 NEWS BYTES
This week President Bush finally made the formal nomination of James Ziglar to serve as INS Commissioner. More about Ziglar can be found at http://www.visalaw.com/01apr4/5apr401.html.
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A federal judge last week ruled that the family of Elian Gonzalez can file suit against the US based on their claim that the government used excessive force in the April 2000 raid that reunited Elian with his father. The judge found that while the government had a valid warrant to seize Elian, the family alleged sufficient facts regarding the level of force that a trial could be allowed. The government has two weeks to appeal the ruling.
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Residents of Berkeley, California, are urging a federal judge there to sentence Lakireddy Bali Reddy, an area landlord who has pleaded guilty to charges of importing young women from India for forced labor and sex, to the maximum possible of 38 years in prison. The effort follows the recommendation of prosecutors that Reddy be sentenced to six and a half years. Earlier this year Reddy pled guilty to immigration fraud, tax evasion and transporting a minor for sex, avoiding prosecution for the death of one of the girls he imported, who died of carbon monoxide poisoning in an apartment owned by Reddy.
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Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York are calling the recruitment of newly arrived female Russian immigrants to work as prostitutes a “growing problem.” The announcement follows the arrests of 14 people on charges that they were involved in running brothels in the area. The arrests came after a nine month long investigation that was prompted by complaints from people who lived near the brothels.
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An undocumented immigrant living in Virginia has admitted in federal court to employment at least 10 other undocumented immigrants to work for her janitorial and cleaning business. Miriam Klackova Facemyer pleaded guilty to being part of a ring that brought in more than 110 immigrants to work in the area, although federal officials believe that many more were brought in to work in department stores and hotels throughout the southern US. The ring is also accused of money laundering and counterfeiting. Four other members of the ring have been convicted in the past year, and more arrests are expected.
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The Mexican government is sending thousands of textbooks used by Mexican students to elementary schools in the US in hopes that the books will help children of Mexican immigrants learn about their families’ homeland. Another goal of the shipment is to develop an educational partnership between the two countries. It is also expected that they will be used to determine in which classes children arriving from Mexico should be placed, as well as to help US teachers better understand the education they have received in Mexico. The possibility of an educational partnership because more real last week when the California state senate voted to approve a program that would allow 1000 Mexican students to attend college in California and 1000 California students to attend college in Mexico.
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The INS recently published a notice in the Federal Register that it would be collecting information on Form I-9, which is used to verify a person’s eligibility to work in the US. According to the notice, employers spend more than 13 million hours each year filling out and maintaining I-9 records. This is a tremendous amount of time, particularly when one considers the overall ineffectiveness of the I-9 system.
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A federal judge last week ruled that the state of Arizona must create a funding plan that will address the needs of students with limited English skills by next January. The order follows a vote in the state to end its bilingual education programs, and is designed to enforce a judge’s ruling in January 2000 that the state does not provide sufficient funds for such students. The vote to end bilingual education does not affect the January 2000 ruling because a number of students can still continue bilingual education, and funding must be provided for the English immersion programs called for by the vote.
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A recently released INS memo on Form I-864, the Affidavit of Support required in all family based immigration cases and in some employment based cases, stated that in cases where the immigrating person has already worked or can otherwise claim 40 qualifying quarters of work in the US, and is therefore eligible for Social Security benefits, the affidavit of support is not required. An accompanying memo stated that when the person entering the US as a permanent resident would be automatically entitled to citizenship, the affidavit of support would not be required.
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