The Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS) announced that Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for El Salvador will be extended for an additional 18-months until March 9, 2005.  The decision came as part of ongoing efforts to assist El Salvador in its recovery from the devastating earthquakes that affected the nation.

This TPS extension, which covers approximately 290,000 Salvadoran registrants, will take effect September 9, 2003 until March 9, 2005.  The BCIS will provide additional information and answers to frequently asked questions next week. 

Re-registration applications will not be accepted before the registration period officially begins.

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Several attorneys expressed concern this week about a crackdown on Religious Worker petitions in Oklahoma, Dallas, and Houston that indicate a pattern of investigation by local investigations officers, as well as a constant stream of Request for Evidence (RFE) letters followed by denials from the Texas Service Center.  Attorneys complained of receiving a burdensome RFE on every applicant for the past six months.  Some of the requested evidence that one attorney felt may be overreaching are church membership roster listings, proof of religious education while some churches do not require formal religious education, and proving that the worker was a salaried employee for the two years prior to the application since the BCIS does not accept evidence of other types of payment, such as housing, food, etc.  Also, much of the evidence that is requested is typically already included in the original petition.  Attorneys plan to request the TSC Liaison to address this issue at the next liaison meeting.

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The Texas Service Center (TSC) Watchdog Report released this week detailed a current tally of the TSC’s work on a growing backlog of L129f fiancé(e) visa petitions.  The reports states that the rate of approvals has begun to rise after months of inactivity.  The average number of approvals per business day for the last seven days was 31.8, while the average number of approvals per business day for the last 30 days was 28.  The TSC receives an average of 44 petitions per business day and according to the Watchdog Report, the TSC fell behind an estimated 16 petitioners per business day or 352 petitions total for the last 30 days.

Questions were raised over the activity on Thursday, June 26, when the TSC approved 63 petitions, including 23 from November and 4 from April.  The group expressed concern over what took place for the April petitions to move to the front of the long list of those who are awaiting approval.

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Two students from Georgetown's Center for Applied Legal Studies won asylum for a Honduran victim of child abuse.  On May 21, an immigration judge issued a decision in which he concluded that the now 18-year old young man established that he had suffered past persecution through child abuse by his parents as a member of the social group of his immediate siblings, whose abuse the government of Honduras was unable or unwilling to control.  The judge determined that he was therefore entitled to the presumption that he would suffer future persecution, a presumption that the government failed to rebut.

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The Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) is compiling incidents of U.S. visa denials. According to the ADC, the U.S. Department of State is interested in investigating incidents where an individual’s visa was denied without a reason given. Please send any information you may have related to any such incidents to the ADC Legal Department at legal@adc.org.

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The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) would like to question the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) about reports of individuals with pending adjustment of status applications who are being put in removal proceedings. Apparently, the reports began during the call-in special registration, then after a quiet period, have begun again. In order to address the DHS, AILA needs specific examples. So, if you have a client who was issued an NTA while an adjustment of status application was pending, please send an email with a brief outline of the facts (including the name, A #s, and office issuing the NTA, as well as whether there is any accusation of criminal activity) to: reports@aila.org.

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The Manhattan district attorney’s office announced this week that four women have been arrested and two others named on felony charges related to some highly unusual numbers discovered by the city clerk’s office. Prosecutors called the women “career brides” – offering to marry undocumented immigrants for money, thus entitling the men to green cards. One woman applied for 27 marriage licenses between the years 1984 and 2002, and as many as a dozen other names were considered “suspicious” by the city clerk’s office.

In a news conference, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said, “this opens the door to a lot of other fraud and expense for the U.S. taxpayer.”

According to the clerk’s office, only one time did any of the accused women properly complete a requisite affidavit about previous marriages when filing their applications.

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Immigration advocates recently interviewed by the Los Angeles Times say new security measures adopted after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are choking the U.S. refugee program, which “once set an example for the world.” Thousands of refugee families are harmed by these new restrictions, creating a “humanitarian quandary.”

Anastasia Brown, director of refugee programs for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, says some have been doubly victimized, and that she is haunted by the knowledge that a 9-year-old Somali girl waiting to come to the United States was raped, suffering severe bladder damage.

The Times’ Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar writes, “If the program isn’t dead, it’s badly damaged,” attributing the quote to Leonard Glickman, president of the New York-based Hebrew Immigrant Aid Socieity.

President Bush has pledged to continue the goal of welcoming 70,000 refugees this year, but with only three months left in the fiscal year, fewer than 17,400 have been admitted.

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Rusty Childress, a Phoenix businessman, and Arizona activist Kathy McKee filed a ballot initiative Monday with the Arizona Secretary of State aimed at banning the state from spending tax money on undocumented immigrants. According to a report in The Arizona Republic, “Protect Arizona Now” would require a government background check into the legal status of anyone seeking public assistance or social services, and undocumented immigrants found would be turned over to federal authorities. The initiative would exempt certain federally-mandated services, such as public education. Governor Janet Napolitano vetoed a bill that held the same requirements, leaving the architects of the initiative to take the legislation directly to state residents.

“It’s a scare tactic,” said Phoenix Democrat Sen. Linda Aguirre, agreeing with opponents of the initiative who believe the measure is playing on people’s fears.

McKee and Childress accused state and local governments of turning a blind eye to illegal immigration.

“These traitorous bureaucrats thumb their noses at their legal constituents and blatantly violate laws,” Childress said.

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ABC News anchor Peter Jennings, a Toronto-born Canadian, became an American citizen this week. Jennings, 64, has worked in the US since 1964 and has anchored ABC’s nightly news for 20 years.

“As a Canadian friend said to me today, I’ve always made clear my love for America. And it was a good time to formally declare that affection, along with a sense of debt and gratitude to the country that’s made it possible for me to have a wonderful life both professionally and personally,” he said.

Mr. Jennings cited the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the US as a reason for becoming a US citizen.

“I think that 9-11 and the subsequent travel I did in the country afterwards made me feel connected in new ways. And when we were working on the America project, I spent a lot of time on the road, which meant away from my editor’s desk, and I just got much more connected to the Founding Fathers’ dreams and ideas for the future.”

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Police captured one of the “Top 10 Most Wanted Fugitive Criminal Aliens” this week. Officials said they spotted Datinder Singh Munder last Sunday, sitting under a tree in Santa Clara. Munder, 37, is a native of India convicted in 1995 on two counts of assault with a firearm and was ordered deported after serving time in prison. The top 10 fugitive list was created by the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in May.

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A federal grand jury in Rochester has indicted an immigration consultant allegedly linked to a fraudulent agency accused of having bilked $3 million from immigrants seeking green cards and other documents. Liang Min Chen, also known as Gui Zhong Chen, is being held without bail, on charges that he conspired to bribe an undercover federal agent to obtain illegal immigration documents for his clients.

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The General Accounting Office release its report on Social Security Numbers this week, a study titled “Ensuring the Integrity of the SSN.” The GAO found that the Social Security Administration’s task force to address security weaknesses in the governmental and commercial use of SSNs has had limited success with its programs, including a service to states to verify SSNs of driver license applicants. Fever than half the states have used the service, and those who do have used it unevenly. The SSA now requires all field staff to verify the identity and immigration status of all non-citizen SSN applicants, but some vulnerabities remain, such as the SSA’s process of assigning numbers to children under the age of one and in the issuing of replacement Social Security cards. According to the report, non-citizens “represent the bulk of new SSNs issued by SSA’s 1,333 field offices.”

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Fox News published an opinion piece by an anti-immigrant lawyer this week that accused Jeanne Butterfield, the Executive Director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association of having once headed various Palestinian groups with links to terrorist and Marxist organizations. AILA issued a response advising its 8000 members that while Ms. Butterfield had headed up the groups mentioned in the article, the groups' activities related to promoting Israel-Palestinian peace initiatives as well as Palestinian human rights.