Five Questions: Hightstown Library Hosts Immigration Seminars

With immigration a hot topic both nationally and locally, advice on getting legal, documented status is in high demand.

To help meet that need, the Hightstown Branch of the Mercer County Library System takes time each month to host immigration attorney Stephen Traylor of the Princeton-based law firm Traylor and Traylor, PC. Traylor took a few minutes from his busy Tuesday evening this week at the library to answer five questions for Patch.

• How did you get into this line of work?

“I speak Spanish and I was in kind of a lull when I got out of law school,” Traylor said. He noted he had previously done the Peace Corps in Ethiopia before embarking on his 26-year career and wanted to continue helping people.

“Immigration law is about the only kind of law now that there are sole practitioners,” he added. “I like that, being independent and having my own practice.”

• What do you do with the people who’re waiting for you? (Over a dozen individuals were queued up to meet with Traylor individually.)

“I lecture about changes in immigration law and possibilities that exist,” he said.

That may mean consulting with people who are dealing with authorities, particularly Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), as well as those who are legal citizens but want to bring over a family member.

• What’s the most popular question you get?

“’When are we going to have immigration reform?’” he said. “’Can we legalize my status?’”

• What do you make of the immigration system we have now?

“Nobody likes the immigration system,” he said. “Even the people who’re anti-immigration or against immigrants, everybody agrees the system is broken and it doesn’t work. It doesn’t satisfy anybody.”

“The problem is there’s a stalemate in congress,” he continued. “Nothing can be done either way.”

• Is there any hope for immigration reform?

“The President claims that he’s a great supporter of immigration, that he’s trying to do something,” he said. “Many of us have heard this before and are a little bit skeptical about it.”

Traylor noted that past major immigration reforms have always included concessions on both sides. “If we just come up with another compromise right now that might work, and they’re talking about that,” he said.

But for now, Traylor said he’s preparing people for possible changes. He said he advises people to learn English—both because it may become a requirement for citizenship and because “it’s a good idea anyhow. If you want to be successful, English is key.”

He said undocumented immigrants should also start paying taxes if they aren’t already. He estimated that the majority of people with undocumented statuses in the Hightstown area do so already.