 NEWS BYTES
Monday, April 30 is the deadline for filing applications under section 245(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Aware that in many cases, the application cannot be filed until the last minute, INS offices across the country are extending their hours. A list of the extended hours can be found on the INS website at http://www.ins.usdoj.gov/graphics/services/residency/combined.htm.
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Sen. Chuck Hagel, just returned from a meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Mexico City, said that he fully expects “significant immigration reform during the next two years.” According to Hagel, the reforms will likely take the form of a new guest worker program, as well as a possible form of amnesty. He says that it is clear that Mexicans needs jobs in the US, and equally clear that the US is dependent on Mexican workers. He hopes that the immigration expertise of the new presidents of both the US and Mexico will make reform a possibility. Mexican President Vicente Fox has made immigration a primary issue and US President George W. Bush’s experience as the governor of a border state arguably gives him an understanding of the needs and impact of immigration greater than other presidents.
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Despite a recent statement by Attorney General John Ashcroft that the Department of Justice would be increasing its efforts to combat human smuggling, the budget proposal from the Bush administration allocates well less than the million provided in the Victims of Trafficking Act passed last year.
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As St. Louis, Missouri becomes more ethnically diverse, physicians in the area are working on developing ways to better provide treatment to immigrants. Many common methods of health care delivery in the US violate the cultural norms of immigrants, resulting in less effective health care. A recent meeting at the St. Louis University Health Sciences Center focused on ways that US physicians can better provide services to the booming immigrant population in the city, which is thought to comprise about ten percent of the population.
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The Mexican government is reporting that fewer people than expected are taking advantage of a new program that allows Mexican citizens to retain their Mexican citizenship after being naturalized in the US and allows others who have never had Mexican citizenship, but who have one Mexican parent, to acquire it. The program, which began in 1998, has so far attracted only about 25,000 people, only 25% of those expected to participate. The US requires US citizens who are naturalized in another country to give up US citizenship, but allows people who are naturalized in the US to retain their former citizenship if that country allows it.
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A San Jose, California man was recently charged with impersonating an INS agent. Antonio Moreira was arrested after a local businessman reported that he was making INS business cards, and offering to help other customers speed up their immigration process for a fee of ,000. Investigators are searching for people who have been swindled by Moreira, and are stressing that they will not prosecute anyone without legal immigration status.
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About 60 recipients of welfare in New York City recently protested their treatment by staffers at a local welfare office. According to the protesters, most of whom were immigrants who did not speak English, workers at the office do not speak Spanish and are rude and mistreat applicants who do not speak English. The protesters were demanding a translation service. City officials say that translation services are provided to all those who need them.
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Police in Pennsylvania recently arrested a man on charged of stealing nearly 0,000 from five Korean immigrants who were hoping to purchase businesses in the US. David Ahn is accused to taking money to purchase existing businesses, but not actually purchasing them. When the immigrants realized the deals would not occur, they tried, unsuccessfully, to get their money back.
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An Alaskan painting contractor was recently sentenced to 30 months in prison for hiring undocumented workers and threatening them with deportation if they complained to officials about their low wages. Eduardo Antonio Delgado, who was once undocumented himself, was also ordered to pay almost 5,000 in back wages to 29 workers. According to prosecutors, Delgado made his employees work up to 20-hour days, and would pay documented workers before undocumented ones.
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Department of Motor Vehicles officials in Orange County, California have stopped their practice of arresting people seeking driver’s licenses. For the past six months, officials had enlisted the help of Social Security Administration officials to arrest people standing in line for licenses. Many groups believed the program led to discrimination against Hispanics. The SSA stopped its participation in the program, saying that the checks were performed “at random,” and not on the basis of any evidence. SSA officials deny, however, that any racial profiling was involved.
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Day laborers in Phoenix, Arizona, most of whom are immigrants, are planning to lease space to start an assembly center for hiring. They have been lobbying the city to provide such a facility, but are tired of waiting. To fund the proposed center, workers are going to have a series of fundraisers. They would also charge contractors one or two dollars for each person they hire from the center. One factor that may help the effort succeed is that the workers have the support of business owners on whose property the day laborers currently congregate while waiting to be hired.
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Immigrant advocacy groups in Illinois are protesting a significant reduction in the amount of money the state provides for immigrant funding. Just million will be provided for funding programs run by the Illinois Department of Human Services, down from nearly million this year. They are urging Gov. George Ryan to request additional funding, especially in light of Census statistics that show the immigrant population in the state is growing rapidly.
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Federal officials say that a Utah woman, who has not been identified to protect her privacy, was kidnapped and forced to marry an undocumented immigrant from Mexico. She says that she was offered ,000 for the marriage. Five people, including the woman’s mother, were charged recently. According to court documents, the woman and her 9-month-old child were taken by her mother to a house where she was restrained and her son taken away from her. She was then allegedly taken to Las Vegas and forced to participate in a marriage ceremony. After the ceremony she returned to Utah and was able to escape and contact the police.
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The Immigrant Rights Working Group is searching for artistic submissions for inclusion in a report to be published by the upcoming World Conference Against Racism, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance. The report will document human rights abuses against immigrants and refugees. The deadline for submission is June 1, 2001. Those interested should contact IRWB-report@visalaw.com.
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A new Mexican consul began work this week in Atlanta, Georgia. Remedios Gomez Arnau replaced Teodoro Maus. Gomez is an academic who has studied migration and international relations. She now represents Mexicans living in seven southeastern states, estimated to number about one million. Hispanic community leaders hope she follows Maus’s lead and acts as more than a representative of the Mexican government, but also works as an advocate for Mexicans in the US.
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In our article last week on the case in California in which a court voided a penalty clause in a H-1B worker’s contract, we misspelled the name of the attorney who represented the plaintiff, Dipen Joshi. The attorney is Michael Papuc.
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