Immigration News and Opinion Detail

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Online Status Checking Is Now Available For DV-2010 Entrants

A previous article resulted in several questions about the diversity visa (green card) lottery. Today we are happy to announce that the State Department has finally put in place a system for entrants to check the status of their entry at: http://www.dvlottery.state.gov/ESC.

You just need three pieces of information from your 2008 registration: 1) your Confirmation Number, 2) your Family Name (Last Name), and 3) your Birth Year. If you did not enter using a last name, check the box for “No Last/Family Name”.
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Undocumented Aliens Are Not Associated With Higher Rates Of Crime

Although we are proponents of legal, not illegal immigration, sometimes the rhetoric of the far right becomes so warped that I cannot help but shed light on their propaganda. One of their ongoing populust rants is their proposition that illegal immigrants commit an excess of crime.
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Sen. Nelson Rallies Against Student's Deportation

Miami Herald, June 29. Sen. Bill Nelson has called for authorities to halt the deportation of a Miami man whose immigration story has inspired protests and riled up immigration activists throughout South Florida. In a letter last week addressed to a top federal immigration official, Nelson praised Walter Lara, a 23-year-old who is to be deported July 6. He called him ''exactly the type of person'' a new immigration bill is ''trying to help.'' Lara's story ''vividly illustrates'' the need for Congress to pass the DREAM Act, Nelson, a Democrat, said. The bill would grant certain immigrants who graduate from U.S. high schools conditional permanent residency.
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House Restores Funding To Jail Illegal Immigrants

Washington Examiner, June 28. The U.S. House of Representatives has voted to restore $400 million in funding for state and local jails to incarcerate criminal illegal immigrants, a program which would reimburse Fairfax and Prince William counties a total of $1.5 million. The Commonwealth of Virginia would also receive $1.7 million if funds for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program provided under the measure, which was included in the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations bill, are approved. SCAAP funding had been cut in President Barack Obama’s proposed fiscal 2010 budget.
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LAPD Names Its First Islamic Chaplain

Los Angeles Times, June 29. American Muslims have never been much of a presence in the Los Angeles Police Department, accounting for less than 1% of its nearly 10,000 officers. But now, with department leaders eager to improve relationships with local Muslims, top brass have named the force's first Islamic chaplain: a Pakistani-born spiritual leader who has spent much of the last decade trying to build bridges between law enforcement and Los Angeles County's diverse Muslim communities. Sheik Qazi Asad, 47, will serve as a reserve chaplain at the LAPD's North Hollywood station. The volunteer post requires about eight hours of service each month. But to Asad and his LAPD patrons, it represents an opportunity to expose officers to a culture and faith that many may find unfamiliar, even foreign.
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Alleged Fraud Puts Immigrants In Limbo

Boston Globe, June 28. Hundreds of immigrants desperately seeking legal residency poured into his Boston office, waiting for hours as the line curled out the door. In the Brazilian community, word had spread from cooks to bakers to seamstresses that Dvorak was the lawyer to know. They filled out piles of paperwork, paid thousands of dollars, and waited for green cards to arrive in the mail. Now, eight years later, the US government has begun rejecting dozens of Dvorak’s clients, saying it found fraud, such as fake employment letters, in a significant number of cases, according to a copy of a rejection letter that lawyers say clients are receiving. The unexpected action is wreaking havoc from Maine to Cape Cod. Immigrants who plunked down hard-earned cash with high hopes of staying in America are now racing to other lawyers for help.
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FAIR's Response to Sen. Charles Schumer’s Seven Point Plan for So-Called 'Comprehensive Immigration Reform'

FAIRus.org, June 25. In advance of the White House summit on immigration, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), chairman of Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Refugees, issued a seven point plan for reforming America’s immigration policies. Unfortunately, Sen. Schumer’s plan is short on details and even shorter on protections of the vital interests of the American people. It also conveniently ignores the history of immigration politics and policies since 1986.
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Obama Urges Congress Not To Put Off Immigration Reform

Christian Science Monitor, June 25. President Obama Thursday called for some 'heavy lifting' on immigration reform on Capitol Hill, but there’s no move there to rush into it. With energy, healthcare, and financial regulation on a fast track, there’s little running room for an issue that has baffled lawmakers for the past three years. But for president and a critical mass of interest groups heavily invested in comprehensive reform, even a symbolic stake in the ground is a start. 'The consensus is that despite our inability to get this passed over the last several years, the American people still want to see a solution,' Mr. Obama said after a bipartisan meeting with House and Senate members. 'We’ve got a responsible set of leaders sitting around the table who want to actively get something done and not put it off until a year, two years, three years, five years from now, but to start working on this thing now,' he said.
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Mayoral Candidate Decries 'Sanctuary City Policy'

KOB News, June 25. A candidate for mayor says Albuquerque is a sanctuary city for foreign criminals because of a question police aren't allowed to ask suspects. Richard 'RJ' Berry says if he is elected mayor, things will change. 'I will get rid of the so-called sanctuary city policy that Mayor Chavez has put in place that prohibits officers from asking suspects in crimes about their immigration status,' he said Wednesday. At least two suspected gangster gunmen in the deadly Denny's robbery spent some time in the Bernalillo County jail in recent months.
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Employer Use Of Federal E-Verify Program On The Rise

USA Today, June 24. Construction company CEO David Dominguez no longer worries about inadvertently hiring workers who are in this country illegally. That's because he uses E-Verify, the federal program that allows him to quickly check the legal status of potential employees. Dominguez, who builds residential interiors in Arizona and California, said that as word gets around about the program, job applicants without legal status avoid businesses such as his, Andrew Lauren Co., which use E-Verify. 'The system works,' Dominguez said. His San Diego-based company has been using E-Verify for several years in hiring office workers and laborers. The voluntary federal program has seen a rapid growth in use this year, Department of Homeland Security records show. More than 1,000 employers are signing up each week on average, and employment checks are approaching 200,000 a week.
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Will Immigration Reform Move Off The Back Burner?

Politico, June 24. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) still believes he has the votes to pass comprehensive immigration reform. The only problem is finding floor time — and the political will in the Senate — to dig in on a heated issue that blew up in the Senate two summers ago. 'What is impeding comprehensive immigration reform is any floor time to do it,' Reid told reporters. 'I think we have the floor votes to do it.' President Barack Obama has expressed his commitment to comprehensive immigration reform, and on Thursday he will host a group of House members and senators to discuss how to move a bill forward. But, with a full schedule of health care reform, a climate change bill and a Supreme Court nomination already crowding the agenda, Republicans are skeptical that an immigration bill would be coming in the near future.
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By The Numbers: Quantifying The Economic Impact Of Mass. Immigrants

WBUR News, June 24. Schools, welfare and taxes. Those are the big concerns some people have about immigrants’ impact on public spending. UMass Boston economist Alan Clayton-Matthews actually tried to quantify these impacts using the most recent census data from 2007. “Immigrants tend to have larger households with more children and therefore make a higher use of the public education system than do natives,” Clayton-Matthews said. His study shows that immigrant-headed families sent about 179,000 students to public schools across the state. Those children make up about 19 percent of school children, even though they are 15.5 percent of the state’s population. That costs the state about $300 million to $440 million a year. But that’s not the whole picture. “Fewer immigrants are incarcerated in proportion to their population,” Clayton-Matthews said. And, “since immigrants tend to be younger, there are fewer elderly immigrants who are institutionalized in nursing or long-term care facilities.”
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Mock Graduation Today For Students In Country Illegally

Orange County Register, June 23. It's 'graduation day' for students who are in the country illegally and who say they want a pathway to residency and a chance for a better life. Up to 100 illegal immigrant college students in Orange County will join the expected hundreds of others across the country scheduled to walk in mock graduation ceremonies today, organizers say. 'It's in solidarity to support the plight of undocumented students,' said Alexis Nava, a member of the Orange County Dream Team, who helped coordinate today's ceremony. 'It's a mock graduation to be symbolic, recognition of what students face once they graduate.' The 6 p.m. ceremony in Orange is intended to support the DREAM Act, which would allow undocumented students to apply for legal permanent resident status, protect them from deportation and make them eligible for student loans and federal work-study programs.
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Report Says Immigration Crucial For Housing Recovery

Forbes Magazine, June 22. Harvard brain trust predicts 'strong' demographics will drive housing recovery, but immigration is a wild card. A perceived strain on government resources has caused some Americans to begrudge the country's immigrant population. But Harvard researchers, in a new white paper released Monday, are saying that a slowdown in immigration could hurt the long-term real estate market. In the 2009 State of the Nation's Housing Report, Harvard economists say real estate remains under considerable strain due to rising unemployment, falling home prices and tighter lending standards. 'The best that can be said of the market is that house-price corrections and steep cuts in housing production are creating the conditions that will lead to an eventual recovery,' says Eric S. Belsky, executive director of the Joint Center for Housing.

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Ethiopian Wins Lottery For New Life In U.S.

ThOnline.com, June 22. Argaw Oremo won the lottery -- but it's not the lottery worth millions of dollars; it's the lottery for a chance at a new life in the United States. Oremo's name was drawn from the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, a computerized lottery that randomly selects 50,000 people out of a pool of 9.1 million applicants from countries with low rates of immigration to obtain a "Green Card." It allows them to be permanent residents of the United States.
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Immigration Agency Says Backlog Virtually Gone

Associated Press, June 22. FBI name checks on people seeking to work, live or become citizens of the United States are getting completed more quickly, winding down a backlog that had left some petitions pending for more than a year, immigration officials announced Monday. The delays have come during the FBI's routine checks for possible criminal backgrounds and national security questions. But now, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials say, nearly all name check requests submitted to the FBI are now being answered within 30 days. The remaining 2 percent within 90 days.
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Immigration: More Foreign Nurses Needed?

Business Week, June 21. For more than a decade, the U.S. has faced a shortage of nurses to staff hospitals and nursing homes. While the current recession has encouraged some who had left the profession to return, about 100,000 positions remain unfilled. Experts say that if more is not done to entice people to enter the field—and to expand the U.S.'s nurse-training capacity—that number could triple or quadruple by 2025. President Barack Obama's goal of expanding health coverage to millions of the uninsured could also face additional hurdles if the supply of nurses can't meet the demand. Some lawmakers are looking to the immigration pipeline as one means to raise staffing levels. In May, Representative Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) introduced a bill that would allow 20,000 additional nurses to enter the U.S. each year for the next three years as a temporary measure to fill the gap.
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78% In Poll Say No To Illegal Immigrant Students Act

Orange County Register, June 19. Readers overwhelmingly oppose a bill that would provide students who are in the country illegally a pathway to residency among other rights that are now granted to resident students. More than 75 percent of readers responding said no to the following question: 'Do you think college students who are in the country illegally should be given a path to residency, protected from deportation and eligible for student loans and federal work study programs?, according to an Orange County Register poll. Only 21 percent of 1,631 respondents said they supported the idea, which is part of the DREAM Act, or Development, Relief and Education for Minor Aliens. About 1 percent said they didn't know how they felt about the measure.
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Parents' Citizenship Is Son's Joy

News Observer, June 21. Ronald Bilbao will remember his 21st birthday not for gifts that he received, but for one that he gave. This year on his birthday, Bilbao, a rising senior at UNC-Chapel Hill, sponsored his parents for legal residency in the United States -- 25 years after they left their native Venezuela for Miami. His parents had been among this nation's estimated 12million illegal immigrants, with no way to rectify their immigration status, since 1984. But several years ago, they discovered that they were among a small group of illegal immigrants who have a path to citizenship. In the nation's complex web of immigration laws, there is a provision that allows people who entered the country on legal visas and remained after the visas expired to apply for permanent residency -- but only if they have an immediate family member who is a U.S. citizen and at least 21 years old. Ronald, a U.S. citizen born in Florida, was their ticket.
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Governor Speaks Up For Immigrants

San Diego Union Tribune, June 17, OPINION. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has been taking a beating from the public for recent comments intended to force Californians to stop blaming illegal immigrants for the state's budget crisis. Schwarzenegger is not backing down. In fact, he's ratcheting up the rhetoric. In the process, he's comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable. There's more of that on the way. During a recent meeting with The San Diego Union-Tribune editorial board, Schwarzenegger compared the tendency of Californians to treat Latino immigrants as scapegoats for the state's economic crisis to how Jews were blamed by the Nazis for Germany's economic difficulties following World War I.
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How Big Brother Is Using Immigration Debate For Control

DC Immigration Examiner, June 17, OPINION. Big Brother and Big Bro lite are coming and their names are Chucky and Dano. Furthermore, they are using the immigration debate as the groundwork for the mark of the beast. No, this is not the opening of another bad novel; however, it is what is happening in Washington, D.C. as you read this. Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y) has been picked to create the Senate’s comprehensive immigration legislation. In a book he penned in 2007, the senator favored a “forgery-proof” worker ID card, secured with biometric data such as fingerprints, for all eligible workers in America. Schumer, the chairman of the Senate Immigration, Refugees and Border Security subcommittee, is expected to hold hearings next month.
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Should U.S. Deny Citizenship To Children Of Illegal Immigrants? Two Views

AJC, June 17. Georgia Rep. Nathan Deal’s pending legislation in Congress that would end the lunacy of awarding birthright citizenship to children born in the United States to illegal alien parents should have become law when he first introduced it six years ago. It should be passed into law now. It won’t be. But the issue needs to be discussed. One of the myths surrounding the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the current convoluted misinterpretation of its birthright citizenship clause is that automatic U.S. citizenship is granted to every child born on American soil. It is not. Doing so was never the intention of Congress. Despite lawfully present parents, children born in the United States to diplomats and other public ministers of foreign nations are not awarded what is arguably the most coveted and valuable title in the world: “United States citizen.”
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Obama Is Vague On Immigration Reform Timeline

Los Angeles Times, June 20. President Obama this morning again backed immigration reform, but left open the timing for any push through Congress. Speaking before Latino leaders at the Esperanza National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast and Conference in Washington, Obama said he remained committed to changing the current immigration policies to include a path for citizenship for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States. As he has in the past, Obama also called for strong border regulation. 'Together, we must build a future where the promise of America is kept for a new generation,' Obama said. 'We also know that keeping this promise means upholding America's tradition as a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants. Those things aren't contradictory; they're complementary.
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Immigrants, Who Once Worked As Nurses, Filling Up Special SCC Class

Times-Herald, June 18. Rihong Chang is so eager to return to nursing that twice a week she drives seven hours from Los Angeles to Solano Community College for a class that will get her closer to her dream. Chang, 41, worked as a nurse in her homeland of China for 20 years. But, in California, an exam is barring her from her chosen work. Before she can take the National Council Licensing Exam (NCLEX) to return to nursing, she must take certain classes which are both difficult to find and get into. Like her classmates, Chang was nearly desperate to land a spot in Solano College's summer psychiatric mental health nursing class. She must take it before she can apply to take the exam.
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U.S. Bishops Call On Obama For Immigration Reform To End Migrants’ Suffering

Catholic News Agency, June 18. Cardinal Francis George, President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), speaking at the conference’s annual spring meeting, called on President Barack Obama and congressional leaders to enact 'comprehensive' immigration reform. 'It has been clear for years that the United States immigration system requires repair and that reform legislation should not be delayed,' Cardinal George said, speaking on behalf of the bishops. Stating that the bishops urge 'respect and observance of all just laws,' he added that they do not 'approve or encourage' illegal entry into the United States. 'From a humanitarian perspective,' he said, 'our fellow human beings, who migrate to support their families, continue to suffer at the hands of immigration policies that separate them from family members and drive them into remote parts of the American desert, sometimes to their deaths. This suffering should not continue.'
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More Than 100 Kids Sue Over Parents' Deportations

Associated Press, June 17. Roughly 150 children are asking President Barack Obama to halt the deportations of their parents until Congress overhauls U.S. immigration laws. The children are all U.S. citizens and say their constitutional rights are being violated because they, too, will likely have to leave the country if their parents are forced to leave.
The group is gathering Wednesday in Miami to talk about the case. They originally brought their lawsuit against the Bush administration. It was refiled in January in Miami. The children's attorneys say the parents came to the U.S. before 1996 immigration changes made it more difficult for them to become legal residents, and thus expected they would be allowed to stay.
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Siding With The Barbarians

FPIF, June 15. With EU Green Card Lottery, for instance, they launched a campaign that drove potential migrants to a website to apply for an imaginary "EU Green Card" — a sharp commentary on global immigration management. Their design agency Transitioners specializes in political transitions, and questions the centrality of revolution and transition in Western society.
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Real ID Opposition Sparks Revisions To National Driver's License Standard

Computerworld, June 15. Widespread opposition to a 2005 bill designed to create a national standard for driver's licenses has prompted a revised version of the bill that no longer contains its most controversial provisions. The proposed revision is called the 'Providing for Additional Security in States' Identification' Act of 2009, or Pass ID Act, and was introduced in the U.S. Senate late on Monday by Senators Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), George Voinovich (R-Ohio), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Jon Tester (D-MT), Max Baucus (D-MT) and Thomas Carper (D-DE). The bill is a revised version of the Real ID Act of 2005, which was signed into law by then President Bush but the implementation of which has almost stopped amid cost concerns and fears that it could end up becoming a de facto national ID card.
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Comprehensive Immigration Reform, Reexamined – Part II

Examiner, June 18. The responses to my last article reveal deeply held feelings that surface on both sides of this issue. Few supported my suggestion to end automatic birthright citizenship because it would result in children born here to parents from some countries to be “stateless”. Several took issue with the Immigration Policy Center (IPC) study showing little relationship between recent immigration and unemployment among U.S. natives, including FAIR. They responded by blasting the entire report, claiming the IPC study mixed data from both illegal and illegal immigration. Ultimately, the issue boils down to the question of how to handle the numbers of undocumented aliens already here.
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E-Verify All the Time

Immigration Impact, June 12. Have you ever seen the movie Groundhog Day where Bill Murray finds himself living the same day over and over and over again? Welcome to the world of E-Verify , the federal electronic employment verification system (EEVS) that purports to accurately confirm workers’ authorization for employment. Again and again policymakers have attached mandatory E-Verify proposals to any moving piece of legislation—whether it is related to the issue or not. Just today two amendments were offered to the DHS appropriations bill to expand the E-Verify system, and both were rejected. Subcommittee chair David Price (D-NC) argued that E-verify must be taken up as a part of comprehensive immigration reform – not as part of the budget. But E-verify amendments are likely to continue into the near future.
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Dems Likely To Ignore Amnesty Issue For Now

The One News Now, June 12. Former Congressman Tom Tancredo does not think it is wise for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to push the idea of passing an amnesty bill this year. Reid, (D-Nevada) recently told a group of Hispanic leaders that he wants to take up 'comprehensive immigration reform' this year. Congress soundly rejected an amnesty proposal in 2007. But the Majority Leader told his audience that immigration reform is going to happen by the end of this Congressional session, which ends in 2010, but added that he wants to get it accomplished this year if possible.
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Immigrant’s Criminal Past Colors a Group’s Legal Challenge to Detentions

New York Times, June 11. The news media campaign was all set to go. There was even a Web site ready with a sympathetic profile of Alexander Alli, 49, the man the American Civil Liberties Union had chosen as the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit seeking custody hearings for more than 1,000 legal immigrants long locked up while they challenged the government’s efforts to deport them on the basis of criminal convictions. Alexander Alli with his family. The lead plaintiff in a lawsuit, he was part of an identity theft ring. But at the last minute someone at the civil liberties union checked the details of Mr. Alli’s criminal history. It turned out that Mr. Alli, a native of Ghana whose wife and three children, all United States citizens, live in the Bronx, had taken part in one of the biggest cases of identity theft in this country.
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Feinstein Farm Jobs Bill May Lead to Immigration Fix

Santa Monica Mirror, June 11. There's a slowdown all along the Mexican border. Border Patrol agents caught fully 27 percent fewer illegal immigrants trying to sneak into the United States between November 1 and April 30 than during the same six months a year ago. Some of this slowdown stems from intensified enforcement efforts ranging from expansion of the physical and electronic border fence that's growing daily. The Department of Homeland Security's E-Verify program, allowing employers to tell quickly whether job applicants enjoy legal immigration status, also is a factor. But America's economic miseries are behind most of the slowdown. Construction, hotel and many other categories of jobs often taken by illegal immigrants have dried up, so there's less of a magnet for people coming here.
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Study Finds State Failing In Insuring Immigrant Kids

The Associated Press, June 10. New Jersey's percentage of uninsured immigrant children is higher than the national average, and the state has a poor track record of making sure those children receive health coverage, according to a Rutgers University report released yesterday. The report came out as immigrant and health care advocacy groups are calling on the state to restore $1 million that was eliminated in the latest round of budget tightening. The money was earmarked for community outreach efforts to educate legal immigrants on available state health programs.
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Department of Homeland Security Suspends “Widow Penalty”

Immigration Impact, June 10. This week, the Obama administration took another step toward restoring fairness and humaneness to the immigration system. On Tuesday, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that she would grant a two-year reprieve to immigrants who were married to U.S. citizens but did not complete the permanent residency process because their American spouses died during the application process.
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Wanted: A Smarter Immigration Policy

Wall Street Journal, June 9, OPINION. Log onto the Web site of the U.S. Consulate in Chennai and you will see a snapshot of what visa processing is doing to the competitiveness of American companies and research institutions. Click on the link to "Case Status Report," and there is a list of hundreds of visa applications from Indians who await processing. The oldest dates back to 2005, and dozens of others have been pending for a year or more while Washington plods through security background checks. In recent months I have been in contact with many individuals caught in this Kafkaesque bureaucracy. Most are scientists and engineers who have earned advanced degrees from U.S. universities and are (or were) working for American companies in Silicon Valley, Wall Street and other centers of the U.S. economy.
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Schumer: Sotomayor 'Within the Judicial Mainstream' on Immigration

Washington Post, June 8. A key Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee has conducted a review of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s immigration cases as an attempt to counteract conservatives’ characterization of the appeals court judge as an out-of-step liberal. Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), chairman of Judiciary’s immigration subcommittee, assigned his staff to analyze how Sotomayor voted in 955 immigration cases in which she has participated throughout her judicial career, with a special focus on cases that involved foreigners trying to win asylum claims in order to remain in the United States.
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Panel To Consider Immigrants' Effect On Economy

Chicago Tribune, June 8. With the national unemployment rate at a 25-year high, an almost unavoidable set of questions has become a focus of both sides in the nation's Immigration debate as the Obama administration plans to convene a bipartisan summit on the issue Monday. Are the estimated 11.6 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. taking jobs from Americans? And how would providing them with lawful status help or hurt the nation's struggling economy?
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Immigration Reform Advocates Enthusiastic, But Wary Of Its Prospects

Catholic News Service, June 8. An enthusiastic clamor of supporters rallied for immigration reform at a June 4 town hall meeting, though a subtext of frustration arose around the postponement of a meeting with President Barack Obama. Advocates from 31 states gathered at the Church of the Reformation on Capitol Hill to build support for comprehensive immigration reform legislation. It was one part of events launching the Reform Immigration for America Campaign, a national effort bringing together grass-roots organizations, labor unions, business interests and faith-based communities to support a revamped immigration policy.
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Immigration Reform's Hidden Factor

San Diego Tribune.com, June 7, OPINION. A month ago, before most Americans had ever heard of Sonia Sotomayor, I predicted to a group of friends that Latinos would get either a Supreme Court justice or immigration reform – but not both. My theory: The political gurus in the Obama White House know that many Americans think the country does too much to accommodate the nation's largest minority as it is. Asking for more would seem gluttonous.
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Seeds for Immigration Policy Debate Could Be Planted in Spending Markup

Congressional Quarterly, June 5. The markup of the House’s Homeland Security appropriations bill could turn into the first proxy skirmish in an anticipated battle over comprehensive changes to immigration policy. The draft that the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee will take up is expected to hew closely to President Obama’s $42.7 billion proposal, and Democrats on the panel say their priorities are reflected in the $1.4 billion included in the request for capturing and deporting illegal aliens who have committed crimes, as well as in recent guidance from the Department of Homeland Security prioritizing a crackdown on employers of illegal immigrants.
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Comprehensive Immigration Reform, Reexamined

In my last article I proposed we consider a compromise on the 14th amendment, if necessary, to help pass comprehensive immigration reform. As you may know, this amendment allowed former slaves and their dependents to become U.S. citizens after the Civil War. Currently, there are few reasons why the 14th amendment cannot be modified to restrict citizenship to those born in the U.S. -- with at least one lawful permanent resident parent. This may placate those on both sides of this issue who are still unwilling to vote in favor of this bill.
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U.S. Census Sparks Feud Over The Counting Of Illegal Immigrants

Los Angeles Times, May 31. In a high-stakes battle that could affect California's share of federal funding and political representation, immigrant activists are vowing to combat efforts by a national Latino clergy group to persuade 1 million illegal immigrants to boycott the 2010 U.S. census. The Washington, D.C.-based National Coalition of Latino Clergy & Christian Leaders, which says it represents 20,000 Latino churches in 34 states, recently announced that a quarter of its 4 million members were prepared to join the boycott as a way to intensify pressure for legalization and to protect themselves from government scrutiny.
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Cuba Agrees to Resume Immigration Talks With U.S.

Washington Post, June 1. Cuba has agreed to restart talks with the United States on immigration and has signaled its willingness to cooperate on issues including terrorism, drug trafficking and even mail service, a sign that the island's communist government is warming to President Obama's call for a new relationship after decades of tension, U.S. officials said Sunday. The breakthrough was announced as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton began a three-day trip to Latin America, where she is expected to face pressure to take further steps to ease the U.S. policy of isolating Cuba.
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New Border Crossing Rules Taking Effect

Associated Press, June 1. U.S. residents will need passports or high-tech documents to re-enter the country from Canada or Mexico under new rules taking effect Monday. A military ID or an enhanced driver's license, which has extra security features, can also be used to cross the northern or southern borders. Michigan is one of four states offering the enhanced driver's licenses. Standard driver's licenses or birth certificates will no longer be enough under the rules, which have gradually been tightened since the Sept. 11 attacks. Travelers not complying with the new requirements will get a warning and be allowed to enter the U.S. after a background check.
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Florida Case Angers Muslim Groups

Wall Street Journal, May 30. A federal immigration judge denied bail Friday to a 23-year-old engineering student from Tampa who has been charged by the U.S. government for engaging in terrorism. The defendant, Youssef Megahed, has already been acquitted by a federal jury of related charges. But now, he faces essentially the same charges again in an immigration court, where if he is found guilty he faces deportation back to his native Egypt.
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A Korean Invasion Blindsides The U.S. Army -- But In A Good Way

Wall Street Journal, May 29. Suk Joon Lee, a South Korean immigrant, feared his days in the U.S. were numbered. His ice-cream shop wasn't doing well, and if it failed, his investor visa could be revoked. Then Mr. Lee stumbled upon a Korean-language Web site that described a way out: a program that the Army was about to launch that offered a shortcut to getting U.S. citizenship. The site was created by another Korean immigrant, James Hwang, and it explained in minute detail the steps required to qualify.
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Most U.S. Hispanic Kids Have Immigrant Parents

Washington Post, May 29. A majority of Hispanic children are now U.S.-born children of immigrants, primarily Mexicans who came to this country in an immigration wave that began about 1980, according to a report released yesterday. The analysis of census data by the nonpartisan, Washington-based Pew Hispanic Center charts a substantial demographic shift among the nation's 16 million Hispanic children, who constitute one of the fastest growing child populations in the United States and account for more than one of five U.S. children. As recently as 1980, nearly six of 10 Latino children were in the third generation or higher, meaning that their parents, and often their grandparents and great-grandparents, were native-born U.S. citizens. Only three of 10 were in the second generation -- born in the United States to parents who immigrated.
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Cuomo Widens a Probe Into Immigration Fraud

New York Times, May 28. Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo said Thursday that his office had issued more than 50 subpoenas to individuals and businesses in New York City — including numerous immigrant-assistance organizations, a travel agency, an English-language school and a church — as part of a widening investigation into immigration fraud.
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We Welcome the Nomination of Sotomayor

Albuquerque Examiner, May 28, OPINION. Appointed by George H.W. Bush to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals I 1998, Sonia Sotomayor will be a welcome addition to the U.S. Supreme Court to replace retiring Justice David Souter. Born into modest circumstances in the South Bronx with Latino parents and carrying top academic credentials, Sotomayor adds the missing Hispanic element to the makeup of our highest court. Should she bring her life experiences into decisions usually rendered by wealthy white males, Sotomayor will represent the interests of nearly 15% of the U.S. population.
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Court Pick Could Buy Time On Immigration

The Hill, May 26. President Obama’s decision to nominate federal appeals court Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court may help him delay a thornier challenge: what to do with millions of illegal immigrants living in the United States. The nomination of the first Hispanic justice drew praise Tuesday from the Latino community at a time when many are growing anxious over inaction on broad legislation that would put illegal immigrants — most from neighboring Mexico — on a path to citizenship. Hispanic lawmakers have been pressing Obama to deliver for a key demographic that helped put him in office, with immigration reform the top priority.
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Nearly One Million Californians Seek Medical Care In Mexico Annually

Science Daily, May 27. Driven by rising health care costs at home, nearly 1 million Californians cross the border each year to seek medical care in Mexico, according a new paper by UCLA researchers and colleagues published today in the journal Medical Care. An estimated 952,000 California adults sought medical, dental or prescription services in Mexico annually, and of these, 488,000 were Mexican immigrants, according to the research paper, 'Heading South: Why Mexican Immigrants in California Seek Health Services in Mexico.'
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Irish Dems Celebrate in D.C.

Irish Echo, May 27. A little over six months after the Democratic Party's clean sweep of the November elections, the Irish American Democrats lobby group last week held a coming in party for some of its new favorite members of Congress at the Phoenix Park Hotel on Capitol Hill. The group's political action committee, headed by Stella O'Leary, reckons it had a little something to do with that sweep and at the get together introduced some of the November winners who had received its backing.
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Face Of Immigration Now More Feminine

Asbury Park Press, May 26. Maria Carmen Irineo has been taking English classes in Georgetown for almost six years. The native of Mexico understands the language of her adopted country. But she wants to speak it better when she goes to a store or is approached on the street. More important, Irineo wants to help her daughters with their homework and in teacher conferences. 'I want to be able to communicate with my daughters, with their schoolteachers,' Irineo, 38, said. 'I want a better quality of life for my children than I had.'
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Deal Wants Change To Citizenship Rules

WXIA News, May 26. There's a big push on to changing American immigration policy, and it's starting in Georgia. A Georgia congressman is behind a plan to change a long standing federal law that gives citizenship to any baby born on US soil. It's a long-standing policy stemming from the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution. The current language states: 'All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherin they reside.' Under his proposal, Georgia congressman and Republican gubernatorial candidate Nathan Deal says that babies born in the United States would be granted citizenship if at least one of their parents is already an American citizen or national.
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Obama Nominates Judge Sonia Sotomayor for Supreme Court Justice

FOXNews.com, May 26. President Obama nominated federal Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday, citing her 'inspiring life story' and 'distinguished career' in his decision. Sotomayor, 54, would be the first Hispanic on the high court if confirmed. She would succeed Justice David Souter, who is retiring. The president, in his announcement, said he was looking for a justice with a 'common touch and a sense of compassion' as well as experience and depth of knowledge. He said Sotomayor, who grew up in a Bronx housing project and has an extensive judicial background, would come to the Supreme Court bench with more varied experience than anyone currently on the court when they were appointed.
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Immigrants Not To Blame For Unemployment, Claims Report

San Bernardino County Sun, May 25. California has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country. But immigrants aren't to blame for the problem, according to a new report by a nonprofit research organization. Even in a time of recession, there is no correlation between the number of newly arrived foreign-born workers in a given state, county or city and the unemployment rate among workers born in this country, according to the Immigration Policy Center. The highest unemployment rates are found in counties located in manufacturing centers and rural areas. Those places tend to have relatively few recent immigrants, the report said.
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Immigration Reform Could Emerge Again In The Fall

The Hill, May 25. Senate Democrats may be close to 60 votes on a measure that would represent the first step towards immigration reform under President Obama. The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act is a concept dear to Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin's (D-Ill.) heart, and while health care reform may get this summer’s headlines in Washington, the DREAM Act may be a sleeper. Defeated in Oct. 2007 on a cloture vote of 52-44, the Senate’s new math appears to approach the necessary threshold of 60 votes based on the 2007 votes, election results and co-sponsorship.
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Obama In Fresh Overture To Cuba On Immigration

Associated Press, May 24. In a fresh overture to Cuba, President Barack Obama is asking the communist government to resume talks on legal immigration of Cubans to the United States. Obama's proposal would reopen discussions that had been closed off by former President George W. Bush since they were last held in mid-2003. His move comes ahead of the United States' attendance at a high-level meeting early next month of the Organization of American States, where Cuba's possible re-entry into participatory status with the regional bloc - which was taken away in 1962 - will be discussed.
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Immigrant Soldiers Earn Military Honors

Star-Ledger, May 23. The first foreign country Christian Bueno-Galdos ever traveled to was the United States, where he moved when he was 7. The second was Iraq, where he was killed this month serving under the U.S. flag. Bueno-Galdos, a U.S. Army sergeant originally from Peru, was one of about 31,000 foreign-born soldiers now in the U.S. armed forces - about 1.5 percent of the military - according to the Defense Department. Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, about 150 immigrants have been killed while serving. Several among them, including Bueno-Galdos of Paterson, lived in New Jersey.
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Hispanic Voters Say Immigration's No. 1

New York Daily News, May 21. They have enough problems already, but a poll released Monday is sure to give anti-immigration extremists and Republican leaders plenty more to fret about. Conducted by Bendixen & Associates, a Miami-based consulting firm, and sponsored by America's Voice, a pro-immigration reform group, the poll confirmed for the umpteenth time that immigration is a defining issue for the 12 to 13 million Hispanics who are eligible to vote in the U.S.
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Immigrants Hard Hit

Scripps Howard News Service, May 19. The workplace is turning far less favorable for immigrants -- legal and illegal -- in the United States, a new study of U.S. labor statistics shows. Unemployment in the first quarter of 2009 for immigrants -- defined as those who were not U.S. citizens at birth -- was 9.7 percent, compared with 8.6 percent for the native-born, according to the study by the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that argues for tighter immigration policies. The Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows the states with the highest immigrant unemployment rates are Colorado, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada.
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US Measure Hastens Petitions By Children Of Aging Filipino Veterans

Manila Times (Philippine Islands), May 21. Rep. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) has refiled a bill seeking to expedite the processing of immigrant visas of children of aging Filipino World War II veterans. The Filipino Veterans Family Reunification Act, or House Resolution 2412, aims to exempt the sons and daughters of Filipino veterans from immigration numerical quotas that have delayed processing of their US visas, leaving them no choice but to wait as much as 18 years. Hirono said thousands of Filipinos petitioned by their veteran parents stand to benefit once the bill is enacted into law. She added that a companion bill would soon be introduced in the Senate by Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), the chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.
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Study: Immigration Doesn't Impact Unemployment

Salt Lake Tribune (Salt Lake City), May 19. Contrary to conventional wisdom -- and anti-illegal immigration rhetoric -- immigration rates have no direct effect on unemployment rates, according to a study released Tuesday. The Center for Immigration Policy, the research arm of the pro-immigration American Immigration Law Foundation, compared rates of unemployment with immigration rates in states across the nation, and found no direct correlation. 'The level of unemployment in the U.S. is painful, sometimes scary and very difficult for those directly impacted,' said Dan Siciliano, executive director of the Program in Law, Economics and Business at Stanford Law School and a research fellow for the Washington, D.C.-based center. 'But the notion that immigration is causally related to unemployment belittles and questions the challenges of unemployment.'
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Dimon Rails Against Foreign Worker Rules

Financial Times (London), May 20. Rules preventing US banks from hiring foreigners are a 'complete and utter disgrace' and could prompt overseas governments to retaliate against American expatriates, Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, warned on Tuesday. Mr Dimon told his company’s annual shareholder meeting that the provisions, which apply to lenders in receipt of government aid, had forced JPMorgan’s executives to 'look 40 or 50 overseas [graduates] in the eye' and tell them their job offers had been rescinded. 'We should be able to go to colleges and give jobs to kids without regard to where they were born,' he added. 'The worst thing that can happen . . . is that foreign governments will tell Americans they cannot have jobs over there.'
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Immigrants' children might get help from DREAM Act

Orlando Sentinel, May 19. Walter Lara is a scared 3-year-old, crouching with his mother under a stopped train. She holds him close and whispers to stay quiet as footsteps approach. Then he wakes up. Only in his dreams does Lara, 23, remember his illegal crossing into the U.S., when his mother brought him from Argentina to reunite with his father. But now the Sorrento man has about a month to return to a country he knows little about. Like Lara, tens of thousands of young immigrants were brought here illegally as children. They have grown up American, speaking English and attending schools. But if caught, they are deported. A bill that would help them gain permanent residency, known as the DREAM Act, is gathering some traction in Congress.
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Former Detainee's Lawsuit Is Tossed

Los Angeles Times, May 19. The Supreme Court served notice Monday that it would set a high bar for anyone seeking to hold top government officials liable for abuse suffered by prisoners held as part of the Bush administration's war on terrorism. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy spoke for a 5-4 majority in throwing out a lawsuit against former Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III that claimed the two ordered the roundup of hundreds of Muslim men after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 'It should come as no surprise that a legitimate policy directing law enforcement to arrest and detain individuals because of their suspected link to the attacks would produce a disparate, incidental impact on Arab Muslims, even though the purpose of the policy was to target neither Arabs nor Muslims,' Kennedy said. 'The Sept. 11 attacks were perpetrated by 19 Arab Muslim hijackers who counted themselves members in good standing of Al Qaeda, an Islamic fundamentalist group.'
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Immigration: When Only 'Geniuses' Need Apply

Business Week, May 17. In the coming weeks, President Barack Obama will begin his push to overhaul the U. S. immigration system, and almost every aspect of the effort will prove controversial. Millions of undocumented, low-skill immigrants and their supporters will square off against groups like the Minutemen, who want to close the border with Mexico and expel people who are in the country illegally. Technology companies such as Microsoft (MSFT), IBM (IBM), and Google (GOOG) will argue to make it easier for high-skill workers to come to the U.S., while tech workers will lobby fiercely to restrict such programs.
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Newest AgJOBS bill enjoys bipartisan House support

Capital Press, May 16. The AgJOBS bill that is back in Congress shows early bipartisan support in the House of Representatives. But its chances of passage, as usual, are up in the air. California's Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced the Agricultural Jobs, Opportunity, Benefits and Security Act to the U.S. Senate on Thursday, May 14. Reps. Howard L. Berman, D-Calif, and Adam Putnam, R-Fla., simultaneously introduced the same legislation in the House of Representatives. The bill would start a five-year program to find undocumented farmworkers, legalizing those having worked in the U.S. for two years. It would also tweak the H-2A guestworker program, which is said to be cumbersome and seldom used.
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Border Czar: U.S Had Plan To Stem Swine Flu Spread

NPR News, May 15. The idea of closing the border with Mexico was raised as one possible defense against the spread of the swine flu, but rejected. Alan Bersin, the Obama administration's 'border czar,' more formally known as assistant secretary for International Affairs and Special Representative for Border Affairs, says the U.S. does have contingency plans in case such a measure were ever needed, but the country was never even close to enacting that in reaction to this particular virus.
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A Human Bridge to the Have-Nots in Washington

New York Times, May 15. For years, the divide between the White House and the impoverished black and immigrant neighborhoods in the nation's capital has often seemed insurmountable. But in recent months, Michelle Obama has become something of a human bridge between the two worlds. Mrs. Obama has repeatedly traveled to Anacostia and other neighborhoods rarely visited by the power elite here in an effort to reach out to young people who are struggling to succeed.
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Recession Means Far Fewer Mexican Immigrants

Newsmax, May 15. What’s the best way for the U.S. to stanch the flow of illegal Mexican immigrants? Engineer the worst recession of the past 70 years, apparently. Mexico’s census data shows that its emigration to all other countries dropped 25 percent (or 226,000 people) in the year ended last August from the prior year, The New York Times reports. Nearly all Mexican émigrés – legal and illegal – choose to move to the U.S. The decrease is largely due to Mexicans forgoing illegal immigration to the U.S. because of limited job opportunities here. In the eyes of some experts, the drop-off in immigration will help U.S. workers. While it’s commonly believed that unskilled Mexicans who come here merely take jobs Americans don’t want, The Center for Immigration Studies claims that’s not completely true.
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20 Former Agriprocessors Workers In Iowa Get Visas

Associated Press, May 15. Twenty former workers at the Agriprocessors Inc. plant in Postville have received visas under a law that protects crime victims. The first wave of women and children arrested last year at the plant have been granted U-visas by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, allowing them to legally live and work in the country for four years. They can apply for a green card in the third year. Sonia Parras-Konrad, a Des Moines attorney who led the effort, says the visas are a big step toward vindicating the immigrants and giving them justice.
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The Democrats' Dilemma Over Immigration

SignOnSanDiego.com, May 10. OPINION. Democrats are in a tough spot on immigration reform. Actually, make that a number of tough spots. For one thing, they're caught between pandering to Latino constituents who want them to strike a deal that legalizes millions of illegal immigrants and catering to organized labor, which adamantly opposes the one element of reform Republicans say must be part of the deal: guest workers.
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Sheriff Joe Arpaio To Recruit and Arm Citizens

Immigration Impact, May 8. Rather than cleaning up his police department and addressing allegations of racial profiling and discrimination, Arpaio has decided to recruit and arm more Maricopa citizens in the absence of state funds. Back in April, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in Arizona voted to postpone the acceptance of $1.6 million from the state to help pay for County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s controversial immigration enforcement tactics. Observers said the decision could signal that the board is concerned by federal inquires into Arpaio’s practices that stem from his hard-line immigration tactics which include the deputization of volunteer “posses” to perform immigration sweeps, armed workplace raids, and set up checkpoints.
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Obama Reverses Stance On Immigration

Washington Times, May 8. On the thorniest of political issues, President Obama has embraced the enforcement-first position on immigration that he criticized during last year's presidential campaign, and he now says he can't move forward with the type of comprehensive bill he wants until voters are convinced that the borders can be enforced. Having already backed off his pledge to have an immigration bill this year, Mr. Obama boosted his commitment to enforcement in the budget released Thursday. The spending blueprint calls for extra money to build an employee-verification system and to pay for more personnel and equipment to patrol the border.
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Sessions Called Incendiary On Immigration, Linked to White Nationalist: Report

Huffington Post.com, May 7. Since becoming the top ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Jeff Sessions' record has been almost solely analyzed for tealeaves on how he will approach Barack Obama's forthcoming Supreme Court nomination. The Judiciary Committee, however, has a far broader purview than simply the consideration of judiciary picks, all of which Sessions will hold heavy influence over. On Thursday, the Alabama Republican's resume in regards to one of those other fields -- immigration reform -- was placed under the microscope by the immigration reform group America's Voice. In a document provided to the Huffington Post, America's Voice doesn't hold back its punches, calling Sessions "one of the leading (and loudest) voices against comprehensive immigration reform in the United States Senate." They also tie the Senator to John Tanton, an anti-immigration activist described as a white nationalist by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
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Nursing Program Gives Immigrants Path Out of Poverty

Voice of America News, May 7. Many American hospitals encourage patients to fill out a comment card about the service they received. Iryna Zhgya gets a lot of these comments. She keeps them in a binder at her home and enjoys looking through it, reminiscing. She pulls out a comment card from one especially difficult patient and reads, 'Iryna is an excellent RN, and she knows how to be firm but yet gentle.' Zhgya learned those skills back in Ukraine. 'I knew how to take care of patients,' she says matter-of-factly. 'I was a nurse. I knew how to turn people every two hours and how to watch for the sores on their body.' And nursing in the United States, it turns out, isn't all that different from being a nurse anywhere else. The ideas are the same: You're making sure a patient's needs are met. Politics, economics bring foreign-trained nurses to U.S.
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The Immigration Debate, Again

Los Angeles Times, May 7. OPINION. Immigration reform -- you may think you've seen this movie before, too many times already. You know the arguments. You dread the polarization. And you doubt that Congress can do any better at making the compromises needed to fix the system. But with the Obama White House rekindling the conversation about immigration, skeptics ought to think again. None of the problems have gone away, after all. Neither the economic downturn nor enhanced enforcement has driven 12 million illegal immigrants to leave the country. Enforcement is still far from effective, either on the border or in the workplace. And even in a recession, we still seem to need foreign workers, especially at the bottom of the economy.
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Obama Budget Not a Replacement for Comprehensive Immigration Reform

Immigration Impact, May 7. The Obama Administration appears increasingly poised to move forward on comprehensive immigration reform, as promised. Yesterday the White House announced budgetary initiatives that signal a change in priorities and pave the way for immigration reform. At the same time, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, testified before the Senate yesterday about her plans to protect our borders and enforce our immigration laws in smarter and more effective ways. While the changes are welcome, they’re still just fiddling along the edges of a real solution. Comprehensive immigration reform is the only real way to fix the problem.
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Boy With Hearing Disability May Be Deported With Dad

Daily Mail, May 6. Four-year-old Daniel Ricardo was born with a severe hearing impairment. Without hearing aids, the world is a whisper in the breeze when he hears it at all. But Daniel was lucky. He was born in a Morgantown hospital. He has access to doctors and therapists who help him to hear and, just as importantly, to understand what he is hearing. His teachers at school try to make sure he is caught up, even though his communication skills are two years behind. But Daniel's luck may be running out. His father, Ben Ricardo, an illegal immigrant, is being sent back to Mexico. There is little chance that Daniel, who was born in America and is a U.S. citizen, can stay here without his father.
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Making the Punishment Fit the Crime

New York Times, May 5. OPINION. When illegal immigrants apply for jobs, they sometimes present made-up Social Security numbers. Too often prosecutors charge them with felony identity theft — which outrageously overstates the crime. The Supreme Court has called a halt to the practice, ruling 9 to 0 that federal identity-theft law does not apply. Ignacio Flores-Figueroa, a Mexican citizen, gave his employer counterfeit papers that contained his real name and another person’s Social Security number. When caught, he was charged not only with improperly entering the United States and misusing immigration documents, but also with aggravated identity theft, which carries a mandatory two-year prison sentence.
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Swine Flu Could Shine Glaring Light On Uninsured

Associated Press, May 5. Swine flu could shine a glaring light on the best and worst about American-style health care. At top labs, scientists are optimistic they can make a vaccine that's effective against the new virus. But in a country where one in seven people lack medical insurance, doctors worry that some individuals won't get needed protection because of cost. It could leave the rest of society more vulnerable. In a flu epidemic, the uninsured face the worst options: flooding the emergency rooms or self-medicating with cold preparations and hoping for the best. Many might not be aware they can also go to a federally-funded community health center and see a doctor or nurse for little or no cost.
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Illegal Immigrants Deserve Medical Care For Swine Flu

Los Angeles Times, May 4. OPINION. The swine flu scare may be hype. Maybe not. Either way, it's reassuring to know that hospital emergency rooms and community clinics are treating anyone who's sick, including illegal immigrants."Swine flu knows no borders," notes Carmela Castellano-Garcia, chief executive of the California Primary Care Assn., an organization of roughly 700 clinics. "It pays no regard to income or immigration status."
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The Case for Amnesty

Boston Review, May. OPINION. Miguel Sanchez can’t earn enough to pay the bills in his hometown. He tries for several years to obtain a visa to come to the United States and is rejected every time. In 2000 he enters on foot with the help of a smuggler. He makes his way to Chicago where he has relatives and friends and starts working in construction, sending money to his father. Miguel works weekends at Dunkin’ Donuts and goes to school in the evening to learn English. In 2002 he meets an American-born U.S. citizen who lives in his neighborhood. They marry in 2003 and now have a four-year-old son.
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E-Verify For Federal Contractors Delayed Again

YourHub.com, May 4. This executive order, signed by the former President Bush, requires all federal contractors with contracts of $100,000 or more to use an electronic verification system, defined by the department of Homeland Security as the E-verify system, for all employees working on the contract (new hires and current employees alike). The same requirement is placed on all subcontractors of these contracts that are receiving $3,000 or more. This executive order was originally slated to be effective January 15, 2009, but has been delayed several times. The latest of these delays was announced recently and will postpone the effective date until June 30, 2009.
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Army Extends Immigrant Recruiting

Los Angeles Times, May 4. Sgt. Richard Ramirez helps Jason prepare enlistment documents Friday. Until recently, Jason — the Army asked that recruits’ last names not be used — would have been turned away because he has a student visa. The lanky 19-year-old from South Korea has lived in the Southland since he was 9 years old. He is as comfortable speaking English as his native Korean. And he desperately wants to join the Army. Late last week, the teenager walked into a recruiting office in an Eagle Rock mall wearing a pendant shaped like a dog tag around his neck. Until recently, local recruiters would have had to turn him away. His student visa would not have qualified him to enlist. Only citizens or permanent residents who carry green cards were eligible to serve. But starting today, 10 Los Angeles-area Army recruiting offices will begin taking applications from some foreigners who are here on temporary visas or who have been granted asylum.
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The Natives are Restless. Or is that Nativists?

HispanicVista.com, April 30. OPINION. Last November US nativists were handed their lunch, and they didn’t find it easy to swallow. To their shock Barrack Obama was elected President of the United States, and that was only part of the bad news for them – the champions of Nativism lost seat after seat in Congress and the Senate. They were so sure that America thinks like them. After all in their mind, they are the true patriots, the true defenders of the holy grail of Americanism. And their Americanism is quite simple – if you are not a white Euro-American it’s OK for you to be here but as a subservient class, and not too many can be here at any one time because it’s un-American for non Euro-American whites to be in the minority, and that means in complete control of the government.
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Origin of Au Pairs Becomes Barometer of Labor Market

Wall Street Journal, April 29. Mary Poppins is flying across the Atlantic -- again. These days, she is landing weekly at the Stamford Holiday Inn, where dozens of new au pairs gather for orientation -- diapers, first aid, the one-hand stroller-fold -- before being dispatched to their new employers: working parents across the U.S. Mary has been here before. In fact, when the U.S. State Department launched its au pair program in 1986, British nannies like her were its bread and jam, alongside the French, Germans and Swedes. But then opportunities in their home countries improved, and child care grew less desirable as a profession for young women (only a handful of au pair workers are men). Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia filled the void, also encouraged by changes in U.S. immigration laws governing the au pair visa, known as a J-1. Last year, the State Department issued 359,447 such visas, which admit seasonal workers, exchange students and au pairs, a 5% increase from the prior year and a 41% jump from five years ago.
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For Obama, Labor Battle Looming On Immigration

Arizona Republic, April 29. Twice under George W. Bush's administration, fierce objections to legalizing illegal immigrants killed comprehensive immigration reform. Now, as the Obama administration prepares to tackle the divisive issue, battle lines are being drawn again, this time over how the United States lets foreign workers enter the country. As President Barack Obama's predecessor found out, immigration reform is highly volatile and likely will require the expenditure of political capital. But Obama is under pressure to fulfill campaign promises to the Latino community.
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Immigrant Visa update for U.S. Embassy in Sierra Leone

Cocorioko News, April 29. To apply for an immigrant visa, foreign citizens must be sponsored by U.S. citizen relatives, U.S. green card holders, or prospective employers, and must be the beneficiary of approved petitions. Petitions are filed by the sponsoring individual at the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) Office nearest them.
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Home Free: DV-Lottery Paperwork Error Nearly Exiled Dutch Family

The Hook.com, April 27. When Dutch citizens turned Crozet residents Gerard and Paulien van Dijk were preparing their application for permanent residency in the United States seven years after moving here, they thought they had everything in order. They triple-checked the proper forms with their attorney and even pulled their children out of Albemarle schools to move to a foreign country in hopes of complying with American immigration regulations.
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H-1B, J-1 Immigrants More Productive Than Americans, Study Says

Wall Street Journal, April 27. Immigrants who come to the U.S. on work or trainee visas ultimately outperform American-born workers and contribute to the country’s productivity, new research shows. Examining measures such as earnings, patenting, commercializing and licensing patents, publishing books or papers and presenting at major conferences, McGill University economics professor Jennifer Hunt concluded that those who were most successful came to the U.S. on temporary work visas for the highly skilled, known as H-1Bs, or student/trainee visas, such as J-1s or F-1s. Meanwhile, those immigrants that came to the U.S. as legal permanent residents performed as well as those who were born in the U.S. But, those immigrants who came to the U.S. as dependents of those with temporary visas — spouses, relatives, etc. — were less productive than native Americans.
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Foreign IT Pros Working In U.S. Earning More Than Americans

Information Week, April 28. While opponents of H-1B and L-1 visas have long argued that the temporary work programs encourage employers to hire cheap foreign labor, a new study says noncitizen IT professionals earn pay that's on average 5% to 9% higher than American workers with similar education levels and IT experience. The report, 'Does High-Skill Immigration Make Everyone Better Off? United States' Visa Policies And Compensation Of Information Technology Professionals,' by two researchers at the University of Maryland, analyzed skills and pay data on more than 50,000 IT professionals who participated in InformationWeek salary surveys from 2000 to 2005.
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Sheriffs: Are You In School Legally?

Capitol Media Services, April 28. Some border county sheriffs want Arizona schools to start asking students whether they're in this country legally. Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik originated the idea and said millions of dollars in Arizona taxes go to teach English to children who have no legal right to be here. He also said there's a link involving illegal immigration, social problems and gangs. Only thing is, a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision appears to make it illegal for school officials to ask. In a 5-4 decision, the justices overturned a Texas law that authorized school districts to refuse to enroll anyone who couldn't prove legal residence.
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Schumer Working On Immigration Reform – Again

Newsday, April 25. When President Ronald Reagan signed the historic but ultimately ineffective 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, one lawmaker he thanked by name was Charles Schumer. A little-known Democratic congressman from Brooklyn, Schumer brokered a key compromise on agricultural workers that revived a bill that had been pronounced dead and led to passage of the first major immigration overhaul in decades. Yet the sweeping law, which paired amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants with a crackdown on employers who hired them, failed in its promise to stem the tide of undocumented workers. That seminal experience may prove key for Schumer, now New York's senior U.S. senator, as he opens a new chapter of 'comprehensive immigration reform,' with a hearing scheduled for Thursday.
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Survey: Fifth Highest Number Of Undocumented Immigrants Live In NJ

The Home News Tribune, April 26. When Harry Pangemanan of the Avenel section of Woodbridge was taken into federal custody Jan. 12, and faced the prospect of immediate deportation to his native Indonesia, he had himself to blame for making his presence in the United States known. Pangemanan and his wife Yana are two of an estimated 11.9 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States, according a survey by the Pew Hispanic Center published this month. They became known to authorities when they began the process of seeking citizenship. They have been repeatedly denied, making them subject to the possibility of immediate deportation. Undocumented immigrants make up about 4 percent of the population and 5.4 percent of the workforce. An estimated 500,000 undocumented immigrants live New Jersey, the fifth highest in the nation, trailing only California, Texas, Florida and New York, according to the Pew survey.
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A Family Divided By 2 Words, Legal and Illegal

New York Times, April 26. For the father, the choice was obvious: An engineer with several jobs yet little money, he saw no future for his daughter and son in their struggling country, Ecuador. Eight years ago, he paid coyotes to smuggle him into Texas, then headed to New York, where his wife and children flew in as tourists, and stayed. But the consequences of that clear-cut decision -- the immigrant's perennial impulse to uproot for the sake of the next generation -- have been anything but simple. The daughter excelled in her Queens high school and graduated from college with honors, but at 22 is still living in this country illegally. So while her former accounting classmates hold lucrative corporate jobs and take foreign vacations, she keeps the books for a small immigrant-run business, fears venturing outside the city and cannot get a driver's license in the country she has come to love.
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Green Card Logjam Keeps International Nurses Out Of U.S.

Tennessean, April 26. 'It's frustrating,' Hegna, 35, said in a long-distance telephone call from his home country in Southeast Asia. 'I want to provide a good future for my family.' While he waits, the husband and father has been working as a registered nurse at Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu City in the Philippines. Hegna is among 700 nurses whom Franklin-based Health Care Corporation of America International is primed to bring to U.S. hospitals but can't because of a government slowdown in processing green cards. Green cards allow internationals to set up permanent residence here through employment or as a family member of another legal resident or citizen.
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Visa Rules Widen The Rift Between Vietnam And U.S.

Los Angeles Times, April 21. Luong Vu asks his daughter the same question each time she visits his Westminster hospital room: 'When are my sons coming?' Kimberly Vu sighs, as usual. 'We are still waiting,' she says to the 85-year-old family patriarch, who is fast losing his battle with prostate cancer. But his sons aren't coming. Cuong and Vuong Vu live an ocean away in a suburb of Ho Chi Minh City, and their requests for visas to the United States for a final reunion have been denied over and over again. The U.S. Consulate says the brothers have failed to prove they will return to Vietnam after the visit. The brothers' argument that they have family, businesses and homes in Vietnam has not swayed immigration officials.
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Feds Seize Assets of Companies Suspected of Hiring Illegal Aliens

Law.com, April 21. In February 2005, federal agents received a tip that illegal aliens working at an Albany, N.Y., wood pallet plant were ripping up their W-2 income tax forms to avoid detection. Quietly, the feds began to investigate. The probe culminated more than a year later, when teams of U.S. immigration agents stormed 40 plants nationwide belonging to IFCO Systems North America, Inc.
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Jobless Rates Pose Threat to Immigration Reform

Roll Call, April 20. Sky-high unemployment rates threaten to stall immigration reform despite a push by Hispanic and Asian lawmakers to keep the issue on the agenda this year. The Obama administration has signaled that it plans to start working on the controversial subject but hasn’t committed to getting it done this year. And some Democrats privately acknowledge that the economy — and in particular the jobless numbers — has to start turning around before they can consider bringing a comprehensive reform bill to the floor. Otherwise, Democrats in many vulnerable districts will face endless attacks that they are granting legal status to illegal workers at a time when millions of Americans are joining the unemployment rolls. 'Whether that is right or not, there is a lot of economic insecurity, and people could be vulnerable to that message,' a House Democratic leadership aide said. The aide also said immigration reform could end up tripping up the rest of the agenda if it were put on the floor too quickly.
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Migration, Drug Enforcement Possible Early Discussion Topics For US-Cuba Talks

Associated Press, April 18. Cuba and the U.S. are likely to tackle migration and drug trafficking first if the two cold-war foes can successfully start talks, which would precede any meetings between presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro. More prickly themes such as human rights, the U.S. embargo and subjects involving the presidents would likely be set aside for later. Restarting U.S.-Cuba talks on a modest level would be easy. Until five years ago, the two countries held biannual meetings on migration aimed at preventing a mass exodus like the 2004 rafters crisis that saw tens of thousands of Cubans flee to the U.S. in rickety boats. President George W. Bush suspended them as unnecessary.
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Labor Agreement Could Backfire On Immigration Reform

The Hill, April 18. Organized labor’s new unified front in support of comprehensive immigration reform could disrupt what’s left of the delicate bipartisan balance on one of the most politically charged issues in Congress. Earlier this week, labor celebrated the coming together behind a single set of immigration reform principles after years of being at odds with itself over various parts of a planned immigration overhaul. But that unity could have the unintended consequence of driving a wedge between Democrats and those few Republicans whose support will be critical to getting a major immigration reform bill through the Senate – and could even prevent such a bill from having bipartisan support in the House.
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Obama: Immigration Reform Key

Politico, April 16. President Obama said immigration reform will be part of his administration’s efforts to tackle issues plaguing the U.S.-Mexico border. 'Immigration reform has to be part of a broader strategy to deal with our border issues,' Obama said in an interview with CNN en Español. 'I've already met with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and committed to working with them to try to shape an agenda that can move through Congress.' Obama’s remarks come in advance of his arrival in Mexico City today, where a number of pro-immigration protests are planned as he meets with President Felipe Calderon. Obama praised Calderon for his 'outstanding and heroic job' handling violence along the border.
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All Together Now

The Economist, April 16. America receives more immigrants than any other country. But its system for dealing with them is a model of dysfunctionality, with 11.9m illegally present in 2008, up 42% since 2000. Past efforts at reform have failed dismally. In 2006 protesters filled city streets after the House of Representatives passed a bill making illegal immigration a felony; but the proposal failed to pass muster in the Senate. The Senate’s own effort in 2007 fared even worse. Police clashed with a crowd in Los Angeles. Opponents of reform barraged senators with so many calls that their phone system crashed. The Senate’s bill, designed to please all sides, ended up pleasing no one.
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Report: Immigration Reform is Basic Economics for FL

Public News Service, April 14. The dollars and cents of immigration reform make a lot of sense for the beleaguered U.S. economy. The net economic gain would be $66 billion in new state and federal revenue, according to a new report. The review, from the nonpartisan Immigration Policy Center, notes that Florida is one of the states with the most to gain if undocumented workers were provided a pathway to legal status. About 500,000 immigrant workers would be affected.
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Immigration Reform and Hard Times

New York Times, April 13. OPINION. The Obama administration said last week that it would begin a major push for immigration reform this year. The country’s two big labor federations just announced that they are joining forces to support that effort, which includes a path to citizenship for undocumented workers. That’s double good news.
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Tech Recruiting Clashes with Immigration Rules

New York Times, April 11. The question comes from one of dozens of engineers around a crowded conference table at Google. They have gathered to discuss how to build easy-to-use maps that could turn hundreds of millions of mobile phones into digital Sherpas — guiding travelers to businesses, restaurants and landmarks. “His plane gets in at 9:30,” the group’s manager responds.Google is based here in Silicon Valley. But Sanjay G. Mavinkurve, one of the key engineers on this project, is not.
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Emanuel Now a Backer of Immigration Action

Wall Street Journal, April 10. As the White House gears up to push an immigration overhaul, advocates are finding they have an unexpected ally in White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. Mr. Emanuel has long been a voice of caution on easing rules for immigrants, fearing such a position could hurt Democrats at the polls. That stance has antagonized Hispanic lawmakers and activists, who favor a clearer, easier path to citizenship for certain illegal immigrants.
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Immigration: Help for Victims of Crimes: The U Visa

Sampan, April 10. Lei Mei was born in Nanjing, China and came to the United States in 2004 on a tourist visa. Within a month of entering the United States, Lei Mei moved to Boston and began working at a garment factory in the area. She began to date Eduardo, a citizen of Mexico who illegally entered the United States by crossing the border in the Arizona desert. Lei Mei has been in the United States since 2004 and is currently in the United States illegally without a valid immigration visa.
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Report To Blast Conditions At Ga. Detention Center

Associated Press, April 10. Immigrant rights groups plan to release a report blasting the conditions at a federal immigration detention center in southwest Georgia. Georgia Detention Watch, a coalition of immigrant rights groups, plans to release the report at a news conference Friday morning.
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Doctor, Hospital File Suit On Residency Decision

North Platte Telegraph, April 10. A lawsuit was filed this week in U.S. District Court by Great Plains Regional Hospital and local oncologist Dr. Ifran Vaziri in an effort to compel federal officials to make a decision on Vaziri's application to become a legal permanent resident. Vaziri and his wife Rashida, who are Pakistani, have been waiting three years to get permanent residency. They have turned to congressional representatives, made repeated inquiries to federal officials and now say they've exhausted their administrative options in trying to get a decision on their applications to become legal permanent residents.
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Obama May Make 50,000 Illegal Irish US Citizens

Belfast Telegraph, April 10. Irish-American immigration reform lobbyists were celebrating last night following news that President Obama is keen to implement reforms that could ultimately grant American citizenship to some 50,000 undocumented Irish living illegally in the USA. Kelly Fincham, executive director of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform (ILIR), warmly welcomed a statement on Wednesday by the President’s newly appointed deputy assistant, Cecilia Munoz, that she is keen to put in place a “policy reform that controls immigration and makes it an orderly system”.
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Immigration Emerges As Issue For Obama

Christian Science Monitor, April 9. Call it a trial balloon – on one of the thorniest issues in US politics. Immigrant rights groups hailed a report in The New York Times today that President Obama plans to take up immigration reform this year. Opponents said the move could jeopardize healthcare reform and other elements of the president’s agenda in tough economic times. The report, sourced to deputy assistant to the president Cecilia Munoz, reopens in the press an issue that has yet to hit the floors of Congress. It also sends a message to Hispanic groups that helped elect Mr. Obama that their concerns for a path to legalization for some 12 million undocumented workers have not been forgotten.
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Rev. Al Sharpton Demands Sheriff Arapiao’s Resignation

Immigration Impact, April 7. In an act of solidarity with the immigrant community, National Action Network’s Reverend Al Sharpton and ACORN’s Chief Organizer and CEO, Bertha Lewis called for Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s resignation and an end to racial profiling on a national media call today. Never one to miss the national spotlight, Sheriff Arpaio is currently the focus of a Department of Justice investigation for abuses of the 287(g) program, “alleged patterns of discriminatory police practices, and discrimination based on a person’s national origin.” Rev. Al Sharpton charged.
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'Great Debate' To Tackle Country's Divide Over Immigration

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, April 6. Great debates always have moved America, beginning with one about building a National Road through the hills of Western Pennsylvania. Now, the National Road Heritage Corridor wants to air America's next 'great debate.' On April 14, the organization will host 'The Great Debate 2009, Immigration and America: A Nation Divided' at Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, Pa. Honorary debate chairman Jim Kane said the panel will include a cross-section of experts on both sides of America's immigration debate: John Quinones, co-anchor of ABC's 'Primetime;' syndicated columnist Cal Thomas; Hazleton Mayor Louis Barletta; Roy Beck from Numbers USA; and Sister Janice Vanderneck of the Latino Catholic Community.
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U.S. Visa Limits Hit Indian Workers

Washington Post, April 6. With his master's degree in electrical engineering at North Carolina State University almost complete, Ravi, 24, received a promising job offer from a technology firm. He called his parents back in India, happy that he was on track for an H-1B work visa, which is seen as a steppingstone to U.S. citizenship. But just before Thanksgiving, Ravi got a call from his future employer. 'They told me that because of the economic downturn they couldn't hire me in anticipation of tougher times ahead. They were laying off other American employees, and cutting my job would be a proactive measure,' said Ravi, who gave only his first name because he did not want his job prospects affected. 'I do feel bad for anyone losing a job, whether it's an American or an H-1B foreign worker. But for foreign students, if we don't get a job, we have to go back to our home countries. When I talk to my parents, they tell me not to worry, to just come home. But I had really hoped to stay.'
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States Move Against In-State Tuition For Illegal Immigrants

Christian Science Monitor, April 3. Of all illegal immigrants, young people who were brought to the US as children have been the ones most likely to win concessions from the public. But the recession appears to be changing that, driving sentiment against educational benefits for undocumented college students. Some states are explicitly refusing to allow undocumented students to pay in-state tuition fees at colleges, reversing a previous trend. In-state tuition tends to be two to three times less than what out-of-state students pay. Since 2006, four states – Georgia, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Arizona – have made undocumented students ineligible for in-state tuition rates. In Arizona, the ban came through a voter initiative after legislation was vetoed by the governor.
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The Times They Are A-Changin’

Immigration Impact, April 3. Who would have believed a year ago that a conservative New York legislator named Kirsten Gillibrand, who formerly opposed immigration reform, would become the junior New York Senator and co-sponsor the Dream Act , giving the children of the undocumented a shot at higher education, in her first few months in office? And who would have imagined that undocumented workers caught up in work-place raids would be given due process when ICE raided their workplace, just a few months after some of the worst and most unjust workplace raids had taken place in our country’s history?
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Court: No Secret Evidence In Asylum Case

San Francisco Chronicle, April 3. A federal appeals court ruled that immigration officials can't rely on secret evidence from 'reliable confidential sources' to deny political asylum to a former East Bay woman, who claimed she'd be tortured if deported to India because of her marriage to a separatist leader. Before denying legal status to an immigrant, the government must disclose enough information about the evidence to allow the immigrant to dispute it, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said Wednesday. The court didn't say whether immigration officials had to turn over the evidence itself or merely a detailed summary, but said secrecy made little sense in this case because the woman, Rajwinder Kaur, was well aware of the underlying facts.
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A Rush for Work Visas Even as Demand Dips

New York Times, April 1. The yearly scramble by employers for temporary visas for foreign scientists and technology engineers started on Wednesday, with immigration authorities expecting fewer new petitions this year because of the recession and because of new restrictions on financial companies that received emergency federal aid. For five business days beginning Wednesday, Citizenship and Immigration Services will accept petitions for the temporary visas known as 1 for the 2010 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. In recent years, visa limits were reached in the first days of the application period.
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National Inventors Hall Of Fame In Akron To Induct Seven Immigrants

Global Village, April 2. When it celebrates the spirit of invention next month, Akron's National Inventors Hall of Fame will quietly acknowledge a little-known facet of American innovation: Seven of the 16 people being honored as great American inventors are immigrants. The class of 2009 inductees, focused on the people who pioneered high technology, includes inventors from Egypt, China, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Korea and Canada. Receiving a lifetime achievement award will be Andy Grove, the Hungarian-born co-founder of Intel Corp.
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Let the Immigrants In

SpliceToday.com, April 2. OPINION. My girlfriend’s Israeli father is constantly hassled about his accent, asked where he is from, given dirty looks, made to feel unwelcome in his western Michigan city. He once told me that it has never felt like home and it never will. We have failed him. I may be an idealist, but I am not foolish—I know it is impossible to make all feel welcome, and I know that despite past rhetoric, we’ve never even really tried. We must as a people embrace more intensely our new neighbors, our new colleagues, our new citizens. This is what makes us who we are and what makes us the most we can be. We must break this trend and turn it the other way.
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Round Five for the DREAM Act

AS/COA, April 2. In a first step to bring immigration reform back to the front burner, Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Rubin (D-IL) and Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) introduced the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM Act) in the Senate on March 26. A similar bill called the American Dream Act was submitted in the House of Representatives in a bipartisan effort. Yet, despite domestic debate over immigration in recent years, the controversial initiative has not reached the national spotlight. As an example, during President Barack Obama’s interactive town hall meeting held on March 26, none of the top ten questions voted on by more than 3.5 million people were related to immigration reform.
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One Oath Leads to Another

New York Times, April 2. Stephen Chi was born in Norway to Chinese immigrant parents, grew up in Sweden, received undergraduate and graduate degrees at Saginaw Valley State University in Michigan, mastered five languages and now works as an information technology consultant in New York City. But for all the experiences his peripatetic life has given him, it has also left him with a profound sense of rootlessness. So he recently applied to enlist in the United States Army. 'I don’t feel like I belong anywhere,' Mr. Chi, 30, said on Wednesday. 'I wanted to become part of something bigger.' Until last month, Mr. Chi’s application would have been rejected outright because only American citizens and permanent residents — immigrants who carry green cards — were permitted to enlist in the American military. But under a new program that began Feb. 23 and is intended to increase the number of highly skilled soldiers, the American military is now allowing some temporary immigrants to enlist.
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For Gillibrand, New Sign of Shifting Stance on Illegal Immigration

Congressional Quarterly, April 2. Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand continued her change in tone on illegal immigration Thursday when she announced she was cosponsoring the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act. Gillibrand joins 14 of the Senate's more liberal Democrats as well as two Republicans and Independent Joseph I. Lieberman as co-sponsors of the bill (S 729). The DREAM Act, which was introduced March 26, would amend the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 to allow states to provide higher education funding for children who came to the United States as illegal immigrants. 'Current law is unfairly punishing thousands of young people who have spent nearly their entire lives in this country,' Gillibrand said in a statement. 'This legislation says that if they work hard and play by the rules, then they will have the opportunity to get a good education and earn their way to legal status.'
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A Rush for Work Visas Even as Demand Dips

New York Times, April 1. The yearly scramble by employers for temporary visas for foreign scientists and technology engineers started on Wednesday, with immigration authorities expecting fewer new petitions this year because of the recession and because of new restrictions on financial companies that received emergency federal aid. For five business days beginning Wednesday, Citizenship and Immigration Services will accept petitions for the temporary visas known as 1 for the 2010 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. In recent years, visa limits were reached in the first days of the application period.
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Businessmen Flee Violent Mexico To U.S.

Associated Press, April 1. A Mexican business leader says 'a significant number' of businessmen working along the U.S.-Mexican border have transferred their offices to U.S. cities to escape a wave of crime and extortion threats in Mexico. The head of the Mexican Employers' Federation says business owners in the border cities of Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez have moved their operations to San Diego and to El Paso, Texas.Federation President Ricardo Gonzalez said Tuesday that extortionists have demanded payments from businesses in the region ranging from small shops to much larger firms. Gonzalez did not give an exact number.
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Moving Beyond the Failed Immigration-Enforcement Legacy of the Bush Era

Immigration Impact, April 1. A new report from America’s Voice highlights both the immense challenge and enormous opportunity confronting the Obama administration as it devises a new approach to immigration enforcement that moves beyond the failures of the Bush era.
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Appreciating our Immigration System

MicrosoftOnTheIssues, April 1. OPINION. As I mentioned in my post Monday, today begins the period for U.S. employers to apply for H-1B visas for high-skilled foreign workers. Given the economic downturn, we are filing substantially fewer H-1B applications than we filed last year. Unlike previous years, a solid majority of our applications this year are for employees who are already working for Microsoft in the United States, so we can retain their talent and specialized skills in this country rather than risk losing them to a foreign competitor. As we have previously said, even with the down economy, Microsoft will create several thousand new jobs this year as we invest in new growth areas and emerging technologies. The vast majority of our U.S. hires in the coming 12 months will be American workers. But to succeed and continue adding jobs in the highly competitive global technology business, Microsoft and other U.S. companies must be able to hire top talent wherever it is located.
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U.S. Job Losses Not Due to H-1B Visas, Report Says

Business Week, March 30. US lawmakers may be busy putting restrictions on the country's primary temporary work visa, H-1B, but new H-1B visaholders each year represent just seven in 10,000 civilian workers in the US, according to a report by an American public policy organisation. As per the report by the National Foundation for American Policy (NAFP), 107,686 new H-1B petitions were approved by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services in 2008, including those exempt from being included in the H1-B quota of 85,000 visas annually. In comparison, the American civilian labour force stood at 154.6 million in 2008.
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Immigration Courts Face Huge Backlog

USA Today, March 30. The nation's immigration courts are now so clogged that nearly 90,000 people accused of being in the United States illegally waited at least two years for a judge to decide whether they must leave, one of the last bottlenecks in a push to more strictly enforce immigration laws. Their cases — identified by a USA TODAY review of the courts' dockets since 2003 — are emblematic of delays in the little-known court system that lawyers, lawmakers and others say is on the verge of being overwhelmed. Among them were 14,000 immigrants whose cases took more than five years to decide and a few that took more than a decade. 'It's an indication that they just don't have enough resources,' says Kerri Sherlock Talbot of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
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A Confirmation Fight For A Challenging Job

Baltimore Sun, March 30. In the annals of the capital's acid partisanship, their names are boldfaced: candidates for America's highest civil rights post who never got confirmed. During the last Democratic administration, conservatives succeeded in blocking Senate approval of Lani Guinier and Bill Lann Lee to head the civil rights division at the Justice Department. Now, they're gearing up to put Thomas E. Perez, a Maryland lawyer selected for the job by President Barack Obama, through the grinder. Senate sources predict that the state's labor secretary will be confirmed for the federal post, but history suggests that it won't be without a fight. 'This is arguably the most difficult position to fill in the federal government when it comes to Senate confirmation,' said Roger Clegg, a former official in the civil rights division.
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Binational, Same-Sex Couples Face Immigration Problems

San Jose Mercury News (CA), March 29. Shirley Tan's calm and happy life — San Mateo County housewife, mother of twin 12-year-old boys, singing in the church choir — blew up at 6:30 a.m. on Jan. 28, with a knock on the front door. Within minutes, the immigration agent standing there had the 43-year-old Tan in handcuffs. She is scheduled to be deported to her native Philippines on Friday. If Jay Mercado, Tan's partner of 23 years and the mother of her sons, were a different gender, it's highly unlikely that knock ever would have come. As a U.S. citizen, Mercado could have sponsored a wedded spouse for legal permanent residency.
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Still Coming to America

Wall Street Journal, March 27. Despite measures to curb migration into the U.S., the huddled masses are still lining up. There’s proof of that in the queues outside U.S. embassies, from Mexico City to New Delhi. In this country, further proof might surface next Tuesday, as the government begins accepting applications to sponsor highly skilled workers on so-called H-1Bs into the country. At J.M. Clayton Seafood in Cambridge, Md., workers, mostly immigrants, pick crab meat from the shell of Chesapeake blue crabs.Bethesda, Md.-based immigration attorney Donald Mooers calls it his “annual march to FedEx,” as he sends off the paperwork needed to bring the workers in by the start of the next fiscal year. In years past, demand has doubled supply; 65,000 visas are available, with exemptions made for foreigners working at universities or holding a master’s degree or higher. In 2007 and 2008, a lottery actually had to be held to winnow down the group.
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U.S. Deters Hiring of Foreigners as Joblessness Grows

Wall Street Journal, March 27. As more Americans lose their jobs, the U.S. government is actively discouraging the recruitment of foreign workers, from dude ranchers and fruit pickers to lifeguards and computer programmers. At least three avenues of legal immigration have seen roadblocks erected. In the most visible and controversial move, companies receiving federal bailout money now face extra hurdles before they can hire highly skilled guest workers on an H-1B visa. On Friday, the Labor Department will close a public-comment period for a proposal to suspend an agricultural guest-worker program, known as the H-2A.
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DREAM Act Introduction Shows Momentum is Building for Immigration Reform

Immigration Forum, March 26. Today’s introduction of the DREAM Act is yet another indication Congress is getting ready to reform our broken immigration system. The DREAM Act is an important component of immigration reform and we expect it to be part of the broad reforms that Congress will debate this year. Its introduction shows that the political will needed to achieve comprehensive immigration reform is growing, highlighted by the strong commitment voiced by leaders who are central to the effort to get legislation passed — including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and President Obama.
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Citizen Children Neglected and Deserted in Wake of Immigration Raids

Immigation Impact, March 26. Miguel is a US citizen child who grew up in Minnesota like any other little American boy. But his parents are undocumented workers from El Salvador who worked at the Swift plant in Worthington, MN. On December 12, 2006, the plant was raided by ICE, and more than 200 workers were detained, including Miguel’s mother. Miguel returned home from second grade that day to discover that his mother and father were not there and that his two-year-old brother was left alone. For the next week, Miguel stayed home caring for his brother-with no information about what had happened to his parents.
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Rift Develops Between Muslims, FBI Over Mosque Surveillance

Orange County Register, March 26. A coalition of Islamic organizations angered by reports of the government sending a paid informant to infiltrate Orange County mosques is threatening to cut ties with the FBI and accusing the agency of using 'McCarthy-era tactics.' The announcement by the American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections comes on the heels of Irvine resident Craig Monteilh's admission that he spent more than a year pretending to embrace Islam in various Southern California mosques as part of an FBI-led effort to weed out terrorist threats.
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Are Immigrant-Owned Businesses Surviving Better than Most?

Wall Street Journal, March 23. The values that immigrants learned about being thrifty, avoiding excessive debt and relying on family support from their native countries are helping them better ride out the recession than most entrepreneurs, according to an article last week by the Richmond Times-Dispatch in Virginia. That pay-as-you-go philosophy was born and ingrained from cultures where credit is not as readily available as in the U.S., says Gregory Fairchild, an associate professor of business administration at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. Immigrants rely on personal savings more; he notes that in some Asian cultures, the savings rate is as high as 15% to 20% versus the low single-digit savings rate in the U.S.
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US To Woo Millionaire Immigrants

Inquirer (Philippine Island), March 19. Following the footsteps of Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, the United States is now stepping up efforts to attract millionaire immigrants who can help stimulate its badly battered economy by investing and creating jobs, INQUIRER.net learned Thursday. The US Department of Homeland Security, particularly its Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman, issued a set of recommendations to 'stabilize and energize [its] employment creation immigration visa (EB-5) program.' The report noted that while the US Immigration Act of 1990 allocates 10,000 fifth employment-based (EB-5) immigrant visas to investors and their family every year, less than 1,000 have been used. Between 1992 and 2004, a total of 6,024 such visas were issues, or an average of 500 a year. This underutilization is caused by a confluence of factors, including program instability, the changing economic environment, and more inviting immigrant investor programs offered by other countries,' said the report issued March 18.
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E-Verify Program Will Survive At Least Through September

Gannett News Service, March 19. The fate of a national employee verification program aimed at combating illegal immigration is safe for now, but it's unclear whether Congress will renew it beyond this fall. As long as the program, called E-Verify, is on the books, a New Jersey assemblyman wants all businesses in the state to use it to check the legal status of prospective employees. But immigrant-rights advocates are prepared to fight any attempt to expand the use of E-Verify in New Jersey, arguing that the Internet-based system is riddled with errors. The latest congressional action on E-Verify came this month, when the Senate rejected an effort by Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., to extend the program for six years. Sessions had tried to attach the extension to the $410 billion spending bill that President Barack Obama has signed into law.
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US Stands To Lose High-Skilled Immigrant Entrepreneurs: Study

Press Trust of India, March 19. The United States stands to lose high-skilled immigrant entrepreneurs and science and engineering workforce due to protectionist measures it is putting in place in the wake of the economic recession, cautions a latest study. The survey comes in the context of the large banks, such as Bank of America, and other US companies reducing plans to hire foreign national students due to concerns over political backlash amidst growing US job losses.
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Schools Soften Landing For New Immigrants $1.3m Effort Focuses On Language, Culture

Boston Globe, March 18. Until two months ago, Isamar Mejia was attending school in Santo Domingo and planning to become a lawyer. Then her mother and stepfather moved to Boston and told the 16-year-old she would have to finish school here, even though she spoke not a word of English and had never seen snow. Like other teenage immigrants, Mejia faced the prospect of entering a school in the middle of the year, behind in her classes, confused by her surroundings, a prime candidate for dropping out, according to school statistics. The nervous junior instead joined a new experiment by Boston public schools that is aiming to halve the system's dropout rate over the next four years by providing lessons in language and culture to older students who have recently arrived to the country. Mejia and 21 other students are now learning English and how to navigate the city's streets and customs at the Newcomers Academy, which is designed to ease the transition to diploma-granting schools.
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Filipino Teachers Exchange Homeland For Jobs In America

Los Angeles Times, March 18. Filipino exchange teacher Ferdinand Nakila landed in Los Angeles expecting 'Pretty Woman' scenes of swank Beverly Hills boulevards and glittering celebrities. What he got was Inglewood, where he stayed for two weeks in temporary housing and encountered drunkards, beggars, trash-filled streets and nightly police sirens. It got worse. In training sessions about American classrooms he received in the Philippines, he was told his students might not be quite as polite and respectful as those in his homeland. Nothing, however, prepared him for the furious brawl that broke out in one of his Los Angeles classrooms, where two girls rolled around on the floor clawing at each other while the other students jumped on the desks and cheered.
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Martinez Heats Up Immigration Debate

Politico (Washington, DC), March 18. As national Republican Party conservatives debate whether the party’s tent is big enough for the more progressive leanings of its first African-American chairman, Michael Steele, another Republican leader has reignited his own cause that always threatens to blow the top off the tent. Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida, the former Republican Party chairman who vividly remembers the 'variety of names' conservatives called him because of his work on immigrant rights, is readying for another big brawl over the issue. Right now, months before President Barack Obama is expected to outline his own immigration plan and before Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) decides how to re-engage on the issue — presumably after Obama shows his hand — Martinez is heating up the debate that will stretch his own party’s tolerance for increased immigration and multiculturalism.
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Reports: Health Care For Potential Deportees Poor

NPR News, March 17. Two new reports document something that has emerged as a serious issue for federal immigration authorities: a lack of adequate health care for detainees. With some 400,000 people held by immigration authorities last year alone, stories about detainees receiving inadequate health care abound, and sometimes the consequences are fatal. A recent case in Virginia involved a 48-year-old man, originally from Germany, named Guido Newbrough. He was being held in a county jail last year in Virginia when he became sick with a severe bacterial infection. Susana Barciela of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center says it was a death that could have been prevented. 'Seventy-five percent of the people who are treated for this disease properly survive,' she says. 'But he was given no treatment whatsoever, even though he'd been complaining for weeks.'
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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.
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Migrant Workers Sending Less Money to Latin America

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.
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Latinos Roar After Finding Their Voice

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.
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Immigrants Can Help Fix the Housing Bubble

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.
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Valley Wants More Skilled Foreign Workers; H-1B Issue Remains Big

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.
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Irish Premier's U.S. Trip Has Dark Tone

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.''
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Fewer People Applying For U.S. Citizenship

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.
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Immigrants Face Detention, Few Rights

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.
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Labor Dept: Suspend Bush's Guest Worker Rules

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.
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Condoleezza Rice Regrets Lack Of Immigration Reform

Silicon Valley Business Journal, March 13. The lack of meaningful immigration reform by the Bush administration is one of Condoleezza Rice's biggest regrets as she looks back on her time as secretary of state, she reportedly told a group in Stanford Friday. Associated Press reported that Rice, the keynote speaker at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research summit in Palo Alto, said the country "can't have people living in the shadows," and pointed to the tremendous accomplishments of many immigrants, including Mountain View-based Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) co-founder Sergey Brin.
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Immigrants Didn't Cause Your Problems

CNN News, March 13. OPINION by Ruben Navarrette Jr. Here's the good news: Authorities say that fewer illegal immigrants are crossing the U.S.-Mexican border. The Los Angeles Times recently reported that arrests along the U.S.-Mexico border in the last five months are down 24 percent from the same period last year. At the current rate, the level of apprehension this year could be the lowest since 1975.
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Why Arizona's Sheriff Joe Arpaio Must Go - and Soon

Daily News, March 12, OPINION by Albor Ruiz. Thirty-five thousand people from all over the country signed a petition calling on the departments of Justice and Homeland Security to investigate Arizona's infamous Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Meanwhile, Arpaio received a letter from the Justice Department Wednesday informing him of a probe into allegations of discriminatory and unconstitutional searches and seizures. Finally, it seems that the abusive Maricopa County lawman could get what's coming to him.
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Admitting Highly Skilled Immigrants Would Boost Economy

San Francisco Sentinel, March 12. When people think of what to do to help the U.S. economic recovery, admitting more immigrants into America isn’t what usually comes to mind. But a new study by Arlene Holen, an economist and senior fellow with the Technology Policy Institute, could contribute to resolving the current economic crisis. The study finds that letting in more highly-skilled immigrants would generate more tax revenue, and over time raise labor earnings and national income.
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Two U.S. Immigration Amendments Extended

Jewish Telegraphic Agency, March 12. Congress has extended two immigration-related laws that impact the Jewish community. On Wednesday evening, the Senate passed an extension through Sept. 30 of the Religious Worker Visa Program, portions of which had expired on March 6. The program makes as many as 5,000 permanent immigrant visas available each year for religious workers employed by various denominations, and is particularly helpful to small Jewish communities in remote areas who have difficulty hiring rabbis, cantors and Hebrew school teachers. The House has already passed an identical bill and the extension will go into effect once it is signed by the president. 'This is an important step in ensuring that the Jewish community can keep the dedicated and experienced teachers and other foreign religious workers that we rely on,' said Gideon Aronoff, President and CEO of HIAS, in a statement.
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It's a Terrible Time to Reject Skilled Workers

Wall Street Journal, March 11. Thanks to the Employ American Workers Act (EAWA), which was folded into the stimulus bill, it's become harder for companies getting government support to hire skilled immigrants with H-1B visas -- they'll have to show they haven't laid off or plan to lay off an American from a similar occupation. Supporters say the law will help U.S.-born workers and stimulate our economy, but this is just wrong. The economy is not of fixed size, in which more foreign-born workers necessarily mean fewer U.S. workers. Productive foreign-born workers can help create more jobs here. Keeping them out damages us.
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Advocates Blast Immigration Restrictionists for Disseminating Faulty Data

Washington Independent, March 10. OPINION by Daphne Eviatar. Sure enough, the story I wrote about that appeared Monday in USA Today that said the stimulus bill would provide jobs for some 300,000 undocumented immigrants has created a firestorm. Picked up widely and the subject of a fear-mongering report on Lou Dobbs’ primetime show on CNN last night, the story cited the conservative Heritage Foundation and the immigration restrictionist group Center for Immigration Studies for their recent studies claiming that, of 2 million estimated construction jobs they estimated would be provided by the stimulus package, 15 percent of those would likely go to immigrants who aren’t legally authorized to work.
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They're Taking Their Brains and Going Home

Washington Post, March 8. Seven years ago, Sandeep Nijsure left his home in Mumbai to study computer science at the University of North Texas. Master's degree in hand, he went to work for Microsoft. He valued his education and enjoyed the job, but he worried about his aging parents. He missed watching cricket, celebrating Hindu festivals and following the twists of Indian politics. His wife was homesick, too, and her visa didn't allow her to work. Not long ago, Sandeep would have faced a tough choice: either go home and give up opportunities for wealth and U.S. citizenship, or stay and bide his time until his application for a green card goes through. But last year, Sandeep returned to India and landed a software development position with Amazon.com in Hyderabad. He and his wife live a few blocks from their families in a spacious, air-conditioned house. No longer at the mercy of the American employer sponsoring his visa, Sandeep can more easily determine the course of his career. "We are very happy with our move," he told me in an e-mail.
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US Consul Offers Clarification For Those Seeking Diversity Visas

UB Post, March 12. The UB Post interviewed the United States Embassy’s Chief Consul Robert Pope regarding visa affairs of Mongolian citizens interested in traveling or working in the US. What are the main goals of the US Embassy Consular Section in Mongolia? One of our consular section’s goals is to give more information to the Mongolian people about the whole [visa] process, so that people are less disappointed than they have been in the past. One of the things we are trying to do is to encourage people, who are qualified, to apply, not to discourage people, but to have people think before they apply and spend money. If there are certain categories of people that have trouble getting a visa, we prefer that they know that going in, rather than finding out when they get into the visa process. One of the things that has been a concern between the Mongolian and US Government is the very high historic rejection rates in the visa process. We have changed those considerably in the last year, and the approval rate, which is what I would prefer to talk about, has gone up from about 30 percent to close to 50 percent now. We are trying to get more qualified people applying, and fewer less qualified people, so we can get the approval rate up higher and higher over time. And, we have been very successful in the such short term.
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US Extends Stay Of Foreign Athletes

Yahoo News, March 9. U.S. immigration officials have agreed to let foreign athletes extend their careers in the United States beyond a 10-year limit, as long as the athletes leave the country first and apply for a new visa. The change came in a new policy memo issued by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, following months of lobbying by sports leagues and lawyers for foreign athletes. The memo, obtained Monday by The Associated Press, also came after the AP made inquiries to the agency about the limit. The leagues and lawyers had complained that CIS recently began enforcing the 10-year limit, endangering the U.S. careers of foreign athletes. CIS officials countered that they've enforced the limit for years, which is based on a 1990 immigration law.
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Nervous Employers Turn To ID Check For Workers

Boston Globe, March 6. A federal system that lets employers check the legal status of their workers is soaring in popularity across the country, growing by 1,000 companies a week, fueled by anxiety over workplace raids and uncertainty over the future of the nation's illegal immigrants. Leading the trend are Arizona and Mississippi, which have made the system mandatory for all employers, and 10 other states that require it for state agencies and contractors. But the system is also ballooning in states where it is optional, such as California, Texas, and Massachusetts.
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Crackdown On Illegal Immigration Brings Distrust, Racial Profiling Risks

Salt Lake Tribune March 6. A recent federal study gives credence to immigrant community activists' fears that a proposed local-federal strike force could lead to racial profiling and drive a wedge of distrust between undocumented residents and law enforcement. Rep. Brad Dee, R-Washington Terrace, is pushing for the formation of a nearly $1 million strike force to target felonies in the immigrant community ranging from document fraud to human and drug trafficking. Local law enforcement would join ranks with agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to target what Dee assures would be only the worst criminals among those in the country illegally.
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Hispanic Caucus Calls For Immigration Reform, Local Testimony

Desert Sun, March 5. In a movement to press for immigration reform, political and religious leaders will hear testimony Saturday about the need to keep families together. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Chicago, chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and Rep. Joe Baca, D-Rialto, will be at St. George Catholic Church in Ontario as part a national effort called the National Family Unity Outreach Tour. The tour is to press the Obama administration to address immigration reform this year. 'No city in America has been spared the devastating effects of our broken system,' Gutierrez is quoted in a news release. 'As a nation —as citizens— we cannot wait any longer for fair and just immigration reform. Across this country, parents and children, husbands and wives are being torn apart by a system that values quotas over family values and which undermines our economic security in a time of crisis. Through this effort, Californians are standing up for real, lasting change.'
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Congresswoman Calls for Humane Treatment of Immigration Detainees

EGP News, March 5. In the wake of three immigration detainee deaths over the last six months, a local congresswoman introduced legislation last week to adopt humane and legally enforceable standards for immigration detention facilities. The three incidents of detainee deaths occurred in Monroe, Louisiana, Farmville, Virginia and Central Falls, Rhode Island. Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-34) introduced the Immigration Oversight and Fairness Act of 2009 (H.R. 1215) on Feb 26 to ensure immigrant detainees receive fair and humane treatment while in detention.
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100,000 Indians Will Return From US In Next 3-5 Years

Birmingham Star, March 5. As many as 100,000 Indians and an equal number of Chinese will return to their native countries in the next three to five years, a move that will greatly boost their economies and undermine technological innovation in America, a new US study warns. The study on immigration by a team at Duke, Harvard and Berkeley universities led by Vivek Wadhwa, an Indian-American technology entrepreneur turned academic, says 'America's loss is the world's gain'. There are no hard numbers available on how many have returned, but anecdotal evidence shows that this is in the tens of thousands, says Wadhwa, executive-in-residence for the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University and fellow at the Labour and Worklife Programme at Harvard Law School.
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House Panel Scrutinizes Immigration Program

Associated Press, March 5. The federal government will rewrite its agreements with local and state law agencies that enforce immigration laws to provide greater guidance and control. That's the word from an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement official. William Riley says a draft document is circulating within the agency to more clearly explain the purpose of a controversial program known as 287(g). ICE currently has 67 agreements with local and state police agencies to enforce federal immigration laws. As more police agencies have signed on to the program, allegations of racial profiling and civil rights violations have risen.
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New E-Verify Program Could Keep Fewer From Being Denied Work

KNXV News, March 4. A new E-Verify program will help make sure that foreign-born citizens eligible to work in the U.S. will not be denied a job because of mismatches, according to a press release from the U.S. Dept of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services. Last year, an E-Verify program evaluation found that foreign-born citizens were more likely to receive mismatches, or Tentative Non-confirmations (TNC), when applying for jobs as opposed to U.S.-born citizens. If the Department of Homeland Security or the Social Security Administration is unable to immediately confirm a citizen’s work eligibility, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services can now check State Department records prior to issuing a TNC.
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Study: For Immigrants, California Harsher Than Texas

Daily Texan, March 4. Anti-immigrant sentiment runs deeper in California than in Texas — the states with the largest Mexican immigrant populations — according to a study conducted by two UT students and a Texas A&M University professor. The study, conducted by sociology graduate students Isao Takei and Jing Li and A&M sociology professor Rogelio Saenz, looked at the current Mexican immigration population, wages and laws in both states and data from the 2000 Census. The sample provides a large, nationally representative sample of all sectors of the labor force, including minority populations, the researchers said. The larger concentration of Mexican immigrants, especially non-citizens, in California likely explains the biases, Takei said.
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Tighter U.S. Oversight Comes to H-1B Visa Program

Business Week, March 3. As the unemployment rate in the U.S. rises, the federal government is tightening its oversight of a controversial visa program that allows companies to bring in skilled workers from overseas. The crackdown is aimed at reducing alleged abuses of what are known as H-1B visas, but it may also make it more difficult for U.S. companies to hire talented workers from abroad. Tech giants such as Microsoft (MSFT), Oracle (ORCL), and IBM (IBM) have been active participants in the program and have lobbied for its expansion.
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Many Immigrants Still Till the Land of Opportunity

The Wall Street Journal, March 3. Hispanic immigrants who work in construction, hotels and other blue-collar jobs have suffered from the brutal economic climate. But immigrant gardeners appear to be weathering the harsh conditions well. 'Gardening isn't like working at a factory, where you depend on one employer,' says Manuel Quezada, a 54-year-old veteran gardener, as he and his team put down sod in the front yard of a house here. 'If I lose one house, it doesn't hurt that much.' Far from Beverly Hills, in the neighborhood of Playa del Rey near Los Angeles International Airport, gardener Gustavo Quintero, 50, says customers are more deliberate about their spending during these down times. But, it isn't a big deal, says the Mexican immigrant. 'It's mainly the extras,' like seasonal flowers and pricey plants, 'that people are doing without.'
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A New Day Coming For Immigration Reform?

Metropolitan Corp Counsel, March 2009. I have been practicing immigration law for more than 25 years, and I concentrate my practice in the field of business immigration law. In addition to practicing law, I also teach immigration law at Columbia Law School, and I am a past national president and general counsel of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. I continue to serve as a lifetime member of the Board of Governors of that organization, and I am very involved in the development and reform of immigration law and policy. At Kramer Levin, I am the Co-Head of the firm's Business Immigration Group together with my partner, Mark Koestler. We are an eight-lawyer group with a number of support staff, and we represent a broad range of corporate clients located throughout the country.
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Scientists Fear Visa Trouble Will Drive Foreign Students Away

New York Times, March 2. When Alena Shkumatava opens the door to the “fish lab” at the Whitehead Institute of M.I.T., she encounters warm, aquarium-scented air and shelf after shelf of foot-long tanks, each containing one or more zebra fish. She studies the tiny fish in her quest to unravel one of the knottiest problems in biology: how the acting of genes is encouraged or inhibited in cells. The work, focusing on genetic material called micro-RNAs, is ripe with promise. But Dr. Shkumatava, a postdoctoral researcher from Belarus, will not pursue it in the United States, she said, partly because of what happened last year, when she tried to renew her visa.
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More USAFIS.org User Complaints

Idaho Falls Today, March 2. I have had a very bad experience with “USAFIS.org”. After receiving an email last fall to say we had won, and send money etc, we were advised it was fake. Since then I have been trying to get info from usafis, but all I am told is that we were entered and hadn’t won in 2005 or 2006. The emails are in badly written english. Today I finally got to speak to someone at the Kentucky Center and found out that we were actually drawn for the DV 2005, but my application was disqualified because my photo was in my wife’s place and hers in mine, and also hers was poor quality. What a blow. Our daughter lives in Ralaigh and we would dearly love to be near our newborn grandson. We could work so my wife could look after him. This mistake is a life altering one in that had it proceeded as hoped ours and our family’s lives would have changed forever, for the good. People like these have to be stopped. We paid for a service that was not provided.
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On Immigration, Conservatives Advocate Attrition Through Enforcement, Not Mass Deportation

National Review Online, February 26. It’s one thing to criticize some on our side of the aisle for intemperate and strident rhetoric; the need to avoid such rhetoric is a caution that should always be before us, whether debating immigration, abortion, gay marriage, or anything else. Americans don’t — and shouldn’t — dislike immigrants (or pregnant teenagers or homosexuals) as people, and Republicans need to make clear that they don’t. But Nadler is offering something very different. Lacking an appreciation for how intensely actual Republican voters feel about illegal immigration, he’s asking the Republican party to tear itself to pieces. “Dissolve the base and elect a new one,” to paraphrase Brecht — hardly a wise strategy.
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You may say he's a dreamer ...

Statesman.com, March 1. Muhammad Yunus, winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, believes it's within our power to end world poverty within the next few decades. He believes poverty will die when we will it dead, on the grounds that it's morally repugnant, socially unacceptable. "Once poverty is gone, we'll need to build museums to display its horrors to future generations," Yunus writes in "Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism," published a year after he won the Nobel Prize. "They'll wonder why poverty continued so long in human society - how a few people could live in luxury while billions dwelt in misery, deprivation, and despair."
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A Heart For The Needy, Handicapped

Daily Sun, February 27. In far away United States of America where providence had taken him since the past 10 years, a Nigerian in diaspora, Prince Adeboye Subuloye continues to do his country proud. Adeboye who hails from Ogbomoso, Oyo State , started living in the foreign country after he won the US diversity visa lottery. He traveled to America in company of his wife, 58-year-old Riskat and three of his six children.
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Immigration, Economy, Obama Fuel Growth Of US Hate Groups

Economic Times, February 27. A record number of hate groups were active in the United States last year, their anger driven by fears of Latino immigration, a souring economy and the election of Barack Obama to the presidency, a report said Thursday. The report by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) showed that 926 hate groups were active in the United States, a four percent rise from the 888 groups active the previous year and a 56 percent rise from the 602 groups documented in 2000. 'Tough economic times provide fertile ground for those who would foment hate against minorities by scapegoating them for our problems,' said Mark Potok, editor of the quarterly Intelligence Report, which monitors the radical right, in an editorial posted on the SPLC website.
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Journalist: Immigration A 'Forgotten Priority'

Brown Daily Herald, February 27. New York Times journalist Julia Preston delivered her lecture, 'Immigration: President Obama's Forgotten Priority' last night at the Watson Institute's Joukowsky Forum. There are days when Julia Preston receives three - even four - e-mails from illegal immigrants. 'Please help,' they often read. 'I'm desperate. I'm writing from a detention center. ... I have no one else.' Immigration reform, the Pulitzer-prize winning New York Times journalist said, will be a profoundly difficult issue for President Obama. Her lecture, entitled 'Immigration: President Obama's Forgotten Priority,' at the Watson Institute for International Studies' Joukowsky Forum provided an overview of immigration policy in the Bush era and highlighted current challenges facing the country.
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Technology Promises Shorter Lines At Border

Associated Press, February 26. U.S. authorities unveiled technology Thursday at the nation's busiest border crossing to read chip-enabled travel documents up to 30 feet from an inspection booth. The system promises shorter waits but raises concerns about targeting by computer hackers. San Diego's San Ysidro border crossing is a key test for the 'radio frequency identification document readers' because the facility is used by about 150,000 people daily. It's the 13th land crossing to get the technology in recent months, and Customs and Border Protection plans to have it in place by June at the 39 busiest crossings with Mexico and Canada. The chips already are contained in about 40,000 drivers licenses in two Canadian border states -- 32,000 in Washington and 7,700 in New York.
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U.S. Immigration Policies Bring Global Shame on Us

New America Media, February 26. As one of the five full-time media relations specialists working for Maricopa County Sheriff and reality TV star Joe Arpaio- “America's Toughest Sheriff" - Detective Aaron Douglas deals with the world’s media more than most. Though he is a local official, his is often the first voice heard by many of the foreign correspondents covering immigration in the United States.“We talk to media from literally all over world: New Zealand, Australia, United Kingdom, Mexico, Chinese and other parts of the Orient,” Douglas drawled in a Southern accent. “We just did a series with a TV station from Mexico City about the isolation of illegal immigrants and why we’re putting them in a tent.” He was referring to a controversial march reported and discussed widely by international media and bloggers last week.
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Egyptian Family Chases A Better Future

Daily Record, February 26. In 2006, Magdy Khalil and Josfeen Gerges won the lottery -- but not in the sense you're probably thinking. The Egyptian couple didn't score any cash. Actually, the prize required them to shell out about $12,000. After 10 years of submitting their names for the United States' annual Diversity Visa Lottery each January, they won the jackpot: A chance for their family to come to America. They sold Khalil's father's home and took money from their savings to pay for the application and embassy fees, and five plane tickets. By May of that year, they had their Visas in hand
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Bill Offers Leeway On Deportations

Star Telegram, February 26. Gloria Gonzalez-Garcia's family was torn in two Dec. 2. Her husband, José Alfredo Garcia, was arrested by Mineral Wells police, and his status as an illegal immigrant quickly got him a one-way ticket to Mexico. He was turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and deported the next day. It didn't matter that he had been paying taxes, buying a house or taking care of his daughters, who are American citizens because they were born in the U.S. The little ones don't understand, and they don't know what happened. They don't know why their dad has to be in Mexico,' Gonzalez-Garcia said at her Fort Worth home. Garcia's abrupt deportation is an example of how tens of thousands of parents are separated from their children when immigration law catches up with them.
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Police Not Focusing On Dangerous Illegal Immigrants, Study Says

Los Angeles Times, February 26. A federal program that empowers local police to enforce U.S. immigration laws has failed in its promise to target illegal immigrants who pose a threat to public safety or national security, according to a study released today. Instead of focusing on serious criminals, local law enforcement officers are arresting 'day laborers, street vendors, people who are driving around with broken taillights,' said Judith Greene, coauthor of the study by Justice Strategies, a New York-based nonprofit research organization focusing on humane and cost- effective approaches to criminal justice and immigration law enforcement.
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Anger Grows in India over U.S. Visa Rules

Business Week, February 24. With the economies in the U.S. and India both struggling and with unemployment rising, the outsourcing of American jobs to Indian workers has become an even more explosive issue. That's leading business leaders, politicians, and ordinary citizens in both countries to focus on a controversial visa program, the H-1B, that allows a limited number of foreigners to work at U.S. companies for up to six years. Critics have long claimed the program allows high-paying software-writing and engineering jobs at companies and state governments to go to foreigners. On Feb. 23, the H-1B critics got a new round of ammunition. Data released by the U.S. Citizen & Immigration Services showed that in 2008, for the second year running, many of these visas went to Indian IT services companies that were sending engineers to the U.S. temporarily to work. In effect, a visa that had been designed for U.S. corporations to remain competitive at a time of talent shortage had become a blessing for the U.S. operations of global Indian companies, allowing them to send engineers from India, rather than hiring locally.
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A South Floridian Is Tapped To Help Shape Immigration Policy In D.C.

Miami Herald (FL), February 24. Florida immigrant advocates looking for possible clues to the direction President Barack Obama will take his new administration may need to look no further than the appointment this week of a woman whose name is familiar to virtually all immigration advocates and attorneys in Miami: Esther Olavarria. The lawyer and policy wonk held jobs with the Florida Immigration Advocacy Center, the Haitian Refugee Center, and Legal Services of Greater Miami before moving to a bigger stage in Washington, D.C. Both supporters and opponents of more open borders in the United States say Olavarria's appointment as deputy assistant secretary for policy within the Department of Homeland Security likely augurs greater opportunities for migrants in the U.S., a theme that is consistent with Obama's stump message when he was on the campaign trail.
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Indian Firms, Microsoft Top H-1B List

Business Week, February 24. More fuel was added to the controversy surrounding the use of H-1B visas with the release of government data showing that Indian outsourcing firms dominated the list of top recipients of H-1B visas for high-skilled workers in 2008. At No. 5, Microsoft (MSFT) was the top U.S. tech company on the list. It was the second straight year that the Indian firms led the list of visa petition approvals. The data, compiled by the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Service (USCIS), are for fiscal year 2008, which ended Sept. 20. The H-1B visa program is currently capped at 65,000 per year, with another 20,000 set aside for advanced-degree graduates of U.S. universities.
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Immigration Advocates Slam Last-Minute Mukasey Rule

Washington Independent, February 24. On January 7, just two weeks before the inauguration of President Obama, Attorney General Michael Mukasey ruled that immigrants have no right to be represented by a lawyer, and no right to appeal an adverse ruling based on a lawyer’s mistakes. 'Neither the Constitution nor any statutory or regulatory provision,' the Attorney General wrote, 'entitles an alien to a do-over if his initial removal proceeding is prejudiced by the mistakes of a privately retained lawyer.' This last-minute decision has gotten little media attention, but it has dismayed immigration lawyers, who say clients frequently come to them with legitimate asylum or other claims that should allow them to remain in the United States, but that their previous lawyers either didn’t know the law, missed a critical deadline or just didn’t bother to communicate with their client. For the last 20 years, immigrants have had the right to re-open a case if they could show that they were denied a fair hearing due to their lawyer’s mistakes.
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Uncle Sam Wants A Few Good Immigrants

PajamasMedia.com, February 23. Uncle Sam is looking for a few good immigrants. You heard right. Stretched thin by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military is turning to the foreign-born to offset recruitment shortfalls. Specifically, the military is interested in immigrants with high skills who have been in the country legally on temporary visas for at least two years. Recruits who join could become U.S. citizens in as little as six months. Illegal immigrants need not apply. The initiative will be limited to about 1,000 recruits in the first year, mostly for the U.S. Army.
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Deported Infant Case Back In Court

Associated Press, February 23. A South Texas woman's lawsuit against the federal government for deporting her 1-year-old daughter — a U.S. citizen — to Mexico will move forward after a federal appeals court ruled that it was incorrectly dismissed by a lower court. Monica Castro did not see her daughter for three years after the Border Patrol deported her along with her father, an illegal immigrant, whom Castro had reported to authorities after an argument, according to court records.
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Stimulus Package Sets H-1B Limits, Leaves Out E-Verify Mandate

Computer World, February 23. A provision requiring banks receiving federal bailout funds to give hiring priority to U.S. workers over foreigners with H-1B visas made it into the final version of the economic stimulus bill that President Barack Obama signed last week. But House and Senate negotiators dropped a separate proposal that would have forced all employers benefiting from stimulus money to use the government's Web-based E-Verify system to vet the employment status of their workers. The new H-1B restrictions require financial services firms that get money under the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) to comply with rules set for 'H-1B-dependent' companies -- those where more than 15% of the workers are on visas. The rules set a number of requirements for organizations looking to hire H-1B holders, including the need to attest that the employer actively recruited U.S. workers and wouldn't be displacing or replacing U.S. citizens.
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Supreme Court Hears Immigrant's ID Theft Case

Associated Press, February 22. Ignacio Carlos Flores-Figueroa, an undocumented worker from Mexico, made a curious and undeniably bad decision. After working under an assumed name for six years, he decided to use his real name and exchanged one set of phony identification numbers for another. The change made his employer suspicious and the authorities were called in. The old numbers were made up, but the new ones he bought happened to belong to real people. Federal prosecutors said that was enough to label Flores-Figueroa an identity thief.
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Enforcement Gone Bad

New York Times, February 21. The failures of the immigration system are many and severe, but the main problem is not that the country is catching too few undocumented immigrants. It is catching too many. Since the early 1990s, you could write the federal government’s immigration strategy on a cardboard sign: Deport Them All. A report last week from the Pew Hispanic Center laid bare some striking results of that campaign. It found that Latinos now make up 40 percent of those sentenced in federal courts, even though they are only about 13 percent of the adult population. They accounted for one-third of federal prison inmates in 2007. The numbers might suggest we are besieged by immigrant criminals. But of all the noncitizen Latinos sentenced last year, the vast majority — 81 percent — were convicted for unlawfully entering or remaining in the country, neither of which is a criminal offense.
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Government Offers Look at Nation’s Immigrants

New York Times, February 21. Indians are the best educated newcomers from overseas. Somalis are the youngest and poorest. Immigrants from Jordan and Bangladesh are most likely to be working in sales and office jobs. Those are among the findings of a profile of the nation’s foreign-born residents, legal or illegal, released this week by the Census Bureau. Over all, the profile indicates that Latin Americans and Africans account for a greater share of the nation’s immigrant population than they did five years ago. In 1990, 22 percent of the foreign-born residents were from Mexico. By 2007, 31 percent were.
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Mexico: Exodus of Migrants Falls By More Than Half

Associated Press, February 20. Migration from Mexico, mainly to the United States, has fallen dramatically as fewer Mexicans leave their country to look for work abroad amid a global economic downturn, the government said Thursday. The net outflow of Mexicans — both legal and illegal — declined by over 50 percent in the 12 months ending in August 2008, compared the same period a year earlier, said the Eduardo Sojo, president of the board of Mexico's National Statistics, Geography and Information Institute. Sojo attributed the net drop in migration to tough economic conditions abroad motivating Mexicans to stay at home, rather than Mexicans in other countries returning to their homeland. 'There is declining tendency of people going abroad, but we have not detected, up to now, any increase in people returning to the country,' Sojo said. Sojo also said a recent survey of 'leading indicators' suggests that the number of Mexicans planning to emigrate in the future is also dropping. He did not provide details of that survey.
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Foreign Tech Workers Touchy Subject In U.S. Downturn

Reuters, February 19. U.S. technology companies, which are laying off thousands of employees, will likely have to water down their long-running campaign for permission to hire more foreign workers to avoid a political backlash this year. The tech industry employs three out of every five foreign workers under the country's H-1B visa program, which lets U.S. companies hire up to 65,000 foreigners per year, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data. Tech companies have long argued that hiring should be tied to market needs and not capped artificially, seeing the ability to scoop up foreign talent as critical to America's competitiveness.
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Dems Urge Review Of Arpaio's Acts

Cronkite News Service, February 18. A group of Hispanic lawmakers wants President Barack Obama's administration to join in a discussion of whether Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has engaged in civil-rights abuses. The Arizona Latino Legislative Caucus says sheriff's deputies have been stopping people for trivial traffic violations but could be racially profiling their targets. Sheriff's deputies have been conducting raids for the past two years in predominantly Hispanic areas. Arpaio has defended the raids as legal and legitimate.
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Immigration Study Casts Doubt On Law

The Journal, February 19 A new report says that the partnership between the state's local law-enforcement agencies and federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement has created a climate of racial profiling, threatens civil rights and doesn't meet the program's own goals. The report released yesterday by the UNC School of Law and the ACLU of North Carolina examines the 287(g) program, which takes its name from the section of federal immigration law that established it in 1996. Eight agencies in the state have the program, which trains local law enforcement to act as immigration authorities. The most common arrangement is for jailers to check immigration status after being trained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
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New Face Of Offender In Federal Courts Is Hispanic

AP, February 18. Hispanics outnumber other ethnic groups among criminal offenders in the federal courts due in part to the crackdown on illegal immigration, according to a study released Wednesday.The Pew Hispanic Center, which analyzed federal sentencing data, found that in 2007, 40 percent of the offenders were Hispanic, compared with 27 percent white, 23 percent black and 10 percent from other groups. In 1991, whites comprised 43 percent of those sentenced in federal courts and 24 percent were Hispanic.The Hispanic offenders were more likely to be non-citizens and nearly half of the crimes were immigration-related. Three-quarters of the crimes were for re-entering or remaining in the country illegally, while about a fifth were for smuggling, transporting or harboring an illegal immigrant.
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Schumer To Take Helm On Immigration Panel

Irish Echo, February 18. New York's Senator Charles Schumer is the new chairman of the Senate Immigration-Sub Committee. He will take over the role vacated recently by Senator Edward Kennedy who held the position for 28 years. The sub-committee, which also covers issues pertaining to refugees and border security, is an arm of the full Senate Judiciary Committee and in its new form will be made up of six Democrats, including Schumer, and for Rrepublicans with the ranking Republican being Senator John Cornyn of Texas. Senator Schumer has considerable experience in immigration issues and his name has been for years associated with the diversity visa program.
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Federal Immigration Bill Introduced

Keen News Service, February 18. Saying that now there's a president in the White House who is not a 'guaranteed veto' for the legislation, U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler reintroduced a bill Feb. 12 that seeks to enable gay Americans to sponsor their foreign same-sex partners for legal residency in the United States. U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy reintroduced the companion bill in the Senate. Speaking to reporters on a telephone conference call, Nadler said it would be hard to say what the 'odds' are for the bill—the Uniting American Families Act'—to pass.
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Rahm's Immigration Turnabout

Politico February 17. It was not so long ago that Rahm Emanuel was on the House Democratic leadership team and being accused of throwing immigrants 'under the bus' for the sake of strengthening Democrats’ power in the House. As the engineer of the Democrats’ 2007 takeover of Congress, Emanuel was viewed as stalling House consideration of broad immigration legislation, fearing that Democrats in Republican-leaning districts would become roadkill at the hands of angry voters. Even a Democratic president would have to wait until his second term to take on the issue, Emanuel once opined. But now, as President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, Emanuel is removing roadblocks that stand in the way of some of the legislative agenda benefitting immigrants, ethnic minorities and their advocates.
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Napolitano Outlines Immigration Priorities

NPR News, February 16. As governor of the border state of Arizona, Janet Napolitano was on the front line of the immigration debate. As the new secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, she inherits a department that was recently blasted by the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute. The New York Times called the institute's scathing report a 'portrait of dysfunction.' Napolitano joins Madeleine Brand to discuss what's in store for federal immigration policy. A transcript of the conversation follows.
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U.S. Military Will Offer Path to Citizenship

New York Times, February 15. Stretched thin in Afghanistan and Iraq, the American military will begin recruiting skilled immigrants who are living in this country with temporary visas, offering them the chance to become United States citizens in as little as six months. Immigrants who are permanent residents, with documents commonly known as green cards, have long been eligible to enlist. But the new effort, for the first time since the Vietnam War, will open the armed forces to temporary immigrants if they have lived in the United States for a minimum of two years, according to military officials familiar with the plan. Recruiters expect that the temporary immigrants will have more education, foreign language skills and professional expertise than many Americans who enlist, helping the military to fill shortages in medical care, language interpretation and field intelligence analysis.
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Downturn Dilemma: Foreign Professionals And Worker Visas.

Seattle Times, February 15. The portfolio manager, a citizen of Nepal, had been at Washington Mutual for 13 months when he heard the stunning news: The bank had failed; he was out of a job. He had graduated in the top 10 percent of his class, and WaMu was the second U.S. lender to sponsor him for a so-called H-1B employment visa. Favored by high-tech companies — but increasingly divisive in this imploding labor market — employment visas are issued to hundreds of thousands of foreign professionals in a range of specialty occupations from high-tech to high-fashion modeling. And they are issued even when qualified U.S. workers are available to fill the jobs.
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Republicans And Hispanics Continue Growing Apart

Dallas Morning News, February 14. Hispanic Republicans are an endangered species. That's not wishful thinking on the part of Democrats. It's a growing concern by Hispanic Republicans themselves, and they say the GOP leadership seems oblivious to it. 'The underlying current in Hispanic communities is that Democrats are capturing the hearts and minds of Hispanics wholesale,' said Jason Villalba, president of the Dallas chapter of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly. 'Republicans will not be able to win any national elections if they don't do something soon. But the problem I'm having is breaking through to them with this message.'
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Visa Fraud Sparks Arrests Nationwide

Business Week, February 13. The controversy over the H-1B visa program for highly skilled workers is heating up once again. Federal agents detained 11 people in six states as part of a wide investigation into suspected visa fraud, the U.S. Attorney's office in Iowa announced on Feb. 12, a day after the arrests. Those arrested are accused of fraudulently representing themselves or other workers in immigration documents.
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E-Verify Program Removed From 'Stimulus' Package

One News Now, February 13. An immigration reform organization is appalled that the Senate-House Conference Committee failed to include two important amendments in the House-approved 'stimulus' package. Those two measures would have ensured that illegal immigrants will not be able to benefit from the bill. On January 28, when the U.S. House passed its version of the economic stimulus package known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, it included two important safeguards. One was an amendment that would reauthorize the E-Verify program for four years, while the other would require all companies receiving stimulus funds to verify that their employees are legally authorized to work in the United States.
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Stimulus: Tighter H-1B Controls on Bailed Out Banks

Business Week, February 13. In the final version of the stimulus bill, Senate and House negotiators agreed to stricter limits on banks and other firms that take taxpayer bailouts that use the H-1B visa program. The proposal by Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) was added to the economic recovery package in the Senate on Feb. 6. A conference committee retained the provision in the version of the bill that is expected to win final congressional approval in the coming days. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Immigration Lawyers Association had lobbied against inclusion of the provision.
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Sen. Jeff Sessions Blasts Reid and Pelosi for Stripping E-Verify from Stimulus Package

NumbersUSA Congress Watch, February 12. Senator Jeff Sessions just released a press release criticizing both Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi for stripping the E-Verify amendments from the economic stimulus package. And he just finished delivering a speech on the Senate floor attempting to add E-Verify back into the bill, citing studies from Heritage and the Center for Immigration Studies that said several hundred thousand stimulus jobs will go to illegal aliens. On the Senate floor, Sessions brought up the fact that President Obama has already delayed the mandatory use of E-Verify for federal contractors and the program is set to expire on March 6.
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Border Passport Deadline Looming

Arizona Republic February 12. The State Department is trying to prevent a public-relations mess, not to mention chaos at U.S. border checkpoints, by warning Americans that they won't be allowed to enter the country from Mexico after June 1 without a passport. Those who are turned away will have to seek emergency documents through a U.S. consular office - a process that may take 24 hours or more. During an Arizona tour this week, Brenda Sprague, deputy assistant secretary of State for passport services, said her office is prepared to handle an onslaught of up to 30 million applications as the deadline nears.
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Korean Immigrant's Story: From Housemaid to Harvard

Voice of America News, February 12. Jin Kyu Robertson has come a long way since she immigrated to the United States as a housemaid when she was 22. Since then, she rose to the rank of major in the U.S. Army and completed a doctorate at Harvard University. Jin Robertson says she had inauspicious beginnings, but her story shows the power of perseverance. She was the child of tavern owner, and neither of her parents ever attended school. By the time Jin was in sixth grade, she excelled at her studies, and her parents agreed to let her complete middle and high school. There was no money for college, so she worked in a factory, as a waitress and housemaid. One day, she saw a newspaper ad for a housemaid in America. She applied for the job, over her family's objections.
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How Far Left Plans to Change America by Using Illegal Immigrants

Fox News, February 4. The New York Times actually did me a favor by implying that I am a racist and a white supremacist guy. The far-left paper attacked me because I understand their true agenda — and it has nothing to do with helping the poor. It has everything to do with amassing power and changing the political structure in America by using illegal immigrants. EDITOR’S NOTE: We cannot sanction the accuracy of any news or opinion originating from Fox.
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The Nativists Are Restless

New York Times, January 31. The relentlessly harsh Republican campaign against immigrants has always hidden a streak of racialist extremism. Now after several high-water years, the Republican tide has gone out, leaving exposed the nativism of fringe right-wingers clinging to what they hope will be a wedge issue.
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International Students Face Travel Hurdles

The Brown and White, February 10. Mamour Ba just wants to finish his degree. The Senegalese Ph.D. candidate came to Lehigh in 2003 to study electrical engineering. But when Ba decided to visit family in Senegal in May 2006, he began to learn what many other international students at Lehigh have: the United States immigration and visa process can be difficult and inhospitable. Because of what the U.S. Embassy described as "administrative processing" on his re-entry visa, Ba wasn't allowed to return to the United States. As if a two-year hiatus in his studies wasn't enough, his mother died on April 2, one day after the U.S. embassy said he could return to Bethlehem. His new visa stipulated that he be in the U.S. by May 20, so he was unable to stay in Senegal with his seven siblings. He came to Lehigh to fulfill the visa requirements and set up accommodations, then Ba, the oldest child, returned home for the summer to be with family and take care of the estate for which his mother hadn't left a will.
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DV Interviews Now In Sierra Leone

Awoko, February 8. Before now winners of the United States Diversity Visa (DV) lottery have to painstakingly brave it out of Sierra Leone for interviews in Ivory Coast or Senegal; but this will soon be a thing of the past.
The US embassy in Sierra Leone has revealed that DV interviews will be processed at the Embassy in Freetown starting late February this year. According to a release issued by the embassy they are “aware of the hardships faced by visa applicants who must travel to other countries for their applications, and this is the next step in the ongoing process to resume full US visa services in Freetown.
The release however clearly pointed out that “all applicants previously scheduled for interviews in Abidjan will complete their applications in Abidjan.”
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Commerce Nominee Favors H1-B Visa Expansion

eWeek.com, February 4. Sen. Gregg Judd would bring a record to the Department of Commerce that unabashedly endorses an expansion of H1-B workers for the technology industry. That support, though, doesn't necessarily mean either the U.S. House or Senate will move to expand the H1-B visa cap. In Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), President Barack Obama's new nominee to run the Department of Commerce, the tech industry has found their man when it comes to expanding the H1-B visa program. The 61-year-old senator is an unabashed fan of the program. A favorite of American technology companies, the H-1B program is a temporary work visa program allowing American companies and universities to employ foreign guest workers who have the equivalent of a U.S. bachelor's degree in a job category that is considered by the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services to be a 'specialty occupation.' The idea is to help companies hire foreign guest workers on a temporary basis when there is not a sufficient qualified American work force to meet those needs.
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Obama Labor Secretary Pick Backs Enforcement

San Francisco Chronicle, February 4. President Obama's pick for secretary of labor, Rep. Hilda Solis, could help shape a new approach to immigration control that emphasizes the robust enforcement of labor laws. Where the Bush administration stepped up workplace immigration enforcement, sweeping up migrant workers and not always going after the employers who illegally hire them, the Obama administration is expected to take a different tack. Immigrant advocates hope that strengthening compliance with workplace health and safety laws and wage and hour standards - which Solis promised in her hearing before the labor committee in January - will protect workers in general and could reduce the likelihood that some employers will seek to profit by hiring undocumented workers.
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Health Organizations Oppose Immigrant HPV Vaccine Requirement

Medpage Today, February 4. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has joined more than 100 other groups in calling for the removal of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine from the list of required immunizations for female immigrants. In a letter to the CDC, the organizations urged acting director Richard Bresser, M.D., to direct its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) to modify its recommendation of the vaccine. In 2006, ACIP recommended the vaccine for girls and women ages 11 to 26. Immigration law requires that anyone seeking permanent residency in the U.S. must get all the vaccinations recommended by the committee. 'Although ACOG strongly recommends the HPV vaccine, it does not support mandatory HPV vaccination. Prospective immigrant women should have the same opportunity as American women to make an informed decision about whether or not to be vaccinated against HPV,' the College said in a statement.
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Border-Fence Project Hits a Snag

The Wall Street Journal, February 4. Construction of the final stretch of a 670-mile security fence along the southern U.S. border has hit a series of legal, political and engineering obstacles that are slowing completion of the yearlong project. More than 600 miles of fencing are already up -- a hodge-podge of metal panels, wire mesh and steel posts. The California, Arizona and New Mexico portions were finished largely without incident. But the last 70 miles, mostly along the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, are proving a challenge. Crewswork on the security fence along the southern U.S. borderwest of Progresso, Texas, in December. Completing the fence is proving to be a challenge. Opponents of the fence have petitioned the Obama administration to halt construction. Environmentalists are demanding a top-level review of the route, which they say would block such rare species as the ocelot from critical habitat. Property owners are contesting federal seizure of their land. Engineers are struggling to address flooding concerns.
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Bad Economy Forces Some Migrant Workers Home

East Hampton Press, February 3. Some local immigrants have returned to their native countries or are planning to leave because of the lack of work. While most people in the immigrant community are staying, the flow of their money, which usually travels from East Hampton to Latin America via money wires, has reversed. In the communications hub called Latin Express, a hair salon, Elsa Crespo, who works behind the counter and hails from Ecuador, said on Thursday she thinks that about 70 percent of the immigrant community in the area is without work and that people are starting to leave. But the main change she has noticed is that people are receiving money wires, when 'before they were always sending money to their home countries,' she said in Spanish.
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Republicans Re-ignite Migrant Issue

Financial Times, February 2. Two years ago opposition to illegal immigration was the biggest lightning rod in US politics. Today it appears virtually to have vanished. But with unemployment marching towards double digits, some Republican lawmakers have started to rekindle the issue. A series of raids to find and deport illegal immigrants has coincided with a decline in their job prospects in the US. The seeds of this latest potential backlash are not confined just to illegal immigrants. Last week, Chuck Grassley, the Republican senator from Iowa, wrote to Steve Ballmer, chief executive of Microsoft, urging him first to dismiss foreign workers on H1B visas as part of the company’s 5,000 job cuts during the next 18 months. 'Microsoft has a moral obligation to protect these American workers by putting them first during these difficult economic times,' Mr Grassley wrote.
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AP Investigation: Banks Sought Foreign Workers

Associated Press, February 2. Major U.S. banks sought government permission to bring thousands of foreign workers into the country for high-paying jobs even as the system was melting down last year and Americans were getting laid off, according to an Associated Press review of visa applications. The dozen banks now receiving the biggest rescue packages, totaling more than $150 billion, requested visas for more than 21,800 foreign workers over the past six years for positions that included senior vice presidents, corporate lawyers, junior investment analysts and human resources specialists. The average annual salary for those jobs was $90,721, nearly twice the median income for all American households.
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Mexico Collapse Unlikely: Experts Say Government Stable Despite Mounting Border Violence

El Paso Times, February 2. A chorus of current and former U.S. officials are sounding alarms about Mexico, warning the war-zone conditions in cities like Juárez could lead to the government's downfall. These voices include the Joint Forces Command, ex-CIA Director Michael Hayden, former Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff, as well as ex-U.S. drug czar Barry McCaffrey. Last Tuesday, Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also said he was concerned about escalating border violence. Early in January, an obscure organization -- the Movimiento Armado del Norte (Northern Armed Movement) -- sent an alarming communique on the Internet calling on the Mexican people to revolt against the government. But, in a letter to the El Paso Times, Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico's ambassador to the United States in Washington, denies his country is on the verge of collapse.
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Microsoft: Layoffs for Some, Visas for Others

Business Week, February 1. Even as the economy hemorrhages jobs, many employers continue to advocate for fewer restrictions on importing foreign workers to fill specialized jobs. They say that while there's growing slack in the job market, there are still shortages of people to act as farm hands, nurses, and software engineers. Not surprisingly, foreign-worker programs are coming under fire in the face of the highest U.S. unemployment rate in 16 years—7.2% in December. One of the critics' biggest targets is the software giant Microsoft (MSFT).
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New NY Senator Meets With Hispanics On Immigration

Syracuse.com, February 1. New York's new senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, who has drawn fire from Hispanics over her views on immigration and gun control, says she's willing to listen and perhaps even change her positions on some subjects — but isn't ready to make any commitments. "We need to recognize the heritage that the immigrant community has provided to this country and put policies in place that will reflect that core value," Gillibrand, who recently assumed Hillary Clinton's old Senate seat, said after a two-hour meeting on Sunday with a dozen or so Hispanic members of the state Assembly and the City Council.
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Layoffs Mean More Than Lost Wages For H-1B Visa Holders

San Jose Mercury News, February 1. For the two out-of-work engineers, it's a race against time. They've lost their Silicon Valley jobs and need to quickly find others at a time when companies everywhere are tightening their belts. Both are Indians whose advanced degrees were earned at American universities. And both are facing the inflexible rules of their H-1B work visas. Technically, as soon as they lost their jobs, they were required to leave the country. In reality, they can probably wing it for a week or two, but not much longer. This stark dilemma is being repeated with increasing frequency across Silicon Valley, according to immigration specialists, as companies downsize to weather a punishing downturn. It's a small number compared with the layoffs of H-1B visa holders during the dot-com crash. But the downturn has sent a wave of concern through the community of immigrant workers who hold the visa, which companies use to hire skilled noncitizens.
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Groups Aim To Protect U.S. Jobs In Stimulus Bill

Los Angeles Times, January 31. Anti-illegal-immigration groups launched a campaign late last year to ensure that any jobs created by the economic stimulus package go to Americans and not to illegal immigrants. So when the House bill passed this week with a provision designed to do just that, they declared victory. 'What sense does it make to spend hundreds of billions of dollars in borrowed money to create jobs if those jobs aren't going toward American workers?' said Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform. An amendment to the House bill, sponsored by Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), would require contractors that receive federal funds through the bill to verify the immigration status of their employees using a controversial program called E-Verify. At least two senators have indicated they will push for a similar measure in the Senate version of the stimulus bill.
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Immigration Reform is a Promise Waiting to be Filled

HuffingtonPost.com, January 30. With each stroke of his pen, every transatlantic call made and all the bipartisan meetings he's resided over so far, President Obama is on track to fulfill his campaign promises. Only a week into the job and Obama has already reversed policies on carbon dioxide emissions, signed orders to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, extended an invitation to dialogue with the Muslim world and started the discussion for the drawdown of American troops from Iraq.
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Gregg's Stances On Immigration Similar To Obama's

The Hill, January 30. Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), who is under consideration to be nominated as Commerce secretary, has supported contentious immigration legislation that sharply divided his party. President Obama's Commerce secretary is expected to play a major role in immigration reform discussions. Gregg has attracted criticism in conservative circles for his stance on immigration, including a vote in 2006 for a bill that Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass) called 'the most far-reaching immigration reform in our history.' The legislation, which would have allowed millions of illegal immigrants to stay in the country and ultimately earn citizenship, later died in conference. In June of 2007, Gregg and 63 other senators backed a motion to support proceeding to debate on another wide-ranging immigration bill that his many of his Republican colleagues condemned as offering 'amnesty' to illegal immigrants. That bill also failed to clear Congress.
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Senate Passes Health Insurance Bill for Children

Washington Post, January 30. The Senate overwhelmingly approved legislation yesterday to provide health insurance to 11 million low-income children, a bill that would for the first time spend federal money to cover children and pregnant women who are legal immigrants. The State Children's Health Insurance Program, which is aimed at families earning too much money to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford private insurance, currently covers close to 7 million youngsters at a cost of $25 billion. Lawmakers voted 66 to 32, largely along party lines, to renew the joint state-federal program and spend an additional $32.8 billion to expand coverage to 4 million more children. The expansion would be paid for by raising the cigarette tax from 39 cents a pack to $1.
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Immigration Reform Is in Sight, Say Advocates

New America Media, January 29. Pro-immigrant advocates believe the Obama administration will have a window of opportunity between this September and March 2010 to shepherd a comprehensive immigration package that will provide a path to legalization for an estimated 12 million undocumented residents, strengthen border security and help the ailing economy. Part of their optimism is attributed to the large Latino vote that broke for Barack Obama by a 2-to-1 ratio in key states like Arizona, Nevada and Colorado. "Obama has made clear a campaign commitment to address this in his first year (in office), and we plan to hold him accountable," said Janet Murguía, president and CEO of the National Council of La Raza.
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E-Verify Rule Governing Contractor Employees Postponed

Federal Computer Week, January 28. The government has agreed to postpone implementing the E-Verify regulation for federal contractors until May 21 at the earliest, a business group announced today. The regulation would require contractors to check the E-Verify system to determine if workers are legally eligible to work in the United States. Federal officials agreed to a request by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to postpone enforcement of the regulation so the rule can be reviewed by the Obama administration, the chamber said in a news release today. It is the second time the federal government has pushed back the deadline. The chamber and other business groups earlier this month challenged the legitimacy of the E-Verify regulation in a lawsuit. They were successful in delaying the starting date for enforcement to Feb. 20, from the initial date of Jan. 15.
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US Immigration History Preserved On Angel Island

BostonHerald.com, January 27. The Angel Island Immigration Station, once known as the "Ellis Island of the West," is reopening after a multimillion-dollar restoration of the historical landmark aimed at showing visitors a chapter of American history that many would rather forget. Hundreds of thousands of immigrants, mostly from Asia, were detained on the largest island in San Francisco Bay for days, weeks and sometimes months in the three decades before World War II.
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Justice Department Looks At Treatment Of Deportee

San Diego Union-Tribune, January 27. The Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility is investigating an incident last week in which federal agents are accused of beating a man being deported to Mexico. Representatives of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol met with Mexican consular and immigration officials in San Diego yesterday to discuss the incident, which occurred Thursday night. According to U.S. immigration officials, Agustín Castillo Hernández, 33, attempted to escape as agents were preparing to send him through the turnstile into Tijuana at the San Ysidro border crossing. Agents chased and caught him. A witness said agents kicked Castillo while he was on the ground.
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Victims' U-Visa Program Falters

Los Angeles Times, January 26. When Jorge Garcia delivered a pizza in Van Nuys in September 2003, he was forced at knifepoint to enter the apartment. Garcia said two men choked him until he passed out. When he awoke, his neck and wrist had been sliced and his stomach burned with an iron. The men told Garcia they had a gun and threatened to kill him. Then the assailants picked him up, threw him in the trunk of his car and dumped the vehicle. Bleeding and in pain, Garcia escaped and sought help. He later identified both men and testified against them in court, helping convict them of several charges -- including robbery, carjacking and kidnapping -- that will send them to prison for life.
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Nicholson To GOP: Rethink Immigration

Politico January 25. Former Republican National Committee Chair and Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson spoke out on the GOP’s electoral challenges Friday, urging Republicans to reach out to Hispanic voters by reviewing their position on immigration. 'We have to better inform and motivate and align with the Hispanic voters,' Nicholson said in an interview with Politico. 'That’s one of the key issues that the party and its leaders need to convene and, you know, have a very open, transparent discussion about developing a party position on.' Nicholson, whose home state of Colorado turned blue in 2008 thanks in part to heavy Democratic voting among Hispanics, said Hispanics could be open to Republican ideas.
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Qualified Immigrants Struggle To Rebuild Careers In U.S

Medill Reports, January 22. A former minister of defense in the Democratic Republic of Congo is now a bellman in Springfield, while in Chicago, a Russian physicist bags groceries and an Indonesian engineer serves coffee in Starbucks. Television shows have long relied on the joke of an overqualified immigrant forced to work as unskilled labor in America, but the large number of unemployed college-educated immigrants are not laughing. More than 1.3 million college-educated immigrants are unemployed or working in unskilled jobs around the country, according to a study published by the Migration Policy Institute in October. The study says that one of every five immigrants is classified as a 'waste of human capital.' 'New immigrants don’t know how to penetrate the job market,' said Paula Restrepo of Upwardly Global, a non-profit organization that helps immigrant professionals from developing countries re-establish their careers. 'They are shining stars back in their own countries, but they don’t have the cultural-specific knowledge to succeed here.'
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Report Faults Treatment of Women Held at U.S. Immigration Centers

Int Herald Tribure, January 21. Some 300 women held at immigration detention centers in Arizona face dangerous delays in health care and widespread mistreatment, according to a new study by the University of Arizona, the latest report to criticize conditions at such centers throughout the United States. The study, which federal immigration officials criticized as narrow and unsubstantiated, was conducted from August 2007 to August 2008 by the Southwest Institute of Research on Women and the James E. Rogers College of Law, both at the University of Arizona.
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Obama Begins Day With Moment Of Solitude, Then Business

CNNPolitics.com, January 21. President Obama began his first full day in office with a moment of solitude in the Oval Office, reading a note from his predecessor, before making phone calls to Middle East leaders. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel briefs President Obama in the Oval Office. Obama arrived in the Oval Office at 8:35 a.m., according to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. The president spent 10 minutes alone, reading a note left for him in the desk by outgoing President George W. Bush. The note had been placed in an envelope with a note saying: "To: # 44, From: # 43."
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How Will Obama Administration Impact Immigration?

Law.com, January 20. OPINION. There has been much speculation over the new administration's impact in 2009, but the immigration debate seems to have taken a backseat. With the economic crises and the Iraq war to contend with, many say that President Barack Obama will have his hands full, and immigration reform will just have to wait. But, it cannot. An outdated system causing business and individuals undue financial, legal and emotional hardship needs repair. Millions of people nationwide are counting on desperately needed changes in our immigration laws and regulations. Staggering numbers of undocumented persons live in the shadows of society. Thousands of families must live apart due to family-based immigration visa backlogs. Employers are competing furiously to sponsor foreign specialized workers for the few temporary visas allotted each year. Untold numbers of companies are unable to employ foreign workers for years, even when no U.S. workers are available for the positions.
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Bush Commutes Sentences Of Former US Border Agents

Yahoo News, Jan 19. In his final acts of clemency, President George W. Bush on Monday commuted the prison sentences of two former U.S. Border Patrol agents whose convictions for shooting a Mexican drug dealer ignited fierce debate about illegal immigration. Bush's decision to commute the sentences of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who tried to cover up the shooting, was welcomed by both Republican and Democratic members of Congress. They had long argued that the agents were merely doing their jobs, defending the American border against criminals. They also maintained that the more than 10-year prison sentences the pair was given were too harsh.
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African Immigrants Feel Special Link With Obama

Arizona Republic, January 19. Much attention has been paid to Barack Obama becoming the nation's first Black president, but his ties to Africa highlight an often-overlooked outcome of the civil-rights movement: African immigration. The civil-rights movement helped pave the way for Obama's presidency and helped spur the passage of the 1965 immigration act, which opened the door to immigration from Africa. Since then, immigration from the continent has accelerated, especially over the past two decades, bringing more than 1 million Africans, many of whom have settled in Arizona. "Certainly, the larger numbers of Africans now coming to the United States wouldn't be possible without the civil-rights movement," said Matthew Whitaker, a history professor at Arizona State University.
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Immigration Takes Back Seat To Big Issues

Arizona Daily Star, January 18. Don't count on immigration overhaul reaching the Senate floor anytime soon. With an economy in a shambles and a host of pressing foreign-policy challenges, analysts predict the once-hot topic will have to wait in line for attention. That's the case even though the incoming president, Barack Obama, and his selection for homeland security secretary, outgoing Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, say a comprehensive overhaul is needed.
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Federal Judge Refuses To Stop Visa Changes

AG Weekly, January 16. A federal judge on Thursday turned down a request to stop the Bush administration from instituting new rules that will make it easier for farmers to bring in foreign work crews to harvest their spring crops. U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina refused the request from the United Farm Workers and Farmworker Justice to stop the Labor Department from instituting new H2-A visa rules. H2-A visas are used by the agriculture industry to hire temporary farm workers.
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Economy, Not Immigration, a Top Worry of Latinos

Washington Post, January 16. The immigration issue has receded in importance for Latinos amid their mounting alarm over the economy, according to a nationwide poll released yesterday by the nonpartisan Pew Hispanic Center. Only 31 percent of Latinos surveyed cited immigration as an "extremely important" priority for the incoming Obama administration, ranking the issue behind not only the economy but education, health care, national security and the environment.
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Feds Plan to Take DNA Samples of Anyone Arrested for Immigration Violations

FOX News, January 15. A Mexican national arraigned last month in San Diego on 11 charges in a rape case is now a poster boy for a new Department of Justice policy requiring federal officials to take DNA samples from those arrested on immigration violations. Before being charged with rape, suspect Carlos Ceron Salazar was deported nine times from the United States. Had the new DOJ policy been in place, federal officials say many victims could have been spared. EDITOR’S NOTE: We cannot sanction the accuracy of any news or opinion originating from Fox.
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GOP Rep. Tancredo: Bush Wrong To Worry About 'Anti-Immigrant' Party

The Huffington Post, January 15. President Bush has a long list of regrets that he's been sharing as he eases his way out of the White House. Chief among them is the failure to pass comprehensive immigration reform. 'I'm very disappointed that it didn't pass,' Bush told Texas reporters last week. 'I'm very worried about the message that said, 'Republicans are anti-immigrant.'' Instead of trying to reform Social Security immediately after the 2004 election, he said in hindsight, he should have gone for immigration reform.
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Recession Unlikely to Drive Away Illegal Immigrants, Report Finds

Washington Post, January 15. Although the U.S. economy's nosedive has probably contributed to a substantial drop in the number of illegal immigrants coming into the United States, those already here will be less motivated to return home, according to a report released yesterday. Among other reasons, the report cited illegal immigrants' family and job ties to this country, the difficulty they would face trying to reenter the United States after its economy improves, the comparatively weaker state of their countries' economies and the strengthening U.S. dollar.
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House Votes to Expand Child Health Insurance

Washington Post, January 15. The House easily approved an expansion of government health coverage for low-income children yesterday, a top priority for President-elect Barack Obama and the first in a series of stalled measures expected to move quickly through the Democratic Congress as President Bush leaves office. Obama hailed the 289 to 139 vote and nudged the Senate to act with the 'same sense of urgency so that it can be one of the first measures I sign into law when I am president.'
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Blanket Amnesty For Illegal Aliens

FOX News, January 14. OPINION. Ever since the Democrats won big last November we have been reporting on the issues that matter most to the far-left element of that party, because those people are the ones putting big pressure on President-elect Obama. So far there are three major issues the far left is crazed about. First, the dismantling of the Bush-Cheney anti-terror policies. Second, the legalization of gay marriage. And third, blanket amnesty for foreign nationals living in the USA illegally, and allowing them citizenship. The latest salvo on that front was fired by Cardinal Mahoney of Los Angeles, who is an ardent supporter of amnesty. Speaking to the National Immigration Forum, the cardinal said: "Immigrants must be brought out of the shadows so that they can fully contribute to our nation's future economic and social well-being." EDITOR’S NOTE: We cannot sanction the accuracy of any news or opinion originating from Fox.
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U.S. Military Report Warns 'Sudden Collapse' Of Mexico Is Possible

El Paso Times, January 13. Mexico is one of two countries that 'bear consideration for a rapid and sudden collapse,' according to a report by the U.S. Joint Forces Command on worldwide security threats. The command's 'Joint Operating Environment (JOE 2008)' report, which contains projections of global threats and potential next wars, puts Pakistan on the same level as Mexico. 'In terms of worse-case scenarios for the Joint Force and indeed the world, two large and important states bear consideration for a rapid and sudden collapse: Pakistan and Mexico. 'The Mexican possibility may seem less likely, but the government, its politicians, police and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and press by criminal gangs and drug cartels. How that internal conflict turns out over the next several years will have a major impact on the stability of the Mexican state. Any descent by Mexico into chaos would demand an American response based on the serious implications for homeland security alone.'
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New Software Helps Those Who Want To Speak English Like A Native

ScrippsNews, January 13. Mia Liu, a Chinese MBA student at the University of British Columbia, wants to speak clear, precise English for business and pleasure. That's why she's using Carnegie Speech's NativeAccent software to improve her spoken English. Carnegie Speech, a Carnegie Mellon University spin-off company, in 2004 started marketing its NativeAccent software and Carnegie Speech Assessment software, which pinpoints errors in sound, rhythm and pitch.
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New Travel Rules Require Online Registration For Non-Visa Travel To US

Associated Press, January 12. New rules went into effect Monday requiring people traveling to the U.S. under the visa waiver program to register online in advance, instead of filling out paper forms in flight or at the airport. The new program, designed to improve U.S. security, has been voluntary since August, but became mandatory Monday. Travelers are being asked to fill out the forms at least 72 hours in advance of travel.
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Feds Postpone E-Verify Deadline

Eweek.com, January 12. Facing a lawsuit by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other industry groups, the government pushes back from Jan. 15 to Feb. 20 the original compliance date that federal contractors must begin using the controversial E-Verify program to check the immigration status of employees. Facing legal pressure from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other trade groups, the U.S. government has delayed by at least a month a federal mandate calling for federal contractors and subcontractors to use an Internet-based electronic verification system to confirm that prospective employees are legally eligible to work.
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Visas For Victims Can Lead to Green Cards

Northwest Asian Weekly, January 10. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) have announced the implementation of a rule that will allow 'T' and 'U' nonimmigrants to adjust their status and become lawful permanent residents. The interim final rule implements the provisions of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000. The legislation was intended to strengthen the ability of law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute cases of domestic violence, sexual assault, trafficking of persons, and other crimes while at the same time offering protection to victims of such crimes.
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Obama Needs To Reform US export And Visa Controls: Report

Yahoo News, January 9. Once he becomes president of the United States, Barack Obama should reform US export and visa controls for foreign students and scientists to benefit the economy and national security, a report recommended Thursday. Many of the current controls were "developed during the Cold War era to prevent the transfer of technological and scientific advances to our enemies," said the report by the National Research Council, which called for updating the restrictions. "In the modern globalized world of science and technology, restrictions on the flow of information, technology, and scientists can negatively impact both US competitiveness and security," said Stanford University President John Hennessy, co-chair of the committee that wrote the report.
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Immigrants in Charter Schools Seek Best of Two Worlds

New York Times, January 9. Fartun Warsame, a Somali immigrant, thought she was being a good mother when she transferred her five boys to a top elementary school in an affluent Minneapolis suburb. Besides its academic advantages, the school was close to her job as an ultrasound technician, so if the teachers called, she could get there right away. “Immediately they changed,” Ms. Warsame said of her sons. “They wanted to wear shorts. They’d say, ‘Buy me this.’ I said, ‘Where did you guys get this idea you can control me?’ ”
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Ruling Says Deportation Cases May Not Be Appealed Over Lawyer Errors

New York Times, January 8. The Bush administration has issued a ruling that illegal immigrants do not have a constitutional right to effective legal representation in deportation hearings, closing off one of the most common avenues for appealing deportation decisions. The ruling, by Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey, concerns three appeals by people ordered to be deported who said their cases had been hurt by mistakes by their lawyers. Mr. Mukasey wrote in an opinion released late Wednesday that “neither the Constitution nor any statutory or regulatory provision entitles an alien to a do-over if his initial removal proceeding is prejudiced by the mistakes of a privately retained lawyer.”
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What's Awaiting Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano

Arizona Republic, January 7. Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, tapped by President-elect Barack Obama to lead the Department of Homeland Security, is expected to move quickly and smoothly through the Senate confirmation process beginning next week. But if she is confirmed, the two-term governor and former federal prosecutor faces politically charged issues, from how to handle controversial raids conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to new intelligence that concludes terrorists probably will acquire weapons of mass destruction.
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For Italians in Brooklyn, Voices on Streets Have Changed

New York Times, January 7. Like many of the Italians who frequently visit the Amico senior center in Borough Park, Brooklyn, Salvatore Amato, 78, who arrived here from Sicily in 1958, speaks little English. Some, like Luigi Buonincondro, 91, a former Italian soldier who came to New York from Naples in 1961, understand English, but have a hard time reading or writing it. 'I got here, I was 44,' Mr. Buonincondro, a retired carpenter who lives three blocks from the center, said in heavily accented English as he savored some manicotti in the center’s cafeteria. 'I had to work. Too old for school.' Although the last big wave of Italian immigration ended in the 1960s, Italian remains one of the six most common foreign languages in New York, according to a 2007 census estimate. But those who speak it exclusively are increasingly elderly and isolated, with the small, tight-knit enclaves they built around the city slowly disappearing as they give way to demographic changes.
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Report: Firms Push Immigration for Cheap Labor

Newsmax.com, January 6. Many U.S. corporations use one hand to pull for more immigrants and amnesty for illegal immigrants, while the other hand pushes their own workers out the door, according to a new report that castigates such lobbying efforts. At the same time, some companies have both hands out for federal taxpayer bailouts, according to the report from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). And the businesses, which also push to allow more foreign guest workers, are not alone in seeking looser immigration laws: During the past three years, more than 500 corporations, trade associations, business groups, labor organizations, government agencies, schools, and nonprofit groups attempted to influence key congressional immigration-related legislation, according to FAIR, a national nonprofit group pressing to decrease immigration.
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Richardson Withdrawal Hurts Obama’s Southwest Strategy

New York Times, January 6. The withdrawal of Gov. Bill Richardson’s nomination as Commerce secretary was more than just a jolt to President-elect Barack Obama’s otherwise smooth transition. It was a setback for a less-remarked-on but politically significant aspect of the selection of Mr. Obama’s cabinet — the extent to which it reflects a marked attempt to consolidate Democratic gains in the Southwest, a crucial political target for Democrats as the party takes control of the White House. Mr. Obama’s advisers said that where cabinet officials came from was not the main factor in making these selections. But they said it certainly was one, an extension of the effort by Mr. Obama in the campaign to take advantage of changing demographic patterns to move states like Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada into the Democratic column.
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Study Shows Decline In Immigrant Labor

Tribune, January 6. Reversing a five-year trend, fewer immigrant Latinos were either working or looking for jobs in the third quarter of 2008 compared to a year ago, according to a recent Pew Hispanic Center study. The labor force participation rate of foreign-born Latinos fell from 72.4 percent in the third quarter of 2007 to 71.3 percent in the same period of 2008, a decline of 1.1 percentage points. According to the study, the decrease in Latino immigrant labor force was led by those from Mexico or those who arrived in the United States in 2000 or more recently. Rutilio Martinez, an associate professor of business at the University of Northern Colorado, said the recession is driving the decreases. 'There are no jobs. That’s the basic reason they are not being hired in the United States,' he said. The unemployment rate for foreign-born Latinos increased from 4.5 percent to 6.4 percent from third quarter 2007 to the same period in 2008, according to the study. The percentage would have been greater, 7.8 percent, if not for the fact that many workers withdrew from the labor market, Pew said.
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10 Resolutions For Job-Seeking Success

Lawjobs.com, January 6. We often start off the New Year with a host of resolutions which, though well-intentioned, in practice, may hardly outlast the winter snows. This year, however, the economic news has given both jobseekers and the nervous employed added incentive. Like Clarence in "It's a Wonderful Life" or one of Dickens' ghosts, the news has led us to contemplate the future -- and it is a scary sight. The economic picture has never looked so dreary for those of us in the current working-age population. Layoffs continue apace, some law firms appear shaky and even the most profitable are looking to freeze salaries and trim bonuses. Despite this glum news, there is much that job seekers can do.
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Dispelling The Divisive Myths Of Comprehensive Immigration Reform

ilw.com, January 6. EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is the text of a speech given by Robert Gittelson to the Notre Dame Law School on September 30, 2008 as part of the Notre Dame Law School's Immigration Symposium. … In the article, I identify four of the most prominent and divisive myths. First, That CIR is bad for our national security. Second, that Immigrants cost our country more in social services then they contribute in tax revenue. Third, the CIR is basically just code for amnesty, and that if it passes, it will just make the problem worse, by encouraging increased illegal immigration. And fourth, that because these undocumented immigrants came here illegally, the U.S. has no moral or ethical obligation to legalize their status and allow them to stay.
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Trapped Between 2 Cultures

Staten Island Advance, January 5. It started with a simple craving for a sweet drink. Daybis Morales, who emigrated from Costa Rica in 1999, wanted his wife to get him chocolate milk when she went to the store. So Morales, in his best imperfect English, made the request. When his wife returned home, she presented him with a Hershey chocolate bar. It turns out that Morales had transposed the key words and mistakenly said 'milk chocolate.' The couple laughed at the blunder. But the incident illustrates the challenges that immigrant families face every day on Staten Island, as they struggle to carve out their share of the American dream while learning to speak English.
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Most Mexicans in U.S. Have No Thought of Returning Home

Latin American Herald Tribune, January 5. Some 54 percent of Mexicans who emigrated to the United States have no thought of returning to their native land, even though they foresee difficult times ahead because of the economic situation, according to a survey published Friday in the daily Reforma. On the contrary, 41 percent say they are thinking of returning or know someone who is ready to do so. The United States is home to some 12 million Mexicans, roughly half of them undocumented. More than 90 percent of Mexicans who have emigrated live in the nation to the north. The great majority, 96 percent, of those who returned to Mexico during the Christmas holidays were on vacation, while only 2 percent came back to stay. Of every 100 Mexicans who have emigrated to the United States, 77 believe that this year it will be harder to find work compared with 2008, and describe the crisis as grave. Even so, 49 percent believe that things are going well or very well in the United States, while 46 percent say the situation is bad and 3 percent describe it as fair.
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Immigration Demands Heat Up Before Obama Takes Over

New America Media, January 5. Weeks before President-elect Barack Obama officially takes office in Washington, calls for a comprehensive immigration reform package are getting louder. And the calls are coming from lawmakers, academics, immigration advocates and newspaper editorials. What they are demanding is early attention to be paid to the immigration issue, which, understandably, was placed on the backburner during the two-year election campaign that culminated in the Obama victory over Senator John McCain on November 4th.
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Hidden camera show exposes attitudes toward immigration

MSNBC, January 4. Public attitudes toward immigration are put to the test on the latest episode of a news-reality hybrid television show that uses hidden camera to record the reactions of real people. Tuesday's episode of the ABC network's "What Would You Do?" shows the responses of people standing in line at a deli behind two day laborers fumbling with cash and struggling with English, when the clerk begins spewing hatred. Go back to your country, he says, or go eat at Taco Bell. What would you do?
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Foreign Professionals In U.S. Fret As Layoffs Mount

Associated Press, January 3. For foreign professionals in the United States, the rising unemployment rate is especially daunting. Laid-off foreign workers are scrambling for temporary visas and seeking advice from immigration attorneys about how long they can legally stay in the country while hunting for jobs. Even some foreigners here on visas or work permits are switching employers, fearing that an unstable job during a recession could lead to a one-way ticket home or end their chance of getting a green card. Caron Traub of South Africa panicked after losing her job as a business development manager for an envelope manufacturer. With plans for an April wedding in Atlanta to her Canadian fiance, who has a green card, Traub, 38, worried that she could be forced to leave the country before then and be unable to get back in.
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Green Card Holders To Be Fingerprinted

O Journal, January 2. Starting this month, green card holders could be required to provide their fingerprints, photos and other biometric data when they arrive at a U.S. port of entry for identification purposes. The new rule, which was recently published in the U.S. Federal Register, will take effect on Jan. 18. The new measure is part of the expanded Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology, or US-VISIT program. Launched in 2003, US-VISIT's purpose was to verify the identities and travel documents of visitors, including those who entered the country under the Visa Waiver program. The change in policy to include lawful permanent residents (LPR), or green card holders, has drawn heavy criticism.
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Thousands Of Central Americans Couldn't Afford To Pay For Paperwork

Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, January 2. Thousands of Salvadorans, Hondurans and Nicaraguans did not meet the deadline to file immigration renewal papers, partly due to the cost and the hard economic times, community advocates say. Angelina Corona, spokeswoman for Hermandad Nacional Mexicana, which helps immigrants file the forms, said many people didn't file this year because they couldn't come up with the hundreds of dollars needed in the process. 'With this economic crisis, many people are working less or they are unemployed and they just couldn't cover the cost,' Corona said. The temporary protected status forms are free, but people applying also have to include fingerprints and a work authorization form, which can cost up to $420. According to the United States Immigration and Citizenship Services, more than 300,000 Central American immigrants were eligible for renewal of their temporary protected status - a legal status granted to them by the U.S. government because of natural disasters in their home countries.
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Last-Minute Changes To Farm Worker Program Raise Groups' Ire

Dallas Morning News, January 2. Farm worker advocates and opponents of illegal immigration are blasting one of President George W. Bush's 'midnight regulations' that will make it easier for agricultural employers to hire foreign workers. They say the changes undermine worker protections, exploit immigrants and set wage levels so low that domestic workers cannot compete with foreign workers for jobs. The regulation, which makes changes in the U.S. Labor Department's H-2A Temporary Agriculture Worker Program, allows agricultural employers to hire temporary foreign workers if not enough domestic workers are able or willing to fill farm jobs. The changes also promise to reduce paperwork and make processing deadlines more efficient. They are expected to take effect Jan. 17, three days before President-elect Barack Obama takes office.
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US Immigration Demand For Nurses Set To Rise

Globalvisas.com, January 2. With an ageing population and a retiring workforce, US immigration may experience a rise in overseas visa applications, as many as 1.4 million, from nurses by 2014, the Inquirer reports. Referring to a report by the US Department of Health and Human Services, the US will need 500,000 nurses to replace those leaving or retiring and a further 700,000 to take care of the ageing population. Various proposals to fast track foreign nurses for American visas have been proposed to the US State Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) but as yet none have been adopted.
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With Fewer Jobs, Fewer Illegal Immigrants

Christian Science Monitor, December 30. The economic downturn – along with more aggressive enforcement – is reducing the flow of illegal immigrants to the United States. Not only are fewer people – mostly Hispanics – slipping into the United States, they're getting fewer jobs. New data shows that Latino participation in the labor force – normally among the highest – has dropped along with a decline in new arrivals. 'The picture has definitely changed,' says Randy Capps, a demographer at the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, though he cautions that it's too early to say whether the changes are permanent. 'Unauthorized Hispanic immigrants are fairly responsive to job markets.'
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Unsettled – Last Of Three Parts

Baltimore Sun, December 30. It's not that Muhammad Shumri imagined building a new life in Baltimore would be easy. But he didn't expect it to be so hard. The 48-year-old physician was a high-ranking official in the Iraqi Ministry of Health when a photograph that placed him at a meeting with U.S. officials was stolen from his computer. Soon he was receiving anonymous threats warning him to stop working with the Americans. He moved his wife and five children out of Iraq, traveled alone to the United States and requested asylum. He planned to get a job, find a place to live and send for his family.
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Record Expected For U.S. Population

Atlanta Journal-Constitution, December 30. The nation’s population is projected to reach 305,529,237 on New Year’s Day, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s nearly a one percent increase from last New Year’s. In January 2009, one birth is expected to occur every eight seconds and one death every 12 seconds. Immigration is expected to add one person every 36 seconds in January. Overall, between birth, death and people entering and leaving the country, the U.S. population is expected to increase by one person every 14 seconds in January, according to the census. At that rate, it will probably take another 33 years before the country adds another 100 million people.
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Visa-Holders Sought As Military Recruits

Press Enterprise.com, December 29. The U.S. military has launched a pilot program to recruit a limited number of medical professionals and speakers of certain languages among temporary visa-holders. The armed forces already draw recruits among immigrants with green cards. But in an effort to fill the chronically short-handed ranks of doctors, nurses and linguists, the Pentagon will look to those on student and work visas as well as foreigners with refugee or political asylum status.
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Border Patrol: Fewer Illegal Crossings

CBS News, December 29. The U.S. Border patrol today reported a dramatic decrease in the number of people caught trying to cross the border from Mexico illegally. Back in 2000, 1.6 million arrests were made. This year, the number is down to 705,000, the lowest level since the mid 1970s. The government is crediting toughter immigration enforcement, but others say it's the economy. CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker reports. The Border Patrol says it's now catching about 2,000 illegal border crossers every day, down from more than 4,000 a day eight years ago, reports CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker. The government says that's a barometer indicating that fewer people are trying to sneak across the border.
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Immigration Officials Curtail Sedation Of Deportees After Criticism, Lawsuits

Dallas Morning News, December 29. Federal immigration officials, over the past year, have dramatically curtailed the controversial practice of sedating deportees with powerful anti-psychotic medication. The move followed court challenges and a public outcry over the practice, which often involved the use of Haldol, a drug used to treat schizophrenia. Data collected through Freedom of Information Act requests by The Dallas Morning News show that Immigration and Customs Enforcement sedated only 10 people in the past fiscal year. Haldol was used in only three cases. Over the past six years, through October, federal immigration personnel sedated 384 deportees, an average of 64 a year, the government disclosed. Of those cases, 356 involved the use of Haldol.
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Immigrant Assimilation Critical, Report Finds

San Bernardino Sun, December 28. As the United States becomes more diverse, a greater effort must be made to integrate immigrants into American society, according to a new report by a federal task force. The steady rise in the foreign-born population and shifting demographic patterns make it essential for the country to embark on a renewed 'Americanization' movement to preserve social unity, the report states.
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ICE Immigration Raids Waste Time and Money

New America Media, December 26. I have spent the past year chasing Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) around the country. Every time ICE raided a factory to arrest undocumented workers, the National Immigrant Bond Fund I represent showed up to bail them out so that they could get their day in court. The cat-and-mouse game taught me a lot about ICE, lessons that Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, the nominee to head Homeland Security, which includes ICE, should consider as she takes responsibility for our immigration laws.
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Getting Immigration Right

New York Times, December 25. It’s way too early to tell whether the United States under President-elect Barack Obama will restore realism, sanity and lawfulness to its immigration system. But it’s never too early to hope, and the stars seem to be lining up, at least among his cabinet nominees. If Mr. Obama’s team is confirmed, the country will have a homeland security secretary, Janet Napolitano of Arizona, and a commerce secretary, Bill Richardson of New Mexico, who understand the border region and share a well-informed disdain for foolish, inadequate enforcement schemes like the Bush administration’s border fence. And it will have a labor secretary, Hilda Solis of California, who, as a state senator and congresswoman, has built a reputation as a staunch defender of immigrants and workers.
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A New Era of Hope for Comprehensive Immigration Reform

Las Presnsa, December 24, OPINION. Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff claimed credit for “reversing” illegal immigration, but the credit should more accurately fall to those in the Bush Administration who let the economy and our financial regulatory agencies collapse during the President’s tenure. As we have often said, the best way to slow immigration to the United States is to dry up all the pesky economic opportunity that has run rampant in this country for so long. The Bush Administration is well on its way to making sure there is no excess opportunity or economic security milling about. But we’re sure that President Bush, had he watched Secretary Chertoff’s press conference, would shout a hardy “Heck of a job, Cherty!”
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Immigration Laws, Weak Economy Send Many Home

NJ.com, December 21. The first signs of an Iberian exodus began about 10 months ago, when Kelin Muniz noticed a drop in customers who buy the Brazilian music and Brazilian beauty products in her store in the Ironbound section of Newark. Brazilians in the Ironbound are leaving in droves, Muniz said, driven out by a bad economy and tougher immigration laws. She said about 15 of her friends have already gone back. "Nobody comes here," she said Wednesday, pointing to the empty Tropical Music store on Ferry Street, where she is an employee.
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Recycling Company To Pay $21 Million In Immigration Case

Deseret News, December 21. A wood pallet recycling company caught in a national crackdown on hiring illegal immigrants has agreed to pay a record sum of almost $21 million to settle charges lodged by federal prosecutors in upstate New York. Several senior managers of IFCO Systems North America had previously pleaded guilty to misdemeanor and felony immigration charges since authorities conducted a 26-state roundup of nearly 1,200 foreign workers two years ago.
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My Name Is Prerna And I Am An Undocumented American

Desicritics.org, December 20. "You can no longer claim legal residency under the petition filed by your grandmother. You are over 21 now and aged-out under the I-130," said my latest attorney. I didn't quite understand what he meant, the fear and confusion hidden in my nervous laughter. "You are joking, right? They didn't give me an F-1 visa to study here because my parents had filed for permanent residency and now you are telling me that I can't get the permanent residency for which my visa was initially rejected?" I tried to grapple with the logic of the law.
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Kyl Reluctant To Take Lead On Immigration Plan Again

AZCentral.com, December 20. Sen. John McCain and other bipartisan immigration reformers may have to revamp U.S. border policy without the help of Arizona's junior senator. In 2007, Sen. Jon Kyl surprised critics and angered many supporters by negotiating and championing controversial comprehensive immigration-reform legislation. But after taking a pounding from conservative activists, Kyl is not eager to stick his neck out again for a temporary-worker program and steps toward legalization for millions of undocumented migrants in the country. Nationwide public outcry ultimately killed last year's measure. Although the timing is unclear, the incoming Democratic-controlled Congress is expected to give it another try with a new version.
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USCIS Finalizes Streamlining Procedures for H-2B Temporary Non-Agricultural Worker Program

USCIS, December 19. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it has submitted to the Federal Register a Final Rule that will change the requirements affecting H-2B beneficiaries and their employers. The Final Rule will facilitate the process by which employers hire workers to participate in the H-2B program. These changes are being proposed in further fulfillment of the commitment made by President Bush’s Administration in August 2007, after the failure of comprehensive immigration reform in Congress, to address immigration challenges, including review and improvement of temporary worker visa programs using existing authorities. This final rule supplements the extensive reforms of the H-2B program that are included in the Department of Labor’s final rule scheduled to be published on Dec. 19, 2008.
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Rights Group Accuses U.S. of Failing to Protect Latinos

New York Times, December 19. A civil rights legal advocacy group, LatinoJustice PRLDEF, filed an unusual international petition Thursday accusing the United States of failing to adequately protect Latinos living within its borders, regardless of citizenship. The claim was filed with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an organ of the Organization of American States, of which the United States is a founding member. It charges that the United States is failing to live up to the group's declaration on human rights, the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man. It cites violence against Latinos, including the murders over the past five months of three immigrants: Jose Sucuzhanay in Brooklyn last week, Marcelo Lucero in the Long Island town of Patchogue on Nov. 8, and Luis Ramirez in Shenandoah, Pa., on July 14. In all three cases, prosecutors say the assailants used anti-Latino slurs. Hate-crime attacks on Latinos rose 40 percent between 2003 and 2007, the petition says, citing the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
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U.S. Needs To 'Americanize' Immigrants, Or Face Trouble, Federal Task Force Says

Cox News Service, December 18. The United States must embark on an aggressive effort to integrate immigrants, including teaching them English and U.S. history, a federal task force recommended Thursday. If this 'Americanization' fails, the nation could see major problems in 20 or 30 years, with foreign-born populations detached from the larger society and engaging in anti-social behavior, said Alfonso Aguilar, who heads the U.S. Office of Citizenship. Aguilar compared the potential strife to what is occurring in some Western European countries where foreign-born populations do not feel part of the larger society and are not accepted by many as full citizens. 'We should not be naive and assume that the assimilation process is going to happen automatically,' Aguilar said at a news conference.
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Chertoff On Terrorism, Immigration And His Challenges At Homeland Security

USA Today, December 18. With just a month left before he leaves office, President Bush and his administration can claim credit for having successfully defended this country from another terrorist attack. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said as much in a recent interview with USA TODAY's editorial board. But the secretary, who has run the department since 2005, also noted the dangers that lie ahead, including the possibility of a nuclear, chemical or biological attack on U.S. soil. What about airport security, for which he is responsible? The border fence and immigration control, which also falls under his purview? Chertoff discussed these issues and others. His comments were edited for length and clarity.
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Mexican Drug Cartels Danger To Both Nations

YumaSun.com, December 17. Mexican drug cartels are now the biggest organized crime threat in the United States, according to the U.S. Justice Department. That is because they are uniting with traditional organized crime groups in our country to control the illegal drug operations. This is especially true of cocaine, much of which now flows across our southwestern border with Mexico, including our own area where seizures of drugs have become more frequent.
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Immigration Report Finds Citizenship Oaths Delayed

Associated Press, December 17. A court prevented nearly 2,000 people from taking the oath of U.S. citizenship in time to register to vote in the November elections, a new report released Wednesday said. A study by the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman in Washington contends the court refused to schedule additional swearing-in ceremonies to accomodate the large number of naturalization applicants. As a result, 1,951 people did not receive the oath in time to register to vote. 'Courts that choose to assert exclusive authority to naturalize new citizens should also embrace a customer service ethic that recognizes the singular importance of oath ceremonies,' CIS Ombudsman Michael Dougherty said in a statement. The CIS Ombudsman, an independent office within the Department of Homeland Security, decided to not identify the court, said DHS spokeswoman Amy Kudwa.
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Foreign-Worker Visa Rules Streamlined

Denver Post, December 17. The government will make permanent its changes to a visa program that brings foreign workers to the U.S. for temporary nonagricultural work. The aim is to streamline and simplify the application process and increase worker protections, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao said in an interview Wednesday. The H2-B visa program allows foreign workers into the United States for specific seasonal jobs, provided the employer cannot find Americans for the work and that the foreigners return home within 10 months. Workers in the program must pass a background check, and there are provisions to ensure they return home. The visa program is capped at 66,000 workers per year and places workers mostly in landscaping, hospitality and other industries.
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McCain Unsure Of Immigration Priority From Obama

Associated Press, December 17. Arizona Sen. John McCain, back in his home state, said Tuesday he's not sure where immigration reform falls among President-elect Barack Obama's priorities. Speaking with the Tucson Citizen's editorial board, McCain, who lost the election to Obama last month and will be returning to the Senate, with plans to seek another term in 2010, said the new president will be setting the nation's legislative agenda. Obama's top agenda rightly will be the economy and jobs, he said. McCain, who sponsored comprehensive immigration reform legislation that failed twice, said it remains an issue that needs addressing. But he said Americans need to be assured first that the nation's borders are secured. Another, related issue is concern over whether Mexico's government can win its bloody fight with violent drug cartels, McCain said. McCain said he doesn't know what Obama's position as president will be on immigration reform, but that as a senator, the president-elect proposed amendments that would have killed the temporary worker program.
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U.S. Seeks To Wipe Out Immigration Fraud

Contra Costa Times, December 16. They are predators who take advantage of people desperate to become legal residents and citizens. Charging exorbitant fees, they promise to quickly move unsuspecting immigrants through the labyrinth of the application process. No more, federal officials say. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on Tuesday launched a statewide public-awareness campaign to educate customers about unauthorized and fraudulent immigration practices. USCIS is a division of the Department of Homeland Security. The outreach program is already under way in Florida and Illinois. 'It's all across the country, in small cities and big cities, and it affects people of all ethnicities, incomes and social classes,' said Carlos Iturregui, chief of the agency's policy and strategy office. 'We're telling people to please prevent yourself from becoming one more victim of immigration practice fraud by taking the time to verify who you are dealing with.'
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Immigrants Relearning Professions They Practiced At Home

PopMatters, December 16. As a psychologist in her native Colombia, Martha Lucia Ossa counseled children who were sexually abused and helped ex-guerrilla soldiers readjust to society. Here, the only job she could find was work as a live-in nanny, caring for two kids, cleaning house and cooking. “It’s not easy to start all over again,” said Ossa, who moved here to be closer to her family. “Here you’re really starting from zero.” A recent study by the Migration Policy Institute showed that, nationally, more than 1.3 million college-educated immigrants are either unemployed or working in jobs such as dishwashers, taxi drivers or cooks. Many professionals arrive to find their licenses are worthless here. And the process to get recertified can take years. Many also face a language barrier—forced to relearn technical, medical, engineering or other professional terminology in English. Making matters worse, in quickly advancing fields such as medicine or technology, the longer they are away from their career, the more they can fall behind.
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Cleaning Firm Used Illegal Workers at Chertoff Home

Washington Post, December, 11. Every few weeks for nearly four years, the Secret Service screened the IDs of employees for a Maryland cleaning company before they entered the house of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, the nation's top immigration official. The company's owner says the workers sailed through the checks -- although some of them turned out to be illegal immigrants.
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The Answer On Immigration

Washington Times. December 14. OPINION. The U.S. routinely awards green cards to more than a million legal immigrants each year. They play by the rules, and together with those who have come before them, now comprise the largest legal immigrant population in U.S. history. But to sustain this generous legal immigration policy, we must put an end to illegal immigration. The solution is simple: enforce current law.
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Keeping I-9 Forms on File Essential to Avoid Legal Trouble

DJC, December 15. Federal immigration officials have stepped up raids in recent years on industries that hire large numbers of noncitizen workers. That includes construction companies, especially those that work on federal contracts.


The very document that can lead to fines and even criminal charges for employers can also be the strongest tool for preventing severe disruptions to your business. Kim K. Thompson, an immigration lawyer with Fisher & Phillips, presented that message at a business roundtable Wednesday at the Portland City Grill.
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USF Student Faces Sentencing On Terror Charges Thursday

St. Petersburg Times, December 15. A week before Ahmed Sherif Mohamed and a friend left Tampa on a road trip for his 26th birthday in August 2007, his mother called from Egypt. Come home, she told him. She'd bought him a plane ticket so their family of four could vacation together on the Mediterranean, as they had every year for his birthday. They'd swim and eat ripe mangoes, she said. But Mohamed said no. He was having too much fun in America. His doctoral studies at USF in engineering were going well. He loved the parties and cookouts every weekend. For his birthday, he hoped to take a road trip up the East Coast with a friend. 'He was so full of himself and the freedom of life in America. Who knew where his bravado would take him?' said Maha Sadik, his mother.
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Pfizer In The Middle Of Visa Debate

TheDay.com, December 14. Over the years, U.S. Sens. Christopher J. Dodd and Joe Lieberman have collected tens of thousands of dollars from Pfizer Inc.'s political action committee. Critics say that not so coincidentally the two Connecticut senators have supported expansion of the United States' guestworker visa programs like the H-1B that Pfizer, among other companies, has used to systematically outsource hundreds of American jobs.
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Malta To Get US Visa Waiver Soon

MaltaMedia.com., December 13. U.S. officials said on Friday that they will soon remove visa requirements for travelers from Malta and expressed hope that other European countries will eventually be exempted from travel rules that have frustrated some U.S. allies. Stewart Baker, a U.S. homeland security official, said talks are near completion on a visa waiver with Malta, and he expected a waiver to be awarded this month. He also indicated Greece had met a principal standard for a waiver but still has more to do.
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Man Sentenced To Prison In Immigration Fraud

KansasCity.com, December 12. The leader of a group that claims to be an American Indian tribe was sentenced Friday to five years in prison in an immigration fraud case. The case ensnared about 12,000 people who believed Malcolm Webber’s false claims that tribal membership gave them U.S. citizenship. Webber, also known as Grand Chief Thunderbird IV, must also serve three years of probation after release from federal prison and forfeit more than $377,000 seized last year by agents who raided the Kaweah Indian Nation offices in Wichita.
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US Gives Visa To Mother Of Ecuadorean Beaten In NY

CharlotteObserver.com, December 12. A U.S. consulate in Ecuador has granted a humanitarian visa to the mother of an immigrant brutally beaten in New York in what investigators are calling a hate crime. Julia Quintuna said Friday she will use the visa to visit her 31-year-old son Jose Sucuzhanay. Sucuzhanay was beaten Sunday as he walked arm in arm with his older brother in Brooklyn by men shouting anti-gay and anti-Hispanic slurs. Authorities opened a homicide investigation Tuesday after he was reportedly declared brain dead.
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How McCain and Palin Hurt Republicans on Immigration

N.J. Voices, December 12. I just got a press release from a liberal pressure group called America's Voice headlined "Anti-Immigration Ads Don't Add Up in 2008." The group tried to make the same point that I've heard over and over again from amnesty advocates: The voters won't go for candidates who support immigration restrictions. "A new analysis of immigration advertisements finds that the strategy of using immigration as a political wedge issue in the 2008 election cycle was an utter failure," the release stated. Nonsense. What the voters won't go for is candidates who try to work both sides of the issue, such John McCain and Sarah Palin.
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CIS Modernization Delayed, For Now

Federal Times, December 12. Citizenship and Immigration Services wants to replace the current immigration system — most forms are paper-based, and CIS frequently mails documents around the country — with an electronic system. But not as quickly as it hoped. The agency awarded a five-year, $500 million contract to IBM last month; this week, Accenture decided to protest the bid. A final decision on the protest is expected by March, according to the Government Accountability Office. “The protest is still very basic.. they haven’t really fleshed it out to any degree,” said Michael Aytes, acting deputy director at CIS. “While it’s in protest… we’re going to use the time to develop our requirements.” The final contractor, whoever it is, will develop a system that lets adjudicators make immigration decisions on the Web, instead of on paper.
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Wilting Wages: Money Sent Home to Mexico Declines as U.S. Economy Deteriorates

The Independent, December 12. …The National Bureau of Economic Research recently announced the U.S. economy entered a recession in December 2007. But Mexican immigrants have felt the ever tightening grip of financial hardship for far longer. As construction and service industry jobs dry up, they are sending less money home. “Before, I used to send $300 or $400 every two weeks,” Gabriel says. “Now I’m sending $200 or $300 a month.”
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Relaxed Visa Rules For Foreign Nurses Pushed

USCIS.org, December 12. Due to the severe lack of nurses within the U.S. healthcare industry, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services ombudsman is recommending expediting green card applications for nurses. This could help the CNMI's Department of Public Heath, as the majority of nurses at the Commonwealth Health Center are nonresidents. “Visa availability continues to be the principal obstacle for many immigrants and non-immigrants seeking employment in the United States, and the number of visas available can only be addressed through legislation,” according to the directive. The United States will require 1.2 million registered nursed by 2014 to meet demand, the directive notes, citing a 2007 study conducted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
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USCIS Revises Employment Eligibility Verification Form

USCIS.org, December 12. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has submitted to the Federal Register an interim final rule that revises the list of documents acceptable for the Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, process. The revised form will improve the security of the employment authorization verification process. Employers will be required to use the revised form for all new hires and to reverify any employee with expiring employment authorization beginning 45 days after publication in the Federal Register. The current edition of the Form I-9, dated 06/05/2007, will no longer be valid for use 45 days after publication of the rule in the Federal Register. The interim final rule and an informational copy of the revised Form I-9 will be available for public comment at www.regulations.gov for 45 days after publication in the Federal Register. The revised Form I-9 will be available on the USCIS Home page 45 days after publication in the Federal Register. The Handbook for Employers, Instructions for Completing the Form I-9 (M-274) is being updated to reflect these changes and will be published on the USCIS website in the near future.
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Questions and Answers: USCIS Finalizes Changes to Improve the H-2A Temporary Agricultural Worker Program

USCIS.gov, December 12. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today changes to the H-2A regulations that will streamline the hiring process of temporary and seasonal agricultural workers. This final rule will facilitate the H-2A process for employers by removing certain limitations and will further encourage lawful employment. These changes stem from the commitment made by President Bush’s Administration in August 2007, after Congress failed to pass comprehensive immigration reform. This final rule supplements the extensive reforms of the H-2A program that are included in the Department of Labor’s final rule, also being published today.
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Vail Keeps Overseas Workers Through New Visa

cbs4Denver.com, December 12. Vail Resorts turned to a different type of work visa this season to secure overseas season workers for jobs the company says couldn't be filled by the available pool of domestic workers. Vail had to turn to a Q1 ambassador visa this year after the federal government limited the use of the previously used H2B visa. "As part of the job requirement, we're saying they have to share their culture with our guests and their fellow employees," said Dee Bryne of Vail Resorts. "In the past, we just assumed they would." "I looked at the job description (and said) 'this is what I've been doing for 22 years,'" said Gunnar Moberg, a Vail ski instructor from Europe. Four-hundred employees at Vail are working under the Q1 visa program.
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USCIS Finalizes Streamlining Procedures for H-2A Program

USCIS.gov, December 11. 2008. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today changes to the H-2A regulations that will streamline the hiring process of temporary and seasonal agricultural workers. This final rule will facilitate the H-2A process for employers by removing certain limitations and will further encourage lawful employment. These changes stem from the commitment made by President Bush’s Administration in August 2007, after Congress failed to pass comprehensive immigration reform. This final rule supplements the extensive reforms of the H-2A program that are included in the Department of Labor’s final rule, also being published today.
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Leave Hateful Rhetoric Out Of Immigration Discussion

HoustonChronicle.com, December 11. OPINION. The Houston Chronicle made some important discoveries with its recent series by Susan Carroll on the failure of law enforcement officials to deport or keep in jail illegal immigrants who commit crimes. Certainly the Chronicle's investigation pointed out shortcomings in our legal and immigration systems that need to be fixed. The release of any criminal who goes on to commit more crimes, whether he or she is in this country legally or not, can be called a miscarriage of justice.
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New Rule Expands DNA Collection to All People Arrested

WashingtonPost.com, December 11. Immigration and civil liberties groups condemned a new U.S. government policy to collect DNA samples from all noncitizens detained by authorities and all people arrested for federal crimes. The new Justice Department rule, published Wednesday and effective Jan. 9, dramatically expands a federal law enforcement database of genetic identifiers, which is now limited to storing information about convicted criminals and arrestees from 13 states.
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Top US Immigration Official Unknowingly Hired Company With Illegal Workers To Clean His House

StarTribune.com, December 11. The nation's top immigration cop unknowingly used a company that hired illegal immigrants to clean his home for about three years, starting in 2005. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff hired the Maryland-based Consistent Cleaning Services to clean his home in the D.C. suburbs every few weeks for the past three years until an investigation conducted by one of his department's agencies discovered the company hired illegal workers.
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Bush Unveils New Rules for Guest Worker Hiring

New York Times, December 11. The Bush administration announced new rules on Thursday that it said would lessen the bureaucratic burden on employers seeking to hire foreign farm workers. Advocates for the workers, however, contended the changes would depress wages and working conditions. The Labor Department released the changes in a document of more than 500 pages, the culmination of reviewing 11,000 comments since it proposed new regulations in February. The changes apply to a guest worker program known as H-2A, after the visa that allows farmers to hire foreign workers on a temporary basis for field jobs they cannot fill with Americans.
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Amnesty A Non-Issue In Kennedy's Absence?

One News Now, December 11. Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) An immigration reform organization is calling Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy's resignation from his post as chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration a positive development. Since Barack Obama's election, border enforcement groups have pondered just how important the issue of amnesty will be to the new president. Then came the announcement from Ted Kennedy that he is stepping down from the important chairmanship of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, where for decades he has championed giving amnesty to millions of illegal aliens.
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Mexico's Bloody Drug War

Los Angeles Times, December 10. On Nov. 3, the day before Americans elected Barack Obama president, drug cartel henchmen murdered 58 people in Mexico. It was the highest number killed in one day since President Felipe Calderon took office in December 2006. By comparison, on average 26 people -- Americans and Iraqis combined -- died daily in Iraq in 2008. Mexico's casualty list on Nov. 3 included a man beheaded in Ciudad Juarez whose bloody corpse was suspended along an overpass for hours. No one had the courage to remove the body until dark.
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Our Dirty Little Secret: The Mexican Drug Wars

The Moderate Voice, December 10. It was less than two years ago outrage spread through U.S. cities on the pretext illegal immigrants from Mexico were taking jobs from Americans. Today, the Mexican drug cartels are killing more people on an average day than in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and in the recent Mumbai terrorist attacks. Nary a whimper in protest is heard. The Mexican drug wars are more than bad guys killing bad guys. They could topple the Mexican government which, despite its corruption, is as effective as firing beebees against tanks. In Juarez, across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas, telephone messages and banners threatened teachers that if they failed to pay protection money to cartels, their students would suffer brutal consequences. Local authorities responded by assigning 350 teenage police cadets to the city’s 900 schools.
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Hardly a Great Time to Talk H-1Bs. Still, it's Time

CnetNews, December 10. What with pink slips being handed out all over this country, now is probably the worst time for any political leader to urge a rethinking of our H-1B policy to lift the 65,000 annual limits on foreign guest workers in specialty occupations. It's not the sort of political stance that will play well in Peoria - or in many other places in the U.S. these days. But it must be said: Maintaining the status quo on H-1B is the best news that China, India, Russia or any other would-be economic superpower could ever want to hear. The reverse brain drain returns smart people with advanced degrees to their countries of origin. And in the increasingly hot, flat and crowded world that the New York Times' Tom Friedman describes in his latest book, these are the sorts of folks every country will covet.
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Web Site-Based Crimeware Hits All-Time High

CnetNews, December 10. The use of malware on Web sites to steal passwords and other sensitive information is skyrocketing, according to a new report from the Anti-Phishing Working Group. The number of URLs with hidden code for stealing passwords nearly tripled between July 2007 and July 2008, to a record high of 9,529, while the number of malicious-application variants hit a high of 442 this May, the APWG reports in its quarterly report (PDF) issued this week.
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Weak Economy Could Slow Pace Of Immigration Reform

Houston Chronicle, December 9. President-elect Barack Obama pledged to make comprehensive immigration reform a priority in his first term in the White House, but the nation's worsening economic woes may force delays on the campaign promise, experts said. Some members of Congress also said the timetable for reform may have to await a better economy and a more receptive political climate to providing legal status to illegal immigrants in the U.S. Other Congressional leaders urged quick action on immigration reform, which has stalled in recent years amid fierce opposition. 'The downturn in the economy does represent a new environment,' said U.S. Rep. Charlie Gonzalez, D-San Antonio, a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus that favors early action on immigration reform. 'The economy is a very convenient argument (against reform) and one that resonates easily with people.'
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