Odrcic Law Group, LLC

08/24/2023

We are pleased to announce that Attorney Odrcic has been named Lawyer of the Year in the field of immigration law for the Milwaukee metropolitan area.

We look forward to continuing to provide quality service to the Wisconsin immigrant community, their U.S. citizen family members, and loved ones.

Nos complace anunciar que el abogado Odrcic ha sido nombrado Abogado del año en la area de ley de inmigración para Milwaukee metropolitano.

Esperamos continuar brindando un servicio de calidad a la comunidad de inmigrantes de Wisconsin, a sus familiares, y seres queridos ciudadanos estadounidenses.

Odrcic Law Group, LLC provides a wide-range of legal immigration services from our Milwaukee, Wiscon

06/24/2023

Thank you AILA for the opportunity to speak at the annual conference with my esteemed colleagues!

07/17/2020

Get ready for new DACA filings. As an aside, this would be beneficial to USCIS given that it is asking Congress for a handout. New DACA filings will generate a substantial amount of revenue for the agency.

ORDER vacating the rescission of the DACA policy; enjoining Defendants from implementing or enforcing the DACA rescission; directing the Clerk to close this case. Signed by Judge Paul W. Grimm on 7/17/2020. (dg3s, Deputy Clerk) (Entered: 07/17/2020)

05/01/2020

Seven years ago today I put this homemade sign on the wall of my newly opened office. It is a quote from one of my favorite documentaries, Jiro Dreams of Sushi.

Let me be honest. During the past seven years I have routinely violated Jiro's edict of never complaining about one's work. I have complained about being an immigration lawyer even before 2017 when things were much better than they are now. With all due respect to Jiro, I would like to see him not complain while spending one week as an immigration lawyer!

But do I love my work? Yes, although love should not be confused with happiness. Love often involves struggle, heartache, and is bittersweet. In order to truly love one must accept both risk and loss. I love helping immigrants despite not being particularly happy with the state of immigration policy and enforcement, especially since January of 2017. While Jiro dreams of sushi I dream of a more humane and just immigration system.

One other side note: the Japanese at the bottom reads 'ganbatte kudasai' which at least in 1993 was a popular expression in Japan. I believe the literal translation is "please persevere", but it is meant to encourage people to try their best when challenged with a difficult task.

To my fellow immigration lawyers, Ganbatte Kudasai :)

04/03/2020

Help! says an administration that has implemented a number of measures to make legal immigration extremely difficult, and in some situations completely impossible. Even before Covid-19 our economy has been struggling with shortages of both skilled positions (i.e. nurses and physicians willing to work in rural areas) and unskilled positions too.

While I feel badly for people who have lost their jobs I am not expecting the farms and other agribusiness will be flooded with new applicants. The dirty truth is that our food industry is propped up by unauthorized labor, and all (or at least most) of us are a part of that same hypocrisy. There are people who demand cheap prices for groceries yet want all "the illegals" deported. Those two desires are mutually exclusive. And if there would be a sudden surge of undocumented workers leaving farms and returning to their home countries, it would present a significant food crisis.

During this horrible pandemic we continue to be fed because of the work of undocumented immigrants at farms, meat processing plants, and restaurants that are still open. When things ever get back to normal, please shake their hands and thank them for helping our country during a very difficult time. But most importantly, demand from Congress that these folks are rewarded with legal status.

The president has angered his base by soliciting temporary foreign workers in an effort to stabilize the economy.

03/27/2020

The Covid-19 pandemic is revealing what the federal government truly values more than the lives and health of immigration judges, ICE lawyers, and immigration lawyers.

They’re calling it bad judgment. The Department of Justice is failing to protect judges and lawyers by forcing them to return to a Manhattan immigration court that was closed Tuesday over a c…

03/25/2020

Excellent op-ed regarding the immigration system still going forward during a dangerous pandemic. I am meeting filing deadlines this week at the office. Love my clients, but prefer to be home right now :)

When they can’t file paperwork because of the coronavirus pandemic, foreign nationals in the United States risk sacrificing their lawful immigration status, or traveling when it’s unsafe.

03/23/2020

Many of my undocumented clients work in the food industry either on dairy farms, regular farms, kitchens and restaurants, food processing plants, or slaughterhouses. Others are cleaners and janitors. And a good number of my lawful immigrant clients (whether permanent residents or those who naturalized) are truck drivers.

They are working while most of us are hunkered down in the safety of our homes. When it is safe again for normal human contact, please consider shaking their hands. And if you really want to show your gratitude, demand Congress and the president finally act by passing comprehensive immigration reform. They are essential employees and good people.

03/20/2020

ICE is an agency that lacks a moral compass. I have known this for years, but in a face of the gravest health crisis in our lifetimes, ICE is revealing who they truly are, demonstrating with absolute certainty that it values immigration enforcement over the lives of both immigrants and U.S. citizens alike.

Instead of following the Kenosha jail's lead (i.e. deciding who really needs to be detained and who should be released), ICE decided to transfer all of its detainees to other jails willing to take them.

If you think that is bad on its own, ICE has stopped taking bond payments in both Milwaukee and Chicago because of the Covid-19 virus. This will force U.S. citizen friends and loved ones of detained immigrants to either drive 4 hours to Indianapolis to pay the bond at the ICE office there, or to figure out how to go through a bonding company (which may be easier said than done).

Oh, and you think it cannot get even worse? Well, because Chicago ICE has closed for 14 days (as they at least value their own lives), friends and loved ones will need to travel a great distance to pick up a released immigrant assuming they are able to post a bond in the first place. ICE is transferring detainees from Wisconsin to Pulaski jail in Ullin, Illinois. That is a 12 hour round trip drive from Milwaukee. And remember, it is U.S. citizens who must endure this trek to post the bond.

If this is how this agency acts during an extraordinary pandemic that has put most of our country into a virtual lock down, think how ICE has acted on any normal day during the past 10 years. I hope someday there will be a true moral reckoning.

“The sheriff wanted to protect the current jail population that we had, along with the employees we have here and the staff at the facility, from the spread of the virus,” a sheriff's spokesperson sai

03/08/2020

My visit to the Holocaust Memorial Museum was a profound experience. While often feeling anger and sadness, I also felt a debt a gratitude for those who showed moral clarity while others failed.

One photo depicts the U.S. visa system back then illustrating that by 1940 there was an 11 year wait time to enter the U.S. from Europe. By 1941 the gates closed entirely.

On the other side, a description of Jewish parachutists returning to fight. A young poet was captured, tortured, and executed. Her last words were “I gambled on what mattered most. The dice were cast. I lost.”

03/05/2020

This is my guest column in the Madison Capital Times regarding pardons and the real prospect of certain Hmong and Lao immigrants being physically removed to Laos.

Four seemingly unrelated recent stories highlight a significant problem relating to immigration law and the Hmong and Lao communities in Wisconsin.

02/20/2020

Motel 6 is rightly out $10 million for its actions. Please stop leaving the light on for us 🙂

A judge has given final approval to a $10 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit that alleged Motel 6 employees in Phoenix shared private information of guests with immigration authorities.