News Bytes - September 30, 2003

The 2002 USCIS Immigration Statistical Yearbook is now available online at: http://www.immigration.gov/graphics/shared/aboutus/statistics/Yearbook2002.pdf

Each year, this data is compiled and published in the Yearbook of Immigration Statistics, previously known as the Statistical Yearbook of the Immigration and Naturalization Service prior to the Fiscal Year 2002 edition.

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The American Immigration Lawyers Association reports that USCIS personnel received an email withdrawing the 2002 "zero tolerance memo", by which it was declared that there would be no tolerance for failure to follow procedures. Much of today's "culture of no" has been traced to this memo. AILA is attempting to obtain a copy of the email.

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The U.S. Treasury Department announced it will not make changes to rules regarding banks' ability to accept foreign identification.

The Department released results of the notice of inquiry published in the Federal Register July 1, 2003 requesting additional information pertinent to the final rules implementing customer identification requirements for financial institutions under Section 326 of the USA PATRIOT Act.

After reviewing over 34,000 comments, Treasury found that no new information had been presented that had not been considered prior to issuing the final rules.  Accordingly, Treasury is recommending no changes to the rules.

The Department of Treasury's press release can be viewed online at: http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/js743.htm. For more information on this, see our weekly ABCs of Immigration article in this issue.

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Evelyn Upchurch, the newly appointed director of the USCIS Texas Service Center, recently met with the Texas State Bar's Immigration Committee. She noted that the TSC's backlog elimination efforts have fallen off track since 9/11. This is now being discussed internally, and then will go to Congress. A production plan is outlined in three tiers: statutory and regulatory requirements, then those affecting district office cases, and then all others. They have the first quarter completed and are 4% under goal as not every application goal was met. Their production completion goals involve all applications and petitions. Ms. Upchurch stated that the I-765 Employment Authorization Documents are getting caught up to within 120 days from date of filing and should soon be within 90 days with the next target being I-90 green card replacement applications. Lawyers should see movement on I-130s and CIS is looking at innovative ways to address the issue. Fiancé applications are take longer now. But TSC leaders expect to be current in the future.  Cases are moving but they don't have all the needed resources. [Thanks go to Paul Parsons, Chairman of the Committee for sharing this information].

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This morning, the State Department notified USCIS District Offices that all of the DV 2003 lottery visa numbers have been used and no more DV 2003 visas are available. Between last Friday when the State Department advised AILA that sufficient numbers were available, and this morning, a large influx of visa number requests led the State Department's Legal Advisors to conclude that they could not issue any additional numbers this year. Accordingly, the State Department notified local USCIS District Offices of the cut off. Practitioners should confirm with their local offices whether visas were allocated to their clients' cases prior to the expiration of their availability. This is the first time since the lottery program was enacted that the State Department has announced that it has used up all of its visa before the end of a fiscal year.

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The Executive Office of Immigration Review has issued warnings to several judges at Newark’s federal immigration court for their inappropriate or casual dress while on the bench. Since 1994, immigration judges have been expected to wear their black robes while they preside in court. Immigration review officials have visited several sites and found Newark to be the only site so far where there was a need to issue warnings regarding judges’ dress policy.

At the same time, an official decided that Newark Judges Alberto Riefkhol, Annie Garcy and William Strasser will no longer hear cases in which an immigrant is detained in jail. Immigration lawyers in the New Jersey area speculate that these three judges have the most cases pending with the courts and the removal of these cases will lighten their caseloads. Lawyers in the area seem to think that the change in assignments given to these judges does not indicate a demotion in their status.

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Recently the Department of State announced a one-year extension on the requirement that travelers have machine-readable passports to be admitted under the visa waiver program, provided that those countries submit a request. Twenty-one participating countries took advantage of the extension, while five visa waiver countries did not request postponement because nearly all of their citizens already hold machine-readable passports: Andorra, Brunei, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, and Slovenia. As of October 1, 2003, visa waiver travelers from those five countries must present either a machine-readable passport or a United States visa. The same is required of Belgian citizens, as they have been required to present a machine-readable passport since May 15 of this year.

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USCIS Director Eduardo Aguirre announced the names of those appointed to fill the top management positions at the agency this week. The remaining District Director, Asylum Director, and Officer-in-Charge positions will be made within the next thirty days. The appointments are as follows:

HEADQUARTERS

Associate Director, Operations - William (Bill) Yates

Deputy Associate Director, Operations - Janis Sposato

Director, Field Operations - Terrance (Terry) O'Reilly

Director, Service Center Operations - Fujie Ohata

Director, Information & Customer Service - Michael (Mike) Aytes

Director, Fraud Detection & National Security - Louis (Don) Crocetti

Director, Modernization - Patricia (Patty) Cogswell

Director, Production Management - Ann Palmer

Director, International Affairs - Joseph (Joe) Cuddihy

Associate Director, Asylum Operations     - Joseph Langlois

Associate Director, Refugee Operations - Kathleen Thompson

Director, Administrative Appeals Office     - Robert (Bob) Wiemann

REGIONAL DIRECTORS

Eastern Region, Burlington, Vermont - Steven Farquharson

Central Region, Dallas, Texas - Kenneth Pasquarell

Western Region, Laguna Niguel,

California - Carolyn Muzyka

DISTRICT DIRECTORS

District Director, Atlanta - Rosemary Melville

District Director, Buffalo - M. Francis Holmes

District Director, Cleveland - Mark Hanson

District Director, Detroit - Carol Jenifer

District Director, El Paso - Raymond Adams

District Director, Los Angeles - Jane Arellano

District Director, Miami - Jack Bulger

District Director, Newark - Andrea Quarantillo

District Director, Omaha - Gerard Heinauer

District Director, Phoenix - Stephen Fickett

District Director, San Francisco - David Still

District Director, Seattle - Robert Okin

District Director, St. Paul - Curtis Aljets

SERVICE CENTER DIRECTORS

Director, Vermont Service Center - Paul Novak

Director, Nebraska Service Center - Terry Way

Director, Texas Service Center - Evelyn Upchurch

Director, California Service Center - Don Neufeld

NATIONAL BENEFIT CENTER

Director, National Benefit Center - Robert Cowan

ASYLUM DIRECTOR

Asylum Director, Los Angeles - Robert Looney

OFFICERS-IN-CHARGE

Officer-in-Charge, Albany - Gary Hale

Officer-in-Charge, Charlotte - Richard Gottlieb

Officer-in-Charge, Cherry Hill - Carol Bellew

Officer-in-Charge, Fresno - Don Riding

Officer-in-Charge, Las Vegas - Karen Dorman

Officer-in-Charge, Louisville - Michael Conway

Officer-in-Charge, Memphis - David Angotti

Officer-in-Charge, Orlando - M. Stella Jarina

Officer-in-Charge, Providence - Jeffery Trecartin

Officer-in-Charge, Sacramento - Susan Curda

Officer-in-Charge, San Bernardino - Irene Martin

Officer-in-Charge, San Jose - Warren Janssen

Officer-in-Charge, Santa Ana - Marta Salgado-Nino

Officer-in-Charge, St. Albans - Noel Induni

Officer-in-Charge, St. Louis - Chester Moyer

Officer-in-Charge, Tucson - William Johnston

Officer-in-Charge, Ventura - J. T. Watson