I will be speaking about LGBT asylum law and same-sex marriage greencards on a panel at Gay City in Capitol Hill Seattle on March 27th at 7PM. See the following description of the event from the website of Social Outreach Seattle. Following the success of Social Outreach Seattle’s “What’s Next After Marriage?” Forum, SOSea’s [TED] Program will continue engaging…
Guest Blog By Lianne Holt-Jensen J.D.Candidate 2014 Seattle University School of Law The bipartisan Senate plan for immigration reform was announced on Monday, January 28th, 2013. In response to this plan, President Obama has “praised the progress in the Senate, saying proposals so far was “very much in line” with his own principles, and he…
Guest Post By Carol Carter Every year 10,000 slots open up for foreigners to “buy” their way into a green card. The EB-5 visa is a program administered by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, a federal agency, to allow foreign investors the opportunity to invest with the goal of obtaining legal permanent residence…
Guest Blog By Lianne Holt-Jensen J.D.Candidate 2014 Seattle University School of Law On December 15th, 2012, Georgia’s “show-me-your-papers” law was reinforced. This law gives law enforcement, in Georgia, the power to investigate the immigration status of suspects and to detain these suspects if they are believed to be undocumented residents. Police officers in Georgia have…
On November 6th, President Obama won a clear victory picking up all but one of the swing states; same-sex marriage was passed by voters in Washington State, Maine and Maryland; and Marijuana was decriminalized in Washington State and Colorado. In this blog post I will discuss briefly the implications of these results on the current…
Guest Blog By Lianne Holt-Jensen J.D.Candidate 2014 Seattle University School of Law On September 26th 2012, letters were distributed clarifying the guidelines used to apply the policy of prosecutorial discretion in cases of same-sex partners. Under prosecutorial discretion, immigrants, with no criminal records, in same-sex partnerships, have been allowed to remain in the United States.…
By Lianne Holt-Jensen J.D.Candidate 2014 Seattle University School of Law On September 17th, 2012, Mitt Romney announced his platform to fix the “broken” immigration system. A part of his plan is to get rid of the diversity visa program in order to bring “families together”. On the surface this sounds like a great idea bringing…
US Citizenship and Immigration Services has posted a new video that clearly explains the Deferred Action process. While USCIS provides a great amount of information for individuals to apply for DACA on their own, I reccomended that those not famliar with immigration law consult with an immigration attorney or a BIA accredited community based organization before…
I was so excited to see Benita Veliz speak at the Democratic National Convention. This is the first time that an undocumented dream-act activist has spoken at a national party convention. Ms. Veliz brings hope to all those undocumented youth who came to the U.S. young through no fault of their own and have grown…
The long-time Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi died today at the age of 57. Mr. Zenawi has ruled Ethiopia for decades. He and his party is known not to tolerate dissent and have been accused of killing, torturing and imprisoning political prisoners. Mr. Zenawi won 99% of the vote in the last election, so…