Seeking Sympathetic Cases to Test Obama’s Deportation Policy

The Associated Press reports that Democratic Illinois Reps. Luis Gutierrez and Jan Schakowsky are spearheading an effort to recruit people into testing the Obama Administration’s new deportation policy. Since Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced in a memo in June that deportations would focus on immigrants who have committed crimes, the congressmen have aggressively sought cases of others with no criminal backgrounds on the verge of deportation and taken them to ICE instead of waiting for a promised review of 300,000 cases pending in federal immigration courts.  In the months since the memo, immigration attorneys, judges and advocates have said there’s little consistency to how the policy is applied, if it’s applied at all. “We want to help navigate what remains right now a fairly unclear system,” said Schakowsky. 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-2-illinois-congressmen-test-new-deportation-policy-20111124,0,2123872.story

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House Votes to End Country Limits for Skilled Workers Seeking Green Cards

The Associated Press reports that the House voted 389-15 to eliminate the current law that says employment-based visas to any one country can’t exceed 7 percent of the total number of such visas given out.  Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), the bill’s sponsor, said the bill “does encourage high-skilled immigrants who were educated in the U.S. to stay and help build our economy rather than using the skills they learned here to aid our competitor nations.”  Immigrant rights activists applaud Congress for taking action but insist the bill will only relieve some problems, not solve them.  Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) has vowed to move the bill as quickly as possible in the Senate where he expects “overwhelming support.” The bill’s Senate version is the subject of a hold by Charles Grassley, Republican from Iowa and it is not clear yet how the bill will proceed in the upper Chamber.

http://www.firstpost.com/world/us-house-votes-to-end-country-caps-for-work-visas-143900.html

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