White House to host immigration meeting on Thursday

[newbie2020]

White House to host immigration chat - White House- msnbc.com
WASHINGTON - The White House is hosting an immigration discussion Thursday with advocates, religious groups, businesses and law enforcers as part of an effort to bring all parties to the heated debate into one room.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will lead the discussion, said an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting is not public.
Homeland Security spokesman Matt Chandler said Napolitano has been holding similar meetings across the country during the past few weeks. He said Napolitano thinks it is important to speak directly to the people who are affected by the department's policies....
Last week President Barack Obama said immigration reform is important, but other priorities such as his health care overhaul and financial regulation must come first.
Obama said he expects to see draft legislation for an overhaul in the immigration rules by the end of the year, but changing the system will have to wait until next year. The immigration system is undeniably broken, he said, and he expects there will be a fight over how to change it.
It has been a roller coaster ride for immigrant rights advocates pushing for change during the past few years. When a call to action came in 2006, more than a million people nationwide marched in solidarity to fight a bill considered anti-immigrant. Since then, two legislative attempts failed.
Napolitano said last week that her department's job is to enforce the immigration laws currently on the books. She said, "When the law changes, we will be prepared to enforce that law as well." .

[gc_on_demand]

Originally Posted by newbie2020

White House to host immigration chat - White House- msnbc.com
WASHINGTON - The White House is hosting an immigration discussion Thursday with advocates, religious groups, businesses and law enforcers as part of an effort to bring all parties to the heated debate into one room.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will lead the discussion, said an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting is not public.
Homeland Security spokesman Matt Chandler said Napolitano has been holding similar meetings across the country during the past few weeks. He said Napolitano thinks it is important to speak directly to the people who are affected by the department's policies....
Last week President Barack Obama said immigration reform is important, but other priorities such as his health care overhaul and financial regulation must come first.
Obama said he expects to see draft legislation for an overhaul in the immigration rules by the end of the year, but changing the system will have to wait until next year. The immigration system is undeniably broken, he said, and he expects there will be a fight over how to change it.
It has been a roller coaster ride for immigrant rights advocates pushing for change during the past few years. When a call to action came in 2006, more than a million people nationwide marched in solidarity to fight a bill considered anti-immigrant. Since then, two legislative attempts failed.
Napolitano said last week that her department's job is to enforce the immigration laws currently on the books. She said, "When the law changes, we will be prepared to enforce that law as well." .

This kind of meetings are going on since last 2-3 months but they will not touch any CIR before Jan 2010. I think Jan - Apr 2010 is critical time for us if any thing happens. If not then don't keep hope for another 3 years.

[neelu]

Would it be a good idea for IV to present our case at these meetings? Can IV get a seat at the table?

Or, is it not important, because lawmakers are the ones that need to be educated and influenced?

[immigrant2007]

how do we know that someone will raise our concern?
My question is even simpler, please tell us how long do we need to wait and why on the face of earth people from 2001, 2002, 2003 , 2004 still in backlog? Just give a temproray green card to evryone stuck due to backlog

[gbof]

Originally Posted by dummgelauft

More hot gas.
These meetings and summits are nothing more than PR exercises to string along us and the illegal trespassers.
EB-I (both 2 and 3) are stuck in a place where the "sun don't shine".
Visa recapture does not need legislation, and can be done by executive order, but will the President do it. NO.

Why NO?

USCIS and AILA is aware of huge backlogs and meetings like these (at the highest level) openswith a clear intent for remedial measures to be adopted to get over existing flaws. Guys, we know PERM processing came into effect bacause of uscis thinking that it was taking years for LC clearance.

I have full faith in the 'still broken' system, when president too is aware of. CIR is awafully complicated issue but before anything like CIR comes they need to think of backlog legal applicants.

We should hope for the best

[maximus777]

One can always hope, but still needs to be firmly rooted in reality. What is stopping the the "change man" from issuing an executive order to recapture lost visas now that he has deemed CIR not important enough and relegated it to the next year?!?

[chil3]

What IV is doing on recapturing visas ...previously we used to see some activity on this topic but nothing now....I don't understand what IV does with the money it collects every month...If we access this website just to discuss our immigration problem then murthy.com also does the same then why the contribution is for...??

If apart from showing the $ collection bar on the top..if IV show the activities scheduled for the month then I believe bigger contribution can be achieved....

Don't angry on me ...

[chil3]

What IV is doing on recapturing visas ...previously we used to see some activity on this topic but nothing now....I don't understand what IV does with the money it collects every month...If we access this website just to discuss our personal immigration problem then murthy.com also does the same then why the contribution is for...??

If apart from showing the $ collection bar on the top..if IV show the activities scheduled for the month then I believe bigger contribution can be achieved....

[dummgelauft]

Originally Posted by gbof

[/color]

Why NO?

USCIS and AILA is aware of huge backlogs and meetings like these (at the highest level) openswith a clear intent for remedial measures to be adopted to get over existing flaws. Guys, we know PERM processing came into effect bacause of uscis thinking that it was taking years for LC clearance.

I have full faith in the 'still broken' system, when president too is aware of. CIR is awafully complicated issue but before anything like CIR comes they need to think of backlog legal applicants.

We should hope for the best

I have said what I think is realistic. You can continue to HOPE all you want, but mere hope gets you nothing, null, jack-squat..

If the President feels that strongly about CIR, but thinks now is not the time, what is there to stop him for issuing an executive order to start visa re-capture. Bill Clinton did it, why not Barack Obama?
I think the President does not even know about the sorry state of affairs with the EB community. Even if he does, he does not care. The reason is simple - Political Clout; of which we have next to none. We (EB community) are not un-educated, trespassing, cow-herders and farmers from latin america. Rather, most of us are educated individuals who strive to do well in life by the dint of hard work, not government handouts.
We DO NOT represent a massive vote bank. We represent ZERO political capital.

[kate123]

Originally Posted by dummgelauft

More hot gas.
These meetings and summits are nothing more than PR exercises to string along us and the illegal trespassers.
EB-I (both 2 and 3) are stuck in a place where the "sun don't shine".
Visa recapture does not need legislation, and can be done by executive order, but will the President do it. NO.

WRONG...

Recapture can't be by executive order... Its a legislative change... President has no power to recapture the visas.

[dummgelauft]

Originally Posted by maximus777

One can always hope, but still needs to be firmly rooted in reality. What is stopping the the "change man" from issuing an executive order to recapture lost visas now that he has deemed CIR not important enough and relegated it to the next year?!?

Thank You, I am happy that you think straight.
CNN.com has a big article by one Rudy Ruiz, crying out a river about how the President has once more, relegated CIR to 2010, which basically means 2011, and realistically, "NOT THIS TIME".
Where is our Rudy Ruiz...our Navarette..

[gbof]

Originally Posted by eastindia

I find your post without understanding of what the true intentions of these lawyers and politicians are.
You say AILA and USCIS knows this. If they know this how come AILA has not fixed this issue for past so many years?

What have AILA achieved for us in the last 5 years? Please enlighten me.

Why do you think they should think of legal immigrants? Don'y you know undocumented folks have a more humane reason to be considered than rich arrogant folks like us? This administration won because of Hispanic votes and not because of Indian American votes. In fact they always said in their campaign that they do not want American jobs be taken away by foreigners. So why will they clear the backlog for foreigners?

Well, I donot want to argue on this.....AILA may not have any special love for EB but they are on the table and constitute a kind of advisory. btw, Who can forget congresswoman Logran and AILA pressure on uscis Juy07 fiasco. Congresswoman Logran and

Now, reforms is a process and they can not overlook this big backlog.
They may have to FIX backlog EB petetions (and have a plan for this) before they go for CIR.....they did creat 'backlog centers' to handle old LC petetions
...my 2 cents...

[maximus777]

Originally Posted by eastindia

Give me one good political reason why he should pass an executive order for you?

Why are you so important for him? He has repeatedly said in his campaign that he will not let American jobs be taken way by foreigners.

What god to the country will happen by recapture? Nothing.
Recapture will allow H1Bs to take promotions in Jobs and make more money
H1Bs will get greencard for their wife and children who will join the work force and take away American Jobs during recession.
Nobody cares about promotions or getting your wife to be able to work.

I do not see any strong reasons for recapture in the posts on the forum other than getting people getting the greencard for their 'own'. This selfish reason does not serve US national interest. People need to come up with stronger reasons if they need a recapture.

On that note, what good came out of the amnesty/immigration reform that Bush Sr and Clinton signed off on? What good did it do to this country? Didnt Bush Sr lose his re-election bid??

Like it or not, in a global economy jobs/businesses will go to places that can provide quality products for a fraction of the cost - be it Buffalo, Bangalore or Shanghai. Call it what you want, that is basic capitalism for you.

Bottomline, does this administration want well educated, tax paying, law abiding legal immigrants from India and China or not? If not, close the shutters and end this farce. Talking about election promises, they are just that - promises! Didnt he promise CIR this year in his campaign? Sick of the double talk.

[immigrant2007]

okay does someone have a bright idea what we all can do? I think if 40000 to 50000 of us go and make a collective effort we will know the results immediately.

[simple1]

I fully agree with kate123. meeting lawmakers is the only way to achive our goals.

Originally Posted by kate123

WRONG...

Recapture can't be by executive order... Its a legislative change... President has no power to recapture the visas.