by mgeffner on March 9, 2010
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.”
by mgeffner on March 9, 2010
By 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.
by mgeffner on March 9, 2010
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.
