Dear Readers:

This week was not a week to inspire confidence in the folks running the country's immigration system. Consider the following:

1. Two employees of the INS' California Service Center were indicted on charges of deliberately shredding thousands of documents - including immigration applications - in order to cut down the backlog at the service center.

2. Officials of the General Accounting Office were able to successfully use fake IDs and phony names to easily get past border agents at US ports of entry along the Canadian and Mexican borders as well as at an airport in Florida.

3. The US consulate in Nuevo Laredo was shut down because of allegations that US employees were selling visas.

While it is impossible to totally rid government of corruption and incompetence, it seems that immigration officials at the INS and State Department have had more than their fair share in recent years. This year the INS will be fully absorbed into the Department of Homeland Security (though the consulates will remain with the State Department). Perhaps this fresh start will mean the end (or at least a reduction) in the seemingly endless string of embarrassing problems.

The other big news this week is the announcement of the chairs of the House and Senate immigration subcommittees. In the Senate, freshman Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss will take the helm. John N. Hostettler (R-Ind.) will serve as the chairman of the House Immigration, Border Security, and Claims Subcommittee. Rep. Hostettler has represented Southwest Indiana in Congress since 1995. The rest of the committees have not been officially announced. Next week we'll have analysis on what to expect from the two committees in this session of Congress.

As usual, we include all of the week's news as well as our regular features this week. We welcome your suggestions and comments; please send them to us at gsiskind@visalaw.com.

In firm news, we are pleased to announce that we now have extended our online case tracking system to all of our clients interested in using the system. The system allows clients to log in to our computer system using a user name and password and see what is happening on their cases. We will be soon adding other features including a document sharing system that will allow clients to view relevant documents relating to their case such as INS letters and receipts, petition letters, faxes, etc. SSHD clients who are reading this newsletter and have not begun using the system are welcome to contact me for instructions on getting a user name and password set up.

As always, we remind readers that we're lawyers who make our living representing immigration clients. We would love to discuss becoming your law firm. Just go to http://www.visalaw.com/intake.html to request an appointment or call us at 800-748-3819 or 901-682-6455.

Regards,

Greg Siskind