NEWS BYTES

The INS has finally done away with the requirement that CIA background checks be completed before they will approve adjustment of status applications. The INS will now complete processing on cases filed after 08-31-98. The INS is expected to release further details on this important development soon and we expect to report more extensively in our next issue.

At a November liaison meeting with the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the Department of Labor announced it is preparing to issue a regulation making it possible for people with traditional labor certification applications pending to switch such applications to reduction in recruitment cases without having to withdraw the cases and lose one’s priority date. For people depending on adjusting status under the now expired Section 245i of the Immigration and Nationality this announcement will be a big help since it is necessary to retain a pre-January 14, 1998 priority date.  The regulation should be published next month.

AILA also reports that the Department of Labor is close to completing its plans for a dramatic restructuring of the entire labor certification process. As we noted in previous issues of this newsletter, the DOL’s proposed PERM program would change the labor certification program to one that is based on the attestations of employers, rather than a review of the recruitment in every case. The proposal would still require employers to undertake a recruitment process to show US workers are not available. However, they would then simply have to attest that they have complied with the recruiting rules. DOL would enforce on the basis of random and complaint-driven audits. Audits would also be performed if cases have certain as yet undefined attributes. DOL hopes to be able to approve 85% of cases immediately and conduct audits in the rest. DOL expects to have the regulations ready within the first three months of next year.

An INS agent has been fined $500 and sentenced to one year of probation for smuggling her boyfriend into the US.  They met in 1996 while the man was in detention awaiting deportation for a drug offense.  In 1997 he was deported, but they met up again in Canada in 1998, and together drove to the agent’s home in Boston.  The boyfriend is facing charges of illegal reentry.

A long-time Border Patrol agent has pleaded guilty to taking bribes in exchange for letting undocumented people work and live in the US.  The agent faces up to 70 years in prison.  The plea was the result of an investigation that also led to the indictments of two other people.  The agent resigned his position with the Border Patrol shortly after entering the plea.

On Tuesday, October 26, the CBS newsmagazine “60 Minutes II” broadcast a story about the INS’ attempts to deport noncitizens who fought for the US in the Vietnam War.  The story focused on two veterans, both of whom experienced difficulties with drug abuse after the war.  Both of these men were victims of the 1996 immigration reform act, which made them deportable for offenses committed before 1996.  A summary of the story is available online at http://www.cbs.com/flat/story_196834.html.  

We have heard from reliable sources that some applications for permanent residency that have been filed at the Nebraska Service Center (NSC) have been temporarily transferred to the California Service Center (CSC).  The cases that will be transferred are of two types:  family based applications and applications filed under the Haitian amnesty act, the Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of 1998.  Only cases that are "frontlogged" will be transferred.  “Frontlogged” cases are cases that have yet to be processed and entered into the computer.  Under the transfer system the CSC will perform the initial data entry and issue filing receipts.  The CSC will then transfer the case back to the NSC for further processing and adjudication.  

The INS has announced that it will no longer send Border Patrol agents from Washington State to the Mexican border.  The practice, which has been seen as a necessary way to improve staffing on the southern border, is being halted because of an outcry by Washington State politicians following the death of a state trooper.  The trooper was shot by an undocumented migrant who had just been released on bail because no one knew he was undocumented.  Local politicians said that if Washington had its full complement of Border Patrol agents, someone would have identified him.

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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.