NBC News investigations revealed that over the course of the last ten years, suspected terrorists have become American citizens even while under FBI investigation.  Since the attacks of September 11, at least one man has been sworn in as a citizen while under FBI surveillance for his alleged ties with Hezbollah.  The Department of Homeland Security maintains that the problem was a processing error that has been fixed.  It is unknown how many other aliens were naturalized while under FBI investigation.

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The Department of Labor created a new online H-2A case management system that is designed to improve data tracking and reporting capabilities.  The system will also allow the Regional Office staff and other regulated community to enter application data.  This comes as a response to a recommendation from the General Accounting Office to the Secretary of Labor to improve the H-2A program. 

The Division of Foreign Labor Certification, Employment and Training Administration, and the Department of Labor will conduct a formal briefing on December 5, 2003 to demonstrate the new processing system in Monterey, California.  Additional questions may be directed to Charlene Giles at 202-693-2950.

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The Nebraska Service Center released information this week regarding asylee adjustment information.  The asylee adjustment cut-off date currently stands at November 16, 1999 barring any further changes.  This date exceeds the Center’s previous expectation of February 1999.

The Center has completed the 10,000 approvals for FY2003.  The Center also stated that while efforts are made to take all cases in order, if a case is not ready for review, the officers would move to the next case in order to get 10,000 approvals in a given fiscal year.  However, the Center will make an effort to work cases received prior to early 1999 before working on any that came after that point.

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In an effort to help detainees being held on immigration charges obtain legal aid and avoid isolation, a toll-free hotline has been set up by the New Jersey Civil Rights Defense Committee and the Council on American Islamic Relations for some county jails in New Jersey. The hotline was established so detainees would not experience isolation, as many did when more than 1,200 immigrants were arrested following the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Because most were held in New York and New Jersey, the hotline is being pioneered Passaic County Jail in Paterson, which is one of the two jails that have held the largest number of detainees in the past two years.

Previously, detainees could only get help by making expensive collect calls.  Many of the prisoners do not know whom to contact, so the hotline offers a representative that will take the detainees information, assist in arranging for legal representation, and contact family members.  If the call is made during off hours, the caller will be able to leave a voice-mail message, and a representative will try to contact the caller at the jail within 24 hours.

The toll-free number, 1-877-818-4845, is currently available to the detainees in Paterson, but there are plans to allow the detainees in Hudson, Bergen and Middlesex counties to access the number in the coming weeks.

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November is National Adoption Month and to support it, the Departments of State and Homeland Security are working to fully implement the Hague Convention and the Intercountry Adoption Act, which ensures that the well being of adopted children remains the focal point of all intercountry adoptions.

The Departments of State and Homeland Security support the adoption processes that provide protection for the welfare and best interests of children, birth parents and adoptive parents, and work to eliminate illegal activities in the adoption process. 

The first proposed regulations to put the Intercountry Adoption Act into practice were recently published in the Federal Register and are open for public comment until December 15, 2003.

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A 40-year-old New York woman, Dezerrie Cortes, is expected to serve six months jail time for entering into 27 bogus weddings for money. 

Between 1984 and 2002 Cortes married men from Pakistan, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Ecuador, Mexico and Columbia in the city clerks’ offices in Queens, Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx.  These marriages allowed for the immigrant men to receive their green cards and other benefits.

Cortes pleaded guilty to one count of offering a false instrument for filing and will be formally sentenced on January 7.

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United States Citizenship and Immigration Services is reminding immigrants who have plans to travel abroad to obtain advanced parole, which permits them to re-enter the United States after going abroad and allows for the continuation of processing for an adjustment of status to that of lawful permanent resident.

For certain immigrants who are in the process of adjusting their status, traveling outside the United States without advanced parole may be unable to return and their applications may be denied.

Even with advanced parole, however, immigrants who depart the United States after being illegally present for certain time periods can still be denied lawful permanent resident status.  If unlawfully present for a time period of 180 days to less than one year, an immigrant is inadmissible to the United States for three years.  If unlawfully present for one year or more, he or she is not allowed in the country for ten years.  Even if an unlawfully present immigrant leaves the United States and later re-enters under a grant of parole, he or she may still be unable to adjust their status.

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A recent study by the Institute of International Education has determined that in the 2002-2003 school year, foreign students made a major financial contribution to the U.S. economy.  Although U.S. schools did offer support of 28.4% of tuition costs, mostly through assistance with tuition and fees in the way of scholarships and financial aid, the 586,322 foreign students that attended U.S. universities and their families made a net contribution of close to $13 billion to the economy.

Of the 586,322 foreign students last year, 12.4% were married, totaling close to 73,000 spouses in the U.S.  From these couples, there were 43,570 children living here as well.  Spouses contributed an extra 25% of the student’s living expenses while their children added an extra 20%.  The net contribution to the U.S. economy by foreign students’ dependents alone was $479,000,000.

The states that generated the most money from foreign students were Massachusetts, California, New York and Texas.  The leading field of study for foreign students in Massachusetts, California and New York was business and management, and in Texas it was engineering.  The leading country of origin for foreign students in Texas, Massachusetts, New York and California were India, China, Republic of Korea and Japan, respectively.

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The process of international adoption just got a little easier for prospective parents, due to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) launching a new Child Citizenship Act (CCA) program.  The program makes the process by which parents get a Certificate of Citizenship for their children easier by helping parents to more easily understand the privileges of American citizenship for their children.

The CCA program will eliminate the backlog of N-643 forms, the Application for Certificate of Citizenship in Behalf of an Adopted Child, relating to children affected by the CCA.  Upcoming plans for the program call for Certificates of Citizenship to adopted children who fall within the IR-3 visa category (about 70 percent of foreign-born adopted children) to be mailed automatically to the parents within 45 days of the child’s entry into the United States.  The parents will neither have to file an application nor pay a fee for the certificate.