PT-LawMom

The New York Times reported yesterday on a new publication by the National Conference of State Legislatures detailing the 1,404 immigration measures considered by states in 2007. Of those measures, 170 were enacted, including a Tennessee law making it a crime (versus a civil offense) to hire an undocumented immigrant.

While the political tide ran generally against illegal immigrants, some states adopted measures to help them by protecting them from exploitation and by extending education and health care to their children. Fifteen states adopted laws intended to punish immigrant smugglers, especially if their victims were foreigners coerced into prostitution or other sexual commerce.

Over at Pundit Mom, guest blogger Lawyer Mama has a fantastic post on discrimination against lawyer mothers with a jaw-dropping example of her own. Obviously I can’t give any examples of this from where I currently work because, of course, there are none to give (love you, paycheck writers potentially reading my blog ). However, I can surely give a example of the effects of working in a “boy’s club” from one of my former jobs.

I don’t know her motivation, nor do I really think this was encouraged by her colleagues, but I worked at a firm where a female partner got pregnant (yes, partner, which is why this is so weird). She absolutely REFUSED to admit to anyone in the firm or outside the firm that she was pregnant, despite her growing belly. She told her secretary not to mention it to anyone, especially during her maternity leave. That “leave” was four days. She was on her blackberry with both clients and partners throughout labor, just mentioning it as an aside to the managing partner, and was back to work right away. The firm was actually really family-friendly so the partners comments weren’t “go girl!” but “what the hell is wrong with her?!?” I still don’t know. I didn’t work directly for her, but it was so odd and I often wonder if she’d worked so hard to make it to where she was that she only knew one set of rules to play by.

I was shocked to read that ICE raided El Pollo Rico and that it has been shut down for almost a month. For those of you who live in the DC area and haven’t tried their chicken, boy are you missing out on a treat. This family-run restaurant is a favorite not just of Latinos living in Arlington and Wheaton (and now Manassas, Chapin tells me), but of people living all over the DC area. You walk in one door and wait in the inevitably long line for juicy rotisserie chicken with tasty mustard/mayo sauce, thick french fries and cole slaw. It was one of the first places my husband and I went out to eat when we first started dating in 1999 and a regular haunt of ours for years.

Know what the HUGE ICE RAID netted for USCIS? Four undocumented family members of the long-time owner. Three weeks of no Pollo Rico. Looking at the numbers of agents sent versus the number of people netted, what a shame and what a waste of taxpayer money!

I got a LOT accomplished yesterday. This morning so far, not so much. It’s almost noon and I’ve barely cracked a book, mostly because I was up until 1 a.m. yesterday and had a really rough night with Pumpkinhead. I finally got them off to the movies and am going to try to buckle down here, but first I had to get the MILS Roundup out and work on my angry little immigration post. Sorry, I just get a little upset sometimes.

Now if only I had time for a Starbucks run. That latte yesterday really helped! Don’t think I can waste the movie time, though, so I’m just going to get some of my yummy Teavana loose leaf Earl Grey and get started.

The Weekly MILS (Moms In Law School) Roundup** is the brainchild of Saramel. It is hosted on a rotating basis at the Reasonable Expectations, PT-LawMom, and A Little Fish in Law School blogs and is usually posted no later than Monday morning. Next week’s MILS Roundup will be hosted by Butterflyfish.

OLs Gearing Up! ~ Reasonable Expectations, 1L Wannabe & Mommy on the Floor

Going into the Fall with One in the Oven ~ Peanut Butter Burrito & Adventures at UMD Law

Tired and Cranky ~ Lag Liv & Knocked Up (and in Law School)

Life with a Newborn ~ Magic Cookie & Lag Liv

Gearing up for 3L Year ~ Frequent Citations

Life after Law School ~ Legally Certifiable & From Engineer to Lawyer

A Little Advice ~ Diary of a Law School Mom

Studying with Kids ~ PT-LawMom

Cute Kid Stuff ~ A Little Fish in Law School & Adventures of Law School Mama

If you’d like to have your blog added to the MILS blogroll for weekly review or would like us to consider a specific post, drop the hostess(es) an email or leave a comment at their respective sites.

**Hat tip to the “original” Roundup — Evan Schaeffer’s Legal Underground and Divine Angst

It’s happening again, as I predicted it would. The New York Times Magazine has a long piece covering a small Illinois town taking matters into its own hands. Do the stores banning “illegal immigrants” (how do they know? skin color?) remind anyone of another time in this nation’s history? Latinos are not the only undocumented immigrants in this country!!!

Here’s a list of statements printed on a flyer mentioned in the article and my rebuttals:

Are you tired of waiting to pay for your groceries while Illegal Aliens pay with food stamps and then go outside and get in a $40,000 car? There are low income resident and citizen Latinos in this country, too. And don’t you even tell me that Caucasians and African Americans don’t collect their food stamps and buy expensive cars, too. What about the jewelry, electronics, etc., that keep people on welfare? Every racial group has some people like this - it’s not an undocumented immigrant thing.

Are you tired of paying taxes when Illegal Aliens pay NONE!
Many undocumented immigrants DO pay taxes. And, unlike you, they don’t get any back.

Are you tired of reading that another Illegal Alien was arrested for drug dealing? Again, all groups have their bad seeds. There is a strong argument to be made for arresting and deporting undocumented criminals, especially those who rape our women or drag our children into gangs.

Are you tired of having to punch 1 for English? It takes time to learn a language. Even coming from another English-speaking country, the dialect is very different here. Besides, these days you don’t even get an American on the line anyway…

Are you tired of seeing multiple families in our homes? Has it occurred to you that other cultures might value and appreciate family? When my husband and I were first married, he could not understand why we didn’t move in with my parents. This is not just a cultural value in Latino cultures, but also in Native American, Polynesian, Asian, Italian, etc. What you see as overcrowding they see as normal and right.

Are you tired of not being able to use Carpenter Park on the weekend, because it is over run by Illegal Aliens? Again, how do you know they are undocumented? There are plenty of citizen and resident Latino men and women in this country who enjoy a good game of soccer. Many are homeowners or pay rent and keep the economy booming by working (sometimes more than one job), paying taxes, etc. Since the taxes they pay go towards upkeep of the parks, shouldn’t they be able to use them just like any other person?

I’ve made the ABA Journal’s Blawg Directory. Not sure if that’s good or bad (at least in terms of maintaining anonymity). Here’s what they have to say about my little blog:

This blawg discusses work-life balance issues faced by parents in the workplace, highlights legal news stories, and covers other blogs and topics, not all of them law-related.

Author: “PT-LawMom” is a “part-time evening law student working full-time and raising a preschooler.”

I think they added me the week I posted about all the various Joys.

Okay, Pumpkinhead is at the park. I have a Venti Nonfat Sugar-Free Cinnamon Dolce Latte to one side and a bag of Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Mint squares to the other (you know, to balance out all that nonfat and sugar-free ). I am about to shut down Firefox (HORRORS!) and spend a good, long stretch Bloglines- and Gmail-free working on my exam outlines and practice tests. Wish me luck!

We’re in the final stretch, yippee. Although I have a lot of work ahead of me this weekend and next week preparing for exams, I’m feeling good and hopefully ready. I feel like I understand the subject matter, although ask me again next semester cause those courses are not at all in my realm of work training.

It’s 8 on a Friday night and I’m going to put a good hour in, put Pumpkinhead to bed and then come back to it. My Mom agreed to watch Pumpkinhead for several hours tomorrow and the Chapin SWEARS he will be a good, attentive Daddy this weekend (he’d better be!! )

I was a little naughty today. One of the partners I work for was like, “Man, you’re really anticipating my needs this week” and instead of saying thank you, I laughed and said, “Well, it is review time!” Oops - hope he took that as the teasing it was meant to be and that he doesn’t think I’m really only trying because of that. He’s only been my assignment since April so we’re still kind of getting to know each other. Yesterday he came out and saw my newly purchased exam review book on top of my purse and said, “Ugh, Civil Procedure! I’d rather commit hari kari than go through that again.” Well he is a corporate guy after all so I guess CivPro just isn’t his cup of tea.