Carl Shusterman Immigration Lawyer Blog

Immigration Blog

Former INS Attorney Carl Shusterman has been writing an immigration blog on a regular basis since 1996.

Hollywood vs. USCIS

In 2008, all four Oscar winners in the acting categories went to foreign-born persons: Daniel Day-Lewis (Best Actor), Marion Cotillard (Best Actress), Javier Bardem (Best Supporting Actor), and Tilda Swinton (Best Supporting Actress). Of course, these actors were all selected by their colleagues, and what do they know about acting? Imagine if the Oscar winners were […]

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Back Door Amnesty? Read the Memo!

On July 29, the National Review Online broke the story about a leaked USCIS memo entitled “Administrative Alternatives to Comprehensive Immigration Reform”. Immediately, Senate Republicans went on the attack. Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) did not hesitate to invoke the dreaded “A word”: “This memo give credence to our concerns that the administration will go to great lengths to […]

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Judge Overturns Arizona Law

On July 28, Federal District Court Judge Susan Bolton granted a preliminary injunction against major sections of Arizona’s new immigration law which were scheduled to become effective the following day. In a 36-page decision, Judge Bolton found that the United States is “likely to succeed on the merits in showing that the following sections of […]

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August 2010 Visa Bulletin – The Great Leap Forward?

For the past three years, all of our articles about the monthly Visa Bulletin have been filled with gloom and doom as the EB numbers continued to retrogress. Absent a legislative fix, we are not about to uncork any bottles of champagne this month. However, we would be remiss if we failed to note that the […]

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Guess Who’s Coming to the United States

Ever wonder how many people get green cards in the U.S. in a year? In 2009, the number was 1.1 million, slightly above the numbers in 2007 and 2008. And what countries did the immigrants come from?  Did the number of immigrants coming from one country exceed 50% of the total? Hardly! Only 15% of […]

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Update on the CSPA Lawsuit

Last April, we submitted our opening brief to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the government’s restrictive interpretation of the “automatic conversation” clause of the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA). Recently, the government asked for additional time to submit their reply brief, and also requested that our lawsuit be combined with a nationwide class action lawsuit involving […]

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House Immigration Subcommittee Hearing on EOIR

On June 17, the House Immigration Subcommittee will hold an oversight hearing on the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), the agency which includes the Immigration Courts and the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA). Back in 2006, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez issued a memorandum outlining a series of reforms for the Immigration Courts and […]

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Our New Immigration Facebook Page: OMG or TMI?

It seems that every time you breathe in and breathe out, there is a new immigration story or event which may affect you. A new law is introduced in Congress, another Visa Bulletin is published, the USCIS has yet again updated its processing times, the Courts have decided an important immigration case, the H-1B cap has been reached, etc., etc. […]

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USCIS Fee Increases: Dollars and Sense?

With USCIS filing fees spewing higher than the BP oil spill, you’d think the President and Congress would be holding press conferences to propose a legislative fix. But, alas, immigrants cannot vote, so who cares? Perhaps their U.S. citizen spouses, parents, sons and daughters, siblings, and employers who have sponsored them for green cards and temporary […]

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She Died but Her Dream Lives On

Tam Ngoc Tran died on May 16th in a car accident. She was a doctoral student in American Civilization at Brown University. I had a brief encounter with this intelligent and lovely young lady in 2006 when I visited UCLA to assist foreign-born students in finding solutions to their immigration problems. Each of the students told me his or her story. Most […]

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