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LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
This week the House of Representatives passed H.R. 3244, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000.  This bill would help foreign-born women and children in the US who have been forced into sexual slavery. The bill creates a new non-immigrant category called the T visa and it would allow trafficking victims to have the same access to benefits as admitted refugees have.  It would also increase the penalties for those involved in such servitude.  According to the sponsor of the legislation, Rep, Sam Gejdenson (D-CT), over two million people each year are forced into sex industries, and 50,000 of them are brought into the US.  The bill will now be sent to the Senate for a vote. 
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We have learned that within the next month, a bill extending the Lautenberg Amendment, which makes it easier for members of certain religions to obtain refugee status, will be coming up for a vote in the Senate.  Indochinese and Jews and Evangelical Christians from the former Soviet Union have been the major beneficiaries of the Lautenberg Amendment. 
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Many advocates are currently working on developing support for granting Temporary Protected Status to Colombian nationals.  We will report on this as progress warrants. 
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Roy Barnes, the Governor of Georgia, has signed a law that will require judges in the state to tell noncitizens of the possible immigration consequences of guilty pleas.  The law will take effect on July 1.  Since the 1996 immigration laws were passed, the problem of defense lawyers failing to warn of potential deportation for pleading guilty to minor crimes has gotten more severe.