Immigration / Press

British journalists

How about the British Journalists? Oh yes, Britain went to war together with the US!

Courtesy of "www.LATimes.com"

EDITORIAL
A Reporter? 'Cuff Her!
When British journalist Elena Lappin arrived in Los
Angeles in May, on assignment for a British newspaper,
little did she know she would end up being the subject of
her story. By her own account in The Times later that
month, Lappin was interrogated for four hours, subjected
to a body search, fingerprinted, photographed,
handcuffed and forced to spend a night in a cell in
downtown L.A. and a day as a detainee at the airport
before being deported to London. Lappin's crime?
Admitting to customs officials that she was a journalist.

Tourists and businesspeople from 26 countries, including
Britain, are allowed to visit the United States for 90 days
or less without a visa. Those who enter the country for
other reasons — like journalists covering a story —
usually just claim to be tourists in order to avoid hassles.
Lappin, who hadn't realized she needed a visa, paid the
price for honesty.

She wasn't the only one. Since March 2003, 13 foreign
journalists without visas have been detained and deported
from the United States. Since May, at least two other
journalists have suffered treatment similar to Lappin's.

As a result of the scandal surrounding the Lappin affair,
Robert C. Bonner, the commissioner of U.S. Customs
and Border Protection, announced recently that
journalists arriving without a visa would be allowed a
one-time entry and be advised of the regulation. That's
an encouraging first step, but not enough.

Why should journalists be more heavily restricted than tourists in a nation that
purports to honor freedom of the press? The immigration law should be amended to
include journalists among those who can enter the U.S. without a visa for a
short-term assignment.

And why should someone who shows up at a port of entry without a necessary visa
be treated like a criminal? Lappin was not trying to sneak into the country. No
terrorist with any brains is going to pose as a journalist without a visa when the
alternative is waltzing through as a tourist. People who don't meet U.S. immigration
rules should not be let into the country. But they can be treated civilly until the
carrier that brought them in transports them back out — as carriers should be
required to do.

Unless customs authorities have evidence they are dealing with a criminal or a
terrorist, no visitor should be handcuffed or thrown into jail. The United States
should treat foreigners the way it expects other countries to treat American
citizens.
 
Bishops / www.ny1.com

Bishop Hosts
Hearing On
Post-9/11
Immigration
Issues

JULY 19TH, 2004


The head of the Brooklyn Diocese, Bishop Nicholas
DiMarzio, hosted a forum Monday on post-9/11
immigration policies that he says are unfairly hurting
millions of people.

Participants at the hearing at St. Francis College said
the Bush administration’s changes to immigration
rules following the September 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks separate families, deport longtime residents
and spread fear among immigrant groups. Muslims
and Arabs have suffered the most, but immigrants from
most countries have been affected, according to the
immigrants who testified.

“Many of our clients, as we have already heard, were
interrogated without legal representation, shackled and
detained for several hours, questioned about their
religious and political beliefs, and humiliated by INS
agents," said Emira Habiby Browne of the
Arab-American Family Support Center.

Some organizations specifically criticized the
recording of civil immigration violations in national
crime databases.

“These databases are used over two million times a
day, and so by having the names of people like those
with final deportation orders and those who failed to
register and putting them into these databases, it’s
opening up arrests of millions of immigrants by local
police,” said Chung-Wah Hong of the New York
Immigration Coalition.

Besides listening to immigrants’ complaints, Bishop
DiMarzio said he wants to take action. He wants
processing time of applications to be reduced so more
immigrations can attain legal status and benefits

The bishop called for an alliance among immigrant
advocates, community groups and religious leaders

“Religious leaders are dealing with the moral issues
that affect our society, and this is a moral issue,” said
DiMarzio. “It’s an issue of public opinion. Sometimes
there’s prejudice there, and that’s something we want
to be against. We want to make sure that people treat
people equitably, that there are moral values involved
in our public policy.”

The bishops plans to send his findings from Monday’s
hearing to state and federal officials, including
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, who
oversees the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
 
Bishop

Courtesy of "www.nydailynews.com"

His crusade to end
immigrant injustice
"Right now, we are seeing a critical situation for immigrants," said the
Rev. Nicholas DiMarzio, the Catholic bishop of Brooklyn and Queens.
"Every day we see the urgent need for changing immigration policies."

Calling the reality of immigrants today the worst he has ever seen,
DiMarzio is asking the federal government to reform laws enacted after
9/11 that unduly punish foreign-born residents without making the
country any safer.

He promised to work with immigrant advocates to protect newcomers'
dignity and safety.

"We are reaching out to elected officials, to the Department of
Homeland Security, to the governor and the mayor," the bishop told
the Daily News on Tuesday. "Our congressional delegation must be
informed about the human consequences of such laws. What is
happening is wrong."

The bishop, who has a 30-year history of involvement with
immigration issues, knows firsthand what he is talking about.

Half of the 1.8 million Catholics in the Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens
are immigrants. And before coming to Brooklyn, he was the head of the
United States Bishops Office of Migration and Refugee Services. He also
was the bishop of Camden, N.J., a city with a large foreign-born
population.

On Monday, DiMarzio held an intense three-hour public hearing on
immigrant concerns at St. Francis College in Brooklyn Heights,
co-sponsored by the New York Immigration Coalition. Several of the
people affected by the current immigration policies told the audience
what they have been through since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. It was
an emotional experience.

"We wanted to hear directly from the people affected and become more
effective advocates for immigrants," DiMarzio said.

The stories were harrowing: Fathers summarily deported, leaving
families unprotected; people whose lives are on hold waiting five, six,
seven years for legalization interviews; immigrants who are victims of
fraud by so-called immigration experts but do not dare report the
crime to the police for fear of being turned in to immigration
authorities.

Welcome to the new reality of immigrants in the U.S.

"Immigrant New Yorkers are facing adversity from all sides," said
Margie McHugh, executive director of the immigration coalition. From
being singled out for "special registration" to having local authorities
acting more and more as surrogate immigration enforcers to the
unjustifiable immigration backlogs, the lives of the city's foreign-born
residents have been turned upside down.

'Thousands of families are being torn apart by measures targeting
immigrants based on their religion and nationality," McHugh said.
"Entire communities are being driven underground by increased
immigration enforcement and are afraid to report crimes,
discrimination and bias attacks to the police; others are afraid to seek
essential services like medical care."

Police state, anyone?

DiMarzio thinks it is unconscionable.

"What is happening is immoral. We have to realize that these people are
not here on welfare, or asking for anything for free," he said
emphatically, referring to undocumented immigrants. "They are part of
the way our economy works, and we need to change immigration laws
to recognize that."

And the sooner the better. The threat of terrorism cannot be a license
to violate immigrants' - or anybody else's - rights.

Originally published on July 21, 2004
 
Immigration Abuses

From :"biz.yahoo.com"

Guatemalan Asylee Sues Federal Officials After
Wrongful Deportation
Tuesday July 27, 6:59 pm ET

Lawsuits Demonstrate Pattern of Abuse by Bay Area Immigration
Officials

SAN FRANCISCO, July 27 /PRNewswire/ -- A Guatemalan asylee filed suit today in federal district
court in San Francisco against U.S. officials for wrongfully deporting him to the country where he
feared persecution. In violation of a federal immigration judge's order, U.S. officials placed plaintiff
Victoriano Lorenso Jeronimo in shackles and illegally deported him to Guatemala before the court
could rule on his application for political asylum in the United States. Lorenso Jeronimo had fled
Guatemala in 1982 after the Guatemalan army accused indigenous villagers of being guerrilla
sympathizers, massacred the villagers, and burned their homes.

Lorenso Jeronimo is represented by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and the law firm
Cooley Godward LLP, which is handling the case on a pro bono basis.

After U.S. officials unlawfully deported Lorenso Jeronimo to Guatemala, he went into hiding for
several months before he could escape to a Mexican refugee camp. Despite acknowledging their
mishandling of the case, U.S. immigration officials initially refused to bring Mr. Lorenso Jeronimo
back to the United States from the Mexican refugee camp. Instead, they stated that Mr. Lorenso
Jeronimo would need to return on his own to Guatemala, the country in which he feared
persecution, in order to be flown to the United States, or alternatively, that he would need to travel
on his own to the U.S.-Mexico border. By the time immigration agents agreed to escort Mr. Lorenso
Jeronimo from the refugee camp back to the United States, Mr. Lorenso Jeronimo could no longer
be found. In August 2003, Mr. Lorenso Jeronimo found his way back to the United States and
learned for the first time that he had been illegally deported by U.S. officials. He was granted
political asylum in March 2004.

"The government's actions in Mr. Lorenso Jeronimo's case are outrageous and indefensible," said
Philip Hwang, attorney for the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights. "How many lawsuits will it take
for those in charge to stop this pattern of abuse? Human rights violations by our government
officials tarnish America's reputation as a champion of human rights."

This is the seventh case involving misconduct by Northern California immigration officials that the
Lawyers' Committee has pursued in recent years. Previous cases have resulted in the payment of
over $400,000 in damages. Four of these cases have involved mistreatment of asylum-seekers,
including the following three incidents:

-- In August 1995, U.S. immigration agents stormed the home of a
Nicaraguan family that had sought political asylum in the United
States. Agents ignored immigration papers that the family presented,
which made clear that the family could not be deported while their
political asylum case was pending. The agents deported four of the
family members to Nicaragua, in violation of federal law and a federal
court order.
-- In March 2001, a Kenyan woman arrived at San Francisco International
Airport with her two-year-old daughter after her family had been
terrorized by Kenyan officials. She confided to U.S. immigration
officials that her life would be in danger if she returned to Kenya.
The immigration agent threatened to put the woman in jail and coerced
her and her daughter to return on the next flight to Kenya, where they
were forced to go into hiding.
-- In January 2002, an 18-year-old woman arrived at San Francisco
International Airport from Zimbabwe. The young woman's family had fled
Zimbabwe after they had been threatened with violence. An immigration
agent interrogated the young woman for hours, accused her of lying, did
not give her food for 10 hours, and forced her to sign forms that she
was not allowed to read. When the young woman's mother intervened, the
agent said that after September 11th, there was a "problem" with "these
people from Africa" and that she was "going back to ... the jungle."
The young woman was taken to a local jail where she was strip-searched
and placed with the criminal population. The next day, she was taken
in chains to the local INS office and forced to leave the country.

A full copy of the complaint is available at www.lccr.com.
 
Chinese case: Beaten by DHS at the Canadian Border

Zhao Yan's psychic trauma hard to heal


Zhao Yan, a businesswoman from Tianjin who was savagely beaten by a US border inspector,
was given treatment in a physiotherapy center in the Queens Boulevard of Queens, New York
as of July 26. Zhao Yan states that she can endure physical pains, but the damage of personal
dignity and mental scars, and humiliation and injury are hard to recover.

Wounds remain serious after five days

Relevant personnel witness that there are serious
extravasated blood in victim Zhao Yan's eyes, and
obvious swellings and traumas on her face, neck, head
and other parts. Zhao Yan says: "Although five days
have passed, my whole body still aches fiercely in
many parts, and even the use of pain-killer is
ineffective, and this is often accompanied by
syndromes like nerve paralysis and immovability of
many parts of her body."

Zhao says that she not only feels nauseated, has
headache and is unable to sleep, but also suffers aching even when drinking water because
one of her teeth was broken and thus baring the dental nerve. Zhao's friend Jennifer
expresses: "I've never seen any other person who is so severely beaten by police. The
pressing task at the moment is to give Zhao Yan medical tretment, and the most important thing is
to help her regain health."
Zhao says to "New York Daily News": "The humiliation I suffered from being beaten by the
policeman far outweighs my physical pain. As a career woman, I was very confident in the
past, but now my confidence has all gone. I'm now living in my friend's apartment which is on
the 25th floor, sometimes, I really want to jump out."
She adds: "I used to think that American police are handsome, tall and strong. But I've never
thought that they would resort to such brutal violence on a woman. It is already cruel to spray
me with liquid pepper, why did they even beat me violently?"

Zhao angry with suspected who tells lies

While he was inquired by officials with the US Department of Homeland Security, Robert
Rhodes, the US white policeman who beat Zhao, said that his arm was scratched by Zhao. In a
written statement, Rhodes said that he was at that time interrogating a drug smuggler in a white
room under the Rainbow Bridge on the US-Canada border. Later when he attempted to take
Zhao Yan back to the white room, Zhao swung her arm and scratched his arm, and then they
both fell to the ground.

Zhao protests furiously: "The policeman is lying, have a look at me, and you will
know." Zhao said that having been beaten by the policeman, she now suffers
from unbearable headache everyday, and she is always troubled by nightmare
whenever she goes to bed, thus making it simply impossible for her to take a
rest, moreover, the US policeman's sophistical reasoning after beating her
makes Zhao deeply angered.
Zhao recalls: "That policeman, with one hand,
beckoned me to go over there, while sprayed
me with liquid pepper with another hand. My
eyes, hair, face and neck were sprayed
successively, and then I fell to the ground,
and was surrounded by at least three
policemen, they kicked me on the face and
body with their leather shoes. My eyes were
so swollen that I simply couldn't open them,
and one of my teeth was broken, my skin was
in great pain, I thought I was dying at that
time, so how could I attack the police?"

Senior Special Agent Steven MacMartin with
the US Department of Homeland Security
points out in the testimony that he has
carefully inspected the so-called scratch of
Rhodes only to find a small red impress on
the arm without any sign of bloodshed. Both
Rossel and Himan, two policemen on duty
with Rhodes on the same day, said that they
saw Rhodes kicking Zhao's head. Rossel said that he saw Rhodes holding her
hair and striking her head against the ground fiercely. He immediately stopped
Rhodes from beating at that time. Hinman expressed that she witnessed
Rhodes knee Zhao's head at least three times and strike her head on the
ground. She yelled to Rhodes: "Stop!"

Investigation begins and the whole truth will be out

At present, New York State Office of Immigration has transferred this case to
New York Western District Court located in the City of Buffalo. The US
Federal Government has showed clearly that it will bear all the litigation costs
of Zhao Yan in America. The Chinese Foreign Ministry attaches great
important to the case of a Chinese citizen beaten by an officer with the US
Immigration Services.

Martin Feld, assistant procurator of New York Western District Court who is
in charge of this case, expresses that the court has arrested Rhodes who took
the lead in beating Zhao Yan, and charged him with "the crime of injuring an
ordinary person", and if convicted, he would face 10 years of imprisonment and
be fined US$250,000. Lawyer Reagan also disclosed that Rhodes had previous
convictions of injuring other innocent people during his term of serving as a
policeman.
The US Department of State indicates that, the US Department of Homeland
Security is looking into the case of Chinese citizen Zhao Yan being beaten up
by officer with Immigration Office on the US-Canada border. A US
procuratorial organ has instituted prosecution against the suspected person
beating Zhao Yan.
Ereli, deputy Spokesman of US Department of State said at a regular press
conference held by the Department of State on July 26: "The Department of
Homeland Security is carrying out investigation into this case. We are
expecting that truth about the case will come out as soon as possible."
Ereli made the above remark after Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing
expressed the Chinese government's special concern over this incident in his
telephone conversation with US Secretary of State Colin Powel on July 26,
Beijing time. At the press conference, when asked whether this officer would
be punished for beating the Chinese citizen, he said: "We devote our efforts
basically to investigation, and try to find out the truth about the matter."
It is reported that Zhao Yan has got temporary medical subsidy from the US
Government. As an important witness, she will legally be permitted to stay in
the United States, waiting that the case will be finally unraveled.
By People's Daily Online
 
Mercury News / databases

Database Checks Find Woman on Watch
List


LYNN BREZOSKY


Associated Press



HARLINGEN, Texas - A Border Patrol agent's check of multiple databases showed a woman with a
mutilated South African passport was on a government watch list, a Democratic congressman said
Wednesday.

"He had that gut feeling that law enforcement officials have," Rep. Solomon Ortiz said, adding the FBI
might not have been alerted to Farida Goolam Mohamed Ahmed, 48, if the agent hadn't been persistent.

A senior law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, has told The Associated Press
investigators were trying to determine whether Ahmed had ties to terrorist groups.

Ahmed, 48, was arrested July 19, and charged three days later with illegal entry into the United States,
falsifying information and mutilating and altering a passport.

A federal magistrate detained her without bond Tuesday - the same day the AP reported that crime rings
within the South African government were selling illegal passports, and that some had been found in the
hands of al-Qaida militants and other terrorists.

Kyle Welch, Ahmed's court-appointed attorney, said his client does not have a criminal record.

Border Patrol spokesman Eddie Flores said an agent checked Ahmed's name to see if it showed up in the
Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System database, the Immigration and Customs
Enforcement database, and the FBI database. He would not confirm if the databases contained Ahmed's
name.

According to Flores, two agents became suspicious as Ahmed passed through the airport checkpoint. They
found her passport was missing six pages, and that she had no visa to travel in the United States.

"Her shoes, they were dirty. There were thorns in the soles of her shoes. When you're down here along
the Rio Grande and walking through brush you're going to catch thorns," Flores said.

Ahmed later told the agents she was smuggled across the Rio Grande, according to court papers.

Flores said she had more than $6,000, two suitcases with clothing and paperwork showing that she had
traveled to London via the United Arab Emirates and then from London to Mexico City.

Michael Shelby, the U.S. attorney in Houston, said federal prosecutors were treating the case as a
significant violation of immigration law, warning: "Anything beyond that is the speculation of individuals
who may not have direct knowledge. People should not jump to conclusions."

FBI spokeswoman Rosalie Savage said the agency had no comment.
 
Orlando Sentinel / NFAP report

Reaping the benefits of immigration policy

By Stuart Anderson | Special to the Sentinel
Posted July 29, 2004


America is a nation of immigrants and its willingness to admit into
our society individuals not born here generates controversy. Yet
immigration continues to be crucial to America's future.

Simply put, if opponents of immigration had succeeded over the
past 20 years, two-thirds of the most outstanding future
American scientists and mathematicians would not be here today. U.S. policy would have barred
their parents from entering the United States.

That is the finding of a new study from the National Foundation for American Policy. The study (to
be published in International Educator and available at www.nfap.net) found that 60 percent of
the finalists of the Intel Science Talent Search (24 of 40) and 65 percent of the U.S. Math
Olympiad's top scorers (13 of 20) are the children of immigrants.

In addition, seven of the top 10 winners at the 2004 Intel Science Talent Search were immigrants
or their children. Nearly a quarter of Intel Science Talent Search finalists' parents came to
America as international students.

And while some argue that immigrants place new burdens on schools, one forgets that these
children grow up to be key forces in our society.

Moreover, immigration is the crucial factor in determining whether labor-force growth in the
United States rises or becomes stagnant. Parents of six of the 40 Intel Science Talent Search
finalists, including three family-sponsored immigrants and two refugees, arrived through the
United States' immigration system.

Immigrants are self-selected, meaning those with the most ambition are the ones most likely to
take a chance on coming to America. So it is not surprising that we see that drive, ambition and
work ethic in their children.

The study found that among finalists of the 2004 Intel Science Talent Search, more children (18)
have parents who entered the country on H-1B (professional) visas than parents born in the
United States (16). (The same is true for Math Olympiad top scorers.).

To put this finding in perspective, new H-1B visa holders each year represent less than 0.04
percent of the U.S. population.

Today, half of all engineers with Ph.D.s working in the United States are foreign-born.

The irony is that, despite this data, both employment-based immigration and student-visa policy
have faced new restrictions that threaten the flow of international students and highly-skilled
professionals.

The recent 9/11 Commission report concluded that there remain areas to strengthen in our
immigration system.

In doing so, it is essential we balance security needs, as well as lobbying from those affected by
labor-market competition, with America's economic and technological future.

That future depends on openness toward people with talent, drive and determination.

The National Science Board, a U.S. government advisory body, warned recently that American
leadership in science and technology is threatened by global competition.

Yet we should remain optimistic. When immigrants are allowed to come to the United States
legally and stay, the nation also benefits.

The question is only whether America will maintain an immigration system that is open enough to
attract and integrate that talent into U.S. society.

Stuart Anderson is Executive Director of the National Foundation for American Policy, an
Arlington, Va.-based public policy research organization.
 
USAToday.com / Yahoo

Sound immigration reforms exist:
Just ask Bush, Kerry

1 hour, 23 minutes ago

Add Op/Ed - USATODAY.com to My Yahoo!



Both political parties love to showcase immigrants who have lived the
American Dream. At last week's Democratic convention, Teresa Heinz
Kerry described her journey from Mozambique. This month at the
Republican convention in New York, California Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger (news - web sites) will share his success story since
leaving Austria.

Illegal immigration, though, is an issue that's
unlikely to get the same campaign spotlight.
No president of either party has dealt with it
effectively, and today an estimated 8 million
immigrants live here illegally, hoping for a
better life but posing assorted social,
economic and security problems.

President Bush (news - web sites) and
Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry
(news - web sites) agree the current
immigration system - in which millions live an
underground existence - is broken. And each
proposes reforms that would grant legal
status to workers now here so that U.S.
authorities can better monitor them.

Yet the issue is so politically radioactive that
the candidates tend to push their programs
only in front of Hispanic audiences.

Most Americans oppose granting legal status
to illegal immigrants, according to a USA
TODAY/CNN/Gallup poll in January. And key
constituencies in each camp oppose the
reforms. Some of Kerry's union backers fear
his plan would cost Americans their jobs and
depress wages. Many of Bush's law-and-order
allies favor a crackdown on illegal immigration
instead of easing the rules.

But relegating the issue to the back burner
won't make the problem go away.

The massive presence of illegal immigrants
strains state and local governments by increasing demand for education
and other free social services earmarked for the poor. A study by the
U.S.-Mexico Border Counties Coalition found that illegal immigrants
receive $200 million worth of emergency health services a year.

The aim of the Bush and Kerry plans is to ensure immigrants pay taxes,
receive only services they are entitled to and don't take jobs from U.S.
citizens by working for low wages that violate minimum-wage laws.

•Bush's plan. It would grant undocumented workers temporary legal
status so they could stay for up to six years if they have a job.
Employers would have to certify that they could not find U.S. workers.
Laborers could return home without fear of being denied re-entry into the
USA.

•Kerry's plan. Undocumented workers who have lived here for five years,
pay taxes and pass security screening would have a path to citizenship.
A limited number of visas would be issued for temporary workers, who
would have the protections of U.S. labor laws. Kerry supports bills in
Congress to allow undocumented farm workers to gain legal status and
allow illegal immigrants who came to this country before age 16 and
graduated from high school to be eligible to become permanent
residents.

Opponents of the Bush and Kerry plans say they amount to disguised
amnesty for immigrants who would take scarce jobs away from
American citizens.

Yet the need for immigrant labor is strong. The U.S. Chamber of
Commerce (news - web sites), which backs Bush's plan, says the U.S.
economy will create an estimated 22 million new jobs by the end of the
decade, but the workforce will grow by only 17 million.

Putting celebrity immigrants on display to laud America as the land of
opportunity is fine, as long as both parties seize the opportunity to fix
this land's immigration woes.
 
USAToday.com

Op/Ed - USATODAY.com


Plans aren't in U.S. interest

1 hour, 27 minutes ago

Add Op/Ed - USATODAY.com to My Yahoo!



By Dan Stein

Both President Bush (news - web sites) and Sen. John Kerry (news -
web sites), D-Mass., have unveiled remarkably similar immigration
"reform" proposals that will essentially eliminate limits on the number of
people settling in the USA. The Republican and Democratic plans are
premised on two erroneous beliefs: Illegal immigration cannot be
stopped, so we might as well let just about anybody who wants to come
here do so legally. And virtually open immigration and amnesty for illegal
aliens is the key to winning the growing Hispanic vote.

Both plans - which include amnesty for up to
10 million illegal aliens, substantial increases
in legal immigration, which already exceeds 1
million a year, and massive new guest-worker
programs - would signal the death knell of the
middle class in America. Labor markets,
public school systems and public health care,
already overwhelmed by the impact of mass
illegal and legal immigration, would be
devastated by the proposals of the two
presidential contenders.

Job growth in America, which has been robust
in the past several months, as the Bush
campaign repeatedly stresses, has failed to
keep pace with the increase in the labor
supply, as the Kerry campaign is quick to
point out. As some 1.5 million new
immigrants settle legally and illegally each
year, immigration is a key reason we find job
growth does not equal lower unemployment,
and why the middle class is working harder
and longer with less to show for it.

Similarly, no matter how much local
communities around the country invest in new
schools and teachers, because of mass
immigration, they cannot keep ahead of the
influx of new students. The immigration plans
being proposed also would add people to the
ranks of the 44 million who lack health
insurance and further increase the number of
jobs that don't offer coverage.

What all Americans - including Latinos - want
is an immigration policy that puts the interests of the American people
ahead of the special interests that see the policy as a pipeline for
low-wage labor or a means to build a political constituency. And the
recent release of the 9/11 Commission's report reminds us that our lax
immigration laws continue to threaten homeland security.

Unfortunately, in "Hispandering" for votes in battleground states, both
Bush and Kerry have lost sight of the interests of the middle class and
the security of our country.

Dan Stein is executive director of the Federation for American
Immigration Reform.
 
Delays

Courtesy of "www.nydailynews.com"

Citizenship dream on hold
18-month nightmare of waiting
BY EDWARD GLAZAREV
DAILY NEWS WRITER
I hereby declare, on oath, that I
absolutely and entirely renounce and
abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any
foreign prince, potentate, state, or
sovereignty of whom or which I have
heretofore been a subject or citizen ... I
take this obligation freely without any
mental reservation or purpose of
evasion; so help me God.

Lidiya Shvartsman's desire to utter this
simple declaration as the culmination of
her dream to gain American citizenship
has turned into a nightmare of
bureaucratic red tape and disillusionment with the federal
government.

Nearly 18 months have passed since the Moscow immigrant proudly
aced the written portion of the citizenship test. A year and a half later,
the 68-year-old grandmother is still waiting in her Rego Park
apartment for the Citizenship and Immigration Services office to invite
her to take the oath of citizenship.

"She spent five years learning English just to pass the test," said her
frustrated daughter, Inna Nieves, who has waged a one-woman crusade
to end the impasse. "We're very organized, law-abiding people. We went
step by step. Everything was done in a timely manner. But 18 months is
ridiculous."

Nieves details the endless brick walls she has hit while trying to resolve
the case.

A folder she carries overflows with correspondence to everyone from
her local congressmen to New York Sens. Chuck Schumer and Hillary
Clinton and U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft. She even sent
President Bush a letter seeking help.

Her dogged persistence attracted the help of Rep. Michael Cohen
(D-Rego Park), whose director for community relations, Timothy
Higgins, has tracked Shvartsman's file to the FBI.

First, however, the case languished at CIS for so long that her mother's
fingerprints had expired, forcing Nieves to drag her ailing mom to the
INS office to get new prints taken. In June, Higgins received
confirmation that the case was pending a "third-agen cy check."

"I've never seen a case take this long," Higgins said. "I know the INS
does do checks with other agencies, but I've never heard this
terminology - 'third-agency check' - used before."

Higgins has since made numerous phone calls to the congressional unit
of INS and drafted two letters for more specific information from
Edward McElroy, the regional director for the Department of
Homeland Security. He has received no response.

"The INS has been making an effort to improve services, but it's not
uncommon to have to wait this long," said Prof. Allan Wernick,
chairman of the Citizenship and Immigration Project of the City
University of New York and a Daily News columnist. "Unfortunately,
there are still far too many cases like this."

The interminable wait has not only made Shvartsman lose sleep, it has
aggravated her blood pressure, given her fits of depression and sent
her to the hospital with chest pains. To make matters worse, friends
that have taken the immigration test more recently than she did have
been called to take the oath.

The delay also has put a financial burden on Shvartsman. A 1996 law
enacted by the Clinton administration gives refugees seven years from
the time they arrive to get their citizenship before they lose key
benefits. Shvartsman, who entered the country in 1997, has lost her
Supplemental Security Income check and has had to apply for welfare.

"None of this should be happening," said Nieves, 44, who had an easy
time getting her U.S. citizenship in 1991.

"We came here for what? We were screwed in our country, and now we
get screwed again. At least in Russia, we were screwed because we were
Jewish. Here it's just incompetence."

Originally published on August 1, 2004
 
Talent

Courtesy of the Arizona Republic:


Tap high-tech talent

Adjust visa cap so U.S.-educated foreigners can stay here and work

Aug. 2, 2004 12:00 AM

Our high-tech industries need the best scientists and engineers if they
are to compete in the global economy.

But our universities are not graduating enough Americans in
engineering and computers to meet the demand.

In fact, the number of American students enrolled in science and
engineering graduate programs has dropped dramatically over the
past decade.

Meanwhile, foreign nationals are enrolling in large numbers in
American universities. Last fall, for example, foreign nationals made up
more than half of the graduate students in Arizona State University's
School of Engineering.

For years, American companies have turned to foreign professionals
with H-1B visas when they could not find enough skilled workers in the
United States. Many of these foreign professionals have American
degrees.

However, the number of H-1B visas has been capped at 65,000 a year,
all of which were issued in less than six months.

Compete America, a coalition of more than 200 business, trade and
research groups, says the 65,000 cap is too low and should be raised.
It also wants to exempt foreign students at American schools from the
visa cap so it can fill openings.

It's clear that the cap for H1-B visas is too low and that we're missing a
major opportunity if we don't make it easier for foreign students with
advanced American degrees to stay and work here. We educated them;
why not take advantage of their skills?

In recent years, the H1-B cap was as high as 195,000. But Congress
lowered the cap, bowing to anti-immigration forces and concerns about
security.

Opponents believe the H-1B visa is overused. They also say some
companies use the visa to replace American workers with foreigners at
lower salaries, an abuse that should be stopped.

In the short term, temporary business visas such as the H-1B offer a
solution to the skilled labor shortage, allowing American businesses to
bring in highly qualified foreign specialists to fill crucial positions.

The visas also help keep top-paying jobs here that would otherwise
wind up in other countries as companies follow the talent.

In the long term, improved training and education are the keys to
producing more skilled American workers.

These steps could help:


• Reinstate the $1,000 application fee for H-1B visas. These funds could
be used for training established professionals and creating
internships and scholarship opportunities for American students.


• Encourage employers to make opportunities for continuing
education and on-site training available to employees. By keeping
employees informed on advances in their fields, corporations could
retain more workers and reduce their need for overseas hires.


• Improve elementary- and secondary-school education in math and
science. Without a firm grasp of these subjects early on, students
cannot be expected to either pursue or excel in more advanced study.

If we don't find ways to convince more American students to study
math, science and engineering, we will perpetuate our skilled-labor
shortage and find ourselves at a competitive disadvantage to countries
that are graduating thousands more in these areas.

In the meantime, our nation's economic health depends, in part, on
filling jobs with well-educated foreign workers when companies can't
find enough qualified U.S. citizens.

While retaining safeguards for American workers, Congress should
raise the cap on the H1-B visa so our businesses can tap the world's
best talent.
 
Dancing

Courtesy of the SAn Franscisco Chonicle (SfGate.com)

PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE
Dancing around immigration

Louis Freedberg

Monday, August 2, 2004



PRESIDENT BUSH has been more than willing to take on
dangerous characters such as Osama bin Laden, Saddam
Hussein and anyone who even thinks about attacking us
around the world.

''Bring 'em on," he declared.

But apparently his bravado doesn't extend to Tom Tancredo
and his allies.

Tom who?

Tancredo, a Colorado Republican, is the most strident
opponent of any effort to legalize illegal immigrants. He is the
most visible representative of a significant segment of the
Republican Party that wants to restrict immigration -- and is
using its financial clout to oppose even Republicans they see
as selling out to pro-immigrant forces.

Even though Bush has said he supports a temporary visa
program for Mexican migrants, the increasingly potent
opposition to the idea among the restrictionist right has
rendered him virtually catatonic on the issue.

A number of bills legalizing some of the nearly 10 million
illegal immigrants in the United States have gone nowhere
because Bush doesn't support any of them -- despite this
being an election year during which the administration is
supposedly wooing the Latino vote.

The one piece of legislation that should have sailed through
Congress is the Agricultural Job Opportunity, Benefits and
Security Act, or AgJOBS. The bill, the culmination of five
years of intense negotiations, has garnered extraordinary
bipartisan support. The California Farm Bureau supports it,
as does the United Farm Workers. An astonishing 63
Senators -- including 26 Republicans -- are supporting the
bill. Its chief sponsor is Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, one of the
Senate's most conservative members. "AgsJOBS is a win-
win approach," Craig declared. "Workers would be better off
than under the status quo, with legal protections, higher
wages, better working conditions and safer travel, and
growers would get a stable legal workforce."

But the White House, along with the Republican leadership,
had made sure the bill never reached the Senate floor for a
vote. Last month, for example, Craig was pressured into not
introducing it as an amendment to a bill restricting
class-action lawsuits.

What's so dangerous about the AgJOBS bill? It would grant
temporary visas to a half million undocumented farmworkers
-- as many as half of whom live and work in California. To
qualify, applicants would have to prove they'd worked for at
least 100 days in agriculture before August 2003.

All applicants would be subject to a criminal-background
check. They'd have to work another 360 days in agriculture
over six years to retain their visa. They'd then qualify for
permanent residence, and eventually citizenship.

The White House apparently doesn't like AgJOBS because it
grants ''amnesty'' to illegal immigrants. Craig says he doesn't
see how a bill that requires you to work for up to six years
in agriculture before qualifying for citizenship amounts to
amnesty.

But these days any proposal that can be tagged with the ''a''
word is about as likely to pass as one granting amnesty to
Saddam Hussein. For now, Bush is trying to have it both
ways: saying he supports a legalization program, but then
working to stall even reasonable legislation such as
AgJOBS.

The president says he'll smoke out terrorists from whatever
cave they're hiding in. But when it comes to millions of
working immigrants, he seems content to leave them
languishing in the shadows of the law. Could it be that he is
intimidated by the likes of one-note Tom Tancredo?

Louis Freedberg is Chronicle editorial writer. You can
e-mail him at lfreedberg@sfchronicle.com.
 
The politics of a volcano!

Courtesy of "myrtlebeachon line"

Posted on Tue, Aug. 03, 2004


As volcano continues to boil,
Montserratians in U.S. ordered to leave


BY MATTHEW HAY BROWN

The Orlando Sentinel


ORLANDO, Fla. - (KRT) - Marsha Meade always planned to return to Montserrat. When the volcano
stopped erupting, she would go back home, help her town dig out and get the island back to work.

But as the months turned to years, and the Soufriere Hills vent showed no signs of quieting, she began to
sink roots into the United States - moving into an apartment outside Boston, taking a job at a community
college and enrolling her daughter in a private school.

That life now is set to end in February, when mother and daughter will be ordered to leave the country -
along with nearly 300 other Montserratians who have been allowed to stay since a 1997 eruption buried
much of their tiny Eastern Caribbean island in lava and ash.

U.S. Rep. Major Owens, D-N.Y., says the predominantly black islanders have become the latest targets of
an "overwhelming backlash" against immigrants after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

He described a cycle of discrimination.

"You start with the Pakistanis, the Arabs, pretty soon blacks look like Arabs to you," Owens said. "It's an
unfortunate set of circumstances that are playing themselves out, which leads them to use terrorism as an
excuse for tightening up on people like these poor people from Montserrat."

The volcano, which has chased more than half the population from the British territory, is still erupting.
The southern half of the island, an area that includes the capital, the hospital and the airport, remains
uninhabitable. But Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge has ordered an end to the temporary
protected status that has allowed islanders to live and work in the United States.

"... The volcanic activity causing the environmental disaster in Montserrat is not likely to cease in the
foreseeable future," the Department of Homeland Security explained in a statement. "Therefore, it no
longer constitutes a temporary disruption of living conditions that temporarily prevents Montserrat from
adequately handling the return of its nationals."

Chris Bentley, a spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, calls allegations of
discrimination against immigrants or persons of color "unfounded."

"The only consideration is the conditions in the country," he said. "The volcano caused a permanent
situation for which the temporary protected status no longer applies."

Officials in Montserrat say they were surprised by the order. With jobs scarce and people still living in
shelters, acting Chief Minister Margaret Dyer-Howe says, the island would be unprepared for the return of
even 100 people.

"We really would like to have some discussion with the relevant authorities to see whether or not we can
get them back on a phased basis, so that we can manage the numbers that wish to return," Dyer-Howe
said. "We do need to improve our population, but we would like to have this done on a gradual basis, so
it's not too much of a burden on the services and everything else."

For 32-year-old Meade, whose hometown lies in the region near the volcano that has been declared
off-limits, the hardest part has been telling her daughter. Enya, who is 7, was born in the United States.

"She wanted to know why she was being asked to leave the only home she has ever known," Meade said.
"She wanted to know why she was being asked to leave the only school she has ever known and settled
into, why she has to leave her friends. ... She wants to know whether or not, is it because America only
wants white people in their country?"

Then-Attorney General Janet Reno granted temporary protected status to those Montserratians who were
already in the United States after the 1997 eruption that killed 19 people and buried the abandoned capital
of Plymouth.

The status, which has been extended to citizens of other countries suffering from political turmoil or
natural disaster, has allowed Montserratians to live and work in the United States but not to receive
government assistance or gain permanent residence.

For those still living on the 39-square-mile island, life remains difficult. The volcano erupted most recently
in March, and is expected to continue for decades. The population has fallen from 10,500 when the
volcano rumbled to life in 1995 to the 4,500 living in northern areas still considered safe. An economy that
once sustained itself on offshore banking, tourism, agriculture and light industry now is dependent on
British and other aid.

Ridge's decision means about 292 Montserratians must leave the country by Feb. 27, 2005, or face
deportation. Officials say that those who are unable to go back home may follow thousands of their
countrymen who have fled to Britain, where they may receive government assistance and apply for
citizenship.

But to Vera Weekes, assistant director of the Caribbean Research Center at the City University of New
York, the decision is "inhuman."

"They're not criminals, they're law-abiding people," said Weekes, a naturalized U.S. citizen from the
island. "Some have bought houses. Some have started businesses. They pay taxes. Their kids are in
school. They volunteer in their communities.

"They've already had such trauma and, really, loss in their lives, that it's uncalled for."

Officials say those who have benefited from temporary protected status should have known that they
would not be allowed to stay permanently.

"Throughout the process, it's made very clear that TPS is not a path to citizenship," Bentley said. "It's
meant as a way of safeguarding individuals while there is a need, and as soon as that need has passed,
then the status is terminated, and the individual reverts back to the status they had before TPS was
granted."

Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, says the
outcry was to be expected.

"What experience has shown about TPS, is that once you grant it to a group, it's very hard to withdraw it,"
he said. "They're not supposed to even be here. We did this out of the goodness of our hearts. If we don't
let it expire, then what we've conveyed to everyone again is that we're simply not serious about our
immigration laws."

Still, Camarota says, Montserrat could be a special case.

"You want enforcement to be tempered with the idea of mercy," he said. "And you want to be able, for
really unusual circumstances, to make exceptions. And maybe it's perfectly reasonable to say that, well,
Montserrat's an exception - with a big caveat: There's a rich colonial power here (Britain) that could easily
take all these people."

Owens, whose Brooklyn, N.Y., district is home to a large West Indian population, says forcing
Montserratians out would be "disappointing." He has sponsored a bill that would grant them permanent
residence.

"If you have a humanitarian policy, and as small a group as this, clearly suffering from a catastrophe, a
natural disaster, why get into the technicalities of yes, they could go to Britain?" he asked. "Why can't we
be generous enough to keep them in this hemisphere?"

---

© 2004, The Orlando Sentinel (Fla.).

Visit the Sentinel on the World Wide Web at http://www.orlandosentinel.com. On America Online, use
keyword: OSO.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
 
DHS / DOS / Students

Courtesy of "www.GovExec.com"

State, Homeland Security urged to overhaul student visa process
By Danielle Belopotosky, National Journal's Technology Daily


Graduate-school applications from foreign students dropped 32 percent in the last year, and there is a growing concern that the student-visa application process is part of the problem.
Policy experts on Monday called on the Homeland Security and State departments to streamline the process and to reinforce the government's commitment to invest in the cultural exchange of ideas.

A lengthy application process, redundancy in interviews and repetitive security checks must be overhauled, Nils Hasselmo, president of the Association of American Universities, said. The average wait time for a security check in the last year was 67 days. Student visa applications are also down 21 percent since 2001.

"Screening must be effective, rather than creating unnecessary processes and bureaucratic work," he said. "When we create barriers, we do harm to economy and national security."

The State Department currently manages student-visa applications while Homeland Security deals with the security perspective. Homeland Security oversees a Web-based student visa-tracking program known as the Student Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS. Although Congress mandated an Internet-based system in 1996, it was not until August 2003 that students were required to register with the system.

Asa Hutchinson, undersecretary for Border and Transportation Security, addressed concern brewing among some educators and policy experts that there are not sufficient safeguards to prevent racial and geographic profiling.

"President [Bush] has issued strong guidelines to eliminate racial profiling," he said at a news conference. The use of biometrics can help dismantle that impact. SEVIS ensures that legitimate students are welcome and gain access to the United States, Hutchinson said.

"Foreign students are exporters of the American experience ... and we must continue to let in and welcome them," he added.

In the past academic year, international students spent $13 billion in the U.S. economy, according to the Institute of International Education. But the United States is losing applicants to countries like the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, which are aggressively recruiting foreign students and have less stringent visa requirements. Hasselmo also recommends reciprocal visa-exchange programs for countries such as Mexico, and to better collaborate with existing background checks and security measures implemented in scholarship programs.

The controls put into place after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks under a homeland security law were necessary at the time, but it is time to refocus and "fine-tune those controls without compromising our safety," said Victor Johnson of the National Association of Foreign Student Advisers.

Part of that fine-tuning would include a clear policy guide for State Department consular officials to refocus the visa review policies and security clearance for scientists, to implement a transparent system by setting firm deadlines, and to offer more resources and facilities to perform these interviews and security checks, as mandated by the federal government.
 
Pr

Courtesy of "www.usavisacouncel.com"


New CIS Initiatives to Reduce Backlogs; Just PR, or the Real
Thing?
June 25, 2004

A recent CIS (formerly INS) press release lays out a "Backlog Elimination Strategy"
designed to cut down the waiting time on all applications, including the 2+ years
processing times now affecting most applications for permanent residence. The press
release is sprinkled with all kinds of slick, corporate feel-good language in pronouncing
its 3 primary objectives:

1."Achieving a high level of performance by establishing clear, concrete milestones
and actively monitoring progress towards these milestones;

2.Transforming business practices by implementing significant information
technology improvements and identifying processing improvements to transform
the current way of doing business; and

3.Ensuring integrity by instituting comprehensive quality assurance measures.

According to the press release, CIS, in striving to achieve these objectives, is determined
to reduce the maximum processing time for any application to 6 months by the end of
2006.

These objectives sound great and no one in their right mind would take issue with such a
righteous plan. The question, however, is whether the means by which CIS seeks to
achieve these objectives are realistic or effective.

The president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, an 8,000 member
not-for-profit organization, testified this week before Congress' House Judiciary
Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims raising important questions
regarding CIS' proposed and current measures to execute on their new mission
statement.

Outsourcing: Like many organizations in corporate America, the U.S. government has
hopped on the outsourcing bandwagon. CIS touts the establishment of a user-friendly
customer service program - which AILA's president pointed "must have seemed like a
good idea at the time", serviced primarily by non-CIS employees. In theory, information on
pending applications is to be available at the touch of a 1-800 national customer service
line. In reality, the representatives providing "customer service" are merely reading off
pre-fab scripts and providing information, such as processing times, generally otherwise
available online at the CIS website. No contact with representatives at the actual CIS site
in question takes place and the attending personnel generally receive little, if any,
substantive immigration procedure or policy training. Although CIS has acknowledged
shortcomings with this program, it remains unclear whether pending initiatives to further
outsource additional CIS functions will be aborted.

Electronic filing and online information: CIS efforts to implement new technologies to
streamline the processing of certain applications were applauded, although some of the
measures were seen as more show and glitz than substance. Specifically, the availability
of online information regarding the status of certain filings pending at the four regional
service centers was praised, as were CIS initiatives to receive and maintain applicant
biometric information. But new programs for online filing of applications for employment
authorization or other benefits was seen as less than efficient since the adjudication of
such filings was still subject to the same processing backlogs once the applicant's
information and filing was accepted.

Extending validity periods of employment authorization and advance parole travel
documents: A proposal to extend the validity of such documents beyond their current
validity periods of 1 year is generally seen as a positive step since eligibility for these types
of immigration benefits is at play only while I-485, applications for adjustment of status to
permanent residence are pending – and that processing of I-485 applications are
generally taking in excess of 2 years. Thus, on the one hand, obviating the need and
expense for applicants to renew such documents after 1 year is a good thing, but on the
other hand, aren't we just creating a temporary (and prone to be permanent) band aid
solution to a problem that shouldn't even exist in the first place?

PUBLISHED June 25, 2004 - "IMMIGRATION LAW FORUM"
Copyright © 2004, By Law Offices of Richard Hanus, Chicago, Illinois
 
Hindu.com

Relief for family-based immigrants to the U.S.

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, JULY 21. In a message that could come as a
relief for thousands of petitioners, including Indian nationals
residing in India or in the United States, the U.S.
administration is making efforts to speed up the
family-based immigrant application process. According to a
senior official, the U.S. administration is also looking at the
issue of "advance parole" to see if changes can be made to
the system to lessen the burden on the immigrant
applicants.

"We're actually looking at the I-130 process which impacts
specifically the family-based immigrants ... there are
upwards of 1.8 million pending applications for family-based
immigrants here under what's known as the I-130
category," said Prakash Khatri, the First Ombudsman in the
Citizenship and Immigration Services of the Department of
Homeland Security.

At the Washington Foreign Press Centre, Mr. Khatri said
that on the subject of immediate relatives such as parents,
spouses or children, there was no limit on the number of
immigrants that could come into the U.S. on an annual
basis. On "immediate relatives," Mr. Khatri said the USCIS
was using the "most up-to-date technology to quickly and
securely process all of these applications" and a lot of
review on the processes was under way. "... we are
focussing on that," he said in response to a question from
The Hindu.

Saying the policy was clearly to welcome immigrants and
"not to put up walls" or "artificial barriers," Mr. Khatri said
the processing time of applications could be reduced
substantially; and that for the "green card" application the
processing time varied from as little as four months to as
much as three or four years. In a pilot programme carried
out at Dallas the particular process was actually cut down
to a mere 75 days for the first green card, he pointed out.

Mr. Khatri also addressed another aspect of concern to
Indian nationals who have applied for a green card and are
presently residing in the U.S. — something known as
"advance parole" to be able to travel out of the U.S. "This
particular programme is one that is of great interest to my
office and we are working on a number of fixes to that," he
said.

"There are a number of different possibilities on parole.
Obviously some will require regulatory change," Mr. Khatri
said, pointing out two different cases of people who would
need to use the advance parole. In emergency cases, he
said, there should not "be a situation where a person
cannot leave the U.S. because the Immigration Service was
unable to process and advance parole." The second
category would be business travellers.
 
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