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If the moon and the stars align perfectly, we
will have a new congressional leadership, at least in one chamber of U.S.
Congress after the upcoming November elections. In such an event, a
comprehensive immigration reform bill will have its best chance of getting
to the President’s desk. Of course, much lobbying for such reform still
needs to be done, in order to make sure we get the right bill.
In March 2007, as in years past, I will be going to Washington DC in my
capacity as the Congressional liaison for the American Immigration Lawyers
Association (AILA) and lobby for reform of our immigration laws. Once
there, I along with my colleagues from the rest of the country will lobby
congress to make our immigration laws more equitable and fair for
everyone.
In light of the possible change in the leadership in Congress, this year’s
AILA’a lobby day could be the most important ever.
As I’ve discussed in the past in this column, my efforts as a lobbyist
will be most effective if I have actual clients with in DC. So, once
again, I am putting this call out there for volunteers to accompany me to
Washington.
Obviously, if you are totally undocumented, it is probably not a good idea
to present yourself to our lawmakers and government officials. The perfect
candidate would be someone who has some legal status in this country but
is unable to become a resident or a citizen.
For example, if you are on an H-1B visa and have HIV, and have no U.S.
citizen/resident family members, you are unable to get a green card. Yet,
your job, profession, or your art may be really important to our country,
economy and security. So, by not giving you any permanent status, we are
perhaps losing the potential of your contributions to our society.
Another perfect scenario is if you have a non-U.S. citizen partner who is
unable to get legalized. Perhaps you are considering moving to another
country in order to keep your family unit together. Then once again our
society would be losing all that you would have to offer as the direct
result of the inequities that exist in our immigration laws.
Obviously, the scenarios are endless, but if you think that you might be
interested, please contact me as soon as possible. And, if you cannot pay
your way to DC, don’t let that stop you from considering my proposal. AILA
does have funds to cover some of your expenses.
I realize that we are only in September, and lobby day is not until March
2007. But that is only 6 months away. And this year, I want to organize a
large delegation from Southern California. We have a huge immigrant
population that is being negatively affected by our laws. We must make a
big impression on our lawmakers. And there is no better way to do that
than to take actual human case scenarios and present them to our
Congresspersons.
Call me at 323-857-0034 and lets go to Washington. |