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In This Issue:
 :: Welcome Back!
 :: Waco Immigration Services Center
 :: New Works In Progress
 :: ISAAC Calendar
 :: Immigration in the News
 :: Did You Know?
 :: Practicioner’s Corner by Richard Munoz
 :: Coming Next Month
 :: Spread the Word and Keep In Touch

September means hard work. You have to rake leaves, prepare your garden for winter, and get in shape to watch those long afternoons of football! Seriously though, this issue is about hard work. It is about your hard work in immigration ministry and the hard work of others as they prepare to become recognized organizations and accredited representatives. 

Thank you for your hard work and I invite you to “sit a spell” and read about the great things happening in the ISAAC Network.

Good luck to the Waco Regional Baptist Network’s Waco Immigration Services Center and Viviana Triana, Tihara Vargas and Carlos Charco!

Through hard work, prayer, and dedication, the Waco Regional Baptist Network’s Waco Immigration Services Center has completed its application for recognition and sent it to the Board of Immigration Appeals. It should get a decision from the Board within a few weeks. Also, Viviana Triana, Tihara Vargas and Carlos Charco have also applied for accreditation as representatives of Waco Regional. Once their application is approved, they will be the only immigrant services organization based in Waco, Texas and the first ISAAC Network organization started this year. Please keep them in your prayers!

Please pray for these new works in progress!
We also have others that have answered the call and have started their BIA recognition\accreditation process. Please keep these ministries in your prayers as they prepare their organizations, attend trainings, and complete their applications:

Pastor Jesús & Elsa Romero Brownwood, Texas Pastor Eliseo Arriaga Bell Baptist Association Belton, Texas Pastor Néstor Menjivar Iglesia Bautista Príncipe de Paz Austin, Texas Rev. Randall Babin, Director of Missions Soda Lake Association Marshall, Texas Pastor José Noe & Claudia Alarcón Primera Iglesia Bautista De León Dublin, Texas Pastor Moisés Ríos Priscila de León Primera Iglesia Bautista Plano, Texas

*The August Immigration Skills Training held by the Baptist Immigration Center, Inc was cancelled and will be rescheduled. We will let you know when the new training dates become available!

Prince William County policies targeting illegal immigrants are bad for business, say Latino business owners from the area. What to do is a more disputable matter.

:: Read more about it

A United States citizen was jailed for failure to pay traffic tickets and then held further on immigration violations in Arlington, Texas. It turned out to be a case of mistaken identity. Yikes! 

:: Read more about it

Scams targeting immigrants are still around. The Texas Attorney General recently shut another one down:

:: Read more about it

TPS extended for Nationals of El Salvador but you must re-register by October 22, 2007.

According to the USCIS, nationals of El Salvador who have been granted Temporary Protected Status previously must re-register for the 18-month extension during the 60-day re-registration period, beginning August 21, 2007 and ending October 22, 2007. 

:: Learn more (pdf)

An otherwise deportable or inadmissible alien in the United States may apply for cancellation of Removal under 240A(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act if the alien:

(A) has been physically present in the United States for a continuous period of not less than 10 years immediately preceding the date of such application;

(B) has been a person of good moral character during such period;

(C) has not been convicted of an offense under section 212(a)(2), 237(a)(2) , or 237(a)(3), subject to paragraph (5) 2a/ 5/ ; and

(D) establishes that removal would result in exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to the alien's spouse, parent, or child, who is a citizen of the United States or an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence.

So you have an undocumented single mother from Mexico as a client. Her two children are United States citizens ages 11 and 6. The mother works, speaks English, owns a home, has insurance, and a 401k. Her kids do not have any formal education in Spanish and do well in school. If the mother is removed from the country, the kids will have to follow her to Mexico. The mother has no relatives in Mexico and an asthmatic condition that would prevent her from doing labor intensive jobs in Mexico. It is undisputed that the mother will face continuous discrimination in Mexico because she is a single mother. An immigration trial judge ruled that the children would face “complete upheaval in their lives and hardship that could conceivably ruin their lives.” Given these circumstances you should be able to prove an “exceptional and extremely unusual hardship” on behalf of the children- right?

WRONG! The Board of Immigration Appeals held in In re Martha ANDAZOLA-Rivas, 23 I&N Dec. 319 (BIA 2002):

While almost every case will present some particular hardship, the fact pattern presented here is, in fact, a common one, and the hardships the respondent has outlined are simply not substantially different from those that would normally be expected upon removal to a less developed country. Although the hardships presented here might have been adequate to meet the former “extreme hardship” standard for suspension of deportation, we find that they are not the types of hardship envisioned by Congress when it enacted the significantly higher “exceptional and extremely unusual hardship” standard.

Based upon this case and its ilk, proving an “exceptional and extremely unusual hardship” is “exceptional” indeed. If you have had a case where you were able to cancel a removal under this section, I would appreciate you emailing me the details.

Well that’s all for September. Stay tuned because next month we will look at citizenship initiatives, resources, and possible changes to the citizenship exam by the USCIS.

Please feel free to forward this newsletter to others or ask them to sign up at www.isaacproject.com. Also, if you have some immigration news you would like to share, please contact me at richard.munoz@bgct.com.

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