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NEWS BYTES
Part of the 1996 immigration law removed control of denaturalization proceedings from the courts and gave it to the Attorney General and the INS.  As part of this authority, the INS passed regulations detailing its denaturalization procedures.  Under these regulations, the INS could initiate denaturalization proceedings if it obtained “credible and probative evidence” that a person’s naturalization should be revoked.  However, the INS has in practice only initiated proceedings when it has “clear, unequivocal, and convincing evidence” that denaturalization should be pursued.  The INS recently announced in the Federal Register that this would become official policy and the regulations were amended accordingly.   
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A proposed immigrant detention center in New Mexico may not be constructed even though the local county commission voted 3-1 in favor of it last week.  Since that vote, one of the commissioners who initially approved has changed his mind and now says he no longer supports the plan.  He says that meetings with immigrant advocacy groups changed his opinion, adding that having indefinite detainees in the community will create tensions in the community, where the issue is already prominent. 
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Because of the number of adjustment of status application filed with the INS, the State Department says the May 2000 Visa Bulletin will show a “serious” retrogression in the Chinese EB-2 preference.  The Department believes EB-2 numbers will retrogress to a date about the same as Chinese EB-3 dates.  They say there is no retrogression expected in Indian employment based preference categories. 
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A senior INS inspector has been on trial this week for bribery.  He is accused of accepting at least 0,000 in bribes over a year in exchanged for allowing 25 undocumented immigrants to enter, as well as thousands of pounds of marijuana, through the San Ysidro, California Port of Entry.  He faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.  According to his defense attorney, smugglers who watched his habit of making cursory vehicle inspections targeted him.  Two Mexican nationals have also been indicted on related charges.