The farming community of Immokalee , FL was hard-hit by Hurricane Wilma.   The Houston Chronicle reports that as many as 25,000 migrant workers from Mexico and Central America come to this town at this time of year to pick crops, nearly doubling its population.  With many of the crops destroyed, these workers are out of jobs and looking for work.  Florida officials said that the crop damage could go into the hundreds of millions of dollars, particularly hitting the winter crop supply.  In Immokalee, many of the migrant workers have suffered significant losses due to the storm, and are not insured. The total of insured losses from the hurricane is estimated to be in the $2 to $10 billion range. 

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The Supreme Court has agreed to clarify the rights of undocumented immigrants who have lived in the United States for an extended period of time and seek permission to stay in the US . The court’s ruling will concern a provision of a 1996 law that tightens restrictions on undocumented immigrants.  The justices will decide if that provision applies to those who were in the country when the law went into effect.  The law states that deportees who re-enter the country illegally are limited in their abilities to become legal residents.  The court will be hearing the case of Utah resident, Humberto Fernandez-Vargas. Fernandez-Vargas has lived in the U.S. since the 1970s, and has been deported several times, the most recent in 1981.  He is now married and has a teenage son, as well as runs a trucking company.  In 2001, he filed to become a legal resident, and was arrested due to the 1996 law and sent to Juarez , Mexico .

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The Department of Homeland Security plans on improving the national biometric tracking program.  Under this plan, visitors will be required to submit ten fingerprints into the US VISIT system.  The current system requires the submission of two fingerprints and a photograph for comparison against known or suspected terrorists.  The ten-fingerprint plan was announced by Secretary Michael Chertoff in July, and is expected to improve US VISIT.  This new plan will make the system better suited to the FBI’s fingerprint system, which now contains approximately 1.5 million fingerprints.  Technology issues may arise, due to the fact that the new system should require the same amount of processing time as the two-fingerprint system.  Despite the progress of US VISIT, it is still somewhat limited.  Mexicans with border crossing cards as well as Canadian citizens are not required to submit information into the system.  Program director James Williams said that DHS is looking into radio frequency ID cards for visitors who enter the US through land ports, which could be easily scanned through checkpoints.  Hopefully this technology will be in effect by the end of 2006. 

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The Associated Press reported last week that Richmond , Kentucky would begin issuing immigrant ID cards next week, regardless of the legal status of the immigrant. This move could make the city the first in the nation to issue such identification cards, and may also draw the city into the national debate over immigration reform. A $10 fee will be charged for the cards, which will be offered as part of a first-ever Latino citizen’s police academy at a local church. City officials stated that the cards will be used for identification only, cannot be used to obtain a driver’s license, and that they should help immigrants to perform more easily the tasks that most citizens take for granted, such as cashing checks and identifying themselves to authorities. Two forms of identification are required to receive an ID card, such as a birth certificate or picture ID, along with proof of residence in Madison County or Richmond . The 2000 Census showed that 328 Hispanics live in Madison County , but experts believe that the number is actually much higher. John Keeley, of the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington , DC , stated that the city’s decision was tantamount to “aiding and abetting” undocumented immigrants.

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The National Bureau of Economic Research recently published the results of a study on the effects of immigrants on the wages of U.S.-born workers. The study researched the negative impact of immigrant workers on less educated American workers in particular and all U.S.-born workers in general. The study tested the skill differences between U.S. and foreign workers to see if they are imperfectly substitutable for each other. It assumed that U.S. and foreign workers with a similar education level and experience may be imperfectly substitutable, meaning that foreign-born workers may not be as suitable employees as U.S.-born workers, and that, since immigrants typically accept lower wages, U.S.-born workers will not achieve the same rate of pay. However, the study found that overall immigration positively affects the average wages of U.S.-born workers, as evidenced by the impact of immigration on average wages and housing values throughout the U.S.

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The New York Times reported recently that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released the findings of a study on the number of visitors to the United States that overstay their visas. According to the study, the current system does not pose as an adequate threat to visitors who become illegal immigrants by overstaying their visas. In 2004, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency received 301,046 leads on possible visa violators, but only followed up on 4,164 with only 671 arrests. The study also stated that many of these cases would face deportation, which usually only occurs if the person has a criminal history. Estimates from the study show that approximately 3.6 million of an estimated 9 to 10 million illegal immigrants are people who have overstayed their visas. The report also stated that ICE officials were unable to keep up with the enormous amounts of leads they received, which brings into question the agency’s ability to identify, locate, and apprehend visa violators effectively. Michael J. Garcia, the former director of ICE, commented in the report that the agency focused more on the threat to the community than on the age of the lead. Mr. Garcia also stated that many of the leads received by ICE cannot be pursued because the individual may have already left the country or because they are inaccurate.

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The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently released an Approval of H1-B Petitions Exceeded 65,000 Cap in Fiscal Year 2005 in response to a March letter from Sen. Charles Grassley, Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Rep. John Hostettler, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims of the House Judiciary Committee. The two chairmen had requested that the OIG investigate the actions of U.S. Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS) in regard to the provision of H1-B non-immigrant status. More H1-B visas were issued in FY 2005 than were authorized, and the chairmen specifically requested that the OIG how this over-issuance occurred and whether it was a deliberately done in violation of federal law. The OIG investigated this matter and found that USCIS officials at all levels had attempted to comply with regulations regarding the cap of H1-B visas, but that USCIS did not have the technology or the operational methods to guarantee that the issuance of these visas did not exceed or fall short of the regulatory limit. According to the report from the OIG, the practice of USCIS officials was to avoid issuing too few visas. The agency took all petitions that were submitted before a certain deadline, an act that made the number of petitions granted inexact. In addition, a surprising amount of petitions submitted in mid-September 2004 flooded the cap counting process. USCIS has established several new initiatives that are designed to prevent a recurrence of H1-B visas being over-issued; however, the OIG believes that they might be insufficient to meet the precision currently required by federal law.

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Former Bracero guest workers who worked in the United States between 1942 and 1964 will receive a one-time payment of about $3,500, or 38,000 pesos, in compensation for paychecks withheld for savings or pension funds that were originally supposed to be paid in Mexico but never were. The Associate Press reports that about 10 percent of the group’s paychecks were withheld as an incentive for those workers to return to Mexico , but that the money to be paid simply disappeared. The Association of Border Workers in El Paso representative Guillermo Glenn stated that the “money should have been reimbursed a long time ago with interest” because the families to whom the money was owed need more than what they are being given. Activists and the former workers have held many protests, marches, and even seized President Vicente Fox’s ranch in Guanajuato to demand compensation. The rules for receiving compensation are as follows: Each former worker has up to four months to claim the one-time payment owed to him or her, and the worker must submit pay stubs, work visas, labor contracts, or other supporting documents. Surviving spouses or children can collect the payment by presenting the same documents in the case that the former worker has died. Priority for receiving the payment will be given to the oldest workers and to those who worked between 1942 and 1946.

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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued a notice on FBI Name Check Expedite Criteria in January of this year. According to the notice, in order for USCIS to expedite an FBI Name Check request, one of five criteria must be met: Military deployment must be imminent, age-out benefits, a Writ of Mandamus (lawsuit pending in Federal Court), Immigration Judge cases (grant of lawful permanent residence), and/or compelling reasons that the requesting office must provide (i.e. critical medical conditions) that are assessed on a case by case basis. These requirements have implications for cases where security checks are a problem.

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In a letter from LTC Pamela L. Hart, an Army spokeswoman, Ms. Hart details the Army’s current enlistment practices. LTC Hart states that the U.S. Army’s policy is to enlist only citizens and permanent legal residents of the U.S. , but that exceptions are made, especially during times of war. According to Hart, commanders determine the appropriate action to be taken should a soldier be enlisted erroneously or fraudulently. The commander’s evaluation should include the soldier’s service record. A commander can recommend that an exception be made for a soldier who has served with meritorious conduct, but who enlisted fraudulently, that the soldier remain in the service. The President’s Expedited Naturalization Executive Order, July 3, 2002 , states that soldiers who are not U.S. citizens and who served in such places as Iraq , Kuwait , Afghanistan , and Korea can apply for United States citizenship. This law also permits “expedited processing” on the soldier’s application. A similar provision of law allowed expedited processing for non-U.S. citizen service members of World Wars I and II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. LTC Hart affirms that, “during times of military conflict, the privilege to serve in the Armed Forces is not and has not historically been limited to citizens.”

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An interoffice memorandum of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has issued procedures for calculating the maximum period of stay for those visas (H-1B and L-1) that have limitations on admission. According to the memo, time spent outside the United States during the time limitation of a visa would count toward the “maximum period of time in the United States .” Visa-holders worried that they would not be able to “recapture” the time spent in departures from the U.S. for such events as vacation. The decision set forth in the memo states that time spent outside the U.S. during the validity of a visa may be added back to the period of stay allowed by the visa. The burden of proof is on the visa-holder, however, who must show that he or she was outside the U.S. for the period of time requested. In addition, spouses and minor children of a principal immigrant who recaptures time on his or her visa period may also receive extensions of visa periods for H-4 and L-2 petitions.

Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, the period of stay of a nonimmigrant may not exceed six years, and any nonimmigrant that has spent those six years may not seek extension, a change of status, or be readmitted to the United States unless the nonimmigrant has been outside of the U.S. for the duration of one year immediately prior to reapplication, with exceptions made for business trips and pleasure trips. In addition the INA states that the period of stay for a nonimmigrant to render services in a managerial or executive capacity cannot exceed seven years, and a nonimmigrant who is admitted because s/he renders services in an area that requires specialized knowledge cannot exceed a period of stay of more than five years. These non-immigrants may not be readmitted to the United States until they have been out of the country for one year immediately prior to their reapplication for admission. Overall, any days spent outside of the U.S. during the duration of an H-1B or L-1 visa can be recaptured and will not be counted toward the maximum period of stay, provided that the applicant can submit the appropriate evidence that s/he was physically out of the U.S. during the time period specified. The burden of proof rests with the applicant.

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Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has put a stop to a web site advertising legal advice and immigrations services that it is not authorized to provide.  Abbott filed an injunction against Naim Haroon, who operates Sakhia and Associates.  More than $260,000 was frozen in bank accounts, and a trial is scheduled for January 2006. 

Abbott states that Texas law is clear in prohibiting individuals from falsely claiming to be able to provide legal services to those who are seeking immigration assistance.  Haroon’s web site advertised assistance with business visas to prospective immigrants looking to enter the U.S. It also falsely claimed that Haroon is authorized to prepare immigration paperwork.  By Texas law, only licensed attorneys and authorized non-profit organizations are authorized to provide assistance in immigration related matters.  Since assuming office, Abbot has stopped more than two dozen businesses that falsely claimed to be able to provide immigration assistance.