Sean G. Hanagan

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With a one-party majority in both houses of Congress after the 2014 mid-term elections, observers have been watching for signs of greater cooperation, and die-hard optimists even hope for legislation addressing the country’s broken immigration system.  Alas, political brinksmanship appears to remain the order of the day, as sparring continues despite the upcoming Congressional recess…

“It’s time for us to take care of business,” President Barack Obama announced to the press after the elections last week. The administration may take executive action on immigration soon. With most of those races now decided, the President sounded a note of impatience: “I can’t wait another two years,” he said in the briefing.…

At a recent White House law enforcement event, President Barack Obama took the opportunity to pressure Republicans in the House of Representatives to present an immigration reform bill this summer in advance of the November mid-term elections.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has made comments supportive of immigration reform and issued a “statement of principles”…

Whispers of potential congressional compromise on the red hot issue of legal and illegal immigration to this country gave renewed hope of a comprehensive solution, although it may take some time.  While the original Senate bill designed to overhaul the nation’s tangled immigration architecture, “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act,” or S. 744…

In the wake of Janet Napolitano’s September departure from the top spot at the Department of Homeland Security, who President Obama would nominate as her replacement has been the subject of much anticipation.  With immigration reform legislation discussions somewhat sidelined in Congress due to the government shutdown and debt ceiling debates, the President’s tapping of…

This week the Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agency, which manages and protects US borders and ports of entry, announced the release of a new rule to automate the I-94 admission/departure process.  Once in effect, the rule will be implemented over a planned four week period, beginning at airports in Orlando,…

Lawmakers return to Washington for the 113th Congress with comprehensive immigration reform once again moving to the front burner. Comments and proposals are being fielded by  prominent political figures, including former President George W. Bush http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2012/12/george-w-bush-debate-immigration-policy-with-a-benevolent-spirit.html/ and Senator Marco Rubio  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323442804578235844003050604.html.  These and similar calls for Congress to finally address the country’s immigration system,…

The current version of Employment Eligibility Verification Form I-9 (http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/i-9.pdf), which all employers must use when on-boarding new hires, expired on 8/31/2012.

USCIS announced a proposed new form for public comment on March 27, 2012 (http://tinyurl.com/aogxuy2), but after receiving thousands of comments and calls from stakeholders to extend the comment period,…

Employers navigating the I-9 employment eligibility verification process for new hires are confronted with a gauntlet of confusing rules, standards, and exceptions to the rules that some have opined are deliberately designed to make the innocuous looking one-page form a magnet for errors. Such cynics cite the year-over-year increases in civil fines being levied by…