Cinco de Mayo

Feliz Cinco de Mayo!  I spent this evening at a book launch/reading for a friend from the immigration law community. It is her debut novel - Try to Remember. I got my copy signed, of course. The party was at the Old State House, which is this old brick building, built in 1713, which was the seat of the colonial government and later the seat of the state government, and even later, the seat of the local Boston government. The Boston Massacre occurred right outside the Old State House. According to Wikipedia, it is the oldest public building in Boston. I used to walk by it almost everyday on my way to and from the Immigration Court, but I had never been inside. It is very beautiful inside, with ornate fireplaces and wide floor boards and a spiral staircase with sturdy wooden railings. It had exhibits with a lot of artifacts from the Revolutionary War era. I need to go back and look at all the exhibits some time, maybe with Annie.

Walking through Boston tonight, down the streets that I used to walk down everyday, I felt happy to live in such an interesting, old, vibrant place. I also felt sad that I no longer work in downtown Boston. I really, really miss it. Whenever I go there, I feel at home.  I hope that someday I'll be able to work in downtown again.

Today, I found a playground with swings for Annie! About a mile from our house is the public elementary school, Clifford Marshall. It's a nice walk - you can go the main way, which goes along Washington St. and Southern Artery, both major streets. Or you can go through the residential streets, which I prefer. It was nice to see everyone's azaleas in bloom. But I digress. At the Clifford Marshall school, there is quite a nice playground out front, and there was one baby swing. Annie got to swing for a few minutes, which made her quite happy. The elementary school kids were out playing, and several wanted to push Annie in the swing. It was cute. They were generally pretty gentle with her. There are also slides and other jungle-gym like things, but Annie isn't a big fan of the slide at this point, so we just stuck with the swing.

All in all, a diverse day. Annie's swim lesson in the morning, followed by the usual grocery shopping, our walk in the afternoon, and finally, my adventure in downtown. Time to turn in for the night!

Yea!

I just got an early Christmas present from the First Circuit!

Yippy!

On blogs, Cape Cod, and play dates.

Of late, I've been wondering the point of this blog. Sure, it's a great place to post photos, but you all can look at all my photos on Flickr. I post photos usually once a week at least. You need to sign up for a free account and "friend" me in order to view them.  I think most of the people who read this blog already have a Flickr account. 

A blog is a great place to keep everyone updated about happenings in our life, but a) we don't really have anything all that important to report and b) I'm still in the dark about the happenings in everyone else's life. I think that the point of e-mails and letters is that it's a two-way thing. You give a little, you get a little. This blog is very much a one-way street.  I guess in the end, the main reason to have a blog is to force myself to record things, so that I can look back and remember them. I'm not so good at keeping a journal, and for some reason, blogging is a little more fun than a journal. And it takes up less space.

This week, I went to a training in Barnstable County, which is in Cape Cod, on the part of the cape that is closest to Boston. I drove down with my new boss and observed her doing the training since I will be doing these trainings quite soon. Later, she took me out to dinner. It was a pretty good day; it was nice to get out of the office and see the fall colors.

Today I'm home and this afternoon I'm going to a "play date" at the home of one of the moms that I met through one of the moms' groups I did this summer. Her son is 3 days younger than Annie and the other babies attending are all within about 2 weeks of Annie's age.  It's funny because when I had Annie, I heard of other mothers doing play dates, and I wondered how they would even get involved in such things. How do you get invited to a play date? And did I even want to go to something like a play date? I was certain that I would never figure it out. But lo and behold, I'm going to one, and I've actually been looking forward to it all week. It is really fun, and very reassuring, to hang out with moms who have babies that are the same age as Annie. It is also really fun to see all the babies get bigger and learn new things. Annie is wearing a new pink dress and brown leggings for the occasion. :)

We made it (so far)

So we survived our first week of "back to work" and day care. Annika's first day of day care was Tuesday. They took photos of her and she looks pretty happy:
I missed her like crazy though. I think she did OK but it's going to take her a little while to get used to napping there, I think. It must be pretty noisy, and of course, she's not used to that. I bring her home and she is really tired.

Meanwhile, back at work, it's the same old stuff (which I won't get into here), plus, I have to say good-bye to all my clients. A drag.

Annie has been getting used to the rice cereal. We've changed the consistency so that it's quite a bit thicker than when we first started a week ago, and that seems to work better. The first time we fed her the rice cereal, it was so runny that it just went everywhere and I don't think she was able to swallow most of it because it ran out of her mouth too quickly! Now that it's thicker, she will open her mouth for the spoon, move the cereal around in her mouth a bit, and then swallow. Her formula consumption has gone down a few ounces, but she's still in good range. I'm going to weigh her at Isis tomorrow to make sure she's still OK, but she sure looks healthy!

Tomorrow we have a busy day planned - moms' group at Isis in the morning, and then a new playgroup in the afternoon! Some of the moms from my last Isis group are getting together at someone's house in West Roxbury. It should be fun. I'm praying Annie doesn't have a melt-down from all the activity.

This weekend, we might go apple-picking on Saturday, and on Saturday night, the neighbors are having a little cookout with their new fire pit. And a new baby was born across the street yesterday! He was born at home (which was planned - they had a midwife) and he weighed in at over 9 pounds. Another friend for Annie. Our next-door neighbor thinks that there are now 8-9 kids under the age of 5 on the street, and about half were born this year. We're already making Halloween plans.

Another weekend is almost here!

Post Office Square

I just saw this nice article in the Boston Globe about the park where I often go to eat my lunch in Downtown Crossing when the weather's nice: Click Here. Be sure to view the little video at the top of the article. It gives you an idea about the atmosphere. The article is about the seat cushions that the park provides to anyone who comes to the park and wants to sit on the grass. Apparently they've been providing the cushions for 10 years and no one has ever stolen one. That's pretty cool. The park really is a treasure. They usually have classical musicians playing during the lunch hour, and there's a fountain in the middle, where kids go and play in the water spray. They have one area with a pergola, with benches underneath. There are trees and lots of perennials. I love this park.

Picnics!

One of the things I've enjoyed about this summer has been all the picnics that Annie and I have taken. I think our favorite picnic venue is Houghton's Pond, which is a swimming hole about 15 minutes from our house in the Blue Hills Reservation.

Today, I had to go into Boston to drop a file off at work. My boss contracted me to do an appeals brief that was due right after she got back from vacation. So over the last couple of weeks, I've been working on that when I could. I finally finished it on Sunday, and needed to bring back the file so that my boss can submit the brief and attachments to the board of appeals.

After dropping off the file, I picked up some lunch at Bruegger's, and then we walked over to the Boston Common for a picnic. I should mention that the weather is just about perfect - about 70 degrees, sunny, clear skies. Here's Annie, taking it all in (and chewing on her rings):

It's hard to believe I'll be back to work in a week.

More Changes

And on the topic of growth and change, I'm about to embark on a huge set of changes. Yesterday I was offered a new job, which I'm planning on accepting today. It will start at the beginning of October, and I will be leaving my job at the law firm where I have worked for five years.

It is not without a lot of trepidation that I switch jobs. The law firm where I currently work is really like a big family. Two of my bosses were my teachers in law school, and additionally, I did a co-op with this firm during law school. They have taught me everything they know. I had a lot of autonomy at this job - I could take any sort of immigration case that I wanted. I only answered to myself. A lot of life changes occurred during my job here - I transitioned out of law school, was sworn into the bar, my dad died, and I went through my entire pregnancy there. The fall that precipitated Annie's early labor occurred just outside my office, as I was coming back from lunch.

But I can't stay. The firm has had some very serious financial troubles, particularly over the last year. Starting in January, my hours had been cut back to 4 days a week. And up until about a week ago, they didn't know if they would be able to take me back at all in September when I finish my maternity leave. Last week, they finally said I could come back 2 days a week (less than I wanted), but there were no promises about the future. It is extremely doubtful whether I could even accomplish my job with only 2 days a week in the office. Anyone who has talked to me about this knows that I have some strong opinions about why the firm is in such trouble, but I won't go into that here. Suffice it to say that I don't think things are going to improve there, even if the economy improves, and I could very well be facing a complete lay-off if I stayed with them.

The new job is completely different from my old job. Instead of litigation and direct client services, I will be advising criminal defense attorneys about the consequences of various crimes on their client's immigration status. While I am happy to be challenged, and while I see a lot of potential in this job, the absolute change in what I'll be doing is a bit staggering. And in addition to the complete change in job description, I'll be working in a completely different section of the city.

I'm scared. I didn't want to have to deal with a change in job right at the time that I'm dealing with the significant changes in my personal life that come with having a baby. Perhaps I should've seen the writing on the wall at my old job sooner than I did, and should've switched jobs a long time ago. "Should'ves" and "could'ves" are convenient but useless in retrospect.

I'm going to miss my bosses and co-workers and my clients. I'm going to miss my office, with the big window overlooking a little park with beautiful trees. I'm going to miss all the sandwich shops where I used to eat lunch. I'm going to miss working with clients. I wish it wasn't time to move on.

Fredy Zepeda

This story in the Boston Globe has really gotten me down today:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/08/02/slain_immigrant_brought_home_to_guatemala_his_final_resting_place/

A Guatemalan immigrant named Fredy Zepeda was killed in a hit-and-run accident outside of his house 2 weeks ago. His family raised the money to send his body home to Guatemala and the burial happened recently. Zepeda had left Guatemala in 1998, leaving behind a 9-month-old baby. His son, who is 11 now, met his father for the first time in the coffin. Zepeda could not return to Guatemala sooner because he did not have any immigration status in the U.S. Under the current immigration laws, if you are in the U.S. without status for over a year and you later leave, you are not allowed to come back for 10 years. So a lot of immigrants get here, fall out of status, and then are stuck. In Zepeda's case, his wife and 1-year-old son lived here. His older son was in Guatemala. So either way, Zepeda was separated from immediate family.

Although I never met him, this guy could have been my client. Or he could've been someone I met during a consultation. I do a lot of consultations for people for whom there is absolutely nothing I can do to help them. In Zepeda's case, it wouldn't have mattered that one of his kids was a U.S. Citizen. You can't gain legal status through a child until the child becomes an adult. And even then, if you entered the U.S. illegally (ie: sneaking across the border), it is almost impossible for you to ever gain legal status in the U.S., even if you have U.S. Citizen relatives.

There are lots of people who come to the U.S. to work because it's the only way they can support their families back in Central America. I don't agree with his decision to leave his son back in Guatemala, but a lot of people think they have no choice. What's going to become of his kids now? They have pictures that show where Zepeda's father lived. The poverty in Guatemala is just horrible.

I don't think that the U.S. should encourage illegal immigration, people sneaking across the border and such. But don't we want people like Zepeda to be here? He worked as a dry-wall hanger. That's hard work. He was killed as he was strapping his son into a car seat. There really needs to be some way for people like Zepeda, hard-working people with established lives in the U.S., to gain legal status in the U.S. It is just heart-breaking that he returned to Guatemala in a coffin.

Patriots' Day and Marathon Monday

It's Patriots' Day here in Boston, also known as Marathon Monday, and it's a state holiday. Patriots' Day commemorates the battles of Lexington and Concord and there are always reenactments of those battles in Lexington and Concord. When I first lived in Boston, I went to part of the Lexington reenactment. We mostly just saw people dressed up like Minutemen, marching along the road. I think we might've seen a small skirmish with some red coats too.

The Boston Marathon is always on Patriots' Day. It starts in mid-morning in Hopkinton, MA (west of Boston) and usually around noon, the first of the runners are at the finish line. The marathon is a big thing in Boston. They shut down a lot of major streets and there are always huge crowds at the finish line. I've stood at the finish line several times - it is really moving to see people make it to the finish line, some running, some limping and crawling. You are allowed to run if you fit into either of these categories: 1) You have qualified for the marathon by running one or two other marathons with a specific time; or 2) You are running for a charity. My friend Jen ran the marathon once. She ran for a family friend who had died of cancer, and raised money for one of the cancer organizations. I think it's especially moving to see the people running for charities make it to the finish line, because many of them aren't even runners. They're just trying to challenge themselves and do a good deed in the process.

For me, Patriots' Day marks the beginning of real spring. The trees and flowers are in bloom, and it's usually much warmer and spring-like than the "official" first day of spring (March 21). Only a few weeks until I can plant my garden.

Annie remains in the hospital and will probably be there for at least a week longer. She is still on oxygen, still in the isolette and last night they had to put a feeding tube in because she's not eating enough to gain weight. She's actually losing weight. She is very good hands at the hospital, although I desperately want to bring her home. At this point, because taking her out of her bed and holding her expends energy, we have been discouraged from holding her very much. We can hold her around meal times, which happen every three hours. This is pretty hard - I really could sit there all day and hold her.

My mom is visiting from Buffalo and arrived on Saturday night, staying til Wednesday morning. It's good to have her here because I really need the extra support right now. Jim went to work today and my mom and I are going to go to the hospital to do Annie's 11:00 feeding.

I guess this starts the first full week of my maternity leave. It's weird. I called into work last week to make sure the transition was going smoothly. I miss my bosses and my clients and the work itself. I had a lot of projects that I was trying to plow through before the baby came, and now they have to finish them for me. It's hard to let go, especially for a control freak like me. I guess the transition isn't just happening at work - I'm going through it too.

Immigration jumble

Some of you may wonder what exactly I do for a living. I just found a great depiction of what I deal with everyday. This chart appeared in the October '08 edition of Reason magazine. It went along this this story.

This chart is actually a simplified version of the immigration process.

Asylum decisions

In the last two weeks, I lost two cases at the First Circuit. Click HERE and HERE to read them. The decisions aren't too surprising, although the impact on the actual asylum applicants is substantial. It's really hard calling up the client and telling them that their cases are over and it's time to return to their home country, where they may very well face danger. I don't think the judges sitting on a court of appeals really understand (or have any interest in understanding) the human impact of their decisions.

(As an interesting side note, when I went to find links to these cases, I noticed that there are actually people out there blogging about these decisions. Check out this for example).

But, perhaps, it's not the job of the court of appeals to consider the human impact of a given case. Is it possible to decide a case based purely on the law? And should judges do it? Of course, when the law is on my side, I'd like the judges to stick to the law. And when the law is not on my side (and it usually isn't when it comes to immigration), then I'd like them to look at the facts. :)

That's the problem with immigration cases. The facts are often very compelling (just read the two cases above and I think you'll agree with me). But Congress didn't much like immigrants when it wrote the law; particularly, Congress didn't want immigration decisions to be subject to much judicial review. And this is truly unfortunate when you have a Department of Justice like we have now, who downsizes an incredibly overworked immigration appellate board; invents "streamlining" procedures so that there is less administrative review of decisions; and then appoints immigration judges not on the basis of their qualifications but solely on their political affiliation. A great system: incompetent judging, followed by little to no administrative review, and severe restrictions on judicial review! I really don't know what should be fixed first: a heightened standard of judicial review, an overhaul of the Board of Immigration Appeals, or a recall of some of the judges hired during the Monica Goodling era. The sad part is that none of that will happen.

In the meantime, we'll keep seeing decisions like those cited above.