Dear Readers:
Immigration continues to dominate the news both because of the presidential election in the US and the civil war in Syria. In both cases, an ugly side of politics has been in full view. In the US, immigration has loomed large in the Republican nomination race. Donald Trump’s recent comments about Mexican immigrants made the most news, but he’s only the latest candidate to run to the right on immigration, hoping to either tap in to or create xenophobia amongst Republican primary voters. While a few of the candidates have tried to espouse moderate immigration positions, all are to the right of the typical voter and most certainly the Democratic presidential candidates.
There’s a famous expression attributed to Albert Einstein that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. And that’s basically what’s happening this primary season. The Republican National Committee’s own post mortem from the 2012 election attributed at least part of the defeat on the party’s perceptions in the Latino community. The Romney campaign’s strategy to be the most anti-immigrant candidate in the primaries no doubt cost him dearly with Latino voters casting ¾ of their ballots for President Obama. Whoever the nominee is this cycle will face a larger Latino electorate than 2012 (as many as two million more) and one that already has a soured view of the party. And if Romney couldn’t win against an unpopular President in the middle of a recession, it’s hard to see how things will be better this time.
In Europe, the images of thousands of Syrian refugees fleeing their homeland has captured the world’s attention, particularly those tragically killed during their journeys. Some of the ugly responses from officials in Hungary and other countries has caught the attention of the rest of world, but the US hasn’t been in the position to lecture. Our refugee admission numbers have shrunk over the years. We have thousands of refugees from Central America – many of them children – still sitting in detention centers on the US’ southern border. Fortunately, it looks like the President is going to finally change our country’s admission policies. The White House has just announced increases in refugee admissions from the current 70,000 level to 100,000 with 10,000 being reserved for Syrians.
There was important news this past month regarding the President’s executive actions. Promised reforms to the Visa Bulletin to allow earlier adjustment of status filings have been announced and will become effective in October. A summary of the changes is included in this month’s ABCs of Immigration feature.
Readers are reminded that we welcome new clients and if you are interested in talking with one of our lawyers, please visit our consultation request form at www.visalaw.com/consultation, email us at [email protected] or call us at 901-682-6455.
Disclaimer: This newsletter is provided as a public service and not intended to establish an attorney client relationship. Any reliance on information contained herein is taken at your own risk.