May 16, 2008 8:53 AM
A lot of you have joined the blog since I started the Immigration 101 series, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to answer the question I'm most asked: "Just what is this anyway?"
I teach Immigration Law at Hofstra School of Law here in Hempstead, New York. I am also a long time immigration advocate. I get asked a lot of basic questions about immigration law by the public and thought it might be interesting to try to address the hunger for knowledge through an extended and systematic series of essays on immigration that can each be read in under three minutes.
I decided that the structure of my immigration law course provided a useful outline for this series. I definitley do not try to reproduce the law school experience. You'd all fall asleep!
I also decided not to try to reproduce my exchanges with students because I worried that my students would hesitate to participate in class for fear of being exposed the next day on the blog.
And, of course, these blogs are not intended to be legal advice.
They should give you a better idea of how the immigration system works, as well as the social, political, and economic factors that go into our immigration laws.
And I hope they give a modicum of sympathy for the immigrants who have to navigate the law's complexity every day.
Here are some other installments in the Immigration 101 series
Immigration 101 Overview of the Immigration System
Immigration 101 Employment Based
Immigration 101 Family Based Immigration
Immigration 101 So what makes up a family
Immigration 101 History We need a new Ellis Island
Immigration 101 Coming to the U.S.
Immigration 101 Stopping 'em at the border
Immigration 101 Don't Give Me Your Poor
Immigration 101 Free Speech Part 1
Immigration 101 Free Speech Part 2
Immigration 101 Keeping the Chinese Out Part 1
Immigration 101 The Chinese Exclusion Act Cases Part 2
Immigration 101 Employer Sanctions Part 1 Introduction
Immigration 101 Employer Sanctions Part 2 How employers evade the law
Immigration 101 Employer Sanctions Part 3 The impact of sanctions on immigrants