 NEWS BYTES
The State Department has begun announcing winners of the DV-2002 lottery. The Diversity Visa lottery provides 50,000 visas to nationals of countries with low rates of immigration to the US. More than ten million entries are received each year. The selection period will likely continue through July. Only winners are notified, so if an entrant does not hear from the State Department by the end of July, they must assume that they were not selected for further processing. The State Department will not verify the names of winners or losers of the lottery.
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The INS has indicated that it will consider 245i applications to be properly filed if “postmarked” before April 30th even if the petition is received after that date. Also, receipts from private courier services showing that the packages were picked up on or before April 30th will also be acceptable.
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Readers are reminded that a new version of Form I-129W will be required for H-1B petitions filed beginning April 13th. In a meeting with the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the INS confirmed that in the new section where employers provide information on willful violations and H-1B dependency, if those sections do not apply, an employer can leave the section blank
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The INS has told the American Immigration Lawyers Association that its members should contact the agency when they have cases where clients with employment-based adjustment cases have minor children who are “aging out” and the client has changed employers pursuant to the new six month rule under AC21. Attorneys should prepare a detailed letter explaining why the AC21 requirements for changing employers are met. ********* The INS has told the American Immigration Lawyers Association that it will accept an affidavit from Canadians filing adjustment of status applications in the US explaining their manner in entering the US, the date of entry and the place of entry when the applicant has entered the US and not received any documentation. This will suffice to show the applicant had an inspected entry. *********
Last week groups of farmworkers across the country celebrated the birthday of Cesar Chavez, the immigrant who founded the United Farmworkers Union. In California, his birthday is an official state holiday, making him the first Hispanic and only labor leader to be so honored. Chavez died in 1993 at age 66 after a lifetime dedicated to improving living standards for migrant farmworkers. Chavez began working as a farm laborer after finishing the eighth grade. As an adult, he organized boycotts of lettuce and grapes that led to widespread recognition of the plight of farmworkers.
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The INS recently reversed itself in the case of a Canadian-born woman who it denied was a US citizen. Renee Drake was born in Canada in 1948 to two US citizens. After being told she was not a citizen, last week she received a call from her local INS office apologizing for the error and telling her that she was, in fact, a US citizen. People such as Drake, who were born abroad to two US citizens, can either file for a certificate of citizenship from the INS, or for a US passport from the State Department. Drake’s citizenship issues arose after the Internal Revenue Service penalized her for taking deductions that were only available to US citizens.
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The 80 Mexican immigrants who work at the Hudson Valley Foie Gras farm in New York are fighting to be covered by a state law that guarantees workers at least one day off a week. The workers are aware of the frequent criticism that activists have for foie gras production, and say that in some cases the conditions they face are worse than those faced by the ducks they are raising. New York law currently exempts farmworkers from the provision ensuring that all workers have a day off. The farm says that if the workers were given a day off, the feeding process that is necessary to producing foie gras would be disrupted. Other agricultural concerns say that they also will suffer economically if workers are given a day off.
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Eighty immigrants in the Chicago area have been ordered to retake tests to obtain driver’s licenses. They were among those who were provided licenses by corrupt department of state officials who were accepting bribes in exchange for issuing the licenses. While officials have not completely examined the records of those involved, a quick examination showed that 10 of the 80 have been involved in accidents, and that at least four were arrested for driving under the influence. So far 41 people have been charged as a result of the ongoing investigation into corruption at the secretary of state’s office.
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The Dallas Morning News recently obtained information on the number of people who have been in INS detention for more than three years. The information shows that more than 800 people have been in INS custody for more than three years, 361 of whom are asylum seekers and others who have not been convicted of any criminal offense. The detainees are from 69 countries, with the vast majority, 588, from Cuba. Of these, about 160 have been in the US for more than ten years. About 10 percent of the long term detainees are from Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. The US lacks deportation agreements with these four countries. The remaining detainee, however, come from countries that do have established diplomatic relationships with the US. The annual cost of detaining these people is over million. Later this year the Supreme Court will issue an opinion on the constitutionality of long-term detention.
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A growing number of US schools are recruiting teachers from abroad to make up for an increasing teacher shortage. This month, schools from Pennsylvania and New Jersey made a recruiting trip to India in search of people to teach math and sciences. Last December, Houston schools obtained a commitment from 12 teachers from Moscow, in addition to the 100 teachers from the Philippines and Spain already employed by the district. New York City schools already employ a number of foreign teachers and are looking abroad to fill as many as 12,000 vacancies expected during the next school year.
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For the time being, Jeffrey Davidow, the US Ambassador to Mexico, will remain in his position despite the change in administrations. Davidow is a career diplomat. He will not remain in the post throughout the Bush administration, however. The role of Ambassador to Mexico is seen as one of the most desirable in the Administration, and a number of people have been listed as potential candidates. Among these are Texas State Railroad Commissioner Tony Garza and Rob Mosbacher, Jr., a Houston area energy magnate.
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An ethics instructor with the INS in South Carolina was recently arrested on charges that she committed fraud against a local department store. According to investigators, Rosemary Slattery, whose husband William is a former associate INS commissioner, purchased items and then returned different, less expensive ones, pocketing the refund in addition to keeping the original purchased items.
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Three Hispanic residents of Roger, Arkansas have filed suit against the local police department, saying that they have been illegally stopped because of their race. According to the complaint, officers stopped two of the plaintiffs and demanded to see their immigration papers. They also say their car was search without permission. The third plaintiff says a similar incident occurred to him. They say that the police have engaged in racial profiling, and that they have in mind the goal of turning Hispanics over to the INS.
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A new report from the Urban Institute shows that 36 percent of the children of immigrant in Texas are living in poverty, the highest rate in any state. The report, which was based on numbers from the US Census Bureau, also shows that Texas has the highest rate of uninsured children at 40 percent. The study looked at California, Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Texas and Washington, which are home to 71 percent of immigrants to the US. The author of the study, Randy Capps, says that there are two reasons for Texas’ low ranking. First is the large volume of immigrants to the state. Second is the fact that Texas provides only limited social services. The report is available online at http://newfederalism.urban.org/html/series_b/b29/b29.html.
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The Colorado American Civil Liberties Union has threatened to use to state over the refusal to issue marriage licenses to immigrants without Social Security numbers. While they deny that it was in response to this threat, attorneys for the Colorado State Association of County Clerks and Recorders have reversed their position on issuing marriage licenses to people without Social Security number. Some advocates believe that the Colorado policy was driven by the desire to prevent undocumented immigrants from marrying US citizens or lawful residents.
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As part of his ongoing effort to draw immigrants to the state to boost its declining population, Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack recently held a conference entitled “Immigration: Our Bridge to the Future.” He expressed surprise at the negative reaction to some of his immigration proposals, saying that he believes that they are necessary for the state and its economy. Vilsack was critical of the meat packing industry, saying that it “used people.”
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US immigration officials have allowed about 170 workers from Vietnam to enter the US to provide evidence in an investigation into human trafficking in Samoa. The workers, most of whom are female, have been granted humanitarian parole and are allowed to remain in the US for 90 days. They were employed by the Daewoosa-Samoa Ltd. factory, which is now closed. Because Samoa is a US protectorate, clothing made there can be labeled “Made in the USA” but employers do not have to comply with US labor laws. According to a Department of Labor report released last year, Daewoosa paid workers less than the mandated minimum wage of $ 2.60 an hour. The company was fined and eventually declared bankruptcy. The owner of the factory was arrested at the end of March.
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