News Bytes

Five defendants were sentenced for conspiracy to commit visa fraud in a Texas federal court last Friday.

The defendants, four Mexican national employees of the U.S. Consulate in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico and one U.S. citizen visa broker, were convicted of running a visa-selling scheme in Nuevo Laredo after a seven-month long investigation that resulted in the closing of the Consulate office in Nuevo Laredo.

The scheme involved Mexican citizens buying U.S. visas without required interviews at the Consulate and without determinations that the citizens were qualified for visas. The duties of the four Consulate workers included interviewing applicants for U.S. visas, reviewing the applications, and approving non-immigrant visas for travel to the U.S.

***

The FBI estimates that fewer than 2,000 of 200,000 U.S. visa applicants will be rejected due to terrorism concerns this year. According to the Bureau, nearly 85% of the applicants will be granted visas after three days of stringent background checks. Currently, 125 FBI agents work full time conducting the background security checks.

***

Arif Durrani, a Pakistani-born man convicted of selling anti-aircraft missile parts to Iran during the Iran-Contra scandal recently asked a Connecticut federal judge to reopen his case. Durrani served five years in prison for his 1987 conviction of violating the Arms Export Control Act and was deported in 1998.

Durrani claims that he was a part of the U.S. effort to exchange arms for American hostages in Lebanon and that Oliver North, former National Security Council aide, told him to ship the missile parts to Iran.

Durrani wants the court to review more documents in order to prove that he was ordered to sell the missile parts by North and other U.S. officials. Durrani wants his conviction reversed so that he may return to the U.S.

***

Migrants displaced from the Cote d’Ivoire may now qualify for assistance under Section 2(b)(2) of the Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1962 as amended.

***

A report issued last Thursday suggests that the White House was more specifically warned about a possible al-Qaida attack than previously thought.

The report also cites a CIA memo that there was “incontrovertible evidence” that Saudi individuals and members of the Saudi government provided financial assistance to al-Qaida members in the United States.

***

Recent human smuggling cases have shown that smugglers caught and convicted receive relatively short and weak sentences.

Some high-profile cases do result in longer sentences, especially when smuggled immigrants have died. Most smugglers, however, receive sentences of less than five years, and many of the “operation kingpins” do not even receive convictions.

Some experts believe that the weak sentence guidelines results from public opinion towards illegal immigration.

***

The U.S. Department of Labor recently decided a case arising under the Labor Condition Application provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

The Act provides that an employer may hire nonimmigrant workers from "specialty occupations" to work in the United States for set periods of time. These workers are issued H-1B visas upon the employer's filing of a Labor Condition Application (LCA) with the Department of Labor. The LCA must detail the number of aliens to be hired, the occupational classification, the required wage rate, the prevailing wage rate and the source of that data, the date of need, period of employment and working conditions for the H-1B visa employee. Once the LCA is reviewed and certified by the Department of Labor, the BCIS may then approve the H-1B visa petition.

Employers are required to pay H-1B nonimmigrant workers beginning the date when the nonimmigrant enters employment with the employer or 30 days after the date the nonimmigrant is admitted into the U.S. If, however, the nonimmigrant worker does not work for the employer due to non-employer related circumstances, the employer is not required to pay the wage for that period. Payment also is not required "If there has been a bona fide termination of the employment relationship." The employer must then notify the INS of the terminated relationship.

***
During the 2003 fiscal year, BCIS will begin issuing the newly redesigned travel documents for Form I-327, Permit to Reenter the U.S., and Form I-571, Refugee Travel Document. The new travel documents are intended to reduce production time, improve customer service, and contain better security features. The new travel documents will look similar to a U.S. passport.

***
Three Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) special agents received the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service, (the Justice Department’s highest award), for their roles in investigating and neutralizing a terrorist cell with connections to Al Quaeda in Lackawanna, New York. The recipients of the award were: ICE Special Agent James J. Higgins, Jr., ICE Special Agent Lawrence D. Krug and ICE Special Agent Michael J. Szrama.

***
On July 30, the Bush Administration launched USA Services in order to aid U.S. citizens in contacting the federal government and quickly receiving answers. By calling 1-800-FED-INFO or composing an e-mail at FirstGov.gov, citizens will no longer have to try and figure out which federal agency they should contact for inquiries on information and government services. USA Services is a partnership of twelve different departments and agencies that will provide quality and timely responses to citizens’ inquiries.

***
Department of Agriculture employee Hsin Hui Hsu and his wife, Jing Ling Wu Hsu, pleaded guilty to criminal charges in their role in a visa fraud scheme that resulted in $82,000 in payments and 99 illegally obtained visas for Chinese nationals. As part of Hsu’s official duties, he had the authority to invite groups of Chinese nationals who were agricultural specialists to visit the U.S. to meet and consult with U.S. experts in the same of similar fields. Hsu’s co-conspirators would find Chinese nationals who wanted to visit the U.S. but were ineligible for non-immigrant visas. Hsu was provided with their names and false biographical data, which he would use in order to persuade U.S. consulates in China that the Chinese nationals were part of a delegation of agricultural experts. The conspiracy lasted from late 1999 to April 2002. Both Hsu and his wife face a maximum sentence of five years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for October 22, 2003.

***
On July 28, Mariska Trisanti and her husband, Herri Nasution, pleaded guilty to federal charges that they held two domestic workers against their will for four years. Trisanti faces two counts each of involuntary servitude, visa fraud, and harboring the victims, who were illegal immigrants from Indonesia. Nasution faces two counts of harboring illegal immigrants.