How to stop school shootings and mass murder

Responsible gun owners recognize an AR-15 (the military version is the M-16) as a good rifle. It is very good at killing lots of people. Remington manufactures a 90-round drum magazine for the weapon's .223 ammunition (5.56 mm NATO), which costs about $120.  Standard magazines are 20 and 30 rounds.  There is no reason to produce a 90-round magazine.
I qualified with the M-16 during basic training in the Army.  It is a fine weapon, but it was designed to kill lots of people.  The M-16 was not made for hunters; it was made for soldiers to kill the enemy.
Adam Lanza killed 20 children with an AR-15.
The unspeakable tragedy on December 14 in Newtown, Connecticut, in which 20 6- and 7-year-olds and six teachers died could not have been prevented.  This was the fifth school shooting this year since an eighth grade student engaged police officers at Cummings Middle School on January 4 in Brownsville, Texas, and was killed.  No one else was killed or injured.
There have been at least 73 school shootings since the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Littleton, Colorado, in which 15 students and a teacher were killed; 23 wounded.  The gunmen killed themselves.
If we had a solution to this, I think we would have found it already.  It is sad commentary on our people and political leaders that we haven't.  We must try to keep deadly weapons out of the hands of mentally ill people.  But budgetary cutbacks on mental health services and institutions -- both at the state and federal level -- make it unlikely that someone who wants to kill lots of people will provide warning signs to a mental health professional before he strikes.
I'm afraid gun control won't work very well either, but reimposing the assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004, might help some.
Security doors for schools that require the person who wishes to enter the locked security door to push a buzzer or intercom and a camera trained on the entrance is certainly a low-cost approach.  These security doors are probably being installed in schools around the nation as I write this.  At least I hope so.
The only common-sense solution is to arm teachers and teach them how to use their weapons to protect themselves and their students.  Not all teachers, but at least the ones who volunteer to get the firearms training they will need.  And there definitely needs to be a semi-automatic pistol in the principal's office, which is usually found close to the entrance of schools.
It's either that, or post an armed guard at the front door.  Because how do you keep crazy people from getting guns and killing people?  As a nation, we don't have good options to resolve this.  Now the politicians will appoint "blue-ribbon commissions" and special committees of lawmakers to come up with suggestions to solve the problem, but new policies and laws and enforcement are not what we need.  We need to do something practical to protect our children in the short term, so this is what I think we should do:  Arm teachers.

Republican senators toss a bone to the DREAMers

Three influential U.S. senators have introduced a Republican version of the DREAM Act.
The bill would provide a pathway for young people who came to the United States without inspection at the border (i.e., unlawfully) and who complete military service or higher education and work in the United States for at least four years to become permanent residents.
But not citizenship.
Called the "Achieve Act", the bill would provide a permanent residence visa (often called a "green card") to people younger than 28 who were brought to the United States prior to reaching age 14. It would be made available to young people who do not have serious criminal records and who agree not to apply for federal government benefits, including federal student loans.
That's like saying, "Sure, kid, you can take my car, but I'm keeping the keys."
None of the armed services allows illegal aliens to enlist.  And these young people are the children of middle income parents, so prohibiting them from obtaining student loans is the same as locking them out of the classroom.
Two of the three Republican senators -- John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.) -- are on their way out of the Senate.  It was McCain who worked closely with the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) in years past to draft comprehensive immigration reform, which has gone nowhere in this do-nothing Congress.
In stark contrast, the DREAM Act (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) would provide a path to citizenship for young people who have lived in the United States for at least five years prior to the date of enactment of the bill.  If they complete two years of military service or two years of higher education, they would obtain temporary legal residence for a six-year period.
During that six-year period, they may obtain permanent residence if they complete military service and obtain an honorable discharge or complete a higher education degree program.
The DREAM Act's chief sponsor in the Senate is Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).
Supporters of the DREAM Act say it would simply extend legal residence to good American kids who came to the United States without the capacity to commit a misdemeanor by crossing the border without inspection.  Critics call it "amnesty."
I don't call Congress's failure to pass the DREAM act "stupid", but I certainly don't think this failure is smart immigration policy.  Neither is Congress's failure to allocate more immigrant visas for highly skilled workers.

The 'Don'ts' of how to win presidential elections for Republicans

Here's what Republicans need to stop doing to win presidential elections:

1.  Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) is wrong about many things, but he is right about this:  The GOP does not have enough "angry white men" to win presidential elections.  In order for the Republican Party to win the White House, it must attract new voters who are non-white, i.e., African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asian-Americans.  Changing demographics is a fact of life in America, and Republicans' "fact-denial" and "science-denial" are retro.  Telling Hispanics who are here without benefit of "papers" that they must "self-deport" is not helpful.  Saying that 47 percent of the American people are shiftless and lazy and just looking for a handout is not helpful.  Forty percent of white voters voted for Obama, folks.  Think forward.
2.  Pick a winner.  The Republican presidential primary is a well-known joke.  Contestants run so far to the right to win the party faithful that they wind up looking like Attila the Hun in business suits.  Late-night comedians are the only beneficiaries of this process.  Republicans, independent voters, and know-nothings suffer in silence.  Find someone with street cred and compassion for the little guy, and you might pick a winner.  Might.
3.  Stop bringing up settled issues.  Abortion rights and contraception for women and equal pay for equal work are issues that were settled 38 or more years ago.  Some Republicans who carry fundamental religious beliefs into the public square are driving the party into the sewer, insisting that life begins at conception.  Now part of the Republican Party platform, this fundamentally flawed principle will keep the party's presidential candidate out of the White House forever.  The political lesson, my Republican friends, is this:  Pick fights with women and you lose.
4.  Stop the "no tax increase" mantra.  Sure, the American people are taxed enough, but the tax rates are lower now than they were 20 years ago.  No one wants their taxes to increase, but with deficits so huge that the nation can't even afford the interest payments, we better be looking for revenue sources.  If Republicans can't recognize this, there's no trip to the White House for them.  Tax cuts for the wealthy don't give voters with middle class incomes a warm, fuzzy feeling.  But they do brand a party as favoring the rich.
5.  Quit giving the Pentagon and Wall Street free passes.  The defense budget is so bloated that you couldn't even draw something fat enough to represent it in a cartoon.  The Cold War was over 23 years ago, but the Republicans are in "fact-denial", with Mitt Romney famously calling Russia our "enemy".  Do we need more nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers and B-2 bombers and next-generation fighter aircraft (that cost $40 million a copy) and nuclear missiles to fight the Cold War when we're fighting Taliban with AK-47s dug in to a hillside?  Republicans have to acknowledge that 911 and the invasion of Iraq happened on their watch.  Talk about failures of intelligence.  Those fiascos -- the former costing almost 3,000 American dead and the latter costing 5,000 American dead and more than 20,000 wounded -- make the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, look like a baby's playpen.  Wall Street will find lots of ways to screw the customers without Republicans' help.  I don't know when that became the way to do business in America but it's a fact of life today.  No White House for you.
Will Republicans stop doing any of this?  Of course not.

Why the Republicans lost the White House again

The time for Republicans to examine their party's direction and composition is upon them.  This presidential election was razor close, sure, but history repeats itself.  Study federal elections in the 1880s.
I think Republicans have forgotten their conservative roots, which I boil down to four, the source being former GOP presidential candidate and Arizona senator Barry Goldwater.
The first is maximum liberty.  If your government can't protect your freedom and liberties, it's not much of a government.  Goldwater was pro-life, but he was not anti-abortion.  His wife was head of Planned Parenthood for his home state of Arizona.  He consistently voted to uphold abortion rights and opposed efforts to pass a constitutional amendment reversing Roe v. Wade.
The second is limited government.  True conservatives don't believe in "no government", but they don't want the government they know they must have to be intrusive and control people's lives and fortunes (see maximum liberty above).  Safety and security are jobs one and two.  After that, real conservatives take a hard look at the role the federal government should play in, e.g., education.  What does the United States Constitution say about the federal government's role in education?
Third is a balanced budget.  The last time the federal government reported a budget surplus, according to the Congressional Budget Office, were the years 1998 to 2000, the last three years of the Clinton administration.  It's been downhill from there, and both major parties have contributed to the slide into red ink as far as the eye can see.
Finally, there is the matter of war and military power.  True coservatives are not isolationists or hawks, but they do believe in not waging wars of opportunity or adventure.  We need to call these "wars" (Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan) what they really are:  Occupations.  It's easy to start a war, but the United States is proving that it is darn difficult to end one.
Do I think Republican leaders can get together and, after some serious soul-searching, return to conservative roots?  The short answer is no.  The party and its platform have strayed so far from its bedrock conservative principles that it ran out of breadcrumbs and can't find its way back.

U.S. immigration policy upside-down and here's why

I like facts.  They are so much better than demagoguery, ranting and raving you hear about U.S. immigration policy (or lack thereof).

So it may come as a surprise to you to hear from me that U.S. immigration policy is upside-down.  Here's the best example.  During the first full year after the 2001 Canadian Citizenship & Immigration Act went into effect (2002), here are how many immigrant visas Canada issued in the family and employment (Canada calls this cateory "economic") categories:

Family 46,319 (38.2%)
Economic 58,221 (48%)

By 2011, here were the numbers:

Family 45,449 (34.5%)
Economic 64,356 (49%)

Do you see the direction Canada is going in with its immigration policy?  It is trying to keep highly skilled workers and their foreign-born college and university graduates to build and improve its economy while maintaining a humanitarian level of family immigrant visa issuance.  It is trying to keep the brains and highly educated young people in Canada.  Smart.

In contrast, the United States issues 226,000 family immigrant visas and only 140,000 employment-based immigrant visas each fiscal year.  The State Department has backlogs for employment-based immigrant visas that force natives of some countries to wait more than six years for an immigrant visa in the highly skilled worker categories -- young people our colleges and universities educated!  Dumb immigration policy.

This is upside down, folks.  Write and call your federal representatives and tell them to fix this problem now.

Romney surrogate calls U.S. response in Libya 'limp-wristed'

Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and surrogate for presidential hopeful former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA) John Bolton harshly criticized the Obama administration’s response to the violence in Benghazi, Libya earlier this month, calling the U.S. response “limp-wristed."

The Bush appointee was speaking to Fox News on Friday when he used the homophobic insult, which, as Think Progress noted, is “usually used as a slur against or allusion to gay men” and to connote weakness.

“The US is viewed under Obama as weak, as Sen. McCain said, as declining in influence dramatically in the Middle East, pulling out of Iraq, intending to pull out of Afghanistan,” Bolton alleged, “having a limp wristed reaction to the assassination of four American diplomats.” - From RawStory, rawstory.com

John Bolton is disgusting.  He never saw combat in Vietnam -- although he supported the war -- because he joined the Maryland Army National Guard.  His former boss, George W. Bush, did the same thing by joining the Texas Air National Guard.

In fact, the Navy deployed ships off the Libyan coast on Sept. 12, the day after the attack, and deployed a group of Marines called a Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team to Libya to secure U.S. facilities.  This team is specially trained to guard, defend, or retake diplomatic installations.

John Bolton is a bellicose loud-mouth neocon bomb-thrower who has always been part of the problem, not part of the solution.

IRS makes it harder for people to get ITINs

An Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) is issued by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) only to an applicant who is not eligible for a social security number.
Last June, the IRS announced that -- at least for awhile -- it will make it harder for non-citizens to get an ITIN.  Formerly, the IRS would allow ITIN applicants to provide copies of identity documents that were notarized, or allow such documents to be submitted through certifying acceptance agents (approved, ironically, by the IRS).
ITIN applicants who submit Form W-7, Application for IRS Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, generally want to be able to file IRS Form 1040, U.S. Individual Income Tax Return, with the IRS.  This is a good thing.
But during this interim period, people who need an ITIN to get their tax returns processed must do so by submitting -- by mail -- their original identity documentation or certified copies of their documentation. Documentation will be accepted at IRS walk-in sites but will be forwarded to the ITIN centralized site for processing.
The IRS says the new procedures are designed to strengthen and protect the integrity of the ITIN process while minimizing the impact on taxpayers.
"The IRS will look to make long-term improvements to the program while minimizing barriers to individuals reporting their income and filing their tax returns," an IRS news release said.  Really?  It's an improvement to make it harder to get an ITIN?
Government used to be for the people.

Farmers could benefit from new deferred action policy

The new deferred action policy, which is being implemented by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), could provide benefits to farmworkers.  The policy does not only benefit children who are in school or graduated from high school and who were brought into the United States by their parents; it also benefits farmworkers who are in the same circumstance.

That is going to provide some relief for our nation's farmers.  Alabama farmers, for example, thought they were electing conservative Republicans who would help them.  Instead the Republican-dominated Alabama Legislature passed the "toughest in the nation" immigration law whose disastrous effects on Alabama's croplands and family farms are just now becoming evident.

Farmers tell me that if they have a another harvest season like last fall, they will be forced out of the business and into bankruptcy.

The new deferred action program allows illegal alien children, who were brought into the United States before they reached the age of 16 and were younger than 31 as of June 15, when the deferred action policy was announced by DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, have been living in the United States for at least five years, are in school, or have graduated and have not committed certain crimes.

Illegal alien children who meet the requirements above could still be eligible if they have not graduated from high school as long as they enroll in an adult education program, vocational training, or English language instruction.

The program could benefit a million or more of these children.

The Migration Policy Institute estimates that as many as half of the illegal alien children who could benefit from deferred action are laborers working in low-wage jobs.  Data from a National Agricultural Workers Survey shows that at least 54,000 farmworkers could qualify for the deferred action program and might be eligible for legal employment authorization.  Many of the eligible farmworkers have limited education, poor English skills, and may have never filled out an application for anything before.

While ICE officials have said they won't use information on the applications to remove (deport) the laborers, they would not comment on whether the information would be used to audit or prosecute employers.

The new deferred action policy does not provide lawful permanent residence or U.S. citizenship to any applicant for employment authorization.

These children did not have the capacity to break the law (a misdemeanor) when their parents or others brought them into the United States.  Changing the policy was the right thing to do.

Unfortunately, the union that represents some (not all) ICE employees doesn't think so.  The union is suing to block the program.

The winningest football coach

Did you know what that was all about?  I didn't, until a couple of months before the "winningest coach" statue was erected in front of Penn State's Beaver football stadium in State College, Pennsylvania.  It's now gone.
Prior to the late Joe Paterno's recent achievement as the "winningest coach" in college football history, the "winningest coach" was Eddie Robinson of Grambling State.  There was speculation that Penn State didn't blow the whistle on pedophile and child rapist Jerry Sandusky until Paterno had nailed the number for the "winningest coach" in college football history.
The fact that a black man held the honor apparently could not be tolerated, much as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky cannot tolerate the reality of a black president of the United States.
Because the NCAA took away Paterno's wins from 1998 to 2011, Robinson is still the "winningest coach" in college football history with 408.
Former Florida State coach Bobby Bowden is again the "winningest coach" in major league college football with 377 wins.
There are the numbers.
To Penn State administrators and coaches:  Reflect upon all of the pain and suffering endured by those boys.  Was it worth it?
To Senator Mitch McConnell:  Is it worth it?  Is it treason for you to tell your fellow Republicans to defy a black president and his fellow Democrats, block their job-creating initiatives and tax relief for the middle class, and not help the people of the United States recover from the worst recession in 80 years?  We'll see come November, won't we?

Three out of four ain't bad

The U.S. Supreme Court on June 25 affirmed a Ninth U.S. Court of Appeals decision, which agreed with a lower court decision to block four provisions of Arizona's immigration laws.
The high court determined that three sections involving alien registration, employment, and detention were pre-empted by federal law or Congress occupying the field of law.
Section 3 makes failure to comply with federal alien-registration requirements a state misdemeanor; §5(C)makes it a misdemeanor for an unauthorized alien to seek or engage in work in the State; §6 authorizes state and local officers to arrest without a warrant a person “the officer has probable cause to believe . . . has committed any public offense that makes the person removable from the United States”; and §2(B) requires officers conducting a stop, detention, or arrest to make efforts, in some circumstances, to verify the person’s immigration status with the Federal Government.
The Supreme Court said section 2(B) was not yet ripe for review because it had not gone into effect, and no one knows how local law enforcement will implement it.
So what about Alabama's "toughest in the nation" immigration law? They are a lot tougher than Arizona's, and will probably go down to a lot harder defeat, particularly because the laws are not making aliens "self-deport" and are not helping the state's economy.  Unemployment is up, and there are sectors in the economy such as home-building and construction that are way, way up, thanks to our tough Republican-dominated Legislature, which promised us that our economy would improve if we just got rid of the illegals (read that Hispanics).  Alabama farmers might say, "With friends like these, who needs enemies?"
And I didn't mention Alabama's stellar Republican initiative, a brand new voter ID law!  Dumbass white boys at it again.

DHS announces deferred action on some young illegal aliens

    Today (June 15, 2012), Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano announced a new policy with regard to young people who are illegally present in the United States.
Effective immediately, certain young people who were brought to the United States as young children, do not present a risk to national security or public safety, and meet several key criteria will be considered for relief from removal from the country or from entering into removal proceedings. Those who demonstrate that they meet the criteria will be eligible to receive deferred action for a period of two years, subject to renewal, and will be eligible to apply for work authorization.

“Our nation’s immigration laws must be enforced in a firm and sensible manner,” said Secretary Napolitano. “But they are not designed to be blindly enforced without consideration given to the individual circumstances of each case. Nor are they designed to remove productive young people to countries where they may not have lived or even speak the language. Discretion, which is used in so many other areas, is especially justified here.”

DHS continues to focus its enforcement resources on the removal of individuals who pose a national security or public safety risk, including immigrants convicted of crimes, violent criminals, felons, and repeat immigration law offenders. Today’s action further enhances the Department’s ability to focus on these priority removals.

Under this directive, individuals who demonstrate that they meet the following criteria will be eligible for an exercise of discretion, specifically deferred action, on a case by case basis:

1. Came to the United States under the age of 16;
2. Have continuously resided in the United States for a least five years preceding the date of this memorandum and are present in the United States on the date of this memorandum;
3. Are currently in school, have graduated from high school, have obtained a general education development certificate, or are honorably discharged veterans of the Coast Guard or Armed Forces of the United States;
4. Have not been convicted of a felony offense, a significant misdemeanor offense, multiple misdemeanor offenses, or otherwise pose a threat to national security or public safety;
5. Are not older than 30.

Only those individuals who can prove through verifiable documentation that they meet these criteria will be eligible for deferred action. Individuals will not be eligible if they are not currently in the United States and cannot prove that they have been physically present in the United States for a period of not less than 5 years immediately preceding today’s date. Deferred action requests are decided on a case-by-case basis. DHS cannot provide any assurance that all such requests will be granted. The use of prosecutorial discretion confers no substantive right, immigration status, or pathway to citizenship. Only the Congress, acting through its legislative authority, can confer these rights.

No evidence that immigration bill helps employ Alabama workers

     A local newspaper article says politicians who supported HB56, Alabama's "toughest in the nation" immigration laws claim that Alabama's decreasing unemployment rate is due to some provisions going into effect last October.
     "If you compare our unemployment rate drop to the region, our drop was much more quick," said State Sen. Scott Beason, R-Gardendale, one of the chief proponents of HB56.
     There is no evidence that the immigration laws are tied to a drop in the unemployment rate.  Employment rates in Alabama, in fact, are flat and some economic sectors, such as construction, are still losing jobs.
     Economists say the drop in the unemployment rate is likely due to more people dropping out of the workforce, or becoming discouraged and not looking for work.
     "The proponents of the immigration law really have no solid, defendable, reasonable evidence other than the desire to link those two together," said one Alabama economist.
     Since October 2011, Alabama has added a net total of 1,700 nonfarm jobs.  Total nonfarm employment in March 2012 was exactly where it was in March 2011.

There was a time ...

There was a time in America when its citizens were not presumed by their own government to be terrorists in U.S. airport terminals until they proved to the satisfaction of a federal government agent otherwise.  Today all airline travelers are inspected and searched, and all are presumed to be terrorists.
There was a time in America when its citizens were not presumed by their own government to be aliens.  U.S. citizens were once allowed to go straight to U.S. Customs when returning home on an overseas flight.  Today they get in line with all of the foreigners to be "inspected" by federal agents of Customs and Border Protection.
Those times are gone.  It is a very different, very fearful America we live in today.  And fear makes people do foolish things.  And more's the pity.

Snoopy on hold because of Alabama immigration law

A Pelham, Alabama, high school put its production of "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" on hold because it had difficulty getting a sworn statement from Tams-Whitmark Music Library, a New York City licensing house, that it does not knowingly employ illegal immigrants. The sworn statement is required of all companies doing business with state or local government to provide the statement before purchases can be made.
You can argue that Pelham High School teachers went too far, and the student actors are the ones paying the price, but the teachers were just trying to comply with Alabama's "toughest in the nation" immigration laws.
"We have mailed forms to every vendor we do business with trying to determine whether they have operations in Alabama," said Cindy Warner, a spokeswoman for Shelby County schools.  "We've probably sent 8,000."
Alabama's public school systems are being required by state government to cut budgets and trim expenses. Really?  What is Alabama's immigration law forcing them to do?  Can you say "government mandate"?

11th Circuit enjoins two more sections of immigration law

I knew two more sections of Alabama's toughest-in-the-nation immigration law were unconstitutional but was not sure whether there were enough votes on the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta to enjoin them.  Oh me of little faith.
On March 8, the federal appeals court enjoined (blocked) section 27 of Alabama's infamous HB56, which forbids Alabama courts from enforcing contracts between undocumented aliens and parties who know their immigration status.
The court also blocked section 30, which forbids state and local agencies from doing business with unlawfully present aliens.
The issuance of the ruling came as a surprise to me because the court had previously stated that it would wait on the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on Arizona's immigration laws before issuing its opinion.
Why are the two provisions of Alabama's immigration laws unconstitutional?
They violate the Article I, Section 10(1) of the U.S. Constitution and its First Amendment ("Freedom of association is the individual right to come together with other individuals and collectively express, promote, pursue and defend common interests."), and Article I, Sections 4 and 22 and Article 4, Section 95 of the Constitution of Alabama 1901.  The provisions of the law struck down restrict personal liberty instead of expanding or protecting it, which is a bedrock conservative principle.  Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who wrote the laws, is a Republican but not a conservative.  Don't get me started.
Alabama's immigration laws represent an expansion of government, not a limitation on government (another bedrock conservative principle).
All of the federal courts in Arizona, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and Utah have upheld the state's power to grant a license or take one away for a violation, but wholesale interference with contracts is not supportable.
All of the federal courts have given effect to provisions that require employers to use E-Verify.

Alabama senator pre-files bill to fix parts of immigration law

Republican Alabama senator Gerald Dial of Lineville has pre-filed a bill to change parts of Alabama's "toughest in the nation" immigration laws.  Sen. Dial said he wants to add some common sense to the law and has described the law as "overreaching".
After the arrests of Mercedes-Benz and Honda executives, some legislators -- even Alabama's governor, Dr. Robert Bentley -- expressed concerns about the immigration law and said it needed to be "tweaked".
Some unconstitutional provisions of the law will likely be stricken by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.  Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange has suggested that the Alabama Legislature repeal those provisions, which include making public school teachers immigration police by requiring the immigration status of their students to be verified.

Another example: The federal government is not your friend

Real message today from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services of the Department of Homeland Insecurity:

Dear Stakeholder,

The USCIS Verification Division and the Office of Public Engagement invite any interested parties to participate in a national stakeholder engagement to discuss the nationwide launch of Self Check on Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 3:00 pm (Eastern Time) at the USCIS Orlando Field Office. Self Check, a service of E-Verify, is a simple online process that allows an individual to check his or her own employment eligibility in the United States . During the session, USCIS will describe and demonstrate the service, discuss its performance, and debut the new Self Check webpages and promotional materials.  For more information, please see the attached invitation.

To Participate in the Session

Any interested parties may participate in this event in person, via teleconference or live web stream. All participants must respond to this invitation. Please contact the Office of Public Engagement at USCIS-IGAOutreach@dhs.gov by February 7, 2012, and reference the following in the subject line of your email:

                         

If you plan to attend in person, please reference “Self Check – In Person”

If you plan to attend by phone, please reference “Self Check – Phone”

If you plan to attend by live web stream, please reference “Self Check – Live Web Stream”

Kind Regards,

Office of Public Engagement

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services