Timothy R Bakken
All people living in the United States, including undocumented immigrants, have certain U.S. Constitutional rights. If you are undocumented and immigration (ICE) agents knock on your door, know that you have rights. Please find the full information in this document that you can download and print.
Timothy R. Bakken
Lawyer
BAKKEN LAW: Trump has been one of the least effective presidents early in his first term when it comes to tangible legislative and policy results. However, he has been extremely effective at creating a climate of fear and anxiety in immigrant communities as well as in businesses and industries that rely on immigrants. Read this CNN article about Trump's first 100 days here.
Time will tell if this anti-immigrant tone and approach will translate to comprehensive changes in the law. At the very least, it seems likely that the United States under Trump will be less welcoming to, and provide less opportunities for, immigrants whether they seek to enter the U.S. to protect their lives, to support their families, or to contribute positively in all the ways immigrants have for centuries.
Timothy R. Bakken
Founder
Despite Trump’s assertions that he is focusing on deporting immigrants with serious criminal convictions and those who pose risks to national security, the reality is starkly different. As this article in The Guardian describes, Trump’s immigration policies are being enforced by ICE agents who are arresting, and placing in removal proceedings, people with very minor, or no, criminal records.
A recent poll shows that a large majority of Americans favor immigration rules that do not punish those who have been in the U.S. illegally if they have been working, paying taxes, and have not been convicted of serious crimes.
Clearly, the Trump administration’s immigration proposals and its current actions related to deportation policy are out-of-step with the views of most Americans.
Timothy R. Bakken
Contrary to some reports, the H-1B visa program does not punish U.S. workers or unfairly benefit foreign workers. My clients include companies with employees holding H-1B visas alongside a far-majority of those companies’ workforces who are U.S. citizens. U.S. companies using the H-1B visa program properly do so by hiring highly educated, highly skilled, and very well-paid H-1B employees who fill very specific needs for the companies and their customers.
As explained in this letter to the editor in the Washington Post, we should not punish innovative and successful U.S. companies who are committed to following our immigration laws simply because an extremely small number of businesses use the H-1B program improperly.
Read the full Washington Post article "The H-1B visa program is not 'much abused'" here.
Timothy R. Bakken
Bakken Law is committed to defending all immigrants and their rights, now and in the uncertain future before us. We are proud to say that attorney Jamie Crawford lived out the firm’s commitment to immigrant rights when she traveled to the South Texas Family Detention Center in Dilley, Texas to volunteer for the CARA Family Detention Pro Bono Project during election week. The CARA Family Detention Pro Bono Project is a joint effort between immigrant rights organizations CLINIC, AILA, RAICES, and the American Immigration Council. Go to the CARA Project’s website for more information about its partners and how to get involved.
The South Texas Family Detention Center currently imprisons about 1800 women and children. All of the detainees at the Center are women and children who fled the rampant violence and pervasive corruption of their home countries to seek asylum in the United States. Upon arrival at the border, many of the women and children were held in brutally cold temporary holding facilities known as “hieleras,” or ice-boxes, and denied access to basic necessities for days before being transferred to the South Texas Family Detention Center. http://immigrationimpact.com/2016/06/30/photographic-evidence-conditions-cbps-short-term-detention-facilities-hieleras-revealed/
Jamie and her fellow volunteer attorneys and advocates met individually with the women and children detained in Dilley to discuss their rights and to prepare them for Credible Fear Interviews with USCIS Asylum Officers. Credible Fear Interviews, or CFIs, are the first step in the asylum process for applicants arriving at the border. CFIs are often intense and vulnerable experiences, requiring the women and children to share their stories of abuse, violence, trauma, and fear with a stranger who has the power to make a decision that could open the door to asylum or slam it shut. Jamie, the CARA Pro Bon Project staff, and the other volunteers worked 12- 13 hour days providing competent and compassionate legal advice and representation.
Bakken Law is proud of Jamie’s dedication, and is inspired to fight harder than ever for the rights of immigrants.
By BAKKEN LAW - Timothy R. Bakken, 19.November 2016.
Illustration Photo.
Last summer, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down DOMA (the Defense of Marriage Act).
Among its other benefits, this decision paved the way for foreign nationals married to same-sex U.S. citizen partners to obtain green cards.
I am happy to say that since the demise of DOMA I have represented several same-sex married couples who have successfully completed the U.S. green card process, including most recently a green card issued yesterday; great evidence of increasing equality and fairness in our country in general and our immigration system in particular.
See Marriage Equality for additional information and resources about same-sex marriage issues.
Timothy R. Bakken
