Last week, Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Richard Lugar (R-IN) introduced the “StartUp Visa Act of 2010”, designed to attract wealthy immigrant investors to the United States.If passed, the law will create a new visa category called the EB-6 Visa for foreign national entrepreneurs that builds on the existing EB-5 category. EB-5 visas are for aliens that directly invest a minimum of $1M and create at least 10 jobs. According to Richard Lugar:"Our country should strive to attract to the United States the most talented and highly skilled entrepreneurs. We should channel the power of innovative thinkers from around the world and American investors towards creating jobs and encouraging economic growth and future prosperity."The pending legislation will allow foreign nationals to receive a temporary two year U.S. visa if they initially attract at least $250,0... read more >>

America cannot let comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) go the way of health care reform.Unlike health care, there are relatively few special interests whose profits depend on immigration reform failing. Although this does not mean the end of ideological rhetoric (particularly from conservatives), it could mean less fear-based television advertising geared to misinform gullible Americans. But I see relative lack of corporate unity against immigration reform as an opportunity for a true bipartisan solution.In a previous article I suggested that progressives consider the possibility of ending birthright citizenship of children born to foreigners as a way to get conservative support for comprehensive immigration reform. Whether or not this is a valid scenario, I believe this could low hanging fru... read more >>

According to: essay writing service - Eight Democratic senators from industrial states are challenging the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to regulate pollution blamed for global warming. In a letter written by Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the lawmakers said the agency lacks the power to restrict greenhouse gases. Their opposition could pose a blow to the Obama administration's anti-pollution efforts. The letter was signed by Democrats Mark Begich of Alaska, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Carl Levin of Michigan and Max Baucus of Montana. Last month, three Democrats signed onto a similar Senate resolution that would bar the EPA from issuing regulations to control greenhouse gases.... read more >>

As luck would have it, I ran into a Chilean named Enrique Arroyo this past week here in Albuquerque's One-Up lounge. When I mentioned that I co-authored "Win the Green Card Lottery", I got an earful.Enrique entered the diversity visa lottery (DV-2011) in October 2009 using a paid lottery service -- one he randomly picked via a Google search for "green card lottery". Unfortunately, he paid them several hundred dollars via credit card for a 5-year "VIP service" after he received a telephone solicitation. Then he had an age related eligibility question about a dependent, so he attempted to contact the service several days later. Unfortunately, they did not respond to his repeated attempts to reach them. That's when he became suspicious he may have been scammed. When I asked Enrique why he didn't just enter himself for free at the official U.S. government site, he said tha... read more >>

Since our last article on Sarah Palin her apparent popularity has continued to escalate. She has been given a job as a Fox News contributor and was paid $100,000 to be the keynote speaker at the recent Tea Party Convention in Nashville, Tennessee. Why should we care about Palin? Well, anyone who purports to be a populist possible Presidential candidate needs to be thoroughly vetted for his or her views. And in this case, we want to know exactly how she feels on comprehensive immigration reform.Unfortunately, we were unable to find any reference at all to the actual text of h... read more >>

I didn't hear much in Obama's State of the Union message to encourage those hoping for comprehensive immigration reform in 2010. In fact, Obama devoted only these 38 words to immigration: "… And we should continue the work of fixing our broken immigration system to secure our borders and enforce our laws and ensure that everyone who plays by the rules can contribute to our economy and enrich our nation." The administration, bruised and battered from the ongoing health care reform battle, may have concluded that CIR is best left to a non-election year. This view is reinforced by a recent statement from John McCain that immigration reform is a "no-go". And those looking for leadership from Sarah Palin were disappointed by her simplistic sound bites on the subject ... read more >>

In my last op-ed I discussed one of several recent articles that portray the annual diversity visa lottery in a negative light, and wrongly associate green card lottery winners as welfare recipients, with fraud and terrorism, or take jobs away from Americans. This part will debunk these myths and offer a possible solution to the jobs issue.First, everyone supports planned changes to visa screening procedures. This will likely include increased cooperation between countries, streamlined communication between agencies, better integrated data, body scanning, and possibly profiling, but of course nothing as elaborate as Israel's system because of the sheer numbers here in the U.S.What is needed and what has already been put in place is a system designed to give extra screening to diversity visa winners ... read more >>

I was disappointed by a recent article by Fox News entitled, “Thousands from Terror-Sponsoring Nations Entering U.S. on Diversity Visas”. Writer Joseph Abrams recommendation to terminate this popular program following the hysteria over the foiled Christmas bomber plot represents the kind of knee jerk reaction that advances the views of nativists and others that seek to block comprehensive immigration reform.The specific details of the diversity visa (green card) lottery are described elsewhere. In a nutshell, the U.S. State Department sponsors a free random computer drawing each year for 50,000 available permanent resident visas. The g... read more >>

 As the meeting ended in Copenhagen, we in Kenya are assured by our prime minister that something must be done.  Here, we have people planting trees and conserving the environment. Non-governmental organizations and the European Union are very willing to conserve the environments by providing funds.... read more >>

The “Prevent Unauthorized Migration" (PUM) visa is a newly proposed visa outlined in Sections 317 and 318 of H.R. 4321 -- the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity Act of 2009 (CIR ASAP) bill, sponsored by Congressman Luis Gutierrez, D-Illinois. For a summary of CIR ASAP please see here. The complete text is available on our immigration reports page.If enacted, the PUM visa will provide 100,000 visas annually to natives from countries with large numbers of unauthorized (illegal) immigrants. These visas will be distributed via a random computer lottery system similar to the current “green card lottery” in place today for natives of countries ... read more >>