Year: 2013

Do you remember how hopeful everyone was in January?  “Now is the time.”  That’s what President Obama said on January 29, 2013 in Las Vegas when he introduced his four (4) part plan for Comprehensive Immigration Reform (“CIR”).  In early July, the U.S. Senate passed a...

Last week, I attended a retirement luncheon for Bishop Howard Hubbard, Bishop of the Diocese of Albany for the past 36 years.  Bishop Hubbard and the late Sr. Maureen Joyce hired me in the summer of 2000 to set up and oversee an Office for Immigrant Services at...

In July, the U.S. Senate passed a marked-up and amended version of the Gang of Eight’s “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act.” The House, for its part, has until last week taken a more piecemeal approach to Comprehensive Immigration...

As I write this piece, summer is slowly turning into fall, the leaves are just starting to change their colors, and Congress has come back to work from its summer recess. Comprehensive Immigration Reform (“CIR”) is only slightly closer to reality than it was since the...

Just as Memorial Day was an opportunity to remember those men and women who have died in our nation’s service (including non-citizens who have a long and proud tradition of serving in the U.S. military), Labor Day is an opportunity to pay tribute to American workers. ...

And now for something completely different.  I wish I went to the movies more often.  All those summer blockbusters (or busts)!  I actually haven’t been to the movies in ages.  I think that’s about to change. Recently, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that...

So… the U.S. Senate passed a marked-up and amended version of the Gang of Eight’s “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act,” and now we’re on to the House of Representatives.  What happens there is anybody’s guess.  What we do know for...

I recently read an article in the Business Review addressing New York State’s shortage of some 350,000 mid-level skilled workers.  According to the article,“mid-level” jobs are those that fall between a high-school diploma and a four-year degree.  Robert Geer, Vice...

On Memorial Day, we remember those men and women who have died in our nation’s service.  Did you know that non-citizens have a long and proud tradition of serving in the U.S. military?  In fact, there are thousands of men and women in uniform who were not born in the...

The other day I read an Associated Press piece in the Saratogian called Influence Game: Tech, Labor Spar On Immigration.  The article started out as follows: “To the U.S. technology industry, there’s a dramatic shortfall in the number of Americans skilled in computer...