Newspapers are reporting today that during the official Q&A session following the  Chicago bid for the Olympic Games, I.O.C. member, Syed Shahid Ali, from  Pakistan , asked President Obama how smooth it would be for foreigners to enter the United States for the Olympic Games because doing so can sometimes be “a rather harrowing experience.”

While this I.O.C. member’s concerns raise a red flag about the need for a change in our immigration
policies, a litany of voices have been warning for years that the  U.S. is slowly adopting an anti-visitor policy that is harming business, higher education and families. Stories in the press and report after report have all highlighted how our broken immigration system is hampering our nation’s ability to attract the best and the brightest and stay competitive with other nations around the world.  For more on this

Our Immigration Newsletter and Podcast are now available.  This month’s issue addresses Immigration Reform, Employer Compliance Issues, Healthcare and IT news.  We link here

The energy in Washington changes as soon as Congress returns from recess, and this year the air is particularly charged with anticipation of the health care reform debate to come. In the immigration world, we are watching the debate as a barometer of what to expect later in the session when the long-promised Schumer bill is introduced.

The lead Democrat steering an immigration overhaul through the Senate said Wednesday he expects to have a bill ready by Labor Day that is more generous to highly skilled immigrant workers than those who are lower skilled and is tough on future waves of illegal immigration.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Sen. Chuck Schumer said an immigration bill can be done by the end of the year or early next year that works out disagreements between labor and business interests on the flow of legal foreign workers.

“I think we’ll have a good bill by Labor Day,” said Schumer, D-N.Y. “I think the fundamental building blocks are in place to do comprehensive immigration reform.”

We link to the Immigration Impact article.

Too bad that he didn’t get a chance to see comprehensive immigration reform legislation for which he ardently supported the last many years.  Here is a wonderful tour of his life from USA Today

For a timeline of Senator Kennedy’s career

How many of you picked up on this during the week? Let’s hear your thoughts…

“The longer the healthcare debate drags out not only does it make it harder to get healthcare passed, it makes it harder to get immigration passed,” says Mark Krikorian, executive director of the conservative Center for Immigration Studies.

Shipley Do-Nut Flour and Supply Company Inc. was sentenced Friday to be under court supervision for a period of three years, pay a criminal fine of $250,000 and forfeit $1.334 million to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for harboring illegal aliens. ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton and U.S. Attorney Tim Johnson made the announcement.

We link to the News Release