Helping You Turn Your American Dream Into A Reality
President Obama’s Immigration Accountability Executive Action is a welcome, albeit temporary, relief to our broken and cumbersome immigration system. The President acted within his legal authority, as presidents from both political parties have taken similar steps in past decades – particularly Presidents Reagan and Bush, Sr. Yesterday, President Obama announced his plan, which includes some of the following initiatives: Deferred…
Last weekend I attended the Nextdaybetter-TFC Speaker Salon. TFC is The Filipino Channel, and Nextdaybetter is a “culture platform that builds and activates diaspora communities to create a better future.” “What in the world does that mean?” you may ask. Well, in last Saturday’s context, it meant working with leaders in various areas within the Filipino-American community to help share…
The dire news of the severe California drought has got me wondering what the future holds for our state. Will Californians become refugees in other states? It may sound farfetched now, but at this rate, we are going to become the next Oklahoma dust bowl or go through the crisis that Sao Paulo is going through. I keep wondering if a move to the…
What’s happening? A federal judge in Texas issued a temporary injunction Monday that will halt President Obama’s executive actions. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was supposed to begin accepting applications for the expansion of the DACA program starting February 18. DHS will not begin accepting expanded DACA applications on the 18th as was planned. Existing DACA applications and renewals will not…
I have often read about the “military-industrial complex”, the industry that keeps the U.S. war economy going strong and the country in a perpetual state of war. Today, I learned the term “prison-industrial complex ”. This is the definition I found on Google: The prison industrial complex (PIC) is a term we use to describe the overlapping interests of government and industry that use…
The Iranian-American community and its allies are rallying against discriminatory bill H.R. 158, Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act of 2015. In essence, the bill is overly and unreasonably broad in that it will render ineligible citizens of visa waiver countries who are of Iranian origin (and therefore dual citizens by Iranian law) from the visa waiver program. It…
Media reports from the last week culminated in a White House leak to Politico yesterday that the administration is expected to announce the end of the DACA program on Tuesday. There will be a six-month delay to end the program. If you currently hold DACA status, I encourage you to keep informed and invest in a consult with a licensed…
There is a humanitarian crisis happening at the Southwest border that has caused the White House to seek nearly 4 billion in emergency funding. The U.S. has been experiencing an influx of thousands of young Central American children showing up at the border to escape gang and cartel violence. This has been going on since prior to 2011, with numbers…
One of the initiatives outlined in the Immigration Accountability Executive Action of November 20, 2014 is deferred action for parents of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents (“DAP”). DAP will benefit millions of undocumented individuals living in the United States who are parents of a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident and who meets the following DAP eligibility guidelines: Have…
Last week I toured Angel Island for the first time. I was part of a group of immigration attorneys there for a day trip as part of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) California Chapters Conference in San Francisco. Angel Island is known as the Ellis Island of the West. The immigration station was in operation there from 1910 to…