October 16, 2007

NYT: CUBANS MIGRATING TO THE US THROUGH MEXICO

The Times has an interesting article at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/16/world/americas/16cuba.html?ex=1350273600&en=630414c112e94791&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink on how Cuban immigration to the US is now picking up and that Cubans are increasing coming to the US via Mexico rather than on boat.

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IMMIGRANT OF THE DAY: LEONID HURWICZ

I'm a little slow in posting this while I'm in magnificent Singapore this week. I'm moderating a panel tomorrow at the annual International Bar Association conference here. I'll blog on Singapore later, but have to say that my initial impressions of the city are very good.

The latest Nobel Prize was announced yesterday and - surprise, surprise - another American immigrant won. This time it was Russian-born Leonid Hurwicz and the award was for economics. America has a wonderful history of attracting not only bright immigrants, but immigrants who are off the scales smart. Surely those anti-skilled worker immigration folks will wake up and see that immigrants bring an energy to the country that is remarkable and many come as unknowns who only achieve success becuase America provides an environment that allows people to reach their potential.

And Professor Hurwicz did not enter the US in any lofty status based on his accomplishments. He entered in refugee status since he is Jewish and was escaping the Nazis. Several of my immigrants of the day have been refugees of the Holocaust and are testament to the need for humane and generous political asylum policies.

The Nobel folks describe Professor Hurwicz's work:

Adam Smith's classical metaphor of the invisible hand refers to how the market, under ideal conditions, ensures an efficient allocation of scarce resources. But in practice conditions are usually not ideal; for example, competition is not completely free, consumers are not perfectly informed and privately desirable production and consumption may generate social costs and benefits. Furthermore, many transactions do not take place in open markets but within firms, in bargaining between individuals or interest groups and under a host of other institutional arrangements. How well do different such institutions, or allocation mechanisms, perform? What is the optimal mechanism to reach a certain goal, such as social welfare or private profit? Is government regulation called for, and if so, how is it best designed?

These questions are difficult, particularly since information about individual preferences and available production technologies is usually dispersed among many actors who may use their private information to further their own interests. Mechanism design theory, initiated by Leonid Hurwicz and further developed by Eric Maskin and Roger Myerson, has greatly enhanced our understanding of the properties of optimal allocation mechanisms in such situations, accounting for individuals' incentives and private information. The theory allows us to distinguish situations in which markets work well from those in which they do not. It has helped economists identify efficient trading mechanisms, regulation schemes and voting procedures. Today, mechanism design theory plays a central role in many areas of economics and parts of political science.

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October 13, 2007

RICHARD NADLER: THE ANTI-DEPORTATIONIST BACKLASH

Richard Nadler's essay in the Wall Street Journal echoes a theme I've been stressing and that is that politicians who run from the little anti-immigrant wave risk getting drowned in the pro-immigration tsunami that is part the nation's Hispanic vote.

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JUST A LITTLE HYPOCRITICAL

This will put a smile on your face if you think most of the anti-immigrant politicians out there really are just vote hunting.

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WASHINGTON POST: CONGRATS TO GORE, BUT AMERICA'S OTHER NOBEL WINNERS HAVE LESSON TO TEACH ON IMMIGRATION

The Post reminds Americans why two centuries of welcoming immigration policies pay off for our country.

By the way, I'm enjoying a layover in Manila on my way to Singapore and have gotten some nice email suggestions for blog posts including this one.

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October 12, 2007

NO POSTS FOR A LITTLE WHILE

I'm done with meetings in Washington and New York and now am sitting at the Los Angeles Airport to catch my plane to Manila and then to connect on to Singapore. No Internet for me until late tomorrow night US time and I'm sure I'll be too exhausted from 20 hours of flying to think too clearly...

I welcome guest posts as I noted a few days ago. Just email them to me at gsiskind@visalaw.com. I'll try and do a few posts as well during the week as I get time.

Have a good weekend!

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THE IRVING STORY

The Dallas Morning News' Jacquielynn Floyd does a good job showing why local governments really are not in a position to deal with the immigration crisis on their own and the consequences of the vacuum of leadership in Congress on this issue. The story describes the struggles of Irving, a suburb of Dallas.

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OPPOSING GROUPS REACH COMPROMISE ON SKILLED WORKER GREEN CARDS

IEEE and the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) normally clash over H-1B visas, but the two have found some common ground on the need for employment-based green cards. While I don't think we need to give up on getting more cap exemptions for key fields, there is no reason not to cut deals on other issues and green card numbers is a good one.

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STUNNING ACCUSATION - ICE MISUSING POWERFUL ANTI-PSYCHOTIC DRUGS

CNN reports on a serious allegation against ICE. The agency is accused of forcing detainees to take powerful drugs like Halidol as part of the deportation process. Now the agency is being sued by two who claim that they did nothing to warrant use of the drugs. While we'll need to see what the court has to say regarding the validity of the claims, the story is indeed worrisome.

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IMMIGRATION HUMOR

Okay, it's a little anti-immigrant and not politically correct, but it did make me laugh so if you have no sense of humor, read no further:

"Jose and Carlos are pandhandlers...... They panhandle on different areas of town.

Carlos panhandles just as long as Jose but only collects 2 to 3 dollars every day.

Jose brings home a suitcase FULL of $10 bills, drives a Mercedes, lives in a mortgage free house and has a lot of money to spend.

Carlos says to Jose "I work just as long and hard as you do but how do you bring home a suitcase full of $10 bills every day?".

Jose says, .... "Look at your sign, what does it say"?

Carlos sign reads 'I have no work, a wife and 6 kids to support'."

Jose says " No wonder you only get $2-3 dollars"

Carlos says... "So what does your sign say"?

Jose shows Carlos his sign......

It reads, "I only need another $10.00 to move back to Mexico ".

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October 11, 2007

IMMIGRANT OF THE DAY: URI GELLER - SPOON BENDER

I remember hearing about Israeli-Brit Uri Geller when I was a kid and the amazing claims of his ability to bend spoons with his mind. The "mentalist" Geller has remained quite popular in England and NBC Television here in the US will show his new show The Phenomenon beginning in late October.

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October 10, 2007

IMMIGRANT OF THE DAY: FIROUZ NADERI - ROCKET SCIENTIST

What are you, some rocket scientist? Well, if you're Iranian-born Firouz Naderi, Associate Director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, you can answer yes. Naderi is running NASA's Mars program and has overseen several successful missions.

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BREAKING NEWS: COURT ISSUES PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION BLOCKING NO MATCH RULE

Just as he hinted, Judge Charles Breyer has issued a preliminary injunction blocking implementation of the Department of Homeland Security's no match rule. This effectively means that the rule will not take force this year since it is very unlikely a trial on the merits of the case will be completed until well in to 2008.

This is a major blow to anti-immigration advocates.

Dan Kowalski's got the link at http://bibdaily.com/pdfs/nomatch%20pi%2010-10-07.pdf.

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BUSH ADMINISTRATION PLANS TO EASE H-2A VISA RULES FOR FARMWORKERS

This is welcome news. We do technically have a guest worker program in this country for agricultural workers, but the program is so complicated and bloated that it is largely ignored. It sounds like the Administration is realizing that while they can score political points by making Congress "feel the pain" of failing to provide for legalization for the estimated 70% of the agricultural work force that is undocumented, their may be know agricultural sector left by the time Congress gets the message.

I know some of you are going to say that we need to deal with other industries first, but as far as which one is at the greatest risk right this minute, it has to be agriculture. Entire harvests in a number of sectors could be lost if the White House doesn't act quickly. And that could effectively be the end of farming in America as one farm after another went under.

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