Phorm Tem, a California resident, was deported in October 2017.

In June 2020, he was sworn in as a U.S. citizen, the first and only Cambodian deportee to earn this privilege.

Except for the ending, Tem’s story is symbolic of the plight more than 16,000 Southeast Asian refugees – from Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos – who fled their homelands as children during the Vietnam War and its aftermath have endured in the United States.

As you’re likely aware, the future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program has been one of the top immigration news stories over the past few weeks.

Commonly known as DACA, the fear was that over 700,000 immigrant youth would face deportation if the Supreme Court rules in favor of the Trump Administration.

I disagreed with that assumption.

Win, lose, or draw, I did not think, as I wrote in various articles, the Supreme Court decision would be the final word. I still hold to that perspective.

A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.

Especially when it comes to immigration law.

And programs like the U Visa.

I’m not an unequivocal fan of Lozada motions to reopen cases for ineffective assistance.

It’s not that I think immigrants are never the victim of incompetent guidance, duplicity, or outright corruption.

It’s not that I think lawyers, like judges, are incapable of mistakes.

If you continue reading this blog post, you might be placing me in line to face criminal charges.

Why?

Because my commentary could be knowingly or recklessly encouraging or inducing an undocumented immigrant to come to, enter, or reside in the United States in violation of federal law.

In other words, by doing what a lawyer is supposed to do.

By adhering to my professional duty to care, protect, and guide clients.

The road to permanent residence for Jamaican immigrants in the United States can take two decades to complete. Even for parents who have earned naturalization status,  the process requires navigating a family unity visa system with a long and growing backlog. Such waits are not uncommon for immigrants from Jamaica. This article shares the story of one mother and daughter who survived the ordeal. It also calls for fixing the green card system now in place.

Here’s an interesting idea for family-friendly immigration reform.

Ancestry Visas.

It’s a concept I learned about while doing research about immigration issues in the United Kingdom.

Will 2020 be a repeat of the past year for immigrants and their families?

No immigrant rights advocate wants a repeat of 2019.

The invisible wall of exclusion continued to be politically and legally erected by the Legion Of Xenophobia piece by piece.

As a former political activist, I decided to query a few leading immigrant rights proponents about their thoughts about the coming year.

Is Canada the TPS solution?

A few days ago, Samuel, a client from Haiti, visited my San Bernardino immigration office. He wanted to talk about the future of the Temporary Protected Status program.

He worried that winning permanent residency was not in the cards. Samuel knew about the latest efforts to derail the TPS path to green cards through marriage.

Fearing deportation and a forced return to his home country, he confided he had been working on Plan B.