The American Bar Association recently held its annual conference in Washington, DC. One of the primary topics of discussion was the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, especially the government’s secret detention of more than 1,000 noncitizens. The organization issued a resolution calling upon the government to issue information about the detainees.
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A naturalized US citizen applying for a driver’s license in Minnesota had his passport taken by officials at the Department of Motor Vehicles, prompting him to file a complaint with the state. Javier Cedillo, who is originally from Mexico, had recently moved to Minnesota from Texas. He had passed all the tests when a clerk, claiming his passport was fraudulent, seized it. Cedillo says that employees also damaged the passport, trying to remove the lamination on the photograph identification page. The incident came just weeks after a new state law making it harder for immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses became effective.
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Federal prosecutors this week said that a Pakistani citizen recently deported for immigration violations may have had ties to Al Qaeda. Ghulam Rasool Chisthi, a Muslim cleric, was deported earlier this year on charges of lying on his visa application. He first came to the attention of the INS last year after questioning security at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. At the time, State Department officials said they had information about Chisthi, but that they could not reveal it. They now say that there was information from Italian law enforcement officials that he was involved in an Al Qaeda plot to plant a bomb in Vatican City.
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This week one of the first people to benefit from the recently passed Family Sponsor Immigration Act was granted a green card. Zhenfu Ge, a 74-year-old grandmother from China, became a rallying point for supporters of the legislation when it was introduced last year. She had been denied a green card because her sponsor, her daughter, died from cancer before the INS finished processing the case. Her daughter’s dying wish was that Ge remain in the US and help raise her grandchildren.
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INS officials are investigating a possible green card lottery scam. According to reports, victims receive an email telling them they have won the lottery, and need only send a $25 processing fee to receive their green cards. The State Department does not notify lottery winners by email, only by regular service mail. Also, the fees involved, either for an immigrant visa at a consulate abroad or adjustment of status in the US, are much more than $25.
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Mexican President Vicente Fox this week cancelled a meeting with US President George W. Bush scheduled for later this month. The cancellation came only hours after the State of Texas, of which Bush was formerly governor, executed a Mexican citizen. Fox and the Mexican government maintained that the execution was illegal because the Javier Suarez had never been informed of his right to contact the Mexican consulate to help in his defense. Mexico, which does not use capital punishment, refuses to extradite prisoners who could face the death penalty. White House spokespeople maintain that the move does not reflect a souring in the US-Mexico relationship. However, there are a number of other sources of tension between the two countries, not the least of which is the lingering issue of the legalization of Mexican immigrants in the US.
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A prominent Cambodian artist was recently denied a visa to come to the US for a show of his work. Vann Nath, who survived the brutal Khmer Rouge regime, is known for paintings depicting the torture and murders of the regime. The US consulate denied his application, saying that he failed to show sufficiently strong ties to Cambodia to guarantee his return.
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Some US soldiers in Afghanistan briefly stopped operations while they became US citizens. Soldiers are often able to obtain citizenship without meeting usual residency requirements during time of war, and on July 4 President Bush issued an executive order qualifying operations in Afghanistan for this treatment. Officials say such ceremonies will likely be held about once a month.
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Last week Robert Porges, an immigration lawyer convicted of assisting Chinese immigrant smugglers by filing fraudulent asylum applications, and his wife, Sheery Lu Porges, were sentenced to about eight years in prison. The couple had pled guilty last January. Many were surprised by the wife’s long sentence. She had given birth to premature twins in June. While defense attorneys say that the children have health problems, the judge said she had no evidence of any such conditions.
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