NEWS  BYTES

The INS, the Department of Labor and the American Immigration Lawyers Association have reached an agreement to consider the date an H-1B application's Labor Condition Application is signed to be the start date of the LCA for purposes of determining when an H-1B extension will be dated. Recently, the DOL had been approving LCAs from the date processed, often many weeks after the date of actual submission.

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Sometime this month, the INS is to publish regulations to implement the legalization provisions of the Legal Immigrant Family Equity Act.  These provisions will allow applicants for one of three class action lawsuits related to the 1986 amnesty to apply for adjustment of status.  Applicants will have one year from the publication of the regulations to apply for adjustment of status.  Regulations to implement the new V visa, also created by the LIFE Act, are also expected to be published this month.

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Testimony has been going on for the past two weeks in the retrial of a number of people on charges of immigration and marriage fraud.  David Jewell Jones, an Arkansas businessman, along with four others are accused of conspiring to bring two Chinese women to the US for sexual purposes.  Last week Xiao Ying Wu, one of the women, testified that she participated in a sham marriage.  She testified that she saw the man she married, one of the defendants, only on the day they were married and on the day of their INS interview.  While married, she said she was involved in a sexual relationship with Jones.

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Last week we reported on the calls to extend the section 245(i) deadline by both President Bush and a growing number of members of Congress.  INS Acting Commissioner Kevin Rooney also wants the deadline extended.  Testifying before a House subcommittee on funding, he said as many as 200,000 eligible immigrants did not apply.  Rooney pointed out that one reason for the last minute rush was delay in issuing regulations, which shortened the application period.

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The state of California has filed a lawsuit against Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, a Hispanic advocacy organization, accusing it of misusing state funds.  According to the state, the group cannot account for million in state funding for educational programs.  Along with the million, the state is also seeking million in punitive damages.  Some observers believe that the state has filed the suit in an effort to deflect criticism that has resulted from a federal investigation into the state Education Department.

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The Hmong American Community, a non-profit community organization in California’s Central Valley, is leading the development of a truck farmer school near Fresno.  The Small Farm Resource and Training Center is looking for students who are recent immigrants, tenant farmers, and farm workers who want to go into business for themselves.  Students can remain at the center for up to three years, receiving information on farming, especially the business aspects.

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At a recent conference on border trade between the US and Mexico, Sen. Phil Gramm (R-TX) and Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-TX) both expressed support for a new guest worker program, but with vastly different visions of the form such a program would take.  Reyes supports a program that would allow the workers to eventually seek US citizenship, while Gramm supports a program that, while it would legalize the status of undocumented workers in the US, would not allow them to obtain permanent residence in the US.  Gramm made clear the depth of opposition to the program supported by Reyes, saying “it will pass over my cold, dead political body.”  A guest worker proposal is being worked out in a series of meetings between US and Mexican officials, and is expected to be announced this fall.

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A new poll suggests that Americans are concerned about the relatively high rate of population growth in the US, and that for many, these concerns are heightened by the increasing diversity of the US population.  The poll, conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, shows that half of the respondents believe the current population growth rate is a bad thing.  The results of the poll are available online at http://www.people-press.org/cen01rpt.htm.

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The jail in Bergen County, New Jersey recently signed a contract with the INS to provide temporary housing to immigrants who are in the process of being deported.  Under the agreement, the jail will house up to 64 people at a time.  From the New Jersey jail, the detainees will be moved to a jail in Louisiana, and from there will be deported.  County officials hope the agreement with the INS will boost falling revenues.

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A former employee of the city of Laredo, Texas, was recently sentenced to three years of probation for creating and distributing fraudulent documents while working at the Bureau of Vital Statistics.  Jesus Armando Cazares was also sentenced to four months in a halfway house and four months of home detention after being convicted on three counts of document fraud.

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The Inter-American Development Bank this week made several proposals on ways to channel money sent home by Central American immigrants in the US into investments in their hometowns.  The Bank estimates that about 0 billion will be sent home by immigrants over the next ten years.  It wants to channel billion of this into infrastructure. 

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The INS office in Cleveland, Ohio, recently agreed to terminate removal proceedings against four people who had filed applications for labor certifications under section 245(i).  It seems that a person within the Ohio department of labor reported the four to the INS, which then placed them in removal proceedings.  Their attorney sued to terminate the proceedings, which the INS agreed to, under the policy memo issued at the end of April stating that the INS would not deport people on the basis of a section 245(i) filing.