Process Work Authorizations If You Want More Workers!
AILA Media Advocacy Committee Member Emily Haverkamp highlights the huge obstacles facing asylum seekers seeking work permits while their asylum request is being processed, noting the impact of bad policies on the asylum seekers but also employers seeking workers.
TPS Holders Impacted by Immigration Scams
AILA member Anna Gallagher highlights the importance of avoiding scams and getting qualified counsel in an uncertain immigration environment, particularly those who hold Temporary Protected Status.
California on Immigration—Great Steps Forward and New Requirements for Immigration Attorneys
Governor Jerry Brown signed several bills last week that will make a huge difference for many immigrants. "While Washington waffles on immigration, California's forging ahead," Governor Brown said. "I'm not waiting." The bills are mostly positive, but one creates...
Public Service Announcement: Scammers are lying about immigration reform. Please do your part and share facts and information with your community.
If you are reading this column, it is probably not written for you. It is written for your friends, relatives or neighbors that may not fully understand what has happened, what has not happened and what may happen this year with immigration reform. For those...
The Wrong Help Can Hurt: The Administration Acts to Protect Vulnerable Immigrants
By T. Douglas Stump Every year, thousands of immigrant families fill in their forms, pay sometimes tens of thousands of dollars in fees, and still face deportation. They’ve tried to make better lives for themselves, tried to enter the U.S. legally, and, in the...
Ethics Rules, The Economy, and the Practice of Law
The New Jersey Supreme Court just sanctioned an Immigration Lawyerfor sharing fees with a paralegal. This is a good lesson to be reminded of, particularly in these difficult economic times. As attorneys we are bound by higher standards than regular business people in...
New York Attorney General Cuomo Gets Restitution For The Victims Of UPL
By Deborah Notkin, AILA Past President Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has successfully carried out a crusade against the fraud and deception of "immigration consultants" who take advantage of unknowing and vulnerable immigrants. At a recent media conference, Cuomo...
New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo Steps up to the Plate on Combating the Unauthorized Practice of Law
By Deborah Notkin, AILA Past President Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has been combating the unauthorized practice of law for the last year and a half and has shut down many small outfits preying on immigrant communities. But on January 14, 2010, he took down the big...
Regulating Tax Preparers–A Clarion Call For USCIS
Any immigration lawyer who handles immigration court cases, particularly those involving claims for cancellation of removal, knows the problems caused by badly, and at times fraudulently, prepared tax returns. Most immigrants want to "pay" their taxes. They go to the...
The Harbingers of Doom–UPLers and Those Who Assist Them
Today, New York Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo, turning his attention rather momentarily away from Wall Street, issued more than 50 subpoenas to individuals and businesses in New York City, as part of a widening investigation into immigration fraud by unauthorized...
