(2).jpg)
Howdy! ¡Hola! Namasté! Whether you intentionally set out looking for an immigration attorney or just happened to be meandering about the internet and landed here at this blog, I’m glad to you’re here and hope that you’ll come back soon. This blog will be a running conversation on all things immigration-related. My law practice focuses more on employment-based immigration visas (ie., work visas) and work site enforcement issues (ie., avoiding and recovering from ICE raids), so I’ll probably drift a bit more in that direction, but I hope with time to basically cover the wide, colorful and ever-evolving immigration spectrum.
People often ask me why and how I got started practicing immigration law. As near as I can tell, I think the seeds were planted twelve (has it been that long already?! sigh) years ago when I enrolled at Macalester College in the chilly north lands of St. Paul, Minnesota. Mac, as the alumni call it, is an institution dedicated to internationalism and multiculturalism. Mac’s student body is typically comprised of nearly 15% international students, and while I was there I believe we had students from 90 different countries (alums far more notable than I include former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Anan, Walter Mondale, author Tim O’Brien, Ari Emanuel and thousands of other curious and wildly entertaining characters).
The faculty at Mac continually taught us to consider the implications of our thoughts, actions and policies and how they would play out beyond the borders of the United States. For a kid from rural Iowa, it was mind-blowing to sit in a classroom with students from India, Pakistan and Cyprus and discuss the pluses and minuses of timely topics like globalization. Mac taught us not only to passively consider the global community, but also to actively engage it. Most of all, my time at Mac taught me that interacting with people from other countries will make your life more informed and vastly more entertaining.
So, since my time at Macalester I’ve carried with me the conviction that the United States and the world as a whole gets stronger, smarter, more interesting and more productive when we have people from different countries living and working in our communities. We gain different perspectives and fresh modes of thought. We learn first-hand the challenges of living in places other than the United States, and why so many people want to come here. We learn about new and different people and, in so doing, we learn about ourselves. We understand a little more, we grow a little more. And in the end we come to realize that people are just people, whether they live in Des Moines, Iowa, or Jaipur, India. We all want to live full productive lives, do well by our families and have enough time left on the margins to kick back, relax, and have some fun.
All of which is a long, round about way of explaining how and why I practice immigration law. The world is a big and wonderful place. The more we actively engage it, the longer it’ll be around for us to enjoy.
My hope is that you'll come back every now and again to check back in on Kennedy’s Immigration Law Report. This is an exciting time in immigration law and in the world at large. I want this blog to be informative, collaborative, respectful and fun. I promise to add new posts on a regular basis. And I do want this blog to facilitate a conversation. I don’t pretend to know everything about immigration law and policy, so please, share your knowledge, experiences and thoughts. If you see interesting immigration-related news items, send them my way. If you have an immigration-related community event to announce, I’ll be glad to post your event’s details. If you enjoy the site or think it can be made better in some way, let me know. Thanks again and remember to check back regularly.
Every once in a while a client will call to request a meeting about a mysterious and as of yet unnamed subject that can’t be discussed over the phone. They’ll come to the office, I’ll greet them, and we’ll sit down at the table like normal. After we’ve exchanged niceties the client will assume a sly and stealthy look. They’ll don a skeptical smile, lean in very close, and drop their voices. In a barely audible whisper they’ll tell me that one of their crazy friends is trafficking in the outlandish rumor that a person can win a lottery to immigrate to the United States! 