PrintThe immigration debate may divide legislators in Washington, D.C., but the real effects are at training facilities, horse shows and racetracks around the country.
Hunter/jumper trainer Ginny Edwards has tried every method she and her lawyers can think of to get her best groom back in the United States.
It’s been more than a year since the Mexican native went back to renew his visa; now he can’t get back to Edwards’ barn, Hidden Hollow in Upperville, Va., because of tightened immigration regulations. Throughout the process she’s also had trouble finding knowledgeable legal counsel.
This exact dilemma has hit trainers across the country: if their predominantly Mexican workforce follows the law and goes home to renew their documents, it’s very possible they won’t get back in to the United States. If they stay, employers are now harboring illegal help.
If a worker overstays his visa status for more than six months but less than one year, and then leaves the United States, he will be barred from returning to the United States for three years. If he has overstayed more than one year, he will be barred from returning for 10 years. This is determined by the date of authorized stay on his I-94 card.
This penalty discourages many who have over-stayed their visas from ever returning home to “fix it” and inadvertently increases the number of illegal aliens in the United States. It’s easier to remain illegally and live “under the radar” of the law then return and face certain exclusion for three to 10 years.
“Many trainers are damned if they do and damned if they don’t,” Edwards said, referring to the hiring of foreign labor. “More than ever now, it has become unbelievably expensive in the horse show business for trainers to run their barns well and run them legally.”
Earlier this year, legislation that would have reformed the immigration system—by tightening border facilities but also by making it easier for foreign workers in the country to get visas and green cards—failed to move to a vote in the U.S. Senate.
“Immigration reform is a political hot potato,” said Laurie Volk, a Virginia-based attorney Of Counsel to Trow & Rahal P.C., a business immigration firm in Washington, D.C. “President Bush sought to advance it, but he lost support from the most conservative wing of his party and couldn’t move the legislation forward. Thenhe lost his.political capital with Iraq andcouldn’t get any support from the Democrats on immigration reform, so the issue was DOA in Congress.”
Jay Hickey, president of the American Horse Council in Washington, D.C., which supported the bill, said it prompted a hornet’s nest of debate at the national level.
“The problem is that it’s such a political and emotional issue that there wasn’t much trust on either side,” Hickey said in reference to the Senate vote on June 28 that killed the comprehensive package.
Hunter/jumper trainer Ginny Edwards has tried every method she and her lawyers can think of to get her best groom back in the United States.
It’s been more than a year since the Mexican native went back to renew his visa; now he can’t get back to Edwards’ barn, Hidden Hollow in Upperville, Va., because of tightened immigration regulations. Throughout the process she’s also had trouble finding knowledgeable legal counsel.
This exact dilemma has hit trainers across the country: if their predominantly Mexican workforce follows the law and goes home to renew their documents, it’s very possible they won’t get back in to the United States. If they stay, employers are now harboring illegal help.
If a worker overstays his visa status for more than six months but less than one year, and then leaves the United States, he will be barred from returning to the United States for three years. If he has overstayed more than one year, he will be barred from returning for 10 years. This is determined by the date of authorized stay on his I-94 card.This penalty discourages many who have over-stayed their visas from ever returning home to “fix it” and inadvertently increases the number of illegal aliens in the United States. It’s easier to remain illegally and live “under the radar” of the law then return and face certain exclusion for three to 10 years.
“Many trainers are damned if they do and damned if they don’t,” Edwards said, referring to the hiring of foreign labor. “More than ever now, it has become unbelievably expensive in the horse show business for trainers to run their barns well and run them legally.”
Earlier this year, legislation that would have reformed the immigration system—by tightening border facilities but also by making it easier for foreign workers in the country to get visas and green cards—failed to move to a vote in the U.S. Senate.
“Immigration reform is a political hot potato,” said Laurie Volk, a Virginia-based attorney Of Counsel to Trow & Rahal P.C., a business immigration firm in Washington, D.C. “President Bush sought to advance it, but he lost support from the most conservative wing of his party and couldn’t move the legislation forward. Thenhe lost his.political capital with Iraq andcouldn’t get any support from the Democrats on immigration reform, so the issue was DOA in Congress.”
Jay Hickey, president of the American Horse Council in Washington, D.C., which supported the bill, said it prompted a hornet’s nest of debate at the national level.
“The problem is that it’s such a political and emotional issue that there wasn’t much trust on either side,” Hickey said in reference to the Senate vote on June 28 that killed the comprehensive package.
