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.
Cotton Center is an unincorporated community in western Hale County, Texas, United States, located approximately 12 miles southwest of Hale Center. Until the late 1800s the Comanche tribe of Native-Americans occupied the area. In 1907, with the coming of a branch of the Santa Fe Railroad, a number of farming operations were established. Cotton Center was originally created in 1925 as a consolidated school district, with a small town site, containing the school, cotton gins and various businesses to support the surrounding farms. In 1935 a local post office opened, and the first irrigation well was drilled. By the late 1940s irrigation wells proliferated, pumping water from the Ogallala Aquifer. The community revolves around farming and is tied together by the school, which as of 2005 had 140 students in pre-kindergarten through grade 12.