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NEWS BYTES
An internal report of the INS, made public by Representative Henry Bonilla of San Antonio, instructed its 28,000 employees to expect financially tighter times in the immediate future. According to Russ Bergeron, chief spokesman for the INS, the budget crunch is expected to be of very short duration, and that no critical functions would suffer. The internal report, however, warns that the budget for the central region of the Border Patrol, which includes Texas, is to be sliced 31% from its 1998 level. This would mean 20% fewer agents stationed in the Rio Grande Valley and 15% fewer in the city of San Antonio. Rep. Bonilla has asked INS Commissioner Doris Meissner whether the report is true. According to the INS, the cash shortage is the result of difficulty implementing temporary funding until the start of 1999. The INS budget for fiscal year 1999 is $ 3.9 billion, up $ 198 million from 1998.
A former INS employee has been convicted of embezzling over $ 100,000 over a period of three years. Joanna Picardi was found to have engaged in a scheme where she would steal checks submitted as filing fees, alter them, and use them to pay off her credit card bills. She was sentenced to three years of probation, with the first six months to be served in house arrest.
The INS has announced an interim policy of dealing with I-485 applications for children who are about to age out of visa eligibility because they are turning 21 and, who have G-325s pending and fingerprints on file. In deciding whether to expedite adjudication of these petitions, INS examiners are being directed to consider the timeliness of the filing and the age of the child. When the child's petition is adjudicated, the petitions of all the child's family members also pending should be adjudicated. The purpose of this interim policy is to ensure that these children will not suffer due to the current G-325 backlog.
The American Immigration Lawyers Association is reporting that the INS and the CIA have made progress in handling backlogged fingerprints and that the hold on I-485 cases has been pushed forward to apply to cases filed after May 1, 1998. AILA made the very sensible suggestion to the INS that it consider extending advance parole approvals to 18 months to cut down extension applications. The INS is considering the request. 
The Department of Labor will soon have an automated LCA processing system in place that will enable applicants to get stamped forms back in mere seconds. If all goes as planned, the eastern half of the country by the end of this month and the West Coast by next month. Watch for more news on this as it becomes available.
The American Immigration Lawyers Association is reporting that INS personnel at the four INS service centers have been improperly rejecting H-1B amendment cases NOT subject to the $ 500 supplemental fee. The INS indicated that it would bring the matter to the attention of the independent contractor workers who work the service center mailrooms. The INS is advising attorneys to place the words "Amended Petition Not Subject to the $ 500 Training Fee" in bold type or marker on the I-129 and on the new I-129W form (which must be submitted even the form does not cover amended petitions). 
The INS claims it is nearly finished with its Y2K testing at the four regional service centers and at INS Headquarters. New software designed to resolve Y2K problems have actually had their own new bugs and the INS now has to contend with them. But the INS claims that it will not adversely impact service center processing.