being adopted as a measure. It’ll give the government way too much of a feel of being Big Brother watching over us, reducing us to a bunch of social security numbers. But if this is on the horizon, things will likely get even worse, to where your whole life will now be is on a little card: criminal history, work history, birth, status. The way I see it, It’s simply too much control to hand over. And it’s certainly not worth the benefit of ensuring that undocumented aliens are accounted for.”

Bookmark and Share

{ 0 comments }

Can I Stop a Divorce?

by mgeffner on March 9, 2010

stopdivorceBy Adam Handler
Civil Litigation Attorney, The Law Offices of Spar & Bernstein

Can I stop a divorce?

THE SIMPLE ANSWER IS YES (of course, later, I’ll ask you WHY you’d want to do that).

An action for divorce is not unlike any other lawsuit. There is a Plaintiff (the person who files the divorce) and the Defendant (the party who must answer or defend the allegations).

Every party has the right to litigate and have a fact finder (usually a judge and NOT a jury) decide the evidence needed to prove any case. If a party does not sufficiently prove grounds for divorce, an action to dissolve a marriage could, hypothetically speaking, be dismissed.

Realistically, this is rarely the case.

Any reasonable judge and/attorney working on a divorce case will ask both parties if they want to remain married. If they do not…why stay together?

Many times a husband/wife will refuse to consent to a divorce for reasons of power, greed, health insurance or the mistaken belief that things may actually work out.

That being said, I return to my question….WHY would anyone want to remain married to a spouse that does not want to be married to you???? Understandably divorce is an extremely difficult and painful process for everyone including the litigants and, more importantly, the children.

Divorce also involves issues of distribution of assets and as we all know, everyone likes to keep their money exactly where it is……with them.

Regardless, people need to be realistic and know when to hold them and know when to fold them.

If you are thinking about obtaining a divorce or need to discuss an inevitable divorce being filed by your spouse, I look forward to your phone call.

Bookmark and Share

{ 0 comments }

Bookmark and Share

{ 0 comments }

Source: Wall Street Journal
By Laura Meckler

Lawmakers working to craft a new comprehensive immigration bill have settled on a way to prevent employers from hiring illegal immigrants: a national biometric identification card all American workers would eventually be required to obtain.

Under the potentially controversial plan still taking shape in the Senate, all legal U.S. workers, including citizens and immigrants, would be issued an ID card with embedded information, such as fingerprints, to tie the card to the worker.

The ID card plan is one of several steps advocates of an immigration overhaul are taking to address concerns that have defeated similar bills in the past.

The uphill effort to pass a bill is being led by Sens. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), who plan to meet with President Barack Obama as soon as this week to update him on their work. An administration official said the White House had no position on the biometric card.

“It’s the nub of solving the immigration dilemma politically speaking,” Mr. Schumer said in an interview. The card, he said, would directly answer concerns that after legislation is signed, another wave of illegal immigrants would arrive. “If you say they can’t get a job when they come here, you’ll stop it.”

The biggest objections to the biometric cards may come from privacy advocates, who fear they would become de facto national ID cards that enable the government to track citizens.

“It is fundamentally a massive invasion of people’s privacy,” said Chris Calabrese, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. “We’re not only talking about fingerprinting every American, treating ordinary Americans like criminals in order to work. We’re also talking about a card that would quickly spread from work to voting to travel to pretty much every aspect of American life that requires identification.”

Read the entire story here.

Bookmark and Share

{ 0 comments }

Bookmark and Share

{ 0 comments }

Inside the Lawyers Studio w/ S&B Immigration Atty. Shelli Arbusman

March 9, 2010

Today, we put Spar & Bernstein immigration attorney Shelli Arbusman on the hot seat with the famously odd but very revealing Bernard Pivot/Inside the Actors Studio questionnaire:
What is your favorite word?
Serendipity.
What is your least favorite word?
Putrid.
What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
Good music.
What turns you off?
Arrogance.
What is your favorite [...]

Read the full article →

Saturday Night Live’s LOL Presidential Reunion

March 8, 2010

[...]

Read the full article →

Immigration Law – Frequently Asked Questions

March 8, 2010

Please find below another installment in our popular regular series of frequently asked questions about immigration law. Although most of these questions have come from real clients of Spar & Bernstein, we have also included questions from other resources for your benefit. Please note that the answers here are to be used for guideline purposes [...]

Read the full article →

Update – Finding a Cure: Providing Adequate Healthcare to Immigrants in Detention

March 8, 2010

The upshot of the last Friday’s Brooklyn Law School conference on healthcare in immigration detention: Things have been bad, egregiously so—mysterious detainee deaths, vanishing detainees, detainees left with permanent damage, both physical and mental—but things will get better.
What else could anyone hope for?
The keynote speaker was the New York Times’ Nina Bernstein, who more than [...]

Read the full article →

S&B Personal Injury Atty. Adam Handler: What to Do If You’re in a Car Accident

March 8, 2010

[...]

Read the full article →

Pres. Obama Ready to Meet w/ Key Senators on Immigration

March 8, 2010

Over the weekend came the long-awaited news that the President is finally ready to focus attention on immigration, scheduled to meet at the White House this week with two key senators and begin crafting a bill on the issue.
White House spokesman Nicholas Shapiro said Obama will meet with Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York [...]

Read the full article →

Maya Angelou’s And Still I Rise

March 8, 2010

A great way to start the morning! To start the week! [...]

Read the full article →

Conference Today – Finding a Cure: Providing Adequate Healthcare to Immigrants in Detention

March 5, 2010

Heading to this today around noon:
Conference: Finding a Cure: Providing Adequate Healthcare to Immigrants in Detention
Brooklyn Law School, 250 Joralemon Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201
OVERVIEW
Over 300,000 immigrants a year are detained by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (USICE), a branch of the Department of Homeland Security. These immigrants are held at facilities run by, or [...]

Read the full article →

The Price of Citizenship

March 5, 2010

By Stella Templo
Immigration Attorney, The Law Offices of Spar & Bernstein
Citizenship through Military Service
Section 329 of the Immigration and Nationality Act states that “[a]n alien or a noncitizen national of the United States” who “has served honorably” in the armed forces during a “period which the President by Executive order shall designate as a period [...]

Read the full article →

Human Trafficking – The Horrific Byproduct of a Broken Immigration System

March 5, 2010

[...]

Read the full article →

Inspirational Quotes to Carry You Through the Weekend

March 5, 2010

“Try not to become a man of success but a man of value.”
- Albert Einstein
*****
“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.”
- Henry David Thoreau
*****
“To find what you seek in the road of life,
the best proverb of [...]

Read the full article →

S&B Criminal Defense Atty. Michael Biniakewitz discusses Checking Backgrounds on the Sex Offender Registry

March 4, 2010

[...]

Read the full article →

Update: “Trail of Dreams” Walkers’ Face-Off with Ga. Sheriff Conway

March 4, 2010

Source: http://www.campusprogress.org/
Update: Sheriff Butch Conway (Gwinnett County, Georgia) wasn’t in his office when the “Trail of Dreams” walkers showed up, but he did have representatives meet with them, without incident.
The walkers made a firm declaration to risk being arrested during their attempt to meet with the Sherriff, who is known for having incarcerated and deported [...]

Read the full article →

History of the Green Card

March 4, 2010

The current Green Card is formally known as the Alien Registration Receipt Card, Form I-151 or I-551. The first receipt cards were Form AR-3 (printed on white paper), and were the product of the Alien Registration Act of 1940. Designed as a national defense measure, the Act required all aliens (non-U.S. citizens) within the United [...]

Read the full article →