Republican National Convention delegates Pat McDonough and Rick Impallaria of Baltimore County, Maryland have written letters to President Bush, Attorney General John Ashcroft, and other high-ranking federal officials requesting that federal funds be deleted from agencies that “flagrantly” violate U.S. immigration laws.  The Washington Times reported last week that these two lawmakers want funding cut from the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration if it allows undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses, and from law enforcement agencies that refuse to assist the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency from deporting illegal immigrants.

Impallaria compares his request to the same principle as cutting federal funds from agencies that do not comply with federal fair housing regulations.  His intention is to persuade state and local authorities to accept their part of the responsibility for preventing terrorist activity.  A Prince George’s County Democrat, Delegate Victor R. Ramirez, said that this request is hypocritical.  McDonough and Impallaria want separation between state and federal government agencies, and when conditions displease them they run to the federal government for help.

Impallaria and McDonough’s public opposition of undocumented aliens has created problems for them with immigrant communities.  The two lawmakers have submitted five bills in the 2004 General Assembly to enforce illegal alien regulations and none were passed. 

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This week, the anti-immigration Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) reported that Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) asked President Bush to review the delay of the October 26 deadline for visa waiver countries to begin issuing machine-readable passports that contain a biometrics identifier.  The current law states that people from visa waiver countries without the new passports by the October deadline must have a visa to enter the United States.

Tancredo states that the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security’s request to push back the deadline of these important security standards is alarming.  Attorney General Ashcroft’s warning of terrorist attacks and recent news reports of large numbers of passports stolen in France—5,000 blank ones in Marseille and hundreds more in Lyons—will leave the American people more open to attacks by potential would-be terrorists from more than 20 visa waiver countries.

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The Kansas City Star reported that the unborn child of a pregnant woman awaiting a deportation hearing has been granted U.S. citizenship by Federal District Judge Scott Wright.  The mother, Myrna Dick, is accused of falsely claiming that she was a U.S. citizen when she crossed into the U.S. from her native Mexico.  Even if Dick loses her hearing, Wright claims that she can not be deported until her child is born.  According to Wright, the Unborn Victims of Violence Act grants the unborn child equal protection under the law.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey P. Ray says that the action will be appealed.

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The Department of Homeland Security and the European Union announced an agreement that will allow the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to collect the Passenger Name Records from air carriers that fly between the U.S. and the countries of the European Union.  Although an interim agreement has provided for PNR collection since March 2003, the present agreement will provide a legal basis for the collection and transferal of such information consistent with U.S. and European Union laws.

The agreement states that the passenger information can only be used for the purposes of preventing and combating terrorism, other serious crimes, and the prevention of flight from the perpetration of such crimes.  The Department of Homeland Security claims that the guidelines define the extent to which such passenger information can be used by the CBP and that it aims to protect the privacy of individuals.

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A former Colorado State Patrol worker, Danzena C. DeGuzman, was convicted last week on a total of 14 federal counts of mail and wire fraud, harboring immigrants, fraud and misuse of immigration permits and inducing immigrants to the country.

According to the Associated Press, DeGuzman took out advertisements in the Philippines advertising technology job openings that did not exist from June 2000 to March 2003.  DeGuzman then obtained fraudulent visas for the vicitims and after they came to the United States, she demanded money and housed them in an unfinished basement of her house.  She also made them pay her money out of the paychecks they obtained from the odd jobs they were forced to get when the technology positions she had “lined up” for them fell through.  After one victim told a church member what was going on, the church convinced him to call the FBI.

DeGuzman could be fined more than $1 million.

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United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is instructing individuals who filed their applications on or before April 29, 200, with the fee that was in effect at that time and who believe their application was improperly rejected, but only because of the fee increase, should re-send the entire application package as originally submitted, to the Service Center where they originally filed.  The following are also required.

·         A cover letter, asking that the rejection be reconsidered;

·         The rejection notice from the Service Center;

·         The check or money order originally submitted, for the fee that was in effect on or before April 29, 2004;

·         Proof that the original submission was mailed on or before April 29, 2004.  Proof of mailing can include any envelopes with the postmark, certified mail return receipts or express courier receipts showing proof of delivery.

If it is determined that the case was improperly rejected, normal processing will resume and the benefit of the earlier filing date will be given. If the case was properly rejected the first time, it will be rejected again with instructions to correct the deficiency. Case processing does not begin, and priority dates are not assigned, until a case is properly filed.

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The Nebraska Service Center has announced that the fax machine used to receive Premium Processing faxes was down between Friday, May 21 and Tuesday, May 25. If you sent information to the Premium Processing Unit during those times, please resend the information since the NSC did not receive any of the faxes sent between 4:00 p.m. on Friday, May 21 and 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, May 25.