The frustration with the federal government’s failure to deal with the issue of illegal immigration resulted in passage of a flawed [Arizona] state law. However intended, the result of passing this law is that our basic principles of equal rights and protection under the law are being called into question, and Arizona’s already struggling economy will suffer even further setbacks at a time when the state can ill-afford them.

The political gesture also caught the attention of President Obama. Speaking to a crowd in the Rose Garden for a Cinco de Mayo reception,

“I know that a lot of you would rather be watching tonight’s game — the Spurs against ‘Los Suns’ from Phoenix,” Obama said. He also added that “I want to begin work this year, and I want Democrats and Republicans to work with me — because we’ve got to stay true to who we are, a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants.”

San Antonio might have done the same if they had enough time to make “Los Spurs” jerseys, according to coach Gregg Popovich.

NBA commisioner David Stern supported the move. And the NBA Players Association not only backed the Suns, but released an even stronger statement criticizing the nation’s toughest immigration law:

“The recent passage of the new immigration law in Arizona is disappointing and disturbing,” said Billy Hunter, executive director of the NBAPA. “The National Basketball Players Association strongly supports the repeal or immediate modification of this legislation. Any attempt to encourage, tolerate or legalize racial profiling is offensive and incompatible with basic notions of fairness and equal protection. A law that unfairly targets one group is ultimately a threat to all.

The Lakers, of course, have been doing their part even before Arizona’s immigration law, by calling themselves “Los Angeles” Lakers.

Titled “Startup Visa Act of 2010,” the bill will grant a two-year conditional visa to an entrepreneur who can secure $250,000 or more for his/her start-up venture from a qualified U.S. investor. After two years, if the company has generated at least five full-time jobs in the U.S., attracted additional $1 million, or achieved at least $1 million in revenue, the immigrant founder will be able to remove the conditions and become permanent resident (green card).

We fully support this proposal. In fact, we have been promoting the same idea for over two years now. Here is what we said in our Immigration Reform section:

Create visa category for entrepreneurs
Expand EB-5 to include entrepreneurs. They will earn permanent residence not by how much money they bring to the U.S., but by how many jobs they can create. It rewards innovation, and might just allow a foreign student with a brilliant idea, but no money, to try and succeed.

This bill will not increase the total number of immigrant visas. Instead, it will create a new EB-6 visa category which draws visas from the existing EB-5 pool. EB-5 is basically rewarding entrepreneurs who are already successful outside the United States and therefore are capable of investing their own money to create U.S. jobs (this is why they are often called investor visas). EB-6, as a comparison, would offer the same reward (green card) to people who are not as rich, but have innovative ideas that are endorsed by angel or venture investors. Both EB5 and EB6 visa holders are given two years to prove their worth, by demonstrating the creation of new jobs or real growth, for example.

A group of 160 venture capitalists and investors are supporting this bill.

Just like any immigration reform bill, it will draw plenty of criticism. And just like any immigration reform bill introduced over the past few years, the odds of eventually becoming law are slim at best, no matter how reasonable they are.

USCIS is getting ready to launch its immigration tracker, maybe as soon as late September!

Aneesh Chopra, the first U.S. chief technology officer, mentioned it during a speech in Silicon Valley today:

‘Customer-friendly may not be at the top of your list of words to express how this agency [USCIS] operates,’ Mr. Chopra said. Still, he argued that the immigrant workers were ‘hungry’ to do better and should soon have tools to help them provide people with better information like how far along they are in the green-card process.

We discussed the tool in an April 27th post. And we are glad that USCIS is actually pulling it together already (vs. two years from now).

Regardless of what USCIS would name it, the “tracker” supposedly will provide real status information about I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status. According to Mr. Aytes, USCIS Acting Deputy Director, it will be much better than the existing status checking system which mostly display one status: “your case is still pending.” Instead, the much anticipated web-based tool is capable of showing “how many people are waiting in line with pending adjustment applications or how long it may be before USCIS can process and approve his application.”

And according to President Obama, immigrants will not only get to check their case status online, but through email and text messaging as well.

Well over 500,000 people are now waiting for their green cards, and even more are waiting to get in line. They can certainly use a status tracker once in a while. Although it doesn’t fix visa retrogression, which is the reason why the line is so long, it hopefully can provide at least an insider’s view on when their ordeal may be over.

Now we just have to wait for the tracker, and see if it actually works.

Here is a sneak peak of the new “vastly improved” USCIS website, to be launched September 22, 2009:

Redesigned USCIS Website

Paul Fong and De Leon, co-sponsors of the bill, said in a statement:

Learning from our past and acknowledging the travesties of justice in our history will help enable us to travel further down the path towards building a stronger state. This resolution seeks to recognize this fact by paying tribute to the significant contributions that Chinese in California made to our state despite the pervasive and sustained discrimination made against them by the State of California.

The apology, although mostly symbolic, is long overdue and will be well received in the Chinese communities throughout the U.S.

Similar bills have passed in recent years, including U.S. government apologizing to African Americans for slavery, and to Japanese Americans for detaining innocent immigrants during World War II.

Time reported that

With the California bill in the bag, Fong now plans to take the issue to Congress, where he will request an apology for the Chinese Exclusion Act, the only federal law ever enacted to deny immigration based exclusively on race or nationality.

Narcotics seizures are at an all time high and illegal immigration apprehensions are at multi-year lows with one quarter remaining in U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s fiscal year 2009, according to the announcement.

CBP officials credited increased enforcement activities for the sharp decline in arrests:

This multi-year decline in illegal cross border apprehension activity follows significant investments in additional personnel, infrastructure and technology …. To date, CBP has added 11,212 enforcement personnel since FY 2006 and 493 miles of fencing along the U.S. southern border with Mexico. Additionally, CBP is in the process of deploying technology in the form of day and night cameras, sensors and radar along the southern and northern border to increase frontline personnel’s situational awareness.

While this may be true, it is hard to argue soaring unemployment rate in the U.S. wasn’t helping. In fact, DHS Office of Statistics published a fact sheet in June that supported this theory:

The decrease in apprehensions between 2005 and 2008 may be due to a number of factors including declining U.S. economic growth and enhanced border enforcement efforts. Border apprehensions in 2008 were at their lowest level since 1976.

Note that the vast majority of apprehensions of illegal immigrants are made by CBP, near U.S. borders; while the rest, involving foreign nationals who may have entered illegally without inspection or entered legally but lost their status, are handled primarily by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Another daunting task for USCIS is to establish a new visa classification, Hold One Back (H-1B), which will tie the visa holder to a single employer, for the rest of his or her life.

A third mission for USCIS is to manage the Evaluate and Debate (EAD) program and the Always Pending (AP) response team. The promising Almost Completed after 21 Years (AC21) project will be demolished.

In order to focus on these objectives, USCIS has designated the handling of other visas, including Failed-Once (F1) and Bye-Bye (B2), to its sister divisions: I See Everyone (ICE) and I See Bad People (CBP).

This announcement brings devastating news to existing applicants, who will begin to receive Return or Face Eviction (RFE) notices in the coming weeks. Aliens who choose to stay will be issued a Get-out Card (GC), and must report to the Ultra Speedy but a little Creepy Immigration Services (USCIS) for prompt Deportation to Outer Space (DOS).

July 10, 2099

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This report has nothing to do with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Department of State (DOS) or Department of Labor (DOL).

An Independent Task Force, co-chaired by former Florida governor Jeb Bush and former White House chief of staff Thomas “Mack” McLarty, released this report:

“The stakes are too high to fail,” says the report. “If the United States continues to mishandle its immigration policy, it will damage one of the vital underpinnings of American prosperity and security, and could condemn the country to a long, slow decline in its status in the world.”

The bipartisan group concludes that illegal immigration is causing damages to U.S. national interest, and is a problem that must be addressed. But in order to do that, the broken legal immigration system must be fixed:

“no enforcement effort will succeed properly unless the legal channels for coming to the United States can be made to work better.” Therefore, “the U.S. government must invest in creating a working immigration system that alleviates long and counterproductive backlogs and delays, and ensures that whatever laws are enacted by Congress are enforced thoroughly and effectively.”

The authors also made several concrete proposals:

The report urges an end to the hard caps on employment-based immigrant visas and skilled work visas in favor of a more flexible system, the elimination of strict nationality quotas, and new opportunities for foreign students earning advanced degrees to remain in the United States after they graduate.

The 168-page report may be downloaded as a PDF document, or ordered online.

But apparently an Immigration Road does exist!

It is a street in the downtown area of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (UAE), near Dubai. There are restaurants, shopping malls, business centers, and of course hotels, such as the Jormand Hotel Sharjah located at the intersection of King Faisal Street and Immigration Road. From what I read online, it is quite a popular area attracting many tourists.

We haven’t found an Immigration Road in the United States yet. But there are two Immigration Streets, one in Charleston, South Carolina; the other in Moyie Springs, Idaho.

When ImmigrationRoad.com was first created, I was actually wondering why there are so few roads named Immigration. Given the consensus that The United States of America is a nation built by immigrants, it is somewhat surprising, especially compared with the number of freeways named after politicians.

Maybe eventually a little more will be done to honor the contribution of millions of immigrants, like naming the newly-developed back road Immigration Lane or something. And chances are, the family that just bought the house on the corner, happen to be immigrants.

Apparently, when asked what else could be done to stimulate the economy, Bernanke said:

I know it’s not very popular to say, but our immigration laws discriminate pretty heavily against talented scientists and engineers who want to come to this country and be part of our technological establishment.

If you allow more people with high-tech skills to come here, you get more innovation and more growth, I know that’s controversial. (source: Washington Post and USA Today)

Pretty strong words from the head of Federal Reserve.

According to Reuters, Obama is planning to deliver a speech on Sunday in Europe, announcing his ambitious plan. Regardless of how it turns out, we applaud this man for just talking about the need to eliminate nuclear weapons. Obviously he is not the first person that raises this topic, but he might be the first to actually accomplish something.

President Barack Obama will call for the elimination of all nuclear weapons across the globe, in remarks on Sunday he hopes will lend credibility to his message in atomic disputes with Iran and North Korea.

People will argue that what if “bad guys” still manage to build them, and suddenly are the only ones that have nukes. Well, it is a valid point. And I’m sure a truly nuke-free world is no easy task by any stretch of imagination. But getting everyone on the same page is an important first step all by itself, and it has to start from somewhere.

Mr. Tim Geithner, the Treasury secretary, insisted that he didn’t know about these bonuses until March 10, days before the payments. But New York Times reported today that in a public hearing, on March 3,  he was asked – loud and clear – what he would do about AIG’s upcoming $165 million bonuses. So now his staff are saying that yes, Mr. Geithner did hear about the bonuses, but he didn’t know the “full extent” of the bonus programs back then.

Senator Chris Dodd flip-flopped in a more obvious fashion. After denying having anything to do with the language in the stimulus bill that allowed AIG bonuses to be paid, he is now saying that he was pressured by the administration to add that clause. Just to be fair, though, we should still give him credit for crafting the measure to curb executive pay in the first place.

Senator Charles Grassley suggested on Monday that AIG executives should do one of two things: “resign or go commit suicide,” even though he later backtracked a little from this strong statement.

Mr. Edward Liddy, current CEO of AIG, testified before angry lawmakers on March 18 that he’d ask employees receiving big bonuses to give some back.

Congress, on the other hand, didn’t have that patience and swiftly passed a bill Thursday that would impose a 90 percent tax on bonuses given to employees with family incomes above $250,000 at AIG and other companies that have received at least $5 billion in government bailout money.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal have both requested further information from AIG, including employee names, bonus amounts and contract details, and may start formal investigation into potential fraud.

Obviously there will be more to come.

Without the bonuses, “We cannot attract and retain the best and the brightest talent to lead and staff the A.I.G. businesses,” according to its Chairman. It is worth mentioning that the bonuses cover AIG’s Financial Products Division, the unit that bet on toxic mortgages which got AIG in such a big hole in the first place.

“Outrageous!” shouted politicians and government officials.

Oh, really?

Why are they acting so surprised? Are you trying to tell me that when they handed out billion-dollar checks, they never saw this day coming? They never discussed the recipient’s financials such as executive compensation, which is what, the basic accounting stuff? They knew AIG needed the money to survive, but didn’t know how they would spent it? If they knew all along, why wait until the week of payment to bring it up?

If you listen to their emotional speeches, most politicians are saying the same things:

1. The bonuses were already in the employees’ contracts;
2. If AIG doesn’t pay, or pay less, those employees are likely to file lawsuits;
3. AIG and government officials will do everything to stop this from happening again in the future.

I don’t know about you, but this is even more ridiculous than their acting on screen.

1. Are the cozy contracts worded in such a way that employees would earn their bonuses regardless of their performance? Are they worded in such a way that as long as they don’t lose more than $100 billion a year, they will be rewarded?
2. The government shouldn’t simply break private contracts. So why didn’t it occur to anyone that they were in a good position to re-negotiate these contracts before delivering the checks? Without the bailouts AIG would have disappeared by now, along with the sweet bonuses.
3. What is an example of that “everything” you will do in the future, but you can’t do right now, or couldn’t do three months ago?

$165 million bonuses! Maybe it doesn’t sound that much compared to CEO compensations we are all so used to, but it is the total yearly income of 2000 hard-working families making $80K. And the sad part, they had to cut a slice of their paycheck, so the government can come up with that $165 million.

His father, a Kenya national, studied in the U.S. on a student visa. Obama himself spent nearly 5 years in Indonesia after his mother relocated there. His extended family, in Obama’s own word, is like “mini-United Nations.”

Born to a broken family, raised by grandparents, no money, no background, no connections, practically nothing, other than a strong will to be successful. Yet Obama managed to graduate from Columbia University and Harvard Law School, to become a U.S. Senator, and to beat a slew of big-shot politicians to win the Presidential Election.

Would this ever happen anywhere else in this world? Sometimes when people say “Only in America!”, they may be joking, or just being sarcastic. But today, not many people would argue.