Two historic events- one historic annual American Immigration Lawyers Association conference! First: striking down DOMA that allows same-sex marriages! Second: historic immigration bill passes Senate vote! Historic is an understatement!
The American Immigration Lawyers Association annual conference has become somewhat of a celebratory event over the last few years. Big government announcements seem to (strategically) coincide with this huge gathering of immigration lawyers. Last year the Obama Administration announced the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). The previous year had a similarly impactful event (not remembering at this precise moment). It was no surprise that a record 4000 immigration lawyers attended this year’s conference.
Director Alejandro Mayorkas and Tahmina Watson. Photo taken on Thursday 27th just before his keynote speech. The next day, the White House announced he would take up the position of Deputy Director of the Department of Homeland Security. Congratulations, Director!
Attending the AILA annual conference was a last minute decision for me. Knowing that the bill for immigration reform was going to be voted on during the conference, I had to attend. AILA had the foresight to hold it in San Francisco from Wednesday to Saturday (26-29 June). I stayed until Friday only. As my flight landed Wednesday morning and I turned on my phone, I saw the news of the Supreme Court decision re. DOMA. I knew then that the conference was going to be even more exciting than I initially thought.
There was an emergency session on DOMA Wednesday morning re. updates on where things stand, when to apply for petitions etc. I was getting a lot of calls from potential clients already. The Senate Bill had a vote and passed on Thursday 27th. It was really special witnessing the vote with my AILA colleagues.
The keynote speech was on Thursday delivered by USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas. He delivered a moving speech which included discussing his Cuban immigrant background. See the speech below! At the end of the speech, he told us, 4000 immigration lawyers, what we wanted to know: USCIS is awaiting guidance from DHS for DOMA. He said that USCIS has been holding on to all same-sex marriage petitions denied since 2011 and are ready to act immediately. This morning (Monday July 1st), the New York Times confirmed what the Director told us. They are already reversing denials and one immigration attorney received fantastic news at the conference. Here is the link to the NY Times story on the first green card for gay-married couple.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_gGc_oCR4I&w=560&h=315]
Overall, the conferece was full of excitement (and educational as always). There were a lot of updates on various issues and I will write about those soon. Here are some photos from the event. I hope you will feel like you were there with me.