Immigration law determines whether a person is an alien, the rights, duties, and obligations associated with being an alien in the United States, and how aliens gain residence or citizenship within the United States. It also provides the means by which certain aliens can become legally naturalized citizens with full rights of citizenship. Immigration law serves as a gatekeeper for the border of the nation, determining who may enter, how long they may stay, and when they must leave. Immigration lawyers represent persons seeking temporary and permanent residency (green cards) status in the U.S., those interested in obtaining U.S. citizenship through a process called naturalization, and clients facing deportation and removal. Immigration attorneys may also represent businesses seeking to secure temporary visa status for foreign employees.
Whitmore Lake is an unincorporated community in the U.S. state of Michigan. The community spans the boundary between Green Oak Township in Livingston County and Northfield Township in Washtenaw County. The United States Census Bureau has defined a census-designated place (CDP) with this name for statistical purposes, which has no legal status as an incorporated municipality. The population was 6,574 at the 2000 census. The community is located about nine miles (14.5 km) north of Ann Arbor and about nine miles south of Brighton. It is situated around the shores of Whitmore Lake and the CDP also includes the area around the smaller Horseshoe Lake to the south, Lawton Lake to the east and Monahan Lake to the northeast. U.S. Highway 23 forms the western edge of much of the CDP for the 2000 census. The Whitmore Lake post office, with ZIP code 48189, serves a larger area than that defined by the CDP and includes portions of southeast Hamburg Township, northeastern Webster Township, and a larger parts of Green Oak and Northfield Township than are included in the CDP. The 667-acre Whitmore Lake was named by Jonathan F. Stratton, a surveyor, after Luke H. Whitmore, a local landowner around 1825. Area residents have considered incorporation many times, but have not chosen to do so yet. The well known 8 Mile Road that forms the boundary between the city of Detroit and Detroit's northern suburbs in Oakland and Macomb Counties, comes to an end in Whitmore Lake along with 9 Mile, 7 Mile, 6 Mile, and 5 Mile Road.