Congress refuses to fix immigration laws | The Rock River Times

 

By Sara Dady
Immigration Attorney, Dady & Hoffmann LLC

The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) is a contradictory maze of requirements, exceptions and exceptions to exceptions. The federal courts find that the INA is second only to the U.S. tax code in its complexity. Attorney John Elwood, who argues cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, said “prolonged exposure” to the INA “can actually cause your brain to melt.”

Immigration to the U.S. is a mess because our laws do not do what we need them to do and do not work as intended. Enforcing a bad law will not make the law better or more effective.

Immigrating lawfully to the U.S. is typically a two-step process. The first step is to have a U.S. citizen or Lawful Permanent Resident (green card holder) family member or employer file a petition for an immigrant. Family and employment visas in all categories, except for immediate relatives of U.S. citizens, are capped. This means there is often a wait of many years, sometimes more than 20 years, before a visa number is available and an applicant can actually apply for a green card. Once a visa number is available, the applicant is not guaranteed a green card. If the applicant has immigration violations, such as multiple entries without inspection to the U.S., unlawful presence in the U.S. for more than one year or certain criminal records, then they are ineligible for a green card for 10 years or forever. For the majority of undocumented people living and working in the U.S., they did not have a lawful way to immigrate in the first place. There was never a line for them to get in, and there still isn’t. Worker visas (which are not green cards) are also capped and have stringent requirements on employers. The bureaucracy and cost of applying for agricultural visas is so burdensome that often the season for which the farmer needed the workers is over before any visas are processed. The U.S. demands migrant farmworkers and other low-skilled workers come to the U.S., but does not provide a way for workers to do so lawfully. Instead, U.S. policy is to spend time and money on the back end to deport undocumented workers, which only hurts employers, families and communities.

The U.S. only has the resources to put 400,000 people in deportation proceedings per year. The immigration courts are so backlogged that it is common for deportations to take more than four years. Increased deportations do nothing to solve the underlying problem, which is our immigration laws do not — in any way — regulate immigration in a fair or orderly way.

As the Senate’s bipartisan immigration reform bill expired in the House this winter, President Barack Obama took executive action to offer temporary protection from deportation and work authorization to a small number of the 11 million undocumented people living in the U.S. Parents of U.S. citizens or green card holders who have been living in the U.S. for the last five years, who have not been convicted of a felony, three misdemeanors or one significant misdemeanor (for example, a DUI or domestic battery) and who have not been ordered deported in the last year, can apply for this protection. Of course, this protection only lasts three years, is not any kind of real legal status, does not forgive any violations of law and does not lead to a green card. It is not a replacement for sensible immigration reform — something that can only come from Congress.

Instead of working on fixing this broken system, Congress appears only interested in continuing to punish people for not getting in a line that they were never allowed to join in the first place. Congress is so upset about the president’s action to alleviate some of the suffering caused by this infernal system that it refuses to work on overhauling our immigration laws (which would pre-empt any of the president’s actions). Clearly, Congress has a bad case of brain melt with no cure in sight.

Sara Dady is an immigration attorney with Dady & Hoffman LLC, 401 E. State St., second floor, Rockford, IL 61104. Her office can be reached at (815) 394-1359 or online at www.dadyhoffmann.com.

These articles are translated by Armando Tello. Armando works for SWITS, a regional translating service, and he also works as a freelance translator. He is from Guatemala, and speaks English, Spanish, German and is learning Italian. He had a small software service in Guatemala, and he is proud to say he is a “computer geek.” Armando may be contacted at the following email address: ckat609@yahoo.com.

From the Jan. 21-27, 2015, issue

Congress refuses to fix immigration laws | The Rock River Times

A new version of the State Bird?

WIU Biological Sciences Professor Brian Peer's research paper about a bilateral gynandromorph bird — a bird with a brownish-gray feathered appearance of a female cardinal on its right side and that of a male cardinal's red feathers on its left side — was recently published by The Wilson Journal of Ornithology and was then featured in Science magazine.

The Northern Cardinal was spotted several years ago in Rock Island (IL) by Peer and his colleague Robert Motz and was observed... between Dec. 2008 & March 2010. The two researchers documented how the cardinal interacted with other birds on more than 40 occasions during that time period and how the bird responded to calls.

"Our paper represents the most detailed observations of a bilateral gynandromorph bird in the wild," said Peer. " We never observed the bird singing and never saw it paired with another cardinal. It was one of the most unusual and striking birds that I've ever seen." Read more about Dr. Peer's research at http://bit.ly/1ED3azs

Boone County benefits from a case of sibling... - Belvidere Daily Republican

 

Boone County benefits from a case of sibling rivalry

By Tricia Goecks
Editor

Boone County’s retiring Public Defender Azhar Minhas’ entry into the legal world began as a challenge between two brothers.

In 1982, Minhas was an entomologist and teaching biology as a university professor in Adelaide, Australia. On a visit to see his brother, a nephrologist in South Elgin, he vaguely mentioned that he might like to study law someday. Minhas’ brother challenged him to take the LSAT (law school admission test) by saying “you think you are a smart guy. I bet you cannot do it.”

The pair drove down to Champaign, Ill. and Minhas took the LSAT exam as a walk in candidate and later spoke to admission officials at Northern Illinois University.

“I forgot about it,” Minhas said of what he thought was little more than an interesting diversion while on vacation.

Minhas continued his trip to visit their sister in Nairobi, Kenya when his brother called with the LSAT results. “He calls me and said ‘by the way you passed the LSAT.’ I asked how I did, he said ‘good.’ I proved my point,” Minhas recalled. “We go home and there was an invitation for me to go to NIU.”

“I never applied, but there it was.”

After discussing the matter with his wife at the time, they packed up everything and moved to the United States and Minhas enrolled in law school at NIU.

As a third year law school student, Minhas began an internship in 1988 with David Towns who was the Boone County first Public Defender. At that time, the Public Defender’s office was a part time position and Towns also worked as a private attorney for other clients.

When Towns decided to run for State’s Attorney, he resigned his role as Public Defender and Dave King replaced him. The case files were packed into bankers boxes and given to King and Minhas. They loaded up the files into the back of their vehicles. Each day they unloaded the relevant boxes and carried them up to the library at the Boone County Courthouse where they met with clients. The two attorneys eventually found permanent space at the PNC Bank Building at 130 S. State Street in Belvidere.

As the workload increased, it became impossible to maintain a private practice as Minhas would simultaneously have court calls in Boone and Kane Counties. “This concession of being able to earn a living through private practice was an illusion,” Minhas said, and he dedicated himself to the Public Defender’s office.

AND THEN CAME A GIFT IN THE FORM OF GOVERNOR GEORGE RYAN

“No matter what else you might think of him, he did the citizens of Illinois a great service when he looked into capital punishment,” Minhas said. “George Ryan’s reforms of death penalty were the most significant step in the criminal justice process in God knows how many years.”

After the death penalty was reinstated in 1976 in the State of Illinois, a group of law students from Northwestern University were able to successfully overturn the convictions of several death row inmates. In all, the convictions of 17 death row inmates were eventually overturned based on the efforts of the Northwestern University students and other attorneys. In 1999, Ryan placed a moratorium on the death penalty in Illinois.

“When George Ryan took over, there were some 34 people on death row. Subsequently 17 of those were exonerated. Now what would you call the system that has a failure rate of more than 50%?” Minhas asked. “Why? Lack of resources.”

“Private attorneys, you cannot pay them enough to do a death case. By law you have to appoint an attorney. Any good attorney in their right mind will not accept an appointment on a death case. Economically it is a lose-lose proposition. The system was left with giving down and out attorneys who could not make a living any other way to represent these people who were facing death. You get what you pay for.”

“Death cases are a category all entirely their own. They have all kinds of different rules and things that kick in. Unless you know the ins and outs of it, your client is going to be hanging. And that is what was going on,” Minhas said. “Some of the attorneys they have been seen to be sleeping during trials. They are old. They are infirm. There is no other way to make a living. They get appointed to these and they fall asleep and people are dying.”

With the reforms put in place by Ryan, a master roll was assembled of attorneys who had sufficient education and background to handle death penalty cases. Minhas was the only attorney in Boone County who qualified and he handled two cases before the death penalty was abolished in Illinois by Governor Pat Quinn.

Among the reforms to the criminal justice system under Ryan’s administration was a recognition that the poor were being denied adequate legal representation. “George Ryan gave the citizens of Illinois a gift. He passed legislation that for the first time determined the value of a defender in terms of money,” Minhas said. In addition to setting the minimum pay scale for Illinois public defenders, the state also picked up the tab for 2/3 of the cost.

With adequate funding for the Public Defender’s office, the Boone County Public Defender’s office became full time. The office currently has four attorneys: Carie Poirier, Aaron Busemi, Kathryn Cross and Robert Bigelow. In addition, Susan Cooper, Nadine Steinke and Terrie Jackson work in the Boone County Public Defender’s office.

As Public Defender, Minhas praised the Boone County Sheriff’s and Belvidere Police Departments. “At 23 years I can tell you this much, the police find the right person on the whole. The right person in the sense that this is a person who did offend the law,” Minhas said.

He views his role as making sure that his client is charged under the correct law and that proper rules are followed. “I walk into Walmart steal something and walk out. What crime did I commit?” Minhas queried. Shoplifting. Retail theft.

“But under the law it can also be a burglary because it is entering without authority into the building of another with the intent to commit a theft,” Minhas explained “If it is shoplifting it is a Class A misdemeanor, a year in local jail. If it is burglary, that the same person for the same action could be sitting in the Department of Corrections. Burglary is a Class 2 felony with a minimum sentence of three years. It could be as much as seven years”.

SERVING THE CITIZENS OF BOONE COUNTY

Often times, defense attorneys are asked how they can defend murders, rapists and child molesters in good conscience. “I am no friend of the child molester or drug dealer,” Minhas said. “All I care is that they go to Hell. But I will make sure that the road to Hell is made of the law. That is my job.”

Of the clients that Minhas and the Public Defender’s office have represented, he views them as his fellow citizens and neighbors. While not making excuses for their actions, he attempted to understand what happened. Many times, that involved getting his clients help for their drug or alcohol addiction or mental health counseling.

Minhas worked hard to help establish a Drug Court in Boone County. The Drug Court is a voluntary program for offenders. Through the program, clients have a higher degree of accountability to the court to undergo drug testing and participate in drug or alcohol outpatient services. The mission is to reduce the overall crime rate while helping the clients get their lives on track.

“If I can help alleviate the problem I think I have helped the community,” Minhas said. He spoke with pride of seeing his former clients and learning that they are on a different path in life and are now working full time, married and have children.

Minhas retired from the Public Defender’s office on Jan. 10. He looked forward to taking his first vacation in three years. Poirier took the oath of office as Minhas’ replacement.

A native of Lahore, Pakistan and having worked in the brutally hot Adelaide, Australia for 20 years, Minhas looked forward to escaping the northern Illinois winter.

Boone County benefits from a case of sibling... - Belvidere Daily Republican

New Poplar Grove administrator has plenty to do... - Belvidere Daily Republican

 

New Poplar Grove administrator has plenty to do
By Bob Balgemann
Reporter

POPLAR GROVE - New Village Administrator Diana Dykstra spent much of her first day with Village President John Neitzel.

She met quite a few residents later that day, when a meet and greet open house was held at 6:30 p.m. in village hall. Thirty minutes later the regularly monthly village board meeting was held.

End result was a plate of issues that was quickly filling up.

Among those asking her to look into particular matters were trustees Owen Costanza, Jeff Goings and Ron Quimby. They were unhappy with the first village administrator, Mark Lynch, and on May 10 voted against keeping him for another year.

Not long after surviving the 4-3 vote, with Neitzel breaking the 3-3 tie in his favor, Lynch resigned and left the village on Jul. 31.

Enter Dykstra, former village administrator, clerk and treasurer of Darien, Wis., on Jan. 12.

Costanza, Goings and Quimby are concerned about the village having three supervisors for just three employees. It could be four supervisors, though not all consider Neitzel, a part-time village president, as having such responsibilities.

They consider Dykstra, Public Works Superintendent Jeff Strate and Office Manager Maureen Brzinski to be supervisors. While the title on the office door states "secretary," they say Brzinski is and always has been much more than that.

The way they see it, Strate supervises two public works department employees while Brzinski supervises a receptionist/secretary, who works in the office. Dykstra supervises all of them and runs the village's day-to-day operation.

FROM FOUR TO TWO

There used to be four public works employees but Lynch dismissed two of them, near the end of his tenure, and they have not been replaced. All public works people are represented, except Strate, under a union contract.

Costanza said he thought the village staff was too small to have three supervisors. "With everything being outsourced, why do we need a public works director?" he asked. "She did three jobs when she was in Darien."

He also would like her to review the recently approved "flow chart," which specifies who is responsible to whom. After looking at the workload, he would like her to "recommend a decrease or increase" in staff.

Costanza considers Neitzel to be a supervisor, though he's not involved in the day-to-day operation of the village.

"She has to make that call," Goings said of the staff structure and number of employees.

In Quimby's view, "let her (Dykstra) have free rein and decide on the structure. Do we have enough employees, too many, not enough? That will be up to her."

Lynch embarked on a similar path and thought the village needed a billing clerk and in-house attorney. A full-time treasurer also was discussed. While some money was proposed for that change in the 2014-15 budget, it did not happen.

As the Jan. 12 board meeting wore on, other issues were discussed that will require the new administrator's attention.

One of them was the growing number of problems at both sewage treatment plants.

Above is from:  New Poplar Grove administrator has plenty to do... - Belvidere Daily Republican

Belvidere Teachers Upset About Class Offerings

 

BELVIDERE (WIFR) – Fewer class options for students are causing greater criticism from teachers in the Belvidere School District.

German 1, Clothing and Home, and Interior Designs will not be offered in District High Schools for the 2015-2016 schedule. Family and consumer science classes will also not be available in the middle schools.

“When you eliminate classes like this with no input from teachers, that says our opinion really doesn’t matter for anything and our thoughts don’t matter,” says Mark Luthin with the Belvidere Education Association.

While teachers ask for more transparency and more involvement in the process, District Superintendent Michael Houselog says the decision was made solely based of student requests over the last four years and those classes had very little interest.

Houselog makes it clear that no teachers are being removed and this process is routinely done very year with no teacher involvement. He says that although there will not be an introductory German class, the district is thinking about introducing Mandarin next year.

Houselog says that only three or four students are in the junior and senior German classes, that program will be weeded out over the next three years. The BEA says there used to be a curriculum council that allowed teachers to voice their concerns about any changes, but there is currently no platform for teachers to do so.

Belvidere Teachers Upset About Class Offerings