 NEWS BYTES
The State Department has announced that its recent warning that numbers in the EB-2 category for Chinese nationals was not necessary. Indeed, the Department has better news - because of low use in family numbers, it may not be necessary to further retrogress the Chinese employment based categories at all. The Department also announced that, because of increased processing of adjustment applications for health care workers from the Philippines, numbers in the third employment-based category may retrogress.
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The Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR) has retained an attorney to coordinate its pro bono program. Steven C. Lang most recently worked as the coordinator of the South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project, where he was responsible for supervising rights presentations given to detainees. In his new position at the EOIR his first responsibility will be to assess the areas in which pro bono representation is most needed. He will also work to develop contacts with organizations who can provide pro bono representation to people in Immigration Courts and the Board of Immigration Appeals. It is hoped that Lang's new position will improve the immigration hearing process by assisting people in better presenting their cases.
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Anthony Hopkins, an Academy Award winning British actor perhaps most widely known for his portrayal of Hannibal Lecter in the movie "The Silence of the Lambs," recently became a US citizen. Hopkins was knighted in England for his accomplishments, but US citizens cannot hold titles of nobility, so he can no longer be referred to as Sir Anthony Hopkins in the US. However, because Britain allows dual citizenship, he is still a British citizen and can use his title there.
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The Los Angeles City Council has voted to reaffirm Special Order 40, a city rule that prohibits police officers from questioning a person's immigration status. The purpose of the rule is to make immigrants, especially those who are undocumented, feel that they can report crime without having the police turn their investigation to them. Along with reaffirming its commitment to Special Order 40, the City Council also asked that the police department allow INS and Border Patrol agents to enter police stations only if they are working on a specific case. These votes come in the wake of the scandal surrounding the Rampart Unit of the Los Angeles Police Department, which, among other illegal actions, allegedly colluded with the INS to have people who witnessed inappropriate police conduct deported.
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