NEWS  BYTES

In the most recent The State Department Visa Bulletin it was announced that because of the recently passed H-1B law, which also dealt with visa availability, approximately 130,000 visas that went unused during fiscal years 1999 and 2000 will now be available.  Because of these increased numbers, many think that all employment-based categories could be current by the middle of next year.

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Immigrants in the Chicago area recently had the opportunity to voice complaints about the Chicago INS office, considered to be one of the hardest to deal with in the country.  More than 300 people met last weekend at an event sponsored by the Independent Monitoring Board, which was recently formed to address problems at the Chicago office.  The purpose of the meeting was two-fold:  first, gather information from people in order to assist them with their cases, and second, to develop a database of problems at the office in order to make a stronger argument for reform.  The Chicago INS office says it welcomes the input, and will promptly address any case more than two years old that is brought to their attention.

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US Border Control, a group that favors restricted immigration, believes a number of noncitizens voted in the Presidential election in Florida.  The group is investigating whether there is any legal basis on which they can challenge the results of the election.  The National Voter Registration Act, widely known as the Motor-Voter law, is being blamed for the problem.  This law allows people to register to vote when they obtain a driver’s license.  Problems sometimes arise because while one’s citizenship status does matter in eligibility to vote, it does not in obtaining a driver’s license, so the issue is often ignored in the licensing process.  The Motor-Voter law is also being blamed for other election irregularities, including failure to include many properly registered voters at their polling places.

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During a recent, brief visit to Los Angeles, Mexican President-elect Vicente Fox spoke with representatives of the Mexican immigrant community, promising that the Mexican government will do more to represent them.  He said that he would give serious consideration to allowing Mexican citizens in the US to cast absentee ballots in Mexican elections, and to create congressional seats to represent the approximately seven million Mexican citizens in the US.  Fox’s embrace of Mexican citizens and US citizens of Mexican origin is a substantial break with the past, when Mexican politicians ignored or were openly hostile toward Mexican communities in the US.

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This week in Lithuania trial began in absentia of ninety-three year old Kazys Gimzauskas on charges of committing war atrocities during World War Two when he was a member of the Lithuanian secret police.  Gimzauskas, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, immigrated to the US in 1956 and lived in Florida until 1994, when he was stripped of his US citizenship because of lies he told about his wartime activities and deported to Lithuania.  This is his second trial; the first, which occurred a year ago, was halted because of his poor health.  If convicted Gimzauskas will probably not have to serve any sentence.  Since 1991, when Lithuania gained independence from the Soviet Union, the government has promised to prosecute those who were involved in the murder of about 240,000 Lithuanian Jews during World War Two, but as yet no one has been convicted, in part because so few eyewitnesses are still alive.  There are not expected to be any witnesses in the trial of Gimzauskas.

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An unfair labor practice claim brought by a Cambodian worker who claims he was fired after refusing to work for less than minimum wage has been settled.  Kamsan Mao’s employer, Top Line Electronics, made Mao do high-tech piecework at home.  The practice of making electronic component parts at home has become increasingly common over the past 15 years, and is not limited to small companies.  Because the wage is paid at a piecework rate – that is not by the hour but by the pieces produced – many workers end up making less than minimum wage.  The terms of the settlement have not been disclosed, but Top Line has promised to stop requiring employees to work from home.

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Pedro Astacio, a pitcher for the Major League Baseball Colorado Rockies, has pled guilty to harassment in exchange for the prosecution’s dropping of charges of domestic abuse.  Astacio, a native of the Dominican Republic, originally pled guilty to the domestic abuse charges, but was allowed to withdraw the plea after his attorneys told him a conviction could lead to his deportation.  Astacio was sentenced to six months of probation and ordered to complete a domestic violence treatment program.

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This week Germany filed suit against the US in the World Court over the execution of two German nationals in Arizona last year.  While saying that the death penalty “cannot be justified neither ethically nor legally,'' the German government sought to cast the issue as one of providing foreign nationals with their consular rights.  Germany wants to obtain reparations for past executions and a guarantee that foreign nationals in the US will be informed of their right to assistance from their consulate after arrest.  The World Court has no way of enforcing its decisions, and the US has a history of ignoring its rulings.

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Hawa Said, the subject of two opinion pieces by Anthony Lewis published in the New York Times, has been issued a US passport by the State Department.  Last year the INS had sought to deport her, and refused to recognize her claim of US citizenship.  Said’s father became a citizen before she was 18, making citizenship pass automatically to her.  She was detained while pregnant and released only after she was granted withholding of removal.  The issuance of a passport makes clear that in the eyes of the US government, Said is a US citizen.

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Early next year the Supreme Court will hear a case on whether the state of Alabama has to provide driver’s license tests in languages other than English.   The suit was brought by Martha Sandoval, a permanent resident from Mexico.  Until 1990, the state had provided licensing tests in numerous languages, but in that year the state voted to make English the official language and the state stopped offering the test in any language other than English.  Sandoval has won her case in both the trial court and the appellate court, and the state has begun offering the test in multiple languages.  Nonetheless, the state’s Attorney General, along with several English-only groups, are determined to make their case before the Supreme Court.

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INS Commissioner Doris Meissner resigns her post on Monday, November 20, 2000.  During a press conference this week, she highlighted her accomplishments as Comissioner.  Chief among these she listed the reduction of the waiting period for naturalization from more than two years two between six and nine months, and increased cooperation between the US and Mexico in stopping undocumented immigration.

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The former director of the Southeast region of the INS has joined a startup business dedicated to the information technology industry.  Thomas P. Fischer will be working as vice president of immigration services for IT Hub and will supervise the development of an automated system for processing H-1B visas.

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