Archive for October, 2009
Tuesday, October 20th, 2009
The U.S. border with Canada has been subject to increasing scrutiny in recent years, especially since September 11, 2001, when security concerns have overshadowed economic ones, despite the fact of Canada remaining our foremost trading partner. Stewart Rabinowitz, an immigration lawyer with the Dallas-based firm Rabinowitz & Rabinowitz, believes that a crucial balance can be achieved along with improved functioning of border crossings.
The international border between Canada and the United States has inherited a different kind of priority since the attacks of September 11, 2001. Four geographically distinct corridors or “gateways” exist along the 3,000+ mile U.S. – Canada border: the Cascadian gateway in the Pacific Northwest, the Great Lakes gateway in the Midwest, the extensive Rural gateway in unpopulated areas, and the Continent spanning Perimeter gateway. “Each needs a different mix of infrastructure and technology to respond to unique regional conditions,” says Rabinowitz.
What’s just as important to consider are the different types of U.S. Canadian users. “Five types of users predominate,” Rabinowitz explains, “Commercial shippers, energy shippers, regular commuters, tourists, and perhaps most crucially, illicit border crossers. The prevalence of these five types of people in varying degrees of concentration says a great deal about the surprising heterogeneity of our northern border.” What Rabinowitz objects to is that the post-2001 border strategy stresses uniformity while downplaying this diversity. “We employ one-size-fits-all rules that ignore this diversity, and sometimes conflate conditions at the U.S. – Canadian border with those at the more difficult U.S. – Mexican border,” he argues.
One contentious issue is that borderland communities have little or no channel for regular input on key policy issues. Regional differences are often minimized or even overlooked by “one border” rules and programs. “Some categories of U.S. border users have seen their needs addressed, but overall the picture is less positive, and a balance between security and prosperity is lacking,” Rabinowitz says. All too frequently, “one border” rules falsely equate U.S-Canadian border conditions with those of the more challenging U.S – Mexican border.
A complicating factor is the current recession. The auto industry has been struck with particular force and this industry remains critical to U.S. – Canada trade. “Without a bi-national integration of North American manufacturing, the economy of not only these two countries but the global economy continues to suffer,” Rabinowitz explains.
Rabinowitz advocates several initiatives that may prove conducive to achieving the necessary balance. “It’s important to publicly adopt a two-speed approach to the Canadian and Mexican borders,” he stresses, “while emulating the 30-point U.S. – Canada Smart Border Action Plan on a local level.”
To learn more about Rabinowitz & Rabinowitz, P.C., call 1.972.233.6200 or visit http://www.rabinowitzrabinowitz.com.
Tags: Dallas immigration, Dallas Immigration attorney, Dallas Immigration lawyer
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Thursday, October 15th, 2009
Immigration lawyer Stewart Rabinowitz of the Dallas-based law firm Rabinowitz & Rabinowitz touts a new USCIS program that helps foreign widowed spouses.
U.S. Attorney General Janet Napolitano announced a new policy to assist widowed citizen immigrants to remain in the United States, despite the loss of their citizen partner.
“If a foreign national marries a United States citizen and the citizen partner dies, the widowed foreign national spouse can still remain eligible to gain permanent resident status, provided he or she was the spouse of a United States citizen for at least 2 years at the time of the citizen’s death and was not legally separated from the citizen at the time the citizen spouse died,” says immigration lawyer Stewart Rabinowitz of the Dallas-based law firm Rabinowitz & Rabinowitz. Such persons must file with USCIS within 2 years after the citizen spouse’s death to remain eligible to gain an immigration benefit from the marriage, provided the widowed foreign national spouse has not remarried. For widowed foreign national spouses whose marriages were not yet two years old at the time of the citizen spouses’ death, USCIS takes the position that a petition based on that marriage and a corresponding adjustment application must be denied. “This circumstance has been labeled the widow penalty,” Rabinowitz adds.
To alleviate the dual impact that currently exists, the new policy permits a widowed foreign national spouse to file for “deferred action status.” Deferred Action is a form of prosecutorial discretion whereby the Department of Homeland Security agrees not to remove the widowed foreign national spouse for a 2 year period and permits the widowed foreign national spouse and unmarried children younger than 21 and currently residing in the United States to also remain here. Foreign national spouses granted deferred action status can also apply for employment authorization and travel permission.
The widow penalty issues have been the subject of ongoing litigation. Several U.S. Courts of Appeal decisions have interpreted the underlying federal statute far differently than USCIS. For widowed foreign national spouses residing in the 1st, 6th or 9th Circuits, under the law of those circuits, such persons remain eligible to gain permanent residence based on marriage to the deceased U.S. citizen, despite the death of the citizen spouse within 2 years of marriage.
Deferred action status is an interim, administrative remedy. Only a legislative change can provide long term relief for this group of widowed foreign national spouses.
To learn more about Rabinowitz & Rabinowitz, P.C., call 1.972.233.6200 or visit http://www.rabinowitzrabinowitz.com.
Tags: Dallas immigration, Dallas Immigration attorney, Dallas Immigration lawyer
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A program of voluntary humanitarian repatriation has been continued for the sixth consecutive year.
The U.S. and Mexican governments recently announced resumption of a voluntary program to return Mexican nationals, who are unlawfully in the United States and who have been apprehended in the Sonora Arizona desert area, to the Mexican interior as a way of preventing loss of life for certain at risk Mexican populations. Increasing numbers of incidents along the U.S.-Mexican border regions from California to Texas involved directly or peripherally with contraband smuggling or illegal transportation of people, with escalating levels of violence, have been reported. An alarming level of killings, kidnappings, and other criminal activity has been frequently reported in the press and is occurring. Verified incidents of violence are also on the rise in recent years.
In a program referred to as the Mexican Interior Repatriation Program or the MIRP, the United States Department of Homeland Security and the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Mexican Ministry of the Interior recently announced the resumption of the MIRP for the sixth consecutive year. The program represents voluntary cooperation between both governments with the dual goal of reducing loss of life and fighting organized crime linked to the smuggling persons into the U.S.
The MIRP identifies Mexican nationals caught in the Arizona desert sector who are taken to certain U.S. Department of Homeland Security facilities where they meet with Mexican Consular officials, are screened medically, and then offered the chance to return voluntary to their places of origin within the Mexican interior. The MIRP further considers persons who may be vulnerable to the Arizona summer heat because of their age, or who may be vulnerable to exploitation by criminal gangs operating in the area because of the distance to their hometowns in Mexico, for participation in the program. The MIRP runs daily flights from Tucson, Arizona, to Mexico City. Participants then take buses for the final leg of the trip back home. The MIRP excludes participation by foreign nationals convicted of violent crimes.
This year’s first MIRP flight left Tucson on August 22, 2009. The MIRP runs through September 28, 2009. More than 80,000 persons opted to participate in MIRP during the last 5 years.
