He is Vice Chair of the American Immigration Lawyers Association s National Labor Department Liaison Committee, trustee of the American Immigration Law Foundation and recipient of the 1997 Joseph Minsky Young Lawyers Award. He is also Chair of the Immigration and Nationality Committee of the Association of the City Bar of New York. Furthermore, this individual should have been in the U.S. on December 21, 2000. Many are scrambling to persuade employers, or to get qualifying family members, to file applications by April 30. Most immigration attorneys are also extremely busy and cannot cope with the massive demand in such a short period of time.
Many employers too are unwilling to file applications for undocumented employees.
On the other hand, people should not fall prey to unscrupulous attorneys, immigration consultants or notarios. It is important for people to be honestly told about their chances of approval as well as the pitfalls, especially when there has been a prior deportation order, a previously filed fraudulent application or a criminal conviction. Given this emergency situation, New York State Governor Pataki has requested bar associations and law schools to mobilize resources to assist eligible applicants before the April 30 deadline. The Governor has also requested the Bush administration and Members of Congress to extend the deadline. Following the Governor s initiative, two New York Congressmen, Charles Rangel and Peter King, have introduced bills to extend the deadline, it is not known how successful they will be and whether other Congresspeople would oppose this measure.