The Julia Preston of the New York Times reports on results of the pilot program in Denver for the new prosecutorial discretion memo. Of 7000+ cases in the Denver Immigration Court, only 1300 were deemed to qualify under the new memo. The article reports on frustration not only with the small number of cases covered, but also the failure to grant work authorization to many of the beneficiaries of the policy.

Preston also notes that many of the denied cases had no criminal issues. The denials stem from ICE officials deeming the individuals to lack substantial enough ties to the US. Given how subjective such determinations could be, hopefully USCIS will provide more guidance on this subject.

The President really seems to get that good immigration policies are critical for an economy to thrive. The latest announcement involves the tourism industry and he used Walt Disney World as the very appropriate location to make his announcement.

From the AP:

Obama issued an executive order Thursday aiming to increase tourist visa processing in China and Brazil and take other steps including promoting national parks and adding business executives to a tourism advisory board.

The goal is to significantly increase travel and tourism in the U.S. The White House says that more than 1 million U.S. jobs could be created over the next decade, according to industry projections, if the U.S. increases its share of the international travel market.

'Every year, tens of millions of tourists from all over the world come and visit America. And the more folks who visit America, the more Americans we get back to work,' Obama said in a statement before boarding Air Force One to Florida.

The libertarian-leaning Cato Institute has a special issue this month and my friend Dan Kowalski at LexisNexis has linked to the articles here. Here are the articles they're running.

James A. Dorn Editor's Note (PDF, 2 pp., 33Kb)

Daniel T. Griswold Introduction: Is Immigration Good for America? (PDF, 4 pp., 49Kb)

Bryan Caplan Why Should We Restrict Immigration? (PDF, 20 pp., 177Kb)

Gordon H. Hanson Immigration and Economic Growth (PDF, 10 pp., 95Kb)

Giovanni Peri Immigration, Labor Markets, and Productivity (PDF, 20 pp., 175Kb)

Joel Kotkin and Erika Ozuna America's Demographic Future (PDF, 16 pp., 140Kb)

Stuart Anderson America's Incoherent Immigration System (PDF, 14 pp., 126Kb)

Pia M. Orrenius and Madeline Zavodny The Economic Consequences of Amnesty for Unauthorized Immigrants (PDF, 22 pp., 196Kb)

Edward Alden Immigration and Border Control (PDF, 18 pp., 151Kb)

Jim Harper Internal Enforcement, E-Verify, and the Road to a National ID (PDF, 14 pp., 117Kb)

Margaret D. Stock Is Birthright Citizenship Good for America? (PDF, 20 pp., 164Kb)

Daniel T. Griswold Immigration and the Welfare State (PDF, 16 pp., 147Kb)

Raúl Hinojosa-Ojeda The Economic Benefits of Comprehensive Immigration Reform (PDF, 26 pp., 219Kb)

Joshua C. Hall, Benjamin J. VanMetre, and Richard K. Vedder U.S. Immigration Policy in the 21st Century: A Market-Based Approach (PDF, 20 pp., 174Kb)

Sources tell me that we're going to see one more big jump - perhaps as much as a year - in the EB-2 India and China numbers for the March Visa bulletin that comes out in early February. Then the party is going to end with stalling or retrogressing after that. You never know for sure until the actual bulletin is published, but EB-2 applicants from those two countries need to pay attention to the bulletin and be prepared to act quickly.

About The Author

Greg Siskind is a partner in Siskind Susser's Memphis, Tennessee, office. After graduating magna cum laude from Vanderbilt University, he received his Juris Doctorate from the University of Chicago. Mr. Siskind is a member of AILA, a board member of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, and a member of the ABA, where he serves on the LPM Publishing Board as Marketing Vice Chairman. He is the author of several books, including the J Visa Guidebook and The Lawyer's Guide to Marketing on the Internet. Mr. Siskind practices all areas of immigration law, specializing in immigration matters of the health care and technology industries. He can be reached by email at gsiskind@visalaw.com.

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