Welcome to our Immigration News and Opinions detail page from myUSAi.org. http://myusai.org 2010-02-08T15:30:20+01:00 http://myusai.org http://myusai.org/images/myusai_logo_small.jpg text/html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2010/02/04/ST2010020401979.html Washington Post, February 5. Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Pierre Garçon carefully folded the Haitian flag into a bandanna and proudly put it -- instead of a Colts baseball cap -- on his head Tuesday as he held an obligatory meeting with the media in the lead-up to Sunday's Super Bowl. With the flag's emblem displayed across his forehead and television cameras running, Garçon hoped to inspire more help for his country. Garçon did not hesitate to reach out. The earthquake that devastated Haiti on Jan. 12 has led to an unanticipated aftershock here in the United States: Haitian Americans are standing up to proclaim their heritage, while discovering a sense of unity and community that many had never felt before. text/html http://news.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20100204barack_obama_aunt_arrives_for_her_2nd_asylum_hearing/srvc=home&position= Boston Herald, February 5. From the designer sunglasses to the security entourage in gray suits and ear pieces, it was evident yesterday the towering, 6-feet-plus-tall Zeituni Polly Onyango is no garden-variety illegal alien. The Kenyan aunt of President Obama - who arrived at U.S. Immigration Court in a wheelchair, but glided out on foot to the tapping beat of a cane - testified for 2 hours before Judge Leonard I. Shapiro in support of her second bid to be granted political asylum and continue living in Boston public housing. 'This is America. Justice will be done,' Margaret Wong, Onyango’s Cleveland, Ohio, attorney, told reporters. Wong refused to stipulate on what grounds Onyango seeks shelter from being sent packing back to East Africa. text/html http://www.themonitor.com/news/law-35112-aid-students.html Monitor, February 5. For Carmen, as for many people, a college degree represents an opportunity for a better future. But her future is far more difficult to ascertain than it is for most U.S. college students. She is one of several thousand undocumented immigrants attending Texas universities and colleges, according to the Immigration Reform Coalition of Texas (IRCOT). Carmen — who declined to give her last name for fear that her current employer could face repercussions — came to the U.S. from Chiapas in 1992 at age 14, unsure of what was happening or what her future held. Now, at 32, she is pursuing a master’s degree at the University of Texas-Pan American with the peace of mind that even if she is forced to leave the U.S., the federal government cannot take away her college education and the hope of better employment in Mexico. text/html http://latindispatch.com/2010/02/04/e-2-visas-provide-immigration-opportunities-to-wealthy-mexicans-fleeing-violence/ Latin America News Dispatch, February 4. Last year Jorge, a Tijuana business owner who asked for anonymity for safety reasons, was driving home from work when several cars attempted to corner him. When he realized that he was in the middle of a classic kidnap setup, he quickly accelerated and squeezed his Mini-Cooper in between two of the cars. As Jorge escaped, shots rang out behind him and he arrived to the police station with a bullet wound to his arm. At the station, however, the police told Jorge that there was little that they could do for him. 'I was told that as soon as I left they could not guarantee that I would live.' They asked Jorge if he wanted to be taken to the airport or the U.S.-Mexican border. Even though Jorge’s life was threatened in Mexico and he fears returning, he does not want to risk losing his tourist visa in the United States by applying for political asylum or refugee status. text/html http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/02/04/500000-non-immigrant-visas-to-Chinese/UPI-81671265287944/ United Press International, February 4. The U.S. embassy in Beijing reported about 500,000 non-immigrant visas were issued to Chinese last year, 20 percent of them to students and exchange visitors. The number was up 5 percent from the previous year, China Daily reported, adding the figures were provided by Mandarin-speaking U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman. The 100,000 visas given to students and exchange visitors were for those planning to study or to do research in the United States, the report said. The report did not say the purpose for the remainder of the visas, but presumably included those to tourists and business leaders. Huntsman was quoted as saying in 1979, when the two countries established diplomatic ties, only 4,700 non-immigrant U.S. visas were issued. text/html http://www.modbee.com/state_wire/story/630401.html Associated Press, March 14. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis wants to rethink rules issued by the Bush administration that changed the nation's guest farmworker program. Bush's overhaul to the program was intended to make it easier for farmers to hire foreign field workers. Solis announced Friday she plans to suspend the new rules for the program for nine months so her department can review and reconsider them. Farmworker advocates have argued the changes would lower wages in the fields and erode labor protections. Growers criticized the fix too, saying it doesn't streamline the process or provide the comprehensive immigration reform they've been looking for. The proposal to suspend the rule will be made official on Tuesday, and is open to public comment for 10 days. text/html http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2009/08/its_like_having_ezpass_for_the.html Star-Ledger, August 24. For $100 and a fingerprinting session, frequent international travelers can now shave a few minutes off their wait time after landing at Newark Liberty International Airport. Starting today, pre-approved U.S. citizens and permanent residents re-entering the country can skip passport-checking lines and pass through an automated kiosk instead. 'For frequent business travelers, it's a great program,' said John Saleh, a spokesman for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection office in New York. 'They come off the plane with their carry-on, they go up to the kiosk, and they're out the door within a couple minutes.' text/html http://mediamatters.org/research/201001150042 Media Matters, January 15, OPINION. There's nothing like a little self-congratulation to kick off your show, and Rush caves to the urge by telling us that he called it: Just as he predicted, the Associated Press has put out an analysis contrasting Obama's response to the earthquake in Haiti to Bush's response to Katrina. This is foreshadowing of Rush's defensive obsession with the media's coverage of Haiti that will persist throughout the first hour of his show. Briefly, Rush turns to the Massachusetts Senate race, gleefully noting a Washington Examiner column by Byron York that reports Martha Coakley trailing Scott Brown in the polls. Returning to the topic of Haiti, Rush responds to the allegation that he discouraged donations to the stricken country, saying that he only meant to discourage people from donating through the government. However, the White House website is providing links to organizations like the Red Cross, not taking donations itself. text/html http://www.toledoonthemove.com/news/story.aspx?id=273928 Associated Press, March 16. America's detention system for immigrants has mushroomed in the last decade, a costly building boom that was supposed to sweep up criminals and ensure that undocumented immigrants were quickly shown the door. Instead, an Associated Press computer analysis of every person being held on a recent Sunday night shows that most did not have a criminal record and many were not about to leave the country voluntarily or via deportation. An official Immigration and Customs Enforcement database, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, showed a U.S. detainee population of exactly 32,000 on the evening of Jan. 25. The data show that 18,690 immigrants had no criminal conviction, not even for illegal entry or low-level crimes like trespassing. More than 400 of those with no criminal record had been incarcerated for at least a year. A dozen had been held for three years or more; one man from China had been locked up for more than five years. text/html http://www.nationaljournal.com/njonline/no_20090824_1124.php National Journal, August 24. As one of the least likely demographic groups to have insurance, Hispanics might be expected to have high hopes for the current reform efforts. Yet, more than any major demographic except Republicans, they expect an overhaul to worsen their situation. In the nearly two dozen congressional districts with a Hispanic majority, the number of people with health insurance is 16 percentage points below the national average, according to a NationalJournal.com analysis. Hispanics accounted for 15 percent of the nation's population in 2007, but 32 percent of the nation's uninsured. text/html http://www.thesundayleader.lk/2010/01/15/changing-the-pillow-for-the-headache/ The Sunday Leader, January 16, OPINION. Power, greed, avarice have all conspired to make Sri Lanka what it is today. To put it simply, it’s hard work being a Sri Lankan. The rot though began way back in time. DS Senanayaka, was the master of all manoeuverers. Forging links between himself and the British Governor, he ensured that his son succeeded him to the exclusion of Sir John Kotelawala, who had every right to expect to be the Prime Minister in succession to DS. Since then, the country has gone downhill politically, with little resurgence. The quest for power and fame, over and above one’s own station in life, has led to an appalling dereliction of public service on the part of elected and appointed officers. Persons entrusted by elected leaders to carry out public duties are, either, routinely corrupt or become corrupted once in office. text/html http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-citizenship_16met.ART.State.Edition2.4a56324.html Dallas Morning News, March 16. Demand is off at the federal agency that handles everything from citizenship applications to work visas. The slump follows fiscal year 2008, when there was a tight contraction in citizenship requests at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Reduced demand extends into the North Texas offices of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, an agency within the Department of Homeland Security, says the top manager of that agency, Michael Aytes. 'We are seeing the effect of the economy,' Aytes, the interim deputy director of the agency, said in a recent Dallas visit. '[But] we are particularly concerned about naturalizations. text/html http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/08/25/healthcare-and-immigration-converge-explosively Christian Science Monitor, August 25. Two hot-button issues are converging to crank the political dial way past 'riled-up' – healthcare reform and immigration. President Obama and Democratic supporters of health insurance legislation insist that bills now being considered exclude illegal immigrants from any coverage. Their opponents’ response boils down to 'Oh, yeah?' As with many such disputes, it’s unlikely that agreement will be reached, even if substantial reform legislation is passed into law – by no means a certainty. For one thing, nobody knows for sure how many illegal immigrants are in the United States or how many of those have received medical treatment at public expense. Neither the US Census Bureau nor hospitals ask about citizenship status. text/html http://tinyurl.com/yjj59n2 Albuquerque Immigration Examiner, January 18. In my last op-ed I discussed one of several recent articles that portray the annual diversity visa lottery in a negative light, and wrongly associate green card lottery winners as welfare recipients, with fraud, terrorism, and take jobs away from Americans. This part will debunk these myths and offer a possible solution to the possible jobs issue. First, everyone supports planned changes to visa screening procedures. This will likely include increased cooperation between countries, streamlined communication between agencies, better integrated data, body scanning, and possibly profiling, but of course nothing as elaborate as Israel's system because of the sheer numbers here in the U.S. text/html http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/16/world/europe/16irish.html?ref=worldbusiness New York Times, March 16. With the formerly highflying Irish economy now in an even deeper tailspin than the American one, the Irish prime minister's annual St. Patrick's Day visit to the United States has an unusually somber feel about it. In a speech Sunday night at the American Irish Historical Society on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, Prime Minister Brian Cowen of Ireland said he would urge the Obama administration to expand visas for Irish workers and allow them to stay two years here instead of the current one. And in a move to woo Irish-Americans, Mr. Cowen proposed measures to make it easier for Americans to claim Irish citizenship, reversing a restrictive course the Irish government took in 2005. ''The connections between Ireland and America remain strong,'' Mr. Cowen said, ''but we cannot take them for granted.'' text/html http://www.sfbg.com/blogs/politics/2009/08/groups_push_for_federal_immigr.html San Francisco Bay Guardian, August 25. Michael Tsui grew up in San Francisco. The youngest child of a single mother, he went to public schools, worked hard, did well and, at 21 years old, he’s now a computer-engineering student at San Jose State University. The young man looks, sounds and acts like any other American college student working towards graduation and worrying about job prospects. Except Tsui isn’t worried he won’t find a job in his chosen field and location; he’s worried that he can’t work legally and might be deported. Tsui is an undocumented immigrant, brought here from Hong Kong at the age of five by his mother along with two older siblings on tourist visas. His tourist visa was transferred to a student visa, but when that expired, Tsui entered the nebulous and shadowy world of the undocumented. text/html http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/haitians-granted-protected-protected-status-face-tough-job-190269.html Palm Beach Post, January 21. Undocumented Haitians granted temporary protected status under the federal government's new immigration program will emerge from the fringes of society into an already strained Florida job market, state officials said. Even so, Haitian activists who spent years fighting for temporary protected status were optimistic Thursday. It was the first day Haitians could apply for the new government program, launched after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake devastated parts of Haiti, killed an estimated 200,000 people and left as many as 1.5 million homeless. text/html http://www.investors.com/?tn=top Investor's Business Daily, March 16. Despite steep job losses, Silicon Valley firms continue their long quest to allow more skilled foreigners to work in the U.S. The high-tech hub lost 15,600 jobs in December alone, 1.3% of its 1.2 million total jobs, but executives and officials say that hasn't lessened the need for highly skilled workers. The federal H-1 B program gives temporary visas to skilled foreign workers like engineers and scientists, but caps the number at 85,000 per year. And even with today's high unemployment, when it might be easier for companies to find skilled U.S. job hunters, there's a push to end the cap. 'We're not in favor of controls at all. It should be wide open, the more the merrier,' said Russell Hancock, president of Joint Venture Silicon Valley, a large public-private group supported by many of the region's tech companies. text/html http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/08/25/world/international-uk-honduras-usa.html Reuters, August 25. The United States said on Tuesday it would temporarily restrict the issuing of U.S. visas in Honduras, raising pressure on the government that took power after a June 28 coup to step down. The State Department, which has repeatedly condemned the military coup that ousted President Manuel Zelaya, said that from Wednesday it would only provide visa services to potential immigrants and emergency cases at its embassy in Tegucigalpa. The Obama administration has urged Honduran authorities to accept proposals put forward by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, whose efforts to end the crisis have stalled over the de facto government's refusal to allow Zelaya to return to power. text/html http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_W_bilingual22.4626171.html Press-Enterprise (Riverside, January 21. The Census Bureau this year for the first time is mailing out forms with questions in Spanish and English. Thirteen million U.S. households will receive the questionnaires, said census spokeswoman Sandra Alvarado. Census tracts in which at least 20 percent of people 5 and older speak Spanish at home will receive the bilingual questionnaires, Alvarado said. She did not know how many Inland homes would receive the forms. One in three Riverside and San Bernardino counties residents speak Spanish at home, according to 2006-08 census estimates. The census has long provided foreign-language forms to people who request them. This year, questionnaires are available in Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Russian and Vietnamese, with guides in 59 languages to help recipients fill out the 10-question form in English. text/html http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123725421857750565.html Wall Street Journal, March 17. The Obama administration should seriously consider granting resident status to foreigners who buy surplus houses in this country. This makes more sense than the president's $275 billion housing bailout plan, which Americans greeted with a Bronx cheer. The federal bailout forces taxpayers to subsidize overextended homeowners who bet on ever-rising house prices and used their abodes as ATMs, and it doesn't get to the basic problem -- the huge inventory of excess houses. We estimate that 2.4 million houses over and above normal working inventories are left over from the 1996-2005 housing bubble. That's a lot, considering the long-term average annual construction of 1.5 million single- and multi-family units. text/html http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/northwest/story/856190.html News Tribune , August 26. Ricardo Sanchez knows some hard-working students who might not be able to use the college degrees they're earning because they aren't U.S. citizens. He brought a few of them to the Tri-Cities on Monday to help illustrate why he believes federal legislators should approve the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, which would provide a pathway to citizenship for certain young people. 'We're trying to get people to acknowledge (that addressing the issue) should be a top priority,' said Sanchez, board chairman of the Latino/a Educational Achievement Project in the Seattle area. He was in town for a forum on the act -- known as the DREAM Act -- at Columbia Basin College in Pasco. He and several students who would be able to take advantage of the new law if it passed spoke with the Herald's editorial board beforehand. text/html http://www.ojornal.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20404858&BRD=2677&PAG=461&dept_id=543384&rfi=6 O Journal, January 22. Unlike health care reform, Republican Scott Brown's upset win in the Senate special election is not expected to have significant impact on immigration reform. With Brown's victory Republicans gained the 41st vote they needed in the Senate to sustain a filibuster in the health reform bill. But as far as immigration reform, his vote is just one of many votes that still need to be conquered, say local officials and immigrant advocates. 'I don't think this has any negative impact on immigration,' said Cong. Barney Frank (D-Mass.). 'It's a tough issue, maybe one more vote would be better. But this does not make it harder. We're still working hard to get it on the agenda.' text/html http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_11928882 Denver Post, March 17. About 150 people, many of them young and Latino, gathered at the state Capitol on Monday to rally in support of the in-state tuition bill for illegal immigrants, which has been sent on a detour to the Senate Appropriations Committee — where the likelihood of it seeing the light of day is what is called in legislative parlance iffy.The rally was brief but rousing. Passionate speeches. Much cheering. About a month earlier, the three Latino members of the Denver City Council balked over the naming of the plaza at the new justice center because, up until then, the complex bore no Latino names. text/html http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/aug/26/get-ready-another-uproar/?columnists/ruben-navarrette&zIndex=155334 San Diego Union Tribune, August 26. A few months ago, I was talking to a group of political strategists who insisted that — given the Obama administration's desire to pursue both immigration reform and health care reform — immigration should go first. Otherwise, they said, health care would fail because of public fears that illegal immigrants would get free medical services. Make those immigrants legal, they said, and it would defuse the issue. text/html http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/us/22recruit.html New York Times, January 22. A highly successful program by the armed forces to recruit skilled immigrants who live in this country temporarily has run into a roadblock, leaving thousands of potential recruits in limbo. The Army stopped accepting applications for the program last week, officials said Thursday, because the Pentagon had not completed a review required to keep the recruitment going. The program, which started as a pilot in February, allowed recruiters to enlist immigrants, most of them in the Army, with special language or medical skills who are in this country on temporary visas. Successful recruits are offered the chance to become United States citizens within a few months. text/html http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123722318175744001.html Wall Street Journal, March 17. Funds sent by overseas workers back to Latin America and the Caribbean are expected to drop steeply in 2009, shrinking a crucial source of cash for many families in the region. Remittances to the region began to slow in 2008 after a decade of growth, according to the Inter-American Development Bank, as countries such as the U.S., Spain and Japan, slid into recession. This year, remittances to the region are likely to decline for the first time since the bank began tracking annual flows in 2000, according to a new study by the Washington-based multilateral institution. Migrant workers -- the lifeline for millions of families in Latin American and the Caribbean -- sent home a record $69.2 billion last year, nearly 1% more than in 2007. For countries that have reported data for January, totals were down significantly. Mexico, which receives the lion's share of U.S. remittances, experienced a 12% drop compared to January 2008. In the same month, Colombia suffered a 16% drop, while Brazil saw a 14% decline. Guatemala and El Salvador each experienced an 8% decline. text/html http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-08-26-immigration_N.htm USA Today, August 26. Sen. Edward Kennedy's first major legislative victory helped change the face of the country and shaped his own political career. In 1965, Kennedy had been in the Senate less than three years. His party's leaders gave him the job of pushing a bill to eliminate the quota system that had made it virtually impossible for anyone from anywhere but western Europe to immigrate to the USA. Eliminating national quotas for immigration had been the goal of every U.S. president since Harry Truman— including Kennedy's brother John F. Kennedy. That was probably one reason that 'Ted seized the cause,' in the words of his biographer, Adam Clymer. Passage marked 'the first of many times Ted Kennedy fulfilled an unfinished dream of one of his brothers,' Clymer wrote. text/html http://immigrationimpact.com/2010/01/21/supreme-court-protects-immigrants-access-to-court-review/ Immigration Impact, January 21. Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision ensuring that immigrants facing deportation have fair process in the review of their cases. The Court ruled that individuals who seek to reopen their deportation orders have the right to appeal to the federal courts if the immigration court refuses to reopen the case. The Court’s decision protects immigrants’ access to federal court review and affirms the role of the courts in our system of checks and balances on government power. text/html http://chronicle.com/news/article/6139/most-colleges-knowingly-admit-illegal-immigrants-as-students-survey-finds Chronicle of Higher Education, March 17. More than half of the colleges that responded to a recent survey said they knowingly admit illegal immigrants to degree or diploma programs under certain circumstances, according to findings released on Monday by the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. The report of findings was based on responses from 613 of the association’s 2,000 U.S.-based member institutions. Of those that responded either fully or partially to the survey, 54 percent said they did, and 46 percent said they did not, knowingly admit undocumented students.