by BradBernstein on September 2, 2010
By Brad Bernstein
President, The Law Offices of Spar & Bernstein
http://www.4immigration.com/
Amid all the hysteria these days about the alarming number of illegal immigrants, the fiery rhetoric about how America’s border states are being overrun by Mexican drug dealers, the fingers of blame pointing squarely at immigrants for stealing jobs and ruining the economy, along comes this heavy – and unignorable – dose of reality.
According to new study released Wednesday by the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research group, the influx of illegal immigrants plunged to an estimated 300,000 annually between March 2007 and 2009, from 850,000 a year between March 2000 and March 2005.
We’re sure that anti-immigrant loudmouths like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly, the Tea Partiers, as well as the opportunistic politicians who’ve used illegal immigration as nothing but political currency, will find a way to dispute this number somehow, will cut the head off the messenger by impugning the integrity of the Pew Hispanic Center, will accuse PHC of skewing things to carry out an agenda.
It’s just oh so predictable by now.
I mean, these are people who simply won’t let facts get in the way of their mouth-foaming rants.
According to the Pew analysis, which is based on data from the Census Bureau, the decline contributed to a contraction in the overall size of the undocumented population to 11 million people in March 2009 from a peak of 12 million two years earlier. And it went on to say that from 2008 to 2009, illegal immigrants decreased in two states – Virginia and Florida – whose attorney generals are proposing to make into law immigration policies even more Draconian than Arizona’s unseemly – and thankfully, now eviscerated – SB 1070.
Interesting, huh?
Amazing how a little light exposes the cockroaches.
So let them all scream about tighter border control and more deportations, the facts now scream back a different story.
by BradBernstein on September 2, 2010
By the Staff of New York Immigration Attorneys
The Law Offices of Spar & Bernstein
http://www.4immigration.com/
Question: Some of our employees’ green cards have been filed. Their projects have ended. They are working on H-1, but possess EAD and have I-140 approved and I-485 pending more than 180 days. If we revoke their H-1, are we still required to pay full wages if our clients say they do not currently have a project for our employees?
Spar & Bernstein: You are not required to pay “bench salaries” for employees whose H-1 are revoked (remember you must inform CIS and offer employee a one-way ticket home). But we then have exposure to the questions, “do you still have a “permanent” job for them?” If the answer is no, then their GC processing can be interrupted unless they use AC21 portability.
The Law Offices of Spar & Bernstein, 225 Broadway, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10007. Phone: 1-212-227-3636, 1-800-law-link, 1-800-529-5465 Email: info@lawsb.com
by BradBernstein on September 1, 2010
By the Staff of New York Immigration Attorneys
The Law Offices of Spar & Bernstein
http://www.4immigration.com/
We have constantly advised you to tell the truth and nothing but the truth to immigration officials – and that includes the subject of marriage.
When it comes to immigration and gaining U.S. citizenship, marriages should be bona fide, loving unions, NOT a quick way to get a green card.
This very issue landed Mexican soap opera actress Fernanda Romero oddly not before immigration authorities but, unusually, in criminal court.
Closing arguments come today.
Romero is reportedly accused of marrying a pizza deliveryman named Kent Ross merely as an illegal sham, intended only to earn her a U.S. work permit, supposedly paying Ross $5,000 on June 12, 2005 to join hands in matrimony but subsequently never living together as a couple, say prosecutors.
Of course, Romero swears up and down that she loves Ross, but…
1) They didn’t have a family wedding (because, she said, he is Mormon and she is Catholic).
2) They kept separate Hollywood apartments (because he couldn’t break a lease and she traveled a lot, she said).
Not good signs.
The couple could get between 15 and 21 months in prison if convicted, though even the prosecutors say that a shorter sentence is likely in this case.
No matter what happens here, the lesson remains, once again: Don’t lie to immigration officials. Don’t set up a fraud marriage just to get a green card.
You’re only asking for trouble.
The Law Offices of Spar & Bernstein, 225 Broadway, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10007. Phone: 1-212-227-3636, 1-800-law-link, 1-800-529-5465 Email: info@lawsb.com
by BradBernstein on September 1, 2010
By the Staff of New York Immigration Attorneys
The Law Offices of Spar & Bernstein
http://www.4immigration.com/
Question: My wife has been in U.S. for six months on H-1 and is going back to India. In India, if she applies for H-4, will it be necessary to carry any paystubs generated during her stay in US on H-1? Is there a possibility that the consulate might demand for her W2 and paystubs before stamping her H-4 visa?
Spar & Bernstein: The cardinal rule in visas is that consulates can ask for pretty much anything. If they do ask for proof of H-1 employment or pay stubs and you do not have it, the H-4 still cannot be denied. The fact that one has been out of status is no bar to the grant of an H-4 visa.
The Law Offices of Spar & Bernstein, 225 Broadway, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10007. Phone: 1-212-227-3636, 1-800-law-link, 1-800-529-5465 Email: info@lawsb.com
by BradBernstein on August 31, 2010
By the Staff of New York Immigration Attorneys
The Law Offices of Spar & Bernstein
http://www.4immigration.com/
Brace yourselves.
And be prepared a bit of nausea.
The latest CBS poll found that 59 percent of Americans view Arizona’s SB 1070, the immigration bill that allows Arizona to prosecute immigration violations, as “just right,” while another 14 percent think the bill doesn’t go far enough.
Ugh.
Disturbing.
Yet not at all shocking.
As we’ve been chronicling in this space for many weeks now, the country is definitely shifting to hardline conservatism, eschewing a concern for basic human rights and with a decided loathing toward immigrants.
It makes us wonder whether Obama, for all that glow he had at the beginning, will get a second term of presidency or simply become a One-Term Wonder.
It makes us ponder this as well: Is there anything or anyone that can turn things the other way?
Or are we unavoidably on a collision course to an America ruled by the Glenn Becks and the Sarah Palins and the Sheriff Arpaios of the world?
Perish the thought.
