Law Office of Bonnie Stern Wasser

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=514285124068916&id=100064622982678

Still need to register? You can visit your county elections office until 8 p.m. tonight to register and vote.

County elections office contact info: https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/auditors.aspx
¿Todavía necesita registrarse? Puede visitar la oficina electoral de su condado abierta hasta las 8 p.m. de esta noche para registrarse y votar.

Información para contactar la oficina electoral del condado: https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/auditors.aspx
仍然需要登記？您可以在今晚8點之前前往您所在縣的選舉辦公室進行登記並投票。

縣選舉辦公室聯絡資訊： https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/auditors.aspx
Quý vị vẫn cần đăng ký? Quý vị có thể đến văn phòng bầu cử tại quận của mình trước 8 giờ tối nay để đăng ký và bỏ phiếu.

Thông tin liên hệ của văn phòng bầu cử quận: https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/auditors.aspx

Not sure who to vote for? Ballot pamphlets about Washington State Candidates and referenda in multiple languages can be found here. https://voter.votewa.gov/GenericVoterGuide.aspx?e=877&c=99 #/ . See language tab in the upper right.

WashingtonVIP

In Washington State, you can track your ballot. It can take a few days from the day you mail it or deposit it in a voter box. Click on the "Ballot Status" link on the left side AFTER you enter in your personal information on this page:

Voter Portal

Don't forget to vote especially if you are a new citizen! The deadline for voting in Washington State is 8pm on November 8. If you haven't registered to vote yet, you still can, but you'll have to do it at your local voting office in person, which you can find here: https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/auditors/default.aspx . You can register up to November 8 and also vote while you're at the office until 8pm. (See language tab, upper right of that page.)

County Elections Departments in Washington State - Elections & Voting - WA Secretary of State The Secretary of State is the state's chief elections officer, chief corporations officer, and supervisor of the State Archives and State Library.

There will be actions all over the state on Monday 10/11.

Our stories, our suffering, and our successes have been used in Democratic campaigns, always paired with promises of citizenship. And for 35 years, those promises have been broken.

Immigrants got Democrats elected. Immigrants got us through the pandemic. Immigrants deserve more.

Join us in the streets this coming Monday, October 11th, to urge Congress to pass ! Find an action near you: bit.ly/keepyourpromise21

It looks like the Parlimentarian is not going to approve the Dems’ path to citizenship components of the reconciliation bill. Boo. That means we have to fight harder and try other strategies.

https://apple.news/AJMzPmKOYQLOhwe4j8rv0Cw

Democrats unlikely to get immigration measure in $3.5 trillion budget proposal after Senate parliamentarian ruling — CNN Politics Senate Democrats likely will not be able to include a pathway to legalization for millions of immigrants in their $3.5 trillion bill to expand the country's social safety net after new guidance from the Senate parliamentarian Sunday night.

Please take action today! Please contact your Senators and ask them to vote for The DREAM act and related bills to preserve DACA and to put people in a path to meaningful residence and citizenship status. Use this link and customize your message why they should do this. Tell your personal story or those of people you care about. https://p2a.co/yw22oT6

Tell your Senator: We need a permanent solution for Dreamers

Listening to the panel from the DHS/USCIS ombudsman's office at the AILA National Conference. The ombudsman is not part of USCIS specifically. People often contact them after frustrations and lack of results from USCIS customer service options (and you must try those options first before getting help from the ombudsman, which is an office of last resort). The ombudsman reported inquiries to them have increased 160% since this time last year. This is from a combination of COVID and office closures/fewer cases handled due to social distancing, the 10/2020 Visa Bulletin quota rush for Indian/Chinese employment cases, other trends (and the last administration grinding things to the ground). The theme across all the panels today has been about the backlogs in all categories. So, if you think your case is taking too long, you are not along. This office also looks at problem trends and makes recommendations for operational and policy improvements to USCIS.

USCIS panel at the annual American Immigration Lawyers Association conference discussing how they plan to reduce backlogs "holistically" through people, technology, processes and policies. They plan to update how they show processing times on their website, improve the MyUSCIS online filing system and more.

Alejandro Mayorkas, DHS Secretary, is speaking at the Annual American Immigration Lawyers Association conference and has a couple of bold new moves planned: Integration of (government) immigration lawyers into the USCIS workforce, use of emails and the telephone to deal with issues v. snail mail RFEs/responses that delay adjudications. More to follow.

Glad to know International Entrepreneur Parole is back on. After listening to a brief USCIS engagement, I sure have a lot of questions that they need to iron out. USCIS will be hosting some upcoming webinars next month. In the meantime, are you an entrepreneur that can RAPIDLY create jobs in the USA or create significant innovation? I'm curious about how attractive this sounds to entrepreneurs given the status is parole, which is a legal fiction and not an admission to the USA. It is not a visa or green card. It may be useful to people who don't qualify for E visas or EB-5 investor green cards. There is an initial 2-year status followed by a 2.5 year extension. It's also discretionary, decided case by case. Spouses can get work permits. Hopefully, in that time period Congress could come up with a more formal start up visa.
https://www.uscis.gov/news/news-releases/dhs-announces-continuation-of-international-entrepreneur-parole-program

DHS Announces Continuation of International Entrepreneur Parole Program U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced today that the Department of Homeland Security is withdrawing a 2018 notice of proposed rulemaking that proposed to remove the International Entrepreneur program from DHS regulations.

For individuals and families left out of the federal COVID relief programs. Watch out for scammers (info in the comments as well as Espanol).

Thank you, Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal for your hard work in passing the Access to Counsel bill in the House that would require CBP to allow those with legal status detained at our ports of entry to contact counsel of their choice, relatives or others to assist them if detained for more than an hour. Hoping the Senate will do the same and get a bill ready for Pres. Biden to sign into law.
https://jayapal.house.gov/2021/04/21/access-to-counsel/

Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal Congresswoman, organizer, mom. Proudly serving WA-07. Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

It's advocacy day. I met virtually today with members and staff of Reps. Kilmer, Schrier, Jayapal, and Sens. Murray and Cantwell offices to discuss the need for enacting legislation to ensure lasting systemic change, creating a modernized immigration benefits system, rehabilitating and reforming our immigration courts and ensuring just and humane enforcement.

I just love this project by former President George W. Bush. He has had an interesting retirement. https://www.bushcenter.org/exhibits-and-events/exhibits/2021/out-of-many-one.html. Interview in the comments.

Out of Many, One by President George W. Bush Out of Many, One: Portraits of America's Immigrants

Never forget. Be vigilant. It still happens around the world. Let’s work harder to acknowledge and appreciate the many things we have in common with each other regardless of where we were born or what we look like or what religion is practiced.

https://www.facebook.com/130496628631/posts/10158970521303632/?d=n

Black Immigrants Matter In immigration, as in policing, every arm of the US incarceration and deportation machine brings down a hefty amount of its weight onto the backs of Black people.

Do the right thing, Senators and vote yes.

https://www.facebook.com/130496628631/posts/10158957764033632/?d=n

Opinion | Republicans have a chance to support the ‘dreamers.’ It’s a defining moment for the GOP. Will they fall in line with a nativist minority?

Standing by you in grief and in solidarity against racist violence in all its forms.

Goodbye horrible, burdensome, nasty, time consuming, expensive, racist 2019 public charge rule!

https://www.dhs.gov/news/2021/03/09/dhs-statement-litigation-related-public-charge-ground-inadmissibility

DHS Statement on Litigation Related to the Public Charge Ground of Inadmissibility On February 2, 2021, the President issued Executive Order 14,012, directing the Secretary of Homeland Security to review the actions of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS or Department) related to the implementation of the public charge ground of inadmissibility. Consistent with the Executive....

What to expect in the way or Pres. Biden's immigration related Executive Orders and other plans for the week of 2/1 - from Greg Chen, American Immigration Lawyers Association.
https://youtu.be/YoYL49AQkKs

Immigration Update: What to Expect Next Week AILA's Senior Director of Government Relations Greg Chen breaks down what to expect from the Biden administration on immigration in the coming days.FOR THE L...

Our immigration policies have real impacts on real people.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/01/27/opinion/mexico-deportation-immigration-reform.html?referringSource=articleShare

Opinion | Lives Derailed Over the past decade, more than a million undocumented immigrants from Mexico have returned to a country many have never known. The majority of them lived in the United States for the better part of their lives.

Oh, the hypocrisy of ii45 (twice impeached prior president) to enact restrictive immigration policies in the name of fighting fraud and then to pardon the kingpins of fraud such as Steve Bannon who siphoned off funds from donors to a private border wall effort. https://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2021/01/25/pardons-may-have-revealed-insincerity-of-trump-immigration-policies/?sh=4ebbc2f550d1

Pardons May Have Revealed Insincerity Of Trump Immigration Policies The pardons show it is unlikely Donald Trump enacted restrictive immigration policies because he cared about stopping fraud.

https://www.facebook.com/130496628631/posts/10158819369633632/

The Biden Administration And What Happens To Trump’s H-1B Visa Rules Businesses, universities and H-1B professionals wonder what the new Biden administration means for three Trump H-1B visa rules.

It's about time to humanize real people in the law by removing the term "alien." https://a.msn.com/r/2/BB1cYdoj?m=en-us&referrerID=InAppShare

Immigration law: Biden wants to remove this controversial word from US laws It's just one small part of the sweeping immigration overhaul President Biden is proposing. But the symbolic significance is huge.

I'm attending this now. Senator Menendez is going to introduce President Biden's vision for immigration reform in the Senate as Citizenship Act of 2021. It includes a new "Lawful Prospective Immigration" (LPI) status (including spouses and children) with a path to permanent residence after 5 years and citizenship after 3 years. There will be an expedited path for certain DACA, TPS and other statuses direct to lawful permanent residence (LPR status). It will treat spouses, children of (LPRs) as immediate relatives meaning not subject to the quota. There will be other fixes to family and employment based quota problems. It includes elimination of the 3 and 10-year bars. All LPRs will be able to apply for naturalization after 3 years. Language in the law will delete "alien" and be replaced with "non citizens." There are a number of other economic growth, worker protection and work visa options, and a lot on border security including working on the root causes of migration from Central America, reform of immigration courts, protection of children, refugee processing in Central America and more. Stay tuned as these issues develop. https://www.facebook.com/349744811357/posts/10158952744471358/

President Biden directs the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Attorney General, to "take all actions he deems appropriate, consistent with applicable law, to preserve and fortify DACA. "
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/preserving-and-fortifying-deferred-action-for-childhood-arrivals-daca/

Preserving and Fortifying Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) | The White House By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, it is hereby ordered as follows: