Six Dimension Worksheet

Associate Level Material Six Dimensions of Health Worksheet Part 1 For each of the following six dimensions of health, list at least one characteristic, activity, belief, or attitude that reflects that dimension in your life. Provide a brief explanation with each example. Refer to Ch. 1 in the text for explanations of these dimensions. Physical health: Exercising daily is an activity that helps Social health: An activity that reflects social health would have to be interactions with other people. If you are an antisocial person then you will end up being depressed.Intellectual health: An activity that reflects intellectual health is thinking clearly. If you can’t think clearly then you will not be able to make decisions in life. Environmental health: The way that you treat your environment around you. When you recycle you are making a decision to help the environment. Emotional health: An activity that reflects ones emotional health would be expressing your feelings. If I†™m angry I keep my thoughts to myself so I won’t hurt anybody’s feelings. Spiritual health: Spiritual health involves your belief. Praying regularly is an activity that you do daily to strengthen your spiritual health.Part 2 In approximately 125 to 200 words, describe health and wellness in your own words using the ideas and concepts for each of the six dimensions of health. Your overall health is a reflection on your physical, intellectual, environmental, social, spiritual, and emotional health. If you maintain all six dimension of health then you are creating a healthy life for yourself. Taking care of yourself physically will increase your longevity. You can do this by eating healthy, exercising daily and regular doctor visits. You can be very social if you communicate with people on a daily basis.

America Essay

It has been taught in American schools that the war fought in order to stop slavery and that the American South did the right thing by seceding from the Union because of its support in slavery. Subsequently, the Civil war was a result of the Founding Fathers’ failure to address the institution of slavery in a republic that proclaimed in its Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal. Nonetheless, the necessity of the war has been questioned because the four-war to abolish slavery ravaged the country and destroyed nearly half of the American people. Among the countries that practiced slavery, only America and Haiti freed their slaves by war. The rest were freed peacefully. Hence, it can be concluded that the South could have gained its independence without the war. The rising alone of keeping and posting guards on the constantly escaping slaves would have resulted in the gradual decline for the demand of slaves. The absence of a fugitive slave laws in other states that would force the return of the slaves to their owners has added to the decreasing value of the slaves. As such the institution would have been unsustainable regardless of the moral and humanitarian perspectives. On the other hand, the American North would still have achieved its goals without resorting to war. Apparently, the North slaughtered a large number of American young men in the battles against the South. Nonetheless, it is evident that the South posed no military threat to the North. Its aim of preserving the Union was considered as not a compelling reason to continue the war. The North wanted to keep the Union intact solely on the basis of economy and fiscal matter. Since the principal source of tax revenue for the federal government before the Civil war was a tariff on imports, they needed to keep these tariffs in which the federal government accounted its federal budget. The North did not need to take the bait by Lincoln who dispatched southerners to forestall the supplies for Fort Sumter. Hence, its attack on the South could have been prevented had not depended on the Union being intact and the economic advantages it provided them.

Points of Concern in the Company’s Evaluation Form Essay

The evaluation form currently being used by the company has many points of concern. First, it takes a look at the personal characteristics of the employee such as friendliness and attitude towards work. These criteria must be taken into account, however, results / accomplishments of the employee must be considered. It must be noted that assessing characteristics of the person in relation to the job may not be very credible since the rater can be very subjective. The fact that the manager discontinued the evaluation to give it a thought is a proof that the manager has little confidence that the evaluation process is credible and acceptable to all. It must also be noted that the engineer himself is not confident about the process, claiming that no one is qualified to evaluate him since he is the only trained engineer in the company. Value of Common sets of Evaluation Criteria Having a common set of evaluation forms for all employees can post problems especially when employees compare the results of their performance evaluation. It is best to set realistic targets first and then come the appraisal period; these will be checked if they were accomplished excellently. The form can be common but the measures will be varied based on the position of the employee and the function. On the other hand, using common sets of evaluation criteria also have advantages. First, it would be easy for the managers and employees to understand since evaluation forms are similar across positions or functions. Second, come promotion or lateral employee transfer, raters in the evaluation procedure won’t have any difficulty in going through the process since nothing has changed even if employees delivered varying results. For employees, even if they adjust themselves with the demands of the new job (lateral transfer or promotion), what is expected of them has not changed as stipulated in the evaluation forms. What Should be Evaluated? Given the company’s evaluation form, the Balanced Scorecard developed by Kaplan and Norton can be adopted. The Balanced Scorecard takes into account all perspectives that contribute to the accomplishment of the job. â€Å"The Balanced Scorecard translates mission and strategy into objectives and measures organized into four perspectives: Financial, Customer, Business Process and Learning and Growth. † (Kaplan and Norton). The Financial perspective is the ultimate indicator of whether the strategies being implemented contribute to the achievement of the company’s objectives and goals. This can be measured through percentage in savings, return on investment, actual sales versus sales target, etc. For the Customer Perspective, â€Å"the core outcome measures include customer satisfaction, customer retention, customer acquisition, customer share, etc. † In the Business Process Perspective, results are being taken into account. The measures should answer the question: What processes / transactions should the employee be good at? These processes include everyday transactions of the employee. The measures under this perspective should have a direct impact on how the company takes care of the customers. For example, a Marketing Associate must be good at conceptualizing and delivering good marketing programs. The Learning and Growth Perspective focuses on the development and competencies of the employee. Competencies such as attitude towards work, teamwork, integrity, timeliness, etc can be taken into account. For some companies, they require employees to submit reviews of prescribed books, articles and movies to build a culture of learning within the organization. The four perspectives developed by Kaplan and Norton are inter-related and must all contribute to the achievement of the Financial objectives. The relationship can be two-pronged, which means a focus on one perspective will have a significant effect on the other perspectives. Ideally, when the organization takes care of the people and make them equipped with the necessary skills (Learning and Growth), they will excel in the workplace and can do their jobs well (Business Process). If they can do the job well, customers will be delighted because quality products and services are delivered to them (Customer). If customers are delighted, they will be loyal to the company’s products and services, thus, will translate to revenues or profit. Involving Other Raters in the Appraisal Process Aside from the Balanced Scorecard, the company can also use the 360 degree feedback. Involving different persons in the evaluation process or multi-rater feedback is beneficial for developmental purposes (Madigan, 1999). The ratee can have an idea on the different things that he has to improve on. As Madigan (1999) quoted Mark Edwards, co-author of the book 360 Degree Feedback: The Powerful New Model for Employee Assessment & Performance Improvement, â€Å"Single-source feedback is not very credible to managers and employees. When people get feedback from a boss, they often just don’t believe it. Whereas, if they get the same feedback — saying the same thing — from multiple sources, they believe it. † Drawbacks of Involving Other Raters in the Appraisal Process However, multi-rater feedback or 360 degree feedback has not been validated as a tool for performance appraisal. This is especially when the raters are not consistent on what they say about the ratee. Survey fatigue can also be a factor (Madigan, 1999). Employees may find exhausting to rate a lot of their colleagues in their company. Also, raters have a natural tendency to become subjective in the appraisal process. -Edwards, as again quoted by Madigan (1999) said that his favorite use of the 360 degree feedback is for talent assessment and promotions as the method gives the management an overview of who will succeed in the organization. As Madigan (1999) says, â€Å"Legal concerns can arise when a 360-degree instrument, valid only for development purposes, is used for performance appraisal. The Center for Creative Leadership, a nonprofit, educational organization, sells 360-degree instruments, but they are not for appraisal (due in part to the group’s policy of dealing only with leadership development). Dalton explains, â€Å"Anytime you are going to use something that calls itself a test, or a measurement tool, it has to be validated to show that the score means something and that what you are going to use it for is an appropriate purpose. If someone takes you to court, your validation strategy has to be such that you can say, ‘Yes, your honor, we have validated this tool, and it is perfectly acceptable for me to give Carol a 20 percent raise and Maxine a 5 percent raise based on what we understand about this test. ’ Our instruments have not been validated for appraisal purposes, and so we tell people when we sell them, that, in essence, if they use them that way, they will be in court alone. † Errors in the Appraisal Process that are Caused by Bias Also, it must be noted that performance appraisal methods are affected by several factors that can disrupt the whole process thus, neglecting the true purpose of the Performance Evaluation System. In organizations where managers or superiors usually rate employees, de Koning (2004) says that they are usually subjective in evaluating employees especially when the evaluation rating is linked to a performance bonus or an increase in pay. De Koning (2004) even noted that in one organization surveyed by Gallup, employees refer to the performance appraisal as â€Å"the form you need to give out to give a person a raise. † With this culture in the organization, managers will be pressured to control the performance appraisal to give everyone a raise. In some cases, this control can even be used by the rater to deliberately disqualify a ratee from a raise, especially when they are not in good terms. For the employees’ side, they would tend to currying favors for their superiors rather than focusing on excellently performing their respective business processes. There is also the HALO effect. This is when one performance criteria influences the rating in another. For example, if an employee is often absent, other factors will be lower than normal. Citing of critical incidents are also factors for biased because these may be isolated cases only. Consistency in these incidents must be established so that appraisal results would be credible. A culture of feedback must also be developed so that members of the organization will take the performance appraisal process seriously. In many organizations, the HR units usually send notices reminding everyone to beat the deadline for submission of results of performance appraisal. This is an indicator that the organization crams about the process and not interested to it. Whenever this scenario happens, both raters and ratees would always hustle the ratings just to submit on time, thus to receive a raise. Timing is also a factor. Performance Appraisal periods must not coincide with other company projects, events or busy period of the year so that the employees’ attention will be focused on the process. If employees are busy delivering business results, they might not have enough time to do the appraisal process and thus, cramming about it just to beat the deadline. Performance appraisal must be given time such that the employees’ exemplary results and points for development can be properly highlighted. Other Performance Appraisal Techniques There are a lot of performance appraisal methods that can be adopted by the company. Methods include the Critical Incident Method where the rater lists down incidents that had an impact to the performance of the employee. The Weighted Checklist is a list of effective and ineffective behavior on the job. Essay Evaluations are narratives prepared by the rater about the performance of the employee. However, this method is highly dependent on the ability of the rater to articulate his thoughts into writing. Another technique is the Management by Objectives (MBO) method. In this method, the managers set objectives for the employee. MBO focuses on what is accomplished rather than how it is accomplished (Ngo, D. , 2009). It must be noted that the Critical Incident Method and Essay evaluations tend to be subjective and focus on the behavior or competencies while the Weighted Checklist and the Management by Objectives measure results. Results look at the expected outputs of the job while competencies are sets of skills, behavior and knowledge that drive the delivery of outputs. However, these methods may work for if fit for the type of organization (e. g. MNC, NGO, GO, etc. ) As stated in wikipedia. org, there is also the Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales that are used to report performance. It is an appraisal method that seeks to combine the benefits of narratives, critical incidents, and quantified ratings by securing a quantified scale with specific narrative examples of good or poor performance (wikipedia. org). How to Improve the Evaluation Form The company can evaluate the above methods and study which is the most appropriate and acceptable to the employees and management. Company culture and practices must be taken into account when adopting a particular method. The company must also take into account that their strategies must be linked with the appraisal method. However, every company can adopt a generic method that has three phases. Phase 1 is setting of expectations. Usually, management set these expectations during Strategic Planning Sessions where it stipulates what should be delivered within a given period. Phase 2 is monitoring. Delivery of results must be monitored so that appropriate interventions can be implemented to drive the results. The last phase is the evaluation and follow through. This is the evaluation proper and when next steps are identified for the development of the employee. To determine the appropriate evaluation form, the question of what is expected by management must be answered. If management expectations focus on competencies such as customer orientation, decision-making, teamwork, etc. Whatever the case is, the above techniques can be used. For the case of the engineer, the Balanced Scorecard can be used since it can integrate both results and the competencies. A balanced weight for both will add credibility to the appraisal process. The weight can be based on what is more important for the company, results or competencies? Whatever the case is, results of evaluation must be justified or can be explained well by the rater. Also, appraisal must be about performance and not the importance of the job. Usually, organizations benchmark with others regarding their performance management systems. Also, HR Consultants can be hired to help the organization improve the appraisal system. It is suggested that the company do an organizational diagnosis first. An organizational diagnosis will give the company the necessary data that will improve the performance management system. After the organizational diagnosis, they should develop a framework that will link the performance appraisal rewards. It must be noted that linking performance with rewards will make employees more motivated in their job. After this, the company can develop their system. As stated above, planning sessions must be done to communicate to the employees their key result areas (KRAs). Once KRAs are identified, a per division or department meeting must be done to identify how these KRAs will be measured. For example, it is a KRA of a manager to send his or her subordinates to training. This can be measured by the number of employees sent. A 100% attendance of subordinates can be the â€Å"outstanding† while 50-99% is â€Å"satisfactory. † This must be done to all positions. Once the employee knows how exactly he or she will be measured, he or she can easily determine if the job is being done well or not. Doing these steps can make the evaluation process in the company more credible and objective to employees. References: De Koning, G. M. J. 2004. Evaluating employee performance (part 1). Retrieved June 14, 2009, from (http://www. whatmakesagoodleader. com/Employee Performance-Evaluation. html) Kaplan, R. and Norton, D. 1996. Translating strategy into action: the balanced scorecard. Harvard Business School Press. Boston, Massachusetts. Madigan, C. O. 1999. Full-circle feedback. Retrieved June 13, 2009, from (http://businessfinancemag. com/career-hr). Ngo, Davi. (2009). Performance appraisal methods. Retrieved June 13, 2009, from (http://www. humanresources. hrvinet. com/performance-appraisal-methods/). Wikepedia. org. Behaviorally anchored rating scales. Retrieved June 13, 2009, from (http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Behaviorally_anchored_rating_scales).

Female Victims of Miscarriage of Justices Dissertation - 1

Female Victims of Miscarriage of Justices - Dissertation Example Laws have male characteristics and target male crime, thus overlooking the realities of women's lives with regards to criminal justice. This generates the "generalizability problem†1 where patriarchal values thus serve masculine needs2. Introduction The very idea of miscarriage of justice is discouraged by every legal system that stands as a bastion to democracy. Every civilised government has recognised the need to ensure that all its citizens are treated fairly within the due process of law. For example, the Criminal Justice Act 1991 provides3 that: â€Å"The Secretary of State shall in each year publish such information as he considers expedient for the purpose of facilitating the performance of those engaged in the administration of justice to avoid discriminating against any persons on the ground of race or sex or any other improper ground.† In attempting to establish a fitting legal system that incorporates the democratic principles of justice, it is of importance that the issue of gender differences is examined. â€Å"Despite claims to the contrary, masculinist epistemologies are built upon values that promote masculine needs and desires, making all others invisible†4– making women almost invisible within the justice system, and this can easily lead to miscarriage of justice. MacKinnon states, â€Å"For women to affirm difference, when difference means dominance, as it does with gender, means to affirm the qualities and characteristics of powerlessness†5. This is very true of our societies even though women are mistreated by the same laws that were established because of care and concern. The law therefore lays emphasis to equality, but uses a masculine standard as a threshold for enforcement. Lahey calls this â€Å"equality with a vengeance.†6 Aims of study The aim of this paper is to explore femininism and miscarriage of justice from a criminal law perspective. This paper does not engage in a dispute about wheth er women’s right should be different from men in the criminal justice system. The underlying premise is that rights are universal. The paper simply uses the universalism and cultural relativism debate as an entry point to a discussion of ethical considerations of women in the criminal law system of justices. It will attempt to demonstrate how cultural differences persist between man and women. â€Å"Difference in this instance is set up as a duality: woman is different from man, and this difference is seen as a deficiency because she is not man†7. The paper will therefore critically and comparatively consider how the law has attempted to reconcile the rights of women at criminal trials with what obtains in different legal cultures and their resultant effect on females as victims of miscarriage of justice. Analysis I will analyze my paper from the perception of these enquires: What is miscarriage of justice? Miscarriage of justices is considered as a situation in which ‘the rights of others are not effectively or proportionately protected by the state’8. The main keyword that makes an act constitute a form of miscarriage of justice is â€Å"failure to act†. How is miscarriage of justice manifested? The victimization of women makes access to justice illusory, amounting to miscarriage of justice. Access to justice is reasoned to be a priority enjoyed by

A Demographic Analysis of Mexico Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

A Demographic Analysis of Mexico - Assignment Example According to any basic health model, the statistics on Mexico show a shift of lifestyle to a more urbane, aesthetic way of living that is characterized by lifestyle diseases such as obesity. Conversely, this comes with a reduction in conditions such as underweight and wasting as well as stunted growth. A reduction in hunger index from 5.99 in 1999 to 5.10 in 2003 is also noted. These can be attributed to an aggregate improvement in health care and sanitation supported by gains in food security occasioned by an augmented economy. TB prevalence in Mexico can be said to be effectively managed compared to other countries. The cases of infection cited by the World Health Organization in 2009 pale in comparison to most States that have a higher infection index according to data from UNHDR. Again, this can be pegged on improved healthcare. Despite men and women accessing education at a proportionate footing of 51% to 49%, the frequency of women dropping out along the way is decidedly higher in rural areas. A possible explanation lies in the vicious cycle of poverty that sucks in more women whose duties and obligations are largely domestic. These statistics show an indication that the environment in Mexico has reduced disparities of income and social status because of the positive parameters of growth, with an average income of 13500$, the level of poverty has dived from 50% with a fifth of the population reeling in extreme poverty.

Quantitative tools Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Quantitative tools - Essay Example The main problems in relation to the staff and reservations managers in particular, that the company does not have good relations with its unions, which is very important, as unions serve a kind of legal protection of managers' rights. Another problem is that employees complain about the lack of voice and the lack of professional training, which is also essential for the improvement of their job characteristics and supporting their skills at the appropriate level. (Bassett, 1992) The specifics of reservations managers' work is in the surrounding they work, which is usually represented by a large room with a great number of workers doing the same work, and thus demanding huge attention. 2 managers out of each 10 work part time, weekends, nights, or holidays. That's why, to improve the operation of this staff, it is necessary to develop a strict schedule of work, with optimization of the workers' quantity together with increasing the quality of their work. To optimize the quantity of workers, it is obvious, that some of them should be fired. To avoid psychological and legal problems with the staff shortage, I suggest using of the out placing strategy, when the Going Inc. will find new jobs for those, who are fired, with the salaries and preferences known beforehand for each worker to be fired.

Gerry Mulligan Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Gerry Mulligan - Research Paper Example His pianoless quartet performance with a famous trumpeter named Chet Baker in the 1950s has been appreciated of being one of his brilliant works ever. Other than being an impressive saxophonist, he was a brilliant pianist as well. Early life According to Mulligan, there were two things that helped him pursue such a successful career; a vision and a massive amount of guts. Both these things had a major contribution in impressing Warrington, a bandleader, and convinced him to believe that Mulligan had the potential to excel well in the field of music. He therefore, not only bought him arrangements but also gave him both critical yet productive criticism regarding his career. Following that, Mulligan organized for two bands that were led by important people like Tommy Tucker and Elliot Lawrence. Since Mulligan had three brothers and hence, a large family for his mother to look after, his mother chose to employ Lily Rose as their nanny. Lily Rose was African – American and very fo nd of playing the piano. She was the one who instigated Mulligan’s love for music when he used to spend time with her watching her play. Also, while staying at Rose’s place, he got the chance to meet a lot many black musicians who used to stay at her place when in town since the motels would not accommodate them in those days. In his early life, his family moved around a lot all over the country with stops made in the following order; southern New Jersey and Chicago, followed by Illinois, Kalamazoo and lastly, Michigan. It was sometime in 1940s that he first played in a concert. This concert was held at Philadelphia’s Music Academy, where he was accompanied by Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, all of whom turned out to brilliant musicians later on. Among these, Mulligan became closes to Parker since he not only encouraged him well on his first performance but also helped him recover a lost tenor which he was afraid that he had lost and also invi ted him to attend jam sessions with him. Mulligan officially started playing for orchestras at the age of nineteen. These were for people called Gene Krupa and Claude Thornhill. It was at this point also that he started correlating his music skills with important musicians from the past such as John Lewis and George Russell and made himself capable of touching new boundaries. Rise to fame When Mulligan first came to New York, he was clearly astonished of the originality the city offered. But he soon realized that even the best musicians had to strive to make a living in that city. So it was in 1951 that he moved to the west in the pursuit of better chances, playing his music all along the way as he traveled through the country. In the same year, he created his first ever piano less quartet that later and still has had a massive amount of impact for many jazz musicians that have followed him which includes bands like Art Farmers and Zoot Sims. He also formed a band of four which was successful in gaining much popularity in terms of Jazz music all along the west coast. Duke Ellington was Mulligan’s favorite composer and that is exactly why he often paired up with him for tours. They both shared a chemistry so strong that every time they went on stage, they performed wonders. Ellington was the same person who composed one of Mulligan’s most famous works called the ‘Prima Bara Dubla’ (Klinkowitz 65).A predicament that Mulligan faced during his musical

AIS integration with ECDIS and Radar Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

AIS integration with ECDIS and Radar - Essay Example The integration of AIS with 'Electronic chart display and information system' (ECDIS) has resulted in a revolution in the field of offshore marine communication. ECDIS, better known as 'Electronic nautical chart', is a name given to nautical chart representations on computers (Scheuermann, Wolf, 1996). However nautical chart representation is one of the aspects of ECDIS. ECDIS is a complete information system, providing all necessary information about whatever is displayed on the chart (Scheuermann, Wolf, 1996). Targets from the radar and from AIS can simultaneously be plotted on an electronic chart (Strenge, Rainer, & Bober, Stefan, 2004). Thus signals from both radar and AIS can be acquired and depending on the requirement, the information can be collected from either of the two sources or from both of them. The positioning of the target on the electronic chart is carried out by DGPS positioning system and in addition through radar map matching process that was developed by Stuttgart University (Strenge, Rainer, & Bober, Stefan, 2004). The ships have large electronic chart displays (ECDIS) installed on them on which AIS data and radar information from other ships is superimposed. These large displays have nowadays been replaced by small and portable computers. The port services have the responsibility to monitor the ship traffic.

Managerial Escalator Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Managerial Escalator - Essay Example In order for them to be successful, they need to position the priorities of the business before their private priorities. If the managers put the interest of the business after their interests, they may end up not becoming successful in their management; this is because their personal interest may not be in line with the interests of the organization. The different causes of poor management have also been identified. There are a number of factors that may lead to a manager not being successful such as having managerial concept that are not good enough. Managers need to have well researched strategies in order for them to be successful. The models used by the authors in explaining this points is through breaking down the broad topic of management into less detailed sub topics. They explore these subtopics into details in order to explain management in detail. The authors have different point of views about management. They begin by defining management as the art of making things get done through the use of other people or a way of achieving some results through other people. Some people view management as a cycle involving identification of different objectives, setting of targets, making plans, resource organization, good communication regarding information, motivation of workers, getting feedback, control and taking actions. Some researches were done by separate people who do not agree with this. This is because it was noted that managers make decisions abruptly according to the situation at hand. They mostly do not take time to strategize their decisions (David, 2001). Individuals turn into managers through a given process. The organizational structure is defined in a way that the majority of the staffs are often engaged in given activities and the managers usually oversee some specialized activities. Most of the managers have some giv en specialized backgrounds. During the early stages of their careers, they were at some lower levels in different departments. They may have learned some skills through training, experience or through the combination of both. Most of the managers in top positions have passed through these stages. They begin as normal workers and improve on their skills. As they improve and gain more experience, they are promoted through the different ranks until they get to the managerial position. There are a number of responsibilities accounted to managers. They play the role of planning and allocating of work. Managers plan what is to be done in an organization. They give different employees specific works to be done or allocate them into different areas of work according to the plan. They identify what is of priority to the organization so that they may be given attention first. They review and establish different working methods and ensure that they control all the activities in an

Lacoste Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Lacoste - Essay Example The background is filled with clouds, portraying the harmony between the products and the brands claim of comfortable clothes and shoes. The advertisement is well designed in terms of not showing any gender biases, it clearly shows men and women both wearing the brand and enjoying the experience. Hence, it is directed towards both male and female populations alike. The ad does not have any hidden messages about not getting old or not looking cool if you do not wear the brand etc. The only message that it tries to convey is the lifestyle and the comfort one gets from wearing Lacoste. It tries to convince people that wearing the brand will make them feel fresh, confident and energetic. The ad strategy shows a slice of life lifestyle with young energetic people having fun and enjoying life as if they have been rejuvenated by fresh air. The brand has established itself as one of the high end brands in the apparel industry and its iconic green crocodile is a sign of quality, comfort and a fun loving lifestyle. The ad when compared to other brands such as Dsquared2, does well in terms of showing gender biases. Dsquared2 shows a man sitting on the floor and wearing a suit. Thus, Lacoste ensures that it targets both its markets equally while Dsquared2 focuses on men. As a result there are no two variances of the same advertisement. Furthermore, Dsquared2 ad shows a calm and serious lifestyle with a formal setting while Lacoste shows trendy, outgoing and fun loving people. The ad however has obvious hints of racism, as all five models shown are of white decent. When compared to other brands like United Colors of Benetton, who specifically show people of all races and types wearing the brand in the ad, Lacoste performs poorly. Another criticism that brand has faced is it that even if it enters foreign markets like India etc where there are colored people it

Annotated Bibliography Essay Example for Free

Annotated Bibliography Essay In order for NHS to satisfy its requirement to transmit large medical imaging files in a timely and secure manner, they must be able to subscribe to circuits of the appropriate bandwidth at each remote office to address the local needs. Unfortunately, the remoteness of some of these locations have resulted in the limitation of network connectivity options. Therefore, the cost-effective alternative to expensive, high-bandwidth internet circuits is to use a WAN optimization solution. A WAN optimization solution consists of a network appliance at each location that focuses on increasing network performance. It accomplishes this through the use of a combination of data compression, content and object-caching, data deduplication and protocol optimization. A WAN optimization appliance works in conjunction with the available bandwidth at a location. The host site would have an appliance that would build ‘acceleration tunnels’ to each of the appliances located at the remote sites. The appliances at the remote sites would be sized based upon the number of users and the available bandwidth at that location. This solution has a number of advantages. It is a very cost-effective approach. Higher bandwidth circuits in remote areas tend to be expensive. The purchase of network appliances are normally a capital expenditure that can be amortized over the life of the product. This timeframe is normally 3 to 5 years. On the other hand, the addition of larger circuits is an operational expenditure that incurs a higher recurring cost on a monthly basis. Secondly, these appliances are transparent to the end user. They do not require additional software on the users’ computers, or require any special setup on a per-user basis. NHS would very likely fall into the Early Adopters category in the Technological Acceptance Curve for this solution (Rogers, 2003). These individuals quickly buy into an idea when the possibility of real benefits have been established. They are primarily concerned with finding a strong match between their needs and the expected benefits (Moore, 1999). The use  of WAN optimization appliances would be an excellent fit for NHS and would be easily accepted by NHS management due to the ability to provide an optimal, technical and cost-effective resolution to the issue they are facing at the remote locations. This solution would allow them the means to meet their requirement to transmit large data files. References Rogers, Everett (2003). Diffusion of Innovations (5th Edition). New York, NY: Free Press Moore, Geoffrey (1999). Crossing the Chasm. United States: Harper Business Essentials

PLato and Education Essay Example for Free

PLato and Education Essay Plato was the earliest most important Greek Philosopher and educational thinker. Plato thinks education as a key for a society and he stress on education, for this purpose he want to go to the extreme level even removing children from their mothers and rise them by the state, he want to identify the skills of the children and give them proper education for that particular skill which they have so they could be become a suitable member of the society and fulfil their duty in society. Plato want to a search for intelligent and gifted children in the whole society, Platos don’t belief that talent belong to a limited class therefore he stress on education for all so the talented children get the chance to shine. Plato contributed a lot in the form of ideas and it inspired his follower to find new ways for education and training of the children. In fact Plato himself did not contribute directly to science and mathematics but he stress on these subjects, his philosophy of education influenced the developments of these subjects in centuries to come. In the philosophy of Plato we can see some signs of the philosophy of Socrates; However Plato covered the major aspects of philosophy discussed today. Plato was born in an upper class family in Athens; he was interested in political career, but after the death of his teacher Socrates Plato pursues his teacher philosophy. For the purpose of education Plato travel to Egypt and Italy, there he learnt mathematics. After returning home he established an Academy, to teach moral values to the elite youth of Athens to make them better leaders of the society. Plato shows his ability of writing in different fields; ethics, music, drama, poetry, metaphysics, dance, architecture which are the ideal forms of Government. Contribution of Plato in scientific subject is little but his ideas on education inspired his followers to explore new dimension in education. Plato writes in his book Let us describe the education of our men. What then is the education to be? Perhaps we could hardly find a better than that which the experience of the past has already discovered, which consists, I believe, in gymnastic, for the body, and music for the mind. Plato not only consider better education for men but also believe on strong body and sound mind, for body he recommend sports and for sound mind music. Plato †No man should bring children into the world, who is unwilling to persevere to the end in their nature and education. † EDUCATIONAL THEORIES OF PLATO Education for All Plato want every boy and girl educated to it limit. State Education Education should be provided by the state not by parents. Organization and Curriculum. Plato curriculum was consist of gymnastic and music, where in gymnastic include physical training and music used in broad term for dram, history, oratory and music in real term, he define different stages for the organization and curriculum; 1. Elementary School Co-education at elementary level and teach them mathematics, poetry, music and literature till the age of eighteen years. 2. Military Training After elementary education two years of Physical education should be given to them and select best of them for higher education; to prepare for the future guardians of the state. 3. Higher Education Higher education should be given from twenty to thirty-five years of age, he well study the subjects at this stage mathematics, literature and philosophy. Later on he would be opponent at a minor administrative position to get experience for the future more important governing positions. â€Å"The object of education is to turn the eye which the soul already possesses to the light. The whole function of education is not to put knowledge into the soul, but to bring out the best things that are latent in the soul, and to do so by directing it to the right objects. The problem of education, then, is to give it the right surrounding. † -(Plato’s Republic, Book vii, 518) Nothing was more important to Plato in human life as education. He considers education the greatest thing in human life as he mention in his book â€Å"the one great thing†. Plato’s Theory of education was an indispensable necessity for mankind. It was a positive remedy for the problems and operation of justice in an ideal state. Women Education Plato also emphases on women education, he consider the same kind of education for women. Women should the same physical and educational training; they should know the art of war. The main aim of Plato was that each member of the society should undertake his work and responsibilities. Plato believed that women are equal to men and that, although some women are physically smaller or weak, some women are physically equal to men therefore those women who are physically strong should be allowed to learn the same skills that men do. In his book Republic Plato describes how male and female receive the same education and be given the same duties in society as given to the male member. These people are the ones who will be in charge his republic which would be an ideal society, where philosophers are kings. In other words, who know what is good for the people and for the mankind and take their decisions based on that knowledge. Teaching Methods Plato recommended play method at elementary level; student should learn by doing. And when he reached the higher level of education, his reason would be trained in the processes of thinking and abstracting. Plato wants motivation and interest in learning. He is against the use of force in education. Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind. In another place he writes Do not then train youths by force and harshness, but direct them to it by what amuses their minds so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each. – Plato Plato writes in his Republic â€Å"Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the body; but knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind† Plato â€Å"The most effective kind of education is that a child should play amongst lovely things. † Plato wants a place where children love to go and stay there and they play with things which enhance their education by playing. Plato gives importance to nursery education, he thinks nursery education plays a vital role in the education of man, it help to build his moral character and state of mind The most important part of education is proper training in the nursery. –plato Plato think It will be hard to discover a better [method of education] than that which the experience of so many ages has already discovered, and this may be summed up as consisting in gymnastics for the body, and _music_ for the soul For this reason is a musical education so essential; since it causes Rhythm and Harmony to penetrate most intimately into the soul, taking the strongest hold upon it, filling it with _beauty_ and making the man _beautiful-minded_. The above quotation of Plato show, how he sees education, he wants the total development of a man, mind body and soul by using every possible mean. That why in another place Plato writes; But then, if I am right, certain professors of education must be wrong when they say that they can put a knowledge into the soul which was not there before, like sight into blind eyes. They undoubtedly say this, he replied. Whereas, our argument shows that the power and capacity of learning exists in the soul already; and that just as the eye was unable to turn from darkness to light without the whole body, so too the instrument of knowledge can only by the movement of the whole soul be turned from the world of becoming into that of being, and learn by degrees to endure the sight of being, and of the brightest and best of being, or in other words, of the good. -Platos Allegory of the Cave Exploring Platos Plato Aims of Education* To develop leader among the future rulers. * To develop hard and competent workers. * To produce leaders with military skill among the warriors. * To produce future Civil Servants of the state. The highest goal of education, Plato believed, is the knowledge of Good; to nurture a man to a better human being it is not merely an awareness of particular benefits and pleasures, Stages of Education Plato describes different stages of education in his republic. According to Plato the education of child should be start at the age of seven year and before this stage the child should stay with their mother or elders and learn moral education from them. After the age of six years both girls and boys should be separated and boys should play with boys and girls with girls and they should be taught the use of different arms to both sexes. This stage goes up to the age of seventeen years. During these years they should teach them music and early education. After the age of seventeen years the youth should be brought to battle filed to learn real life experiences. The four stages start at the age of twenty five to thirty years and in this age they get the training of Mathematical calculation and last for another ten years, after the completion the selected one’s are admitted in the study of dialect. During fifth stage they study dialect for another five years and after that, at the sixth stage one is ready to become a ruler and philosopher and the one enter in practical life. Platos View on Moral Ethics Ethics is the most important branch of philosophy. Plato especially gives attention to the moral and ethical education of the men, later on Plato gradually widened the scope of his investigations by reflecting not only on the social and political conditions of morality, but also on the logical and metaphysical presuppositions of a successful moral theory. Plato presents his ideas for an ideal society in his Republic and he provided detail about the curriculum and system of education. According to Plato the ideal society who cares for their youth and the guardian would be responsible for the moral education of their children. Every person would know his duty and his responsibility. Bibliography Annas, J. (1993). The Morality of Happiness. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Franck, Matthew. (n. d). Aldous Huxley’s City in Speech: Brave New World and the Republic of Plato Paper presented at the annual meeting of the The Midwest Political Science Association, Palmer House Hilton, Chicago, Illinois, A Kahn, C. (1996). Plato and the Socratic Dialogue. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Numan, M. (2003). Foundation of education. Peshawar: Umair composing center. Posted by Sultan Muhammad at 9:39.

History of US Immigration Law and Reform

History of US Immigration Law and Reform Alejandro Bojorquez is a Mexican citizen who has been waiting decades to be reunited with his family in this United States through issuance of a family-sponsored green card.   Alejandro’s father, Jesus Bojorquez, first filed a family sponsored green card petition for his son when Alejandro was only 14 years old (Gonzalez, 2013).   Alejandro is now 33 years old and he could still wait until 2018 before he receives his family sponsored green card due to the wait time for the visa category he is currently in.   This will make his wait for issuance of his green card twenty years, however, this length of time is not that uncommon.   Alejandro Bojorquez’s family is not alone.   Similar situations are being seen every day due to the current shortage of family-sponsored visas available.   In the past, the United States immigration system has made it a priority to have families kept together; however, due to shortage of family-sponsored visas available, the number of visa backlogs have rapidly increased, keeping families separated for many years.   Congress must reform the family immigration laws and the family visa process to start reuniting families again, before families become completely broken.   History of Immigration Laws Immigration laws in the United States date back to the early 18th Century.   During the 18th and early 19th Century, the United States welcomed free and open immigration and did not have concrete immigration laws put in place under legislation.   In the 1880’s, the number of immigrants immigrating to the United States was rising, and economic conditions were becoming worse.   Therefore, Congress implemented legislation and passed the General Immigration Act of 1882 (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 2012).     Ã‚   The General Immigration Act of 1882 placed a fifty cent head tax on each immigrant.   Additionally, this Act barred the entry of any immigrant presumed to be an idiot, lunatic, convict, or a public charge (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 2012).   The first laws enacted that began prohibiting certain immigrants from coming to the United States was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Alien Contract Labor Laws of 1885 and 1887 (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 2012).   These Acts were the first immigration laws that significantly placed a restriction on certain immigrants immigrating to the United States.   The Chinese Exclusion Act prohibited entry of Chinese immigrant workers due to the belief that the Chinese immigrants were taking American citizen jobs, and the Alien Contact Labor Laws prohibited American employers from recruiting immigrant workers to work for lower wages than the American workers.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Pursuant to the Immigrant Act of 1891, the United States federal government began the control, inspection, admitting, rejecting, and processing of all immigrants trying to be admitted into the United States (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 2012). Due to the need to have a single agency enforce and regulate the new immigration laws, the Act also created the Office of the Superintendent of Immigration in the Treasury Department, also known as the Department of Commerce and Labor.   This name changed in 1895 to General of Immigration (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 2012) The Superintendent oversaw the United States Immigrant Inspectors who were stationed at the port of entry, Ellis Island.   Ellis Island was opened by the United States Immigration Service on January 2, 1982 (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 2012).  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Naturalization Act of 1802 allowed any court of record to naturalize a new American citizen (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 2012).  Ã‚   However, immigration laws began to change in the early 1900’s.   In 1906, Congress enacted the Basic Naturalization Act of 1906.   This Act was designed to add uniformity to the naturalization process. This Act also outlined the essential rules and regulations that governed the United States naturalization process for the majority of the 20th Century.     The 1906 Act created the Federal Naturalization Service. Accordingly, Congress placed the Federal Naturalization Service together with the Bureau of Immigration, which changed the name to the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 2012).  Ã‚     Ã‚   In the early 1900’s, the United States admitted more than 14.5 million immigrants (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 2012).  Ã‚   The large amount immigrants being admitted began to raise concerns as to the type of immigrant they were due to many of the immigrants not being able to read or write.   Therefore, it was determined that there needed to be stronger immigration laws in place.   In 1917, Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1917.   This Act required that immigrants being admitted into the United States be able to read and write in their native language (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 2012).   This was a way to catch the undesirables from being admitted in to the United States.     However, large amounts of immigration slowed when World War I began.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   When World War I ended, mass immigration to the United States began again. Therefore, stricter immigration laws were put in place.   Immigration legislation of the Immigration Acts of 1921 and the Immigration Acts of 1924 placed a numerical limit on immigration for the first time in United States history (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 2012). Each nationality received a certain quota based on numbers in the United States census and was referred to as the national-origins quota system.   A visa was required to be admitted into the United States.   If immigrants tried to be admitted and did not have a valid visa, they were not admitted it. The Immigration Acts of 1921 and the Immigration Acts of 1924 severely restricted the amount of immigrants allowed to be admitted into the United States.   Immigrants from all over the world began to cross into the United States illegally. Congress needed to do something about the amount of illegal immigrants coming into the United States, therefore, they passed the Labor Appropriation Act of 1924 (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 2012).     This created the Border Patrol which secured the borders between inspection stations and on the coast. In 1952, Congress combined all of the previous immigration and naturalization regulations into the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (INA).   This removed all of the racial barriers within immigration and naturalization and retained the national origins quotas (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 2012).   However, civil rights activists viewed this Act as discriminatory as a quota system that placed a numerical limit on visas issued by national-origin was not equal treatment.   Ã‚   Consequently, in 1965, amendments were made to the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 which created the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 2012).   This Act removed the earlier quota system that placed limits on the number of immigrants by their nationality.   Instead, the Act established a new preference system that was designed to reunite families and draw skilled immigrants to immigrate to the United States. The preference system was supposed to put all immigrants on the same footing while immigrating to the United States. The preference system, like the national-origin quota, places a limit to the number of immigration visas that were available each fiscal year.   Throughout the years, modifications have been made to the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965, however, the framework of this act remains still today.   The 1965 immigration policies are illogical.   Prior to the 1965 amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), the only thing that stood between families being reunited, was the amount of time it took for first family member that immigrated to the United States to get a job and save money to send back for their relatives to immigrate.   However, the passage of 1965 INA eliminated that way of immigrating and instead created the family preference quota that places annual limits on the number of family visas that can be awarded each year by country of origin and family preference.   Currently, family-sponsored visas are the majority of visas given each year (Department of Homeland Security, 2017).   Thus, the equality, organization, and promptness of the entire visa process is vital.   Ironically though, the United States current policies lack all of them.  Ã‚   More recently, one of the most important immigration laws that has been put in place is the Immigration Act of 1990.   This act changed American immigration law as it allowed more immigrants to come to the United States each year.   Additionally, the 1990 Immigration Act began the yearly lottery of visas and it encouraged counties that do not have a strong presence in the United States to apply for a visa in the lottery (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 2012).     The lottery system assigns visas to immigrants randomly.   Ã‚  Previous immigration laws did not allow immigrants from a certain nationality, origin or country to attain visas. The 1990 Immigration Act changed those immigration policies.  Ã‚   In 1996, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act (IIRIRA 96) was signed into law by former President Bill Clinton.   This Act made immigrating and adjusting status in the United States very hard for immigrants and United States citizens.     Ã‚  The IIRIRA 96 made more immigrants, even legal immigrants, deportable and less immigrants legalizable (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 1996).   The provisions in this Act increased penalties on immigrants who had violated the United States law in some way.   IIRIRA 96 needs to be reformed.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Prior to 1996, undocumented immigrants were able to obtain legal status if they had been in the United States for at least seven years and could show extreme hardship if they were to get deported. This was essentially the back door to gaining lawful status in the United States. After the passage of IIRIRA 96, the back door closed.   The only way for an undocumented immigrant to gain lawful presence with a green card was by having an immediate relative (United States spouse or child over 18 years) file a petition.   IIRIRA 96 defined unlawful presence.   This act has provisions that place a three-year ban on immigrants who were in the United States for more than six months (180 days) unlawfully, and a ten-year ban if the immigrant lived in the United States for more than one year unlawfully (8 U.S.C.A  § 1182, 2013).   In order to adjust the immigrant’s status, they would have to travel back to their country of origin to have the visa appointment.   This created tremendous difficulties for the families of undocumented immigrants whose immigrant spouse or parent had to leave the United States to apply for their visa.   Once the immigrant would leave the United States, they would trigger an unlawful presence ban.   Under United States law, the USCIS is permitted to waive the unlawful presence ban through filing for an I-601a provisional unlawful presence waiver (8 U.S.C.A  § 1182, 2013).   In order to file the waiver, the applicant needs to be able to demonstrate that denial of the waiver and their excessive time abroad would result in extreme hardship of the immigrant’s U.S. citizen spouse or parent. The problem with the I-601a provisional unlawful presence waiver is that it does not include guidance for how â€Å"extreme hardship† is defined. Therefore, many families were placed in the backlog and separated for many months to years because they did not provide enough extreme hardship. The lengthy separation caused emotional and financial hardship of families waiting for the waiver to be approved.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Prior to 2013, families were separated for many months to many years waiting for their visa and their I-601a provisional unlawful presence waiver to be approved.   Under the Obama Administration, President Obama made an executive order regarding the I-601a provisional unlawful presence waiver and decreasing the backlog (8 CFR 103, 2013).   Under his order, U.S. citizens were allowed to file their petition and an I-601a provisional waiver while continuing to reside in the United States.   Once both were approved, a visa appointment would be scheduled in the immigrant’s country of origin and a visa would be issued within weeks. Besides including immediate relatives of U.S. citizens, it also included immediate relatives of legal permanent residents, work visa petitions, and diversity visa applicants.   These changes decreased the backlog and reunited relatives more prompt.  Ã‚  Ã‚   With the improvements of the I-601a under the Obama administration, it was hoped that there would be clarification and updated regulations to make clear what is considered to be extreme hardship and how it was defined.   However, that was not the case and it is still vital for DHS to propose regulations that will make extreme hardship more clear.   Regardless, the improvements that were made in the I-601a waiver was a huge step for immigration reform as it greatly reduces the amount of time family members are separated from those that they love the most.  Ã‚   Currently there are harmful anti-immigration laws that are damaging state economies.   Alabama and Arizona have both passed harsh anti-immigration laws to try to dismantle the amount of undocumented immigrants that are living in their states.   The idea of these laws was to make the everyday life of the undocumented immigrant so difficult that they would choose to go back to their country, however, the laws implemented did far worse damage.   For Arizona, the passing of The Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act, S.B. 1070, in 2010 was extreme. S.B. 1070 was the most comprehensive, strictest and most controversial anti-illegal immigration law put in place in the United States for a long time.   S.B. 1070 includes provisions which add penalties in relation to the enforcement of immigration law that include trespassing, harboring and transporting illegal immigrants, alien registration documents, employer sanctions, and human smuggling (Morse, 2011).  Ã‚   This law has been criticized most due to the encouragement of racial profiling of anyone who looked like a Mexican.   A boycott of Arizona began immediately after passing of this law, which cost Phoenix Arizona 141 million dollars in tourist and business in the first four months after passing the Act (Khan, N, 2015).      The Alabama Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act, Alabama H.B. 56, of 2011 is an anti-illegal immigration law aimed to remove illegal immigrants from the state of Alabama.   This law turned out to be the strictest illegal immigration law in the nation’s history, even more strict than Arizona’s S.B. 1070, as it attempted to regulate every part of immigrants lives in the State of Alabama.   Areas regulated included interfering with immigrant children’s schooling, preventing immigrants from renting, entering contracts, and working, obstructing lawful access to public benefits, and require law enforcement to verify immigration status (ACLU, 2017).  Ã‚   Shortly after the passage of H.B. 56, the citizens of Alabama began to see that the law was causing more damage than good.   Particularly, it was harmful to Alabama’s agriculture industry.   Due to Alabama’s anti-immigration law, agriculture farmers lost a significant amount of income. Chad Smith, an Alabama tomato farmer, estimated that he would lose up to $300,000 a year due to lack of immigrant farm workers that were in Alabama (Baxter, 2012).   Additionally, the H.B. 56 is tearing families apart to the point that undocumented immigrants are facing the choice on whether to take their United States born children with them to their country of origin, or leave them behind to allow them to have a better future. Anti-immigration laws implemented in states have been proven not to work in both the example of Alabama’s H.B. 56 and Arizona’s S.B. 1070.   These laws legalized racial profiling, frightened immigrant children, and damaged both state’s economies.   Both of these laws should be either repealed, replaced or reformed with more effective laws that will not racial profile, tear families apart and deter immigrants from residing in those states and the United States. Petition for Lawful Presence The 2016 Current Population Survey (CPS) notes that there are currently more than 84.3 million, or 27 percent, of immigrants living in the United States, which include legal, illegal and their U.S. born children of immigrants (Zong & Batalova, 2017).   Each year, the United States admits more than one million legal permanent residents (Department of Homeland Security, 2017).   The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) authorizations American citizens and legal permanent residents to immigrate their spouse, children (under the age of 21), or parents to the United States. The family visa process has three main steps.   The first step is for the petitioner to file an application.   The United States citizen or legal permanent resident relative needs to file a Form I-130 Petition for Alien Relative and a Form I-485 Application to Register Permanent Residence or to Adjust Status with the USCIS.   If the immigrant is an immediate relative of the United States citizen, the visa process can move forward.   However, if the immigrant is not an immediate relative, they will be put in the family visa backlog to wait for their priority date for visa issuance to become available.   Ã‚  It is often thought that once an immigrant’s Form I-130 is approved, the immigrant can be immediately admitted to the United States.   However, that is not the case.  Ã‚   The case of Bolvito v. Mukasey discusses the issue that once the Form I-130 is filed and approved by the USCIS, a visa is not automatically provided and approval does not automatically grant lawful status of the immigrant in the United States.   Instead, the approval of the Form I-130 only means that the immigrant is eligible to receive permission to enter the United States as long as they are not found to be excludable under another immigration law.     Ã‚  The approval of Form I-130 simply means that the immigrant is free to move to the next step. When the immigrant reaches their priority date, they can then move to the second step.   For immediate relatives, the second step comes within months after the Form I-130 is approved.   The second step is to determine if the immigrant can apply for their visa at the USCIS offices inside the United States, or a United States consulate in the immigrant’s country of origin.   If the immigrant was lawfully admitted, they will be able to apply for their visa at a USCIS office in the United States.   If the immigrant is unlawfully present, or are not currently present in the United States, the immigrant will have to apply for their visa in their country of origin, regardless of whether they are currently residing in the United States. The third step is when the visa is issued to the immigrant.   In order for a visa to be issued, the immigrant must prove that they are not admissible under 8 U.S.C.A Sec. 1182.   Immigration violations, crimes, mental disorders, unlawful presence, national security concerns, public charge, and infectious diseases are all grounds that may bar the immigrant from the United States for a period of time.     Ã‚  If the third step is a success, the immigrant will be admitted to the United States as a lawful permanent resident.   If the third step is not successful, there are other hoops that need to be jumped through before the immigrant will be admitted into the United States.   Consequently, the immigrant will be placed in the backlog for months to years.     Ã‚   Current Backlog Most of the legal permanent residents the United States admits each year are immigrants that are already residing in the United States due to their current visa status or they are residing as undocumented immigrants.   Nearly two-thirds of them qualify as members of an American family that have already adjusted their status to legal permanent residents through a family-sponsored visa or they are currently waiting in the backlog for their family-sponsored visa to be issued (Department of Homeland Security, 2017).  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The backlog of family-sponsored visas begins with the number of visas that are allowed to be issued each fiscal year surpasses the amount of family-sponsored visas being applied for.   In 2015, 1,051,031 Lawful Permanent Residents were admitted to the United States (Department of Homeland Security, 2017).   However, out of the 1,051,031 legal permanent residents admitted, 44.03 % were immediate relatives of United States citizens and only 20.4 % of them were from the family sponsored preference categories (Department of Homeland Security, 2017).   The remaining visas went to the employment based visas, refugees, diversity, asylees, and other types of visas. As of November 1, 2016, 4,259,573 family-sponsored immigrants were still waiting in the backlog for their visa to become available (U.S. Department of State, 2016).  Ã‚   Pursuant to 8 U.S.C.A.  § 1151(c) (2009) Worldwide level of immigration, the worldwide level of family-sponsored visas allowed to be given can be the maximum of 480,000 and is to be no less than 226,000 per fiscal year.   The variance in the maximum amount of visas allowed and the minimum amount of visas allowed to be issued each fiscal year is due to that certain immigrants are not subject to the worldwide numerical limitations.   Under current immigration law, there is currently not a limit set for the amount of immigrant visas that can be given to â€Å"immediate relatives† of United States citizens.   According to 8 U.S.C.A.  § 1151(b)(2) (2009), â€Å"immediate relatives† is defined as the children, spouses, and parents of a citizen of the United States.   This means that spouses, children and parents of United States citizens do not have to worry about the numerical limitations and are able to get a visa issued to them right away, as long as they are not excludable. However, relatives to United States citizens and legal permanent residents who are not considered to be an â€Å"immediate relative† and apply for a family-sponsored green card are subject to the current numerical limitations of worldwide visas.   These relative immigrants have to wait in line and are placed in a backlog until their place in line is ready for a visa.   8 U.S.C.A.  § 1151(a)(2) (2009) places the annual numerical limits allowed per nation.   Currently, the total numerical limit for family-sponsored visas for relatives other than immediate relatives is 226,000 per fiscal year (8 U.S.C.A.  § 1151(a) 2009).     Ã‚   There is not only one line to wait in, there are multiple lines.   The lines are divided into family-sponsored preference categories that set limits depending on the exact relationship the petitioner has with the immigrant, age of the immigrant, and country of residence.   According to 8 U.S.C.A.  § 1154 (2014) – Procedure for granting immigrant status, the current family-sponsored preferences are as follows: First: (F1) unmarried sons and daughters of U.S. citizens; Second (F2A) spouses and children of legal permanent residents and (F2B) unmarried sons and daughters (21 years or age or older) of permanent residents; Third (F3) married sons and daughters or U.S. citizens; and Fourth (F4) brothers and sisters of adult U.S. citizens (U.S. Department of State, 2017).  Ã‚  Ã‚   According to 8 U.S.C.A.  § 1152 (2000) – Numerical limitations on individual foreign states, each country is only allowed to receive 7% of the worldwide immigrant visa level provided under 8 U.S.C.A.  § 1151 (2009).   Some countries have a higher amount of visa applicants each year.   For example, China, Mexico, and the Philippines have a higher amount of applicants each year and most family preference categories force these visa applicants to wait two decades or more to have their visa approved.   As of April, 2017, the wait time for the first family-sponsored visa preference category for Mexico was 22 years.   The National Visa Center is currently processing visas for May 22, 1995 (U.S. Department of State, 2017).   Ã‚  Due to the numerical limitation for visas per country, visa applicants from countries with a high immigration demand (Mexico, China, and the Philippines) have to wait a long period of time for their visa to become available.  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There are currently two different backlogs that family-sponsored visa applicants are placed into while waiting for a visa to be issued to them.   The first backlog is the administrative backlog, also referred to as the processing backlog (Vaughan, 2015).   The administrative backlog is given to visa applicants due to the lack of resources that are available from Congress to the specific agency handling the visa processing (Vaughan, 2015). Therefore, USCIS is not able to effectively manage the large volume of visa applications that comes in each year.   These applicants are put in queue until resources are made available. The administrative backlogs could easily be eliminated if the United States government would provide adequate resources to those agencies.   The second, and more grave backlog is the shortage of visa backlog.   The shortage of visa backlog begins with the annual number of visas available to be distributed each year.   Due to the current visa demand being higher than the 480,000 visas available to be issued each year pursuant to 8 U.S.C.A.  § 1151 (2009), family-sponsored visa applicants get placed in the backlog and have the possibility of waiting as long as twenty years or more for their visa to be issued.   Congress passing a comprehensive immigration reform that will meet the current visa demands and cut down on the current backlog, is the only solution. INA does not specifically state that immigrants who have visa applications pending cannot visit the United States to visit, however, in order to do so, they would have to qualify for a non-immigrant or employment visa (Cruz, 2010).   Both these visas require the immigrant to state that they have no immigrant intent.   If the immigrants fail to disclose their pending immigrant visa, they will risk being denied into the United States.   Thus, if immigrants are waiting for their visa to be issued in their country of origin, they typically they are not allowed to visit their family in the United States until they become a legal permanent resident.     Ã‚   A lot can happen while an immigrant waits in the backlog for their visa to be approved.   If they want to reunite with their family sooner, they may enter the United States illegally.   They also may choose to get married, and then a putting them in an even longer backlog (Cruz, 2010).   Moreover, the petitioning relative or the immigrant could die before the visa was issued.   Current United States immigration laws do not account for these circumstances.   Alejandro Bojorquez was put in the endless shortage of visa backlog when he was only 14 years old.   At that time, his father was a legal permanent resident.   As a permanent resident, his father petitioned for Alejandro and his mother to gain lawful entry to the United States through a family-sponsored visa petition on January 8, 1998 (priority date) (Gonzalez, 2013).   Nevertheless, Alejandro’s backlog increased when he attained the age of 21, as the United States government automatically moved him to the F2B category for unmarried adult children 21 years and older, and that line was much longer.   In January of 2013, Alejandro’s father became a naturalized United States citizen, and Alejandro was again moved into another family preference category.   This time, Alejandro was moved into the F1 category for unmarried adult children 21 years and older of United States Citizens.   Currently, for the FL preference category, the National Visa Center is processing priority dates of June 15, 1995 (U.S. Department of State, 2017).   Reform of current immigration laws is needed to eliminate loopholes like described above that keep family members apart for more time than initially required. Clearly, the timely family reunification process is not working well for U.S. Citizens or legal permanent residents and their immediate family members.   Currently, there are 423,373 adult children over the age of 21 still waiting in line for their visa and the priority date to come (U.S. Department of State, 2016).  Ã‚   Forcing families to be separated from each other for many years, while trying to gain lawful status in the United States, puts major emotional and financial strain on them.   Many immigrants find themselves facing either family reunification or keeping the life that they have set up in the United States.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Immigration Reform Immigrants come to the United States for the promise of freedom and the many opportunities the United States has to give.   However, current immigration laws keep families separated and the incoherent laws make it hard for immigrants to attain a visa.   Current immigration regulations and statutes in the United States need to be reformed on both the federal level and the state level.   The United States needs a comprehensive immigration reform and a path to citizenship for the undocumented immigrants already residing in the country. There are social consequences for immigrant families who are waiting in the backlog for their visa to become available.   The undetermined time an immigrant family has to wait for their visa disrupts family relationships.   This is due to spouses and children residing in their country of origin for an uncertain period of time.   Children who are waiting for their family sponsored visa are often staying with grandparents and develop a sense of abandonment, which results in destructive behaviors (Cruz, 2010).   The immigrant’s opportunity to develop language, cultural, and economical ties to the United States are also delayed due to the undetermined wait for a visa to be issued.   Therefore, many immigrants waiting in the backlog immigrate to the United States illegally to ease these social consequences.   More than 6,000 immigrant children are arrested at the Mexican/United States border each year while attempting to reunite with their parents in the United States (Cruz, 2010).   Comprehensive immigration reform will eliminate the social consequences of the family visa backlog.      Currently there are 11 million undocumented immigrants residing in the United States (Cohn &Passel, 2016). Legalizing these undocumented immigrants would boost the economy and the federal and state tax revenue.   In 2010, the United States collected 11.2 billion dollars of tax revenue from undocumented immigrants.   This tax revenue is beneficial to both the federal government and individual states.      A comprehensive immigration reform that would legalize the current undocumented immigrants would benefit the United States economy and American workers. Employers need to have a legalized workforce.   Business owners from farm workers to hotel workers have worker lacking immigration status.   A compressive immigration reform would put all workers, Americans and immigrants, on a level playing field which would result in increased wages.   Higher wages would mean more consumers spending, and a huge benefit for the United States economy.   The federal government would accrue $4.5 billion to $5.4 billion in additional net tax revenue in three years if the 11 million undocumented immigrants were legalized (Hinojosa-Ojeda, 2010).  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Immigration reform would keep families together.   According to a 2011 study, more than 5,100 children were in foster care because their parents were undocumented and had either been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or deported (Cortez-Neavel, 2016).  Ã‚   ICE completed their own assessment in the years 2010 to 2012, which they recorded removing 204,810 parents of U.S. citizen children under the age of 18 (Cortez-Neavel, 2016).   Removing undocumented immigrants with United States citizen children only leaves more family on welfare.     Ã‚     The Trump administration plans to deport between two and three million undocumented workers (Cortez-Neavel, 2016).     If President Trumps words hold true, the children of the undocumented immigrants being deported will either go to a relative, if one was available, or be placed in foster care.  Ã‚   Comprehensive immigration reform that includes legalizing the undocumented immigrants is the only way to keep families together and these children out of foster care and off welfare.   Reforming of current immigration laws will also create more jobs.   According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), one out of every ten immigrants owns a business and 620 out of 100,000 immigrants start a business each month (Fairlie, 2012).   This means that immigrants being admitted into the United States will be employing workers, paying taxes and contributing to the economy.   These immigrants will become strong members of a community and their societies.  Ã‚  Ã‚   A comprehensive immigration reform that encourages more high-skilled workers to be admitted to the United States will strengthen the economy, innovate and provide workforce stability throughout the country.   Opposition of Immigration Reform From research, it appears that some Americans seem to not favor the idea of comprehensive immigration reform. Many individuals who oppose immigration reform believe that all of the immigrants who are undocumented can simply go back to their country and get in line for a green card (Nowrasteh, 2016).   It is just not that easy.   For most of the undocumented immigrants in the United States, there is no line available to them as they do not have a family member in the United States who can petition for their legal entry.   Since there is no current amnesty in the United States and IIRIRA dismantled the grandfathered adjustment of status, undocumented immigrants either have the choice to stay in the United States and fear deportation, or go to a country that many do not even know.    The cost of immigration reform is a major concern of congress.   In 2013, the Heritage Foundation stated that immigration reform was estimated to cost the United States 6.3 billion dollars from start to finish (Harris, 2013).   The 6.3 billion dollars represents the total cost of immigration reform, which includes; revising the family visa process, border security, and creating a pathway for citizenship for the current undocumented workers in the United States (Harris, 2013).   However, that number does not even include the Trump Administrations proposed border wall.   The Department of Homeland Security estimated that the proposed border wall would cost the United States 21.6 billion dollars (Ainsley, 2017).   Congress needs to take into consideration the broad range of areas that the estimated cost of reform covers when determining if it costs too much.  Ã‚     Ã‚   What the estimated cost of reform fails to represent is what comprehensive immigration reform will do for the United States.   Due to the current broken family visa process, there are consequences which arise from the inability of families being able to reunite in a timely manner. A comprehensive reform of current immigration laws will allow for many families to be put back together.   Families lean on each other in time of need. They help each other raise the children, and help with the daily finances. When a family is waiting for one of their family members to be provided with their visa, they often have to apply for state aid as they cannot afford food, childcare, housing, and their everyday bills (Vaughan, 2015).   Eliminating the backlog will get families off of welfare. The Trump Administration has categorized undocumented immigrants as a threat to the American workers.   President Trump claims to be on the side of American workers and he vows to deport the undocumented workers that are taking jobs away from the white working class.   This argument resonates well with the white working class supporters who are struggling with poor jobs, low wages and unemployment. However, deportation of these immigrants is not the answer for the following reasons. First, there is not any documented proof that undocumented immigrants are taking the jobs of the white working class.   Undocumented immigrants rarely compete for employment against an American worker, immigrants compete against other immigrants (Nowrasteh, 2016).  Ã‚     Ã‚  Second, six states that account for 40 percent of the goods and services produced in the United States have the largest amount of undocumented workers, as undocumented workers often work as farm help, which is low wage employment (Nowrasteh, 2016).   If President Trump does as he has promised, there will be a shortage of farm workers and the employers will have to offer higher pay to get new employees.   The higher pay will be passed to consumers at the super market.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Those that oppose immigration reform believe that the United States needs tighter border security.   The Department of Homeland Security and Congress should tackle the problems at the border and they should provide Border Patrol with the means to protect the United States border adequately.   The Trump administration has signed executive orders directing federal agencies to being constructing a wall on the U.S./Mexico border and he has directed the Department of Homeland Security and local law enforcement to enforce the laws of the United States strongly.   President Trumps words were hostile and all they did was seclude immigrant communities and families.   The immigrants will go back to the shadows and again fear the police.   The will not assimilate into American culture any longer as there will be no incentive Nowrasteh, 2016).   Those that oppose immigration reform believe that granting amnesty to the 11 million undocumented immigrants will create and encourage more illegal immigration to the United States.   This view is not true.   Actually, recent numbers show that the number of immigrants crossing the border illegally has decreased (Cohn & Passel, 2016).   Therefore, granting amnesty to the undocumented immigrants who currently have their life and family in the United States will in fact deter future illegal immigration and keep families together.   Amnesty is admission of that the immigration laws of the past are not working and they need to be reformed.   Importance of Immigration Reform to the Researcher Reforming the immigration process is important to the researcher due to the fact the researcher has been through the family visa process, stuck in the backlog, and the researcher has saw firsthand the effects current immigration laws have on families.   In 2010, the researcher was separated from her spouse for a period of 11 months waiting for her husband’s visa to be approved.   The researcher initially had to file a Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative and Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or to Adjust Status for her spouse, and because the researcher’s spouse was brought the United States as a teenager, her spouse needed to go to his country of origin, Mexico, to complete the visa process at the United States Consulate in Ciudad Juarez.   The researcher’s husband accrued more than 180 days of unlawful presence.   While crossing the United States/Mexico border to go to his scheduled visa appointment in Ciudad Juarez, the researcher’s husband immediately triggered a ten-year ban created by IIRARA 96. The ten-year ban was able to be removed by filing a I-601a, provisional unlawful presence waiver. The researcher had to prove the hardship that she would face if she would have to live separate from her husband for ten years.   The process was a difficult one for the researcher, as she was not able to utilize legal counsel and prepared all the documents alone.     When filing the I-601a, the United States Consulate in Ciudad Juarez immediately backlogged the petition for lack of extreme hardship.  Ã‚     The researcher knows firsthand how difficult the current immigration laws are on both immigrants and United States citizens as she has gone through them.   Though there have been some decent changes to the immigration laws that directly affected the researcher and her family in 2010, a comprehensive immigration reform that eliminates that backlog and revises the family-sponsored visa process is still important to keep families together.   Congress needs to reform the family immigration process to being eliminating the backlog of other family preference categories besides the immediate relative category.   Children over 21 of U.S. Citizen or legal permanent residents are just important.   Importance of Immigration Reform to the Legal Profession There is no question that immigration reform is important to the legal profession.   With immigration reform, there will be improvements to our laws. Prior to the 20th century, there was not much need to immigration counsel.   However, when the federal government of the United States began enacting immigration laws and restrictions immigration lawyers evolved.   Ã‚  With the constantly changing laws, nearly all immigrants will need to use an immigration attorney to assist them with the increasing amount of new restrictions that affect immigration law.   Without adequate counsel, the United States fundamental concepts that revolve around fairness and equality become damaged.   According to 8 U.S.C.A.  § 1362 (2016). – Right to counsel, Immigrants are able to secure legal counsel in immigration proceedings, but â€Å"at no expense to the Government.†   Ã‚  It is vital for immigrants to have quality representation, as the type of representation an immigrant often has determines whether the immigrant will be able to be reunited with their family in a timely manner, given an employment visa, or is granted asylum.  Ã‚   Immigrants often are not fluent in the English language.   In order for immigrants to not be at a disadvantage in their immigration proceeding, it is necessary to have adequate counsel.  Ã‚   The United States is a nation of immigrants, however, since 9/11, immigration laws and immigration reform has become a heated political issue, mostly due to fear.   Current administration in the United States has been trying to reverse many of the immigration laws that allow refuges into the United States (The White House, 2017). Doing this has incited racism and fear throughout the United States.   The Trump administration has tried to place bans on certain immigrant nationalities, predominantly Muslim countries, from entering the United States (The White House, 2017).   This ban presented legal challenges, as the United States government cannot act arbitrarily with having supportive evidence to back up their reasoning.   Immigration reform is needed to amend immigration laws to prohibit the seclusion of certain immigrants from the United States.  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Conclusion For Alejandro Bojorquez, waiting for his visa priority date to be available has been long and difficult process.   Alejandro has been waiting in the backlog because the current immigration laws only provide a certain amount of visas to be allocated to each country.   The majority of the yearly visas allocated to family-sponsored immigrants go to spouses, minor children, and parents of United States citizens (immediate relatives), followed by spouses and children of legal permanent residents.  Ã‚   He has been waiting since he was 14 years old to be reunited with his parents.   Alejandro is like millions of other family-sponsored visas applicants whose priority date keeps getting pushed back due to the increased amount of family visas that are currently being applied for.   The hardship of separation is tough and he awaits the day he gets a call from his dad and he says â€Å"yeah, you made it† (Gonzalez, 2013). Alejandro Bojorquez is just one of the millions of examples of immigrants waiting to be reunited with their families.   Current immigration laws in the United States need to be updated due to the fact that they are set up to do more harm than good.   Congress needs to update the number of visas that allowed to be given each fiscal year, change the individuals that are considered to immediate relatives, and create a wait time that does not surpass five years.   It is for these reasons that the only conclusion that can be reached is that Congress needs to reform the current immigration laws.   If they do not, families are going to continue to be separated for many years.   Immigration reform is needed now.   References 8 U.S.C.A.  § 1151 (West 2009). 8 U.S.C.A.  § 1152 (West 2000). 8 U.S.C.A.  § 1153 (West 2006). 8 U.S.C.A.  § 1154 (West 2014). 8 U.S.C.A  § 1182 (West 2013). 8 U.S.C.A.  § 1255(a) (West 2016). 8 U.S.C.A.  § 1362 (West 2016).    ACLU. (2017).   PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS OF HB 56 â€Å"Alabama Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act†.   Retrieved from https://www.aclu.org/other/analysis-hb-56-alabama-taxpayer-and-citizen-protection-act Ainsley, J. (2017).   Trump administration has found only $20 million in existing funds for wall.   Retrieved from http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-funds-idUSKBN1685SY American Immigration Counsel.   (2016).   How the United States Immigration System Works. Retrieved from https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/how-united-states-immigration-system-works Baxter, T. (2012).   Alabama’s Immigration Disaster.   Retrieved from https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/immigration/reports/2012/02/15/11117/alabamas-immigration-disaster/ Bolvito v. Mukasey, 527 F.3d 428 (5th Cir. 2008). Cohn, D. and Passel, J. (2016).   Overall Number of U.S. Unauthorized Immigrants Holds Steady Since 2009.   Retrieved from http://www.pewhispanic.org/2016/09/20/overall-number-of-u-s-unauthorized-immigrants-holds-steady-since-2009/ Cortex-Neavel, B. (2016).   Left Behind:   Trump’s Immigration Plans Could Spur Uptick in Foster Care Numbers.   Retrieved from https://chronicleofsocialchange.org/featured/left-behind-trumps-immigration-plans-could-increase-children-of-deported-immigrants-in-foster-care/23525 Cruz, E. H. (2010). Because youre mine, I walk the line: The trials and tribulations of the family visa program.  Fordham Urban Law Journal, 38(1), 155-181.   Retrieved from  http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.lib.kaplan.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=08c1257b-3ff8-4109-a355-8e1014a13e49%40sessionmgr4009&vid=2&hid=4211 Department of Homeland Security.   (2017). The U.S. Immigration System by the Numbers: 2015 Lawful Permanent Residents.   Retrieved from https://www.dhs.gov/immigration-statistics/visualization/2015 Expansion of Provisional Unlawful Presence Waivers of Inadmissibility. 81 Fed. Reg. 50244-01. (July 29, 2016). (to be codified at 8 C.F.R. Pts. 103, & 212) Fairlie, R. (2012).   Immigrant Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners, and their Access to Financial Capital.   Retrieved from https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/rs396.pdf Gonzalez, D. (2013).   Millions of immigrants waiting for green cards.   Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/06/23/millions-of-immigrants-waiting-for-green-cards/2450461/ Guendelsberger, J. (1988). Implementing Family Unification Rights in American Immigration Law: Proposed Amendments.  San Diego Law Review., (2), 253.   Retrieved from  http://heinonline.org.lib.kaplan.edu/HOL/Page?public=false&handle=hein.journals/sanlr25&page=253&collection=journals   Hinojosa-Ojeda, R. (2010).   Raising the Floor for American Workers.   Retrieved from https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/immigration/reports/2010/01/07/7187/raising-the-floor-for-american-workers/ Khan, N. (2015). Five years after SB 1070, Arizona Immigrants Defy Climate of Intimidation. Retrieved from http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/3/23/five-years-after-sb-1070-arizona-immigrants-defy-law.html Morse, A. (2011).   Arizona’s Immigration Enforcement Laws.   Retrieved from http://www.ncsl.org/research/immigration/analysis-of-arizonas-immigration-law.aspx Nowrasteh, A. (2016).   15 Common Arguments against Immigration, Addressed.   Retrieved from https://fee.org/articles/15-common-arguments-against-immigration-addressed/ The White House, Office of the Press Secretary. (2017). Executive Order: Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States [ Press release]. Retrieved form https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/01/27/executive-order-protecting-nation-foreign-terrorist-entry-united-states U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. (1996).   Pub. L. 104-208 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996. Retrieved from https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/ocomm/ilink/0-0-0-10948.html U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. (2012).   Overview of INS History. Retrieved from https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/USCIS/History%20and%20Genealogy/Our%20History/INS%20History/INSHistory.pdf U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. (2015).   Visa Availability and Priority Dates. Retrieved from https://www.uscis.gov/green-card/green-card-processes-and-procedures/visa-availability-and-priority-dates#Finding U.S. Department of State.   (2016). Annual report of immigrant visa applicants in the family-sponsored and employment-based preferences registered at the National Visa Center. Retrieved from https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Statistics/Immigrant-Statistics/WaitingListItem.pdf U.S. Department of State.   (2017).   Visa Bulletin for April 2017. Retrieved from https://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/law-and-policy/bulletin/2017/visa-bulletin-for-april-2017.html Vaughan, J. (2015).   Waiting List for Legal Immigrant Visas Keeps Growing.   Retrieved from http://cis.org/vaughan/waiting-list-legal-immigrant-visas-keeps-growing