Dear Readers:

This was a very eventful news week in immigration law in a week that is normally pretty quiet.  

First, the 109^th Congress adjourned. Despite the massive amount of attention given to the subject of immigration in the news and in congressional hearings, less immigration legislation was passed this past year than perhaps in any year in at least a generation. A few weeks ago, a border fence bill passed that was largely symbolic since (no surprise) Congress failed to provide funding.  

Congress decided to meet in a lame duck session after the elections from December with the goal of passing critical spending bills and also passing last minute items on other subjects while the Congress was still in Republican hands.  

Despite a push by pro-immigration groups that was nearly successful, Congress failed to pass a bill that would have allotted 100,000 additional green cards for nurses as well as more H-1B numbers. Congress passed a measly bill to extend the H-2C program for nurses that allows just 500 nurses a year in that particular category. Right now, we are facing a nursing shortage of about a quarter million and that shortage is expected to group to a million – A MILLION!- by 2020.  

This is not simply a matter of inconvenience for the American public. When there are too few nurses, people die. Yet Congress is willing to let politics get in the way of actually ensuring Americans receive adequate health care. Nursing immigration doesn’t cost the taxpayers a dime so the only excuse Congress could have in not passing legislation is if they genuinely believe we don’t have a shortage. Not even the nursing unions make that argument anymore.  

Pathetically, NumbersUSA and other groups hailed their success in stopping this bill. Try to find some mention by leaders of this group of the genuine health care crisis America is facing because of our severe nursing shortage. You won’t find any since extreme groups oppose immigration of any sort no matter how badly America needs them. Whenever you hear a member of these groups try and say that they’re not about racism and xenophobia and, instead, are about saving jobs for Americans and ensuring American security, remember the nurses. There is not a single competent American nurse who is having trouble finding a job today and there is no link between nurses and terrorism. This is all about simply hating immigrants and immigration.  

A couple of important measures did pass, however. One was the extension of the Conrad 30 J-1 program for physicians. The Conrad program began to sunset last June and was in genuine danger of not being extended. I chair the FMG Taskforce, the organization of immigration lawyers advocating for physician immigration. We worked tirelessly as a group to get the program reauthorized and achieved a two year extension. Next year we hope to get the program permanently extended, provisions added to ensure that states with much larger populations and heavy demand have an opportunity to get additional J-1 waiver slots and also to make the H-1B and green card process easier for physicians.  

One other measure that passed was one I’ve also worked on and that is to get minor league athletes out of the H-2B category. The H-2B category is getting hit earlier and earlier each year (it was just reached for the first half of the fiscal year last week after just two months). Minor league teams around the US face the problem of having seasons that don’t fit with the government year and often aren’t able to select players early enough to avoid problems with the H-2B cap. Congress did pass a bill which had language included in the Senate’s comprehensive immigration reform bill which moved the minor league players to the P visa category. I include an article describing the changes in this issue of the newsletter.  

One measure introduced in the final hours of the Congress that was largely designed to introduce a concept for the next session was one that would expand the list of Visa Waiver countries to those that are close to being eligible and who are close allies of the US in counterterrorism activities. The bill is bipartisan with co-sponsorship from Senator Akaka (D-HI) and Senator Voinovich (R-OH). The measure is supported by President Bush who recently called on the inclusion of 13 more countries in the program. They include Bulgaria , Cyprus , Czech Republic , Estonia , Greece , Hungary , Latvia , Lithuania , Malta , Poland , Romania , Slovakia and South Korea.  

Another major news item from the week was the raid on meat packing plants around the country owned by the Swift & Company, based in Colorado . 1300 workers were arrested at six locations around the US . While a raid on plants of a single company in multiple locations is not new, what was different about this raid is that the company is a participant in the Basic Pilot program, DHS’ electronic verification program designed to ensure that employees are authorized to work in the US . The twist in this case was that DHS was focused on workers presenting identity documents belonging to others. A number of workers were arrested not just for immigration law violations, but for identity theft.  

USCIS announced that they will be focusing much more on investigating R-1 and I-360 religious worker cases and will be conducting site visits in most cases before approving cases. We already have had clients contacted about such visits. USCIS is estimating that it will likely now take at least six months to approve these cases and immigration lawyers and their clients would be wise to consider this in their planning.  

According to USCIS, they are seeing an extremely high percentage of fraudulent applications being submitted in religious worker cases. If this is true, it is very sad since foreign religious workers enrich communities all across the country and people hijacking the category to engage in fraud put the entire religious worker program at risk. I serve on the board of a national immigration organization that regularly works on religious visa issues and have seen first hand how critical many of these workers are to the survival of congregations and religious schools across the US . One of the policy suggestions we have made to USCIS is to consider pre-certifying employers with a site visit to determine the bone fides of a petitioner and then making it easier and faster to approve future applications from these pre-certified employers. Hopefully, USCIS will consider something along those lines since they have now chosen to start a program involving site visits.  

Finally, the New York Times is reporting the extraordinary news this morning that the Department of Homeland Security has given up on plans to extend the US VISIT Exit tracking program to more than 50 land border crossings by next December. The vast majority of visitors to the US enter and exit at land ports at the Canadian and Mexican borders. DHS is not just delaying implementing the measure. According to the Times, it is halting planning all together. The Times labeled this a “major blow to the Bush Administration’s efforts to secure borders.” Business and tourist groups, however, had argued that the measure would jeopardize the economic security of the country by potentially bringing commerce and tourism to to a grinding halt. Congress mandated this system in 1996 and it became apparent that implementation would just be too expensive – at least tens of billions of dollars - according to the report. Both Democrats and Republicans expressed alarm at the news and Bennie Thompson, the incoming Democratic Chair of the Homeland Security Committee in the House expressed his intentions to continue pushing for exit tracking.  

In firm news, I will be speaking on two national telephonic seminars this coming week. On Wednesday, I’ll be presenting a program for the National Institute of Business Management entitled “The Legal Way to Handle I-9s and ‘No-Match’ Letters”. You can find information on the program at http://nibm.net/conference/conf.asp?id=310.  

The next day, I’ll be moderating a teleconference for ILW.com entitled “Physician Visas: What You Need To Know Now”. The program is the first of three on the subject and we’ll initially focus on how physicians actually get to the US to train, a step that is the beginning of the long road to permanently residing here. I’ll be joined by Jacqueline Bucar and Ben Kurten, fellow immigration lawyers, and Eleanor Fitzpatrick of the Educational Commission on Foreign Medical Graduates, the organization that administers the J-1 training program for physicians and also certifies the educational credentials of physicians for visa applications and licensure.  

I’ve also made another list of top attorneys, this time the “Super Lawyers” list for Tennessee. I join my friends Linda Rose and Tommy Rosser on a list of the three top immigration lawyers in Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas. You can see the article at http://www.visalaw.com/news/.  

Finally, we’re in the process of updating our web site to link to our new blogs, but as a reminder, you can find them at  

Visalaw – The Main Blog – http://www.visalaw.com/blog.html  

Visalaw FAS – The Fashion, Arts and Sports Immigration Blog – http://visalawfas.blogspot.com  

Visalaw Health – http://visalawhealth.blogspot.com  

Tech Notes (the blog to go along with my Immigration Law Today technology and practice management column) – http://gregstips.blogspot.com  

Visalaw International – the blog of the new Visalaw International alliance of immigration lawyers around the world – http://visalawint.blogspot.com  

*****

As always, we remind readers that if they are interested in Siskind Susser handling their immigration matters, you can call our office at 901-682-6455 to set up an appointment. Have a great weekend!

Regards,  

Greg Siskind

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Disclaimer: This newsletter is provided as a public service and not intended to establish an attorney client relationship. Any reliance on information contained herein is taken at your own risk.