6. News Bytes:

Board OKs action to keep Filipino teachers

The Shreveport Times reports that a local school board voted to keep the Filipino teachers working there beyond the current year. In a 9-2 vote, the school board voted to file for H1-B visas for the more than 40 Filipino teachers in the system.

Universal Placement, the company that had previously hired and brought the teachers to the US, has come under state and federal investigation for overcharging, misinforming, and stealing from the teachers. The school board has since hired a team of immigration attorneys to work on the teachers’ cases.

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20100331/NEWS04/3310324/1063

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Few takers for H-1B work visa

USCIS started receiving H1-B petitions for the 2011 fiscal year on April 1^st. In the first week, only 13,500 applications were received out of the mandated 65,000 visas available. Only a few hundred were used in the following week.

Last year, USCIS had received 42,000 applications already by this point. So far, they have only received 5,600 petitions for workers with an advanced degree (out of 20,000 available positions). Last year’s quota was filled in 265 days, whereas during the year before that, prior to the economic meltdown, the cap was reached in the first day applications were available.

http://news.in.msn.com/international/article.aspx?cp-documentid=3796461

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Mexicans facing reduced U.S. visa limits

The San Antonio Express News reports that the State Department has changed the policy for many Mexican visa holders, reducing the amount of time they can spend in the country from 3-5 years, down to only one year. The changes will apply mostly to Mexicans who own businesses and houses here, and do not intend to immigrate. Many of these immigrants are present on an E-1 or E-2 visa, for non-immigrant traders and investors.

Mexicans present on E-1 and E-2 visas would be required to prove each year that their businesses are viable. The change applies to both Mexicans seeking to come to the US, and those already present and seeking visa renewal.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/Visas_for_Mexicans_now_only_good_for_a_year.html

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Carpet maker, employees reach $18M settlement

The Associated Press reports that Mohawk Industries Inc, one of the world’s largest carpet makers has agreed to an $18 million settlement with its employees, who had claimed that the company hired illegal immigrants as laborers to reduce their wages.

The workers claimed that they received lower wages than employees at other carpet-making companies in the region. The lawsuit was filed in 2004, and negotiations of the settlement began last year, after the case was brought to the 11^th US Circuit Court of Appeals.

http://www.ajc.com/business/carpet-maker-employees-reach-459049.html

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Work Force Fueled by Highly Skilled Immigrants

The New York Times  reports that an analysis of new census data shows that more than half of the working immigrants in St. Louis hold high-paying, white-collar jobs, rather than low income, blue-collar jobs, as often thought. The analysis also shows that this is the norm, and not an anomaly.

In fourteen out of the 25 largest cities in the US, more immigrants are employed in white-collar jobs than in low-wage work such as construction, service industry, cleaning, and manufacturing.

Despite popular misconceptions, the analysis of the new data shows that the 25 million immigrants in the largest cities (2/3 of the overall immigrant population in the US), are “nearly evenly distributed across the job and income spectrum.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/16/us/16skilled.html?src=me&ref=homepage

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Laguna Niguel man pleads guilty in student visa fraud ring

Eamonn Daniel Higgins, 46, of Laguna Niguel, faces up to 5 years in prison on the charge of conspiracy to commit visa fraud, after being accused of organizing to have imposters take tests on behalf of foreign students trying to stay in the country on student visas.

http://www.ocregister.com/news/college-244171-prosecutors-students.html

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