Attention Is Being Paid

I’ve been preoccupied lately with the recent move of my office to a location closer to New York City, so I apologize for not updating this blog in recent weeks.

Here’s the latest:

On Monday of this week I received an email from Governor Huntsman personally thanking me for “the background information" my memo provided him and promising to follow up. Upon reflection, I have decided not to discuss my future contact with Mr. Huntsman on this blog or publicly in any way, unless he gives me his prior consent. The future Ambassador will have to deal with a certain number of entrenched bureaucrats in Guangzhou, and if he agrees to have extensive discussions with me prior to his appointment, it could be interpreted by some as an implicit endorsement of my criticism of the Guangzhou Consulate. This could limit his willingness to speak with me at length. So, there won’t be any more public updates of this particular issue unless and until the Governor agrees to it in advance.

But this doesn’t mean that the shock troops out there should lessen their efforts to convince their Congressional representatives to side with reform at the Guangzhou Consulate. If anything we should all re-double our efforts to ensure that the future Ambassador will have the political cover he’ll need to bring real reform to immigrant processing at the Guangzhou U.S. Consulate. So, please keep fighting the good fight out there.

In another development, I received an email yesterday from an editor of ILW.com – a leading web portal for discussion of immigration law matters, and one that is read by virtually all immigration attorneys - asking for my permission to reprint my memorandum as an article on ILW.com’s site. I have agreed.