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Ratliff Legal Group - Immigration Law

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Every wave of immigration into the United States has faced fear and hostility, especially during times of economic hardship, political turmoil, or war:

In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, one of our nation's first immigration laws, to keep out all people of Chinese origin during the "Red Scare" of the 1920s, thousands of foreign-born people suspected of political radicalism were arrested and brutalized; many were deported without a hearing. In 1942, 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent were interned in camps until the end of World War II.

It is true that the Constitution does not give foreigners the right to enter the U.S. But once here, it protects them from discrimination based on race and national origin and from arbitrary treatment by the government. Immigrants work and pay taxes; legal immigrants are subject to the military draft. Many immigrants have lived in this country for decades, married U.S. citizens, and raised their U.S.-citizen children. Laws that punish them violate their fundamental right to fair and equal treatment.

Immigration & Naturalization

Children & Immigration
In most cases, children born outside the U.S. are automatically granted American citizenship, as long as one of their parents is a U.S. citizen at the time of birth.
Citizenship
When you're a citizen of the United States, you're automatically granted several benefits.
Deportation
If you're an immigrant living in the United States as an alien and are facing deportation, you may be eligible under the Immigration and Nationality Act to have the deportation proceedings against you dropped by changing your alien status to a permanent resident status.
Employment
The Immigration and Naturalization Service, or INS, requires all employers to ensure that their employees are authorized to work in the United States.
General Information
Over the years, Congress has passed several laws giving amnesty, or legal forgiveness, to aliens who have managed to live and work in the United States illegally for a long period of time.
Green Cards
The Immigration and Naturalization Service grants a yearly minimum of 140,000 (one hundred and forty thousand) green cards to immigrants entering the United States on the basis of an employment opportunity.
Immigration & Naturalization
If you want to be a lawful permanent resident of the United States, you can obtain that status in a variety of ways.
Permanent Residence
Permanent residence is a status held by a person after qualifying and being registered by Immigration and Naturalization Services.
Refugees & Asylees
Asylum benefits used to be limited to people from certain countries, but now it's available to refugees worldwide.
Students & Immigration
Students will not be approved for an F-1 or M-1 visa unless the students can prove that they can financially provide for themselves and their education without needing to work.
Visas
There are a number of visas which would come under the category of Temporary Employment and Investor Visas, or Visas for Personnel. The most common of these are the 'H', 'L', and 'E' visas.





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Ratliff Law Firm
Robert RatliffRobert Ratliff is one of the Country’s most dedicated post-conviction and criminal defense attorneys. A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh where he received a B.A. and the University of Cincinnati Taft College of Law where he received his Juris Doctorate, Mr. Ratliff has practiced law in the State of Ohio and Alabama and has appeared in State and Federal courts throughout the United States. Mr. Ratliff is admitted to practice before all Federal Courts of Appeal, the United States Supreme Court and numerous District Courts.

Mr. Ratliff is a tireless advocate of the constitutional rights of individuals. He has represented people charged in criminal matters throughout the United States and overseas. At every opportunity Mr. Ratliff has fought for the rights of individuals and against the oppression of the Government. Mr. Ratliff is also the publisher and author of the monthly newsletter, Ratliff’s Law Review which has provided attorney’s, inmates and their families with concise and updated legal analysis on today’s most important criminal defense developments.*

*The following language is required pursuant to Rule 7.2, Alabama Rules of Professional Conduct: No representation is made that the quality of legal services to be performed is greater than the quality of legal services performed by other lawyers.

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