Masliah & Soloway Immigration Updates

Noemi Masliah Selected by SuperLawyers as "Seriously Outstanding"

noreply@blogger.com (M&S Attorney) — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 18:39:00 +0000

Seriously Outstanding

only 5% selected each year

This month Noemi Masliah was selected as on of the few "seriously outstanding" attorneys in the field of immigration and nationality law in the New York metropolitan area.

Jorge Campos, Fabrice Van Michel Join M & S

noreply@blogger.com (M&S Attorney) — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 23:06:00 +0000

This year we welcomed two recent LLM graduates to the firm. Both have sat for the New York Bar exam and both look forward to applying for admission to the bar soon. Together they represent a diverse background of life experiences, education and employment histories. They are now hard at work as law clerks alongside the attorneys in our office working on issues ranging from employment and family based immigration to asylum applications.

Jorge Campos has been engaged in detailed analytic international law issues for more than eight years. Between 2001 and 2005, Jorge served as an attorney for Grupo ICA in Mexico City, providing legal advice in connection with international financial transactions and labor law. Between 1996 and 2001 he worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers in Mexico City as an in-house counsel providing legal advice on a broad range of issues including immigration and labor law, employee benefits, tax and corporate law. In 2006, he received his LLM from Fordham University in Information Technology and Intellectual Property. Prior to that he received his MBA from Thunderbird, the International School of Business Management in Glendale, Arizona. In 1999 he received his masters in Labor Law from Universidad Tecnologica de Mexico in Mexico City and was admitted to practice in Mexico in the same year, Jorge Campos received his law degree in 1997 from Universidad Tecnologica de Mexico in Mexico city He is fluent in English and Spanish.

Fabrice Van Michel is a native of Belgium but was raised in Germany and France. With a focus on immigration, he obtained a law degree at the University of the Sorbonne in Paris, a Master’s degree in European studies from the College of Europe in Bruges, and a second Master’s degree in Human Rights at the University of Louvain. For several years thereafter he practiced immigration and asylum law at the Conseil d'Etat, the highest administrative court in Belgium. Fluent in French, German, English, and Spanish, he co-authored the publication "Freedom of Movement of Persons", a discourse on worker immigration throughout the European Union, a subject he further explored while volunteering with the NGO "Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants" (PICUM). In 2008, Fabrice completed his LL.M at Columbia Law School in New York City as a Fulbright scholar.

Wendy Erdly Joins Masliah & Soloway

noreply@blogger.com (M&S Attorney) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 13:24:00 +0000

Wendy Erdly joined Masliah & Soloway in the spring of 2008 and has been actively involved in our business immigration practice, including all non-immigrant visa matters (e.g., E-1, E-2, H-1B, L-1A, L-1B, and O-1 petitions), PERM Labor Certifications, and Employment-based First Preference (EB-1) cases for aliens of extraordinary ability.

Ms. Erdly received her B.A., magna cum laude, from Lafayette College in 1999, where she was Phi Beta Kappa. In 2002, Ms. Erdly received her J.D. from Vanderbilt University Law School where she was a Dean's List student, the Chief Justice of the Moot Court Board and the recipient of the school’s award for Scholastic Excellence in Constitutional Law. Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Erdly was a litigation associate with Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP where she prosecuted securities fraud cases and represented public pension fund clients in litigation recoveries in excess of $300 million. Earlier in her career, Ms. Erdly practiced with Dewey Ballantine where she focused on securities fraud and white collar criminal defense cases (including internal investigations and SEC investigations). Ms. Erdly’s experience with complex business matters and representation of corporate and public clients gives her unique insight into the needs of corporate clients and their immigration issues. ADMISSIONS: Admitted to bar, New York, (2003). U.S. District Court, Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, (2004). Also a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

CBP Announces Travel Tips

noreply@blogger.com (M&S Attorney) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 22:54:00 +0000

The United States Customs and Border Protection Agency has announced travel tips for international travelers this summer. On any given day the Customs and Border Protection Agency welcomes more than one million international travelers into the United States. Below are some of the agency’s tips for a smooth entry into the U.S.:

· Have all required travel documents for the countries you are visiting at the ready. Make sure you have identification for your re-entry into the United States and remember that passports are required when traveling to the U.S. by air.
· Many food and agricultural items are prohibited or must meet certain requirements, such as a license or permit. Take care to find out the rules and regulations for these items before traveling.
· When you arrive in the United States, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officer will inspect you. Be prepared to tell the officer the purpose of your visit and any items that you purchased or obtained abroad.
· Using the same process as you experienced when you got your visa, the Customs and Border Protection Officer may require you to provide your biometrics – digital finger scans and photograph – to verify your identity against your travel documents.
· Be certain that when you depart the United States the airline ticket agent collects your I-94 form.
· Review the Customs and Border Protection Agency’s “Top 10 Travel Tips” before your trip for answers to commonly asked questions regarding international travel. They can be found on the agency’s website at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/vacation/kbyg/
· To estimate how long your clearance process will take, visit the Customs and Border Protection Agency’s website at cbp.com to view recent wait times for the airport that you will arrive at.
· Remember that if you are traveling by plane to Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean or Bermuda, you must have a passport or other accepted form of documentation to enter or depart the United States.
· People, from the Western Hemisphere, who enter the United States via land and sea ports must have documentary proof of identity and citizenship such as official passports, passport cards, copies of birth certificates along with government-issued photo identification, enhanced driver’s licenses and NEXUS cards.

Lobbying for Immigration Reform

noreply@blogger.com (M&S Attorney) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 23:03:00 +0000

On April 3, 2008, I participated in the American Immigration Lawyers’ Association’s National Day of Action by going to Washington DC and visiting the legislative counsel or assistants of some New York State Congressional delegations. As I do every year on that day, I, together with AILA members from around the country, lobbied for our country’s Senators and Representatives to fix the devastatingly broken immigration system. My group visited the offices of Representatives Vito Fossella, Michael McNulty and Jerrold Nadler. I joined another group in speaking to Senator Hillary Clinton’s Deputy Counsel and a Legislative Fellow. At each stop, we pushed for increases in the quota numbers for family- and employment-based immigrant visa categories. We described the need for additional highly skilled foreign workers and for a reinstatement of the previous benefits which had been available to the once approved H-2B workers. We suggested a special immigrant category for nurses in light of the dire shortage felt by all the hospitals around the country. Passage of the Dream Act, that no brainer of statute, was again encouraged. Not missing the opportunity, I again impressed each of our listeners of the importance of enacting the Uniting American Families Act and of repealing the HIV ban from the immigration law. Of course, we all agreed that the passage of a comprehensive reform package where all of these ameliorative changes would be included was the ideal but not one of these offices seemed optimistic that such a package could pass at this time. Each of them seemed to think that a piecemeal approach had more possibilities in the near future.

Something tells me that I will be back to lobby Congress next year.

Noemi Masliah

Repeal Ban on HIV+ Immigrants

noreply@blogger.com (M&S Attorney) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 16:31:00 +0000

AMERICAN IMMIGRATION LAWYERS ASSOCIATION

POSITION PAPER

REPEAL THE HIV BAN

918 F Street, NW Washington, DC 20004

Phone: (202) 216-2400 Fax: (202) 783-7853

The Issue: The United States currently has one of the world’s harshest immigration policies for individuals who are HIV-positive. Under section 212(a)(1)(A)(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act ("INA"), foreign nationals who are HIV-positive are statutorily inadmissible, preventing them from obtaining lawful permanent residence, or even visiting the United States unless they meet strict rules for an HIV waiver. The result of this policy has been to needlessly deny applications for lawful permanent residence for applicants with established lives in the U.S., to prevent employers from retaining qualified workers, and to harm business without serving any legitimate government interest.

AILA’s Position: AILA strongly supports amending the INA to remove the statutory conclusion that HIV is a "communicable disease of public health significance." Prior to 1993, and continuing today for all illnesses other than HIV, the determination of what diseases should affect a foreign national’s admissibility to the United States has been a question of public health which is legitimately left to the realm of the Department of Health and Human Services ("HHS").

• Singling out HIV as the only statutory medical ground of inadmissibility serves no legitimate purpose, stigmatizes those who are living with this treatable disease, and diminishes the international legitimacy of the United States as it leads the global fight against HIV/AIDS.
The HIV ban does not protect public health. At the time the HIV ban was codified in 1993, the general public still did not understand how HIV was transmitted, and there were virtually no treatment options. The situation is much different today.

• Now that it is clear that HIV is not spread by casual contact and that it can be a treatable, chronic illness, there is no reason to treat it differently under immigration law from all other medical conditions.

• While the INA technically excludes even visitors who are HIV-positive from entering the U.S., as a practical matter, it is likely that hundreds if not thousands of HIV-positive individuals enter the U.S. every year because Department of Homeland Security or Department of State officials generally learn that a prospective visitor is HIV-positive only if he or she self-discloses. There is no evidence that these HIV-positive visitors have created any danger to U.S. public health.

• Many HIV-positive foreign nationals who are now in the United States as permanent residents or citizens of the United States were HIV-negative when they first came to the United States. Their contributions to this country’s economic, scientific and cultural welfare have in no way been minimized by their medical condition. Similarly, many non-immigrants contract the virus after their arrival in the United States. To deprive them, when they are otherwise eligible, from filing for adjustment of status to permanent residence simply because they are now HIV-positive has no rational basis given that they are already here.

• The HIV ban does not protect the American public against high public health expenditures on behalf of foreign nationals. Another primary argument used to justify the HIV ban is the high cost associated with HIV medication but this argument is not supported by the facts.

• With very limited exceptions, foreign nationals who are visiting the United States on short term visas or under the Visa Waiver Program are not eligible for publicly-funded health benefits.

• Virtually all applicants for lawful permanent residence must prove that they are not likely to become a public charge. Likewise, an adjudicating officer already has the power to deny an application for admission as a non-immigrant if the officer believes the applicant could pose a financial burden on the United States.

• Requiring that applicants for lawful permanent residence have close relatives to apply for an HIV waiver bears no relationship to protecting public health.

• Under current law, only applicants who are the spouse or unmarried son or daughter of a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident; the minor unmarried lawfully adopted child of a U.S. citizen; the parent of a son or daughter who is a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident; or certain humanitarian applicants (such as refugees, asylees, and those eligible for VAWA) are even eligible to apply for an HIV waiver.

• This requirement bears no relationship to any possible public health justifications for the HIV ban and disqualifies many highly skilled, fully insured workers from ever obtaining residence in the United States.

Current Legislation: The "HIV Nondiscrimination in Travel and Immigration Act of 2007" (H.R. 3337 /S.2486) was introduced in the House by Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA) in August 2007 and by Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Gordon Smith (R-OR) in December 2007. The bill would amend the INA to remove HIV as a statutory ground of inadmissibility, leaving the determination of whether or not HIV is a "communicable disease of public health significance" to be made by HHS, as it is for all other illnesses. HIV is currently on the HHS list, so passing the bill would not immediately end the HIV ban, but it is an important first step in doing so. AILA strongly supports passage of this bill, and the removal of HIV from the HHS list.

Masliah & Soloway Joins Protest In Support of Pakistani Lawyers

noreply@blogger.com (M&S Attorney) — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:47:00 +0000

The lawyers of Masliah and Soloway joined hundreds of their colleagues a public rally today in front of the New York Supreme Court at 60 Centre Street to express solidarity with our beleaguered colleagues at the Pakistani bar. In protesting Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf’s November 6, 2007 declaration of a state of emergency and his unilateral suspension of the country’s constitution, many Pakistani lawyers have been arrested, including the President of their Bar Association. The violent repression of lawyers anywhere cannot go unnoticed.

Wendy Erdly Joins Masliah & Soloway

noreply@blogger.com (M&S Attorney) — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 21:35:00 +0000

Wendy Erdly joined Masliah & Soloway this spring and has been actively involved in our business immigration practice, working on various non-immigrant visa matters (e.g., E-1, E-2, H-1B, L-1A, L-1B, and O-1 petitions) and PERM Labor Certification, and Employment Based First Preference (EB-1) cases for aliens of extraordinary ability.

Ms. Erdly received her B.A., magna cum laude, from Lafayette College in 1999, where she was Phi Beta Kappa. In 2002, Ms. Erdly received her J.D. from Vanderbilt University Law School where she was a Dean's List student, the Chief Justice of the Moot Court Board and the recipient of the school’s award for Scholastic Excellence in Constitutional Law. Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Erdly was a litigation associate with Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP where she prosecuted securities fraud cases and represented public pension fund clients in litigation recoveries in excess of $300 million. Early in her career, Ms. Erdly practiced with Dewey Ballantine where she focused on securities fraud and white collar criminal defense cases (including internal investigations and SEC investigations). Ms. Erdly’s experience with complex business matters and representation of corporate and public clients gives her unique insight into the needs of corporate clients and their immigration issues. ADMISSIONS: Admitted to bar, New York, (2003). U.S. District Court, Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, (2004)