The Board of Immigration Appeals is reportedly laying off five judges as part of a downsizing effort b eing pushed b y Attorney General John Ashcroft. The judges affected are Espenoza, Guendels b erger, Schmidt, Villageliu and Brennan.

***

The Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington think tank that supports d ram a tically reduced immigration to the US , has issued a report criticizing the non-immigrant visa policies of the US . The report, entitled "Shortcuts to Immigration: The 'Temporary' Visa Prog ram is Broken" was written b y Jess ica Vaughan and notes the following major findings:

1. The num b er of temporary admissions has more than tripled since 1985, from 9.5 million to 32.8 million, and the num b er of non-immigrant visa (NIV) issuances has risen b y 30 percent over the same period, even with the adoption of the Visa Waiver Prog ram .

2. The most d ram a tic growth has b een in employment-related categories. In 2001, more than 715,000 foreigners were issued employment NIVs. Another 110,000 non-immigrants received pe rm ission to work after arrival.

3. A significant share of “non-immigrants” more accurately should b e called “pre-immigrants”, though their route to pe rm anent residency is far less controlled than in the standard immigrant visa prog ram . Nearly one-half of the “temporary” categories allow for applicant s to have immigrant intent. In 2001, more than 228,000 NIV holders received green cards.

4. In 2001, the United States issued 1.2 million long-te rm NIVs, an even higher num b er than were issued green cards (1.1 million). In some categories, their stay may b e virtually unlimited.

While pro-immigration groups would argue that these num b ers are a sign of a ro b ust economy that needs to recruit workers from around the glo b e and also that the US remains the world's top tourist des t ina tion, the CIS b elieves that the non-immigrant visa prog ram provides an entry option for terrorists and illegal immigrants.