Immigration Naturalization Service

Ten years later: Wendy Castor Hess

"I have been practicing immigration law for over 31 years and 9/11 marked a huge turn in the way immigrants—corporate and non-corporate alike—were viewed by both the American public and the US governmental agencies charged with administering the immigration laws.

"First, the previous US Immigration and Naturalization Service was dismantled and US Department of Homeland Security put in its place. That agency was broken down into 3 sections, making it difficult to communicate when client’s cases were impacted by all three.

"Most importantly and as you can well imagine, the lives of my clients—multi-national corporations, medical institutions and universities and the foreign nationals who they seek to employ-- have been greatly impacted. First, there is increased xenophobia directed towards all immigrants, including Latino immigrants who clearly had nothing to do with 9/11. Next, for my corporate clients, including my corporate executives and physicians, visa processing has become much more complicated.Cases that previously would have been quickly approved are subject to increased layers of control / security clearances, greatly delayed the arrival of key executive - a foreign national - and therefore often threaten the financial stability of the company and its ability to continue to employ American workers, simply because one of the names of many foreign national includes "Mohammed" or "Ali."

"For example, several years ago, an English businessman who created jobs in a small Pennsylvania town with high unemployment has been authorized by the USCIS after a period of about six months and then forced to wait a second clearance for 4 months from the U.S. State Department (U.S. Embassy in London has requested authorization, since it is a body separate from the USCIS and they make their own releases). You can imagine how frustrating it was for our customers.Fast forward three years and we are now extending the status of the client so that it can continue to build its business in the United States and continue to hire American workers and we are back to square themselves certificates safety and well overdue.

EXCLUSIVE: Dad's Immigration File Offers More Evidence Of ...

A memo from Lyle H. Dahlim of the INS, written in April, 1961, says the agency “recommend(s) that Subject be closely questioned before another extension is granted – and denial be considered. If his USC (United States Citizen) wife tries to petition for him make sure an investigation is conducted as to the bona-fide of the marriage.” Documents show that Obama, Sr. was denied an extension on his student visa in July, 1964, in part because Harvard University, where Obama, Sr., was a Ph.D. candidate, sought his removal. Obama Sr. eventually left the United States willingly after becoming an illegal alien for remaining in the country past the expiration of his visa. An INS investigator, M.F. McKeon, wrote “They (Harvard officials) weren’t very impressed with him and asked us to hold up action on his application until they decided what action they could take in order to get rid of him. They were apparently having difficulty with his financial arrangements and couldn’t seem to figure out how many wives he had.” The revelation of the handwritten memo mentioning the President’s birth comes as lawmakers across the country grapple with so-called “birther” bills, with Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer vetoing proposed legislation requiring all candidates for any office to produce a birth certificate prior to their name appearing on the ballot. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, however, has said he will sign a similar bill.

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