Rules passed as part of the Homeland Security bill signed by President Bush this week call for every visa application submitted to consulates in Saudi Arabia to be reviewed by the Homeland Security official before they can be approved or rejected. While officials from the new department are to be stationed at every consulate, Saudi Arabia is the only country where applications are required to be reviewed. Fifteen of the 19 September 11th hijackers obtained visas at consulates in Riyadh and Jeddah.
*********
This week high level US and Mexican government officials met for the 19th Mexico-US Binational Commission. The meetings dealt with a wide variety of topics, but migration issues dominated. Administration officials went into the meetings saying that there was little chance of reaching a migration agreement. We will cover the results of the meetings in detail next week.
*********
Federal officials in Charlotte, North Carolina recently indicted 42 people on charges of making, selling and buying fraudulent immigration documents. According to prosecutors, the leaders of the fraud ring solicited undocumented immigrants from China, Hong Kong and Malaysia, promising them documents that would allow them to remain legally in the US.
*********
A new report from the Pew Hispanic Center and the Inter-American Development Bank shows that immigrants in the US sent $23 billion to family in Latin American and the Caribbean last year. The report also found that while the cost to transfer money has gone down, rates still remain high at 10 to 15 percent of the amount transferred. It is estimated that if fees could be brought down to five percent, immigrants’ families would receive an addition $1 billion. The report is available online at http://www.pewhispanic.org/page.jsp?page=reports.
*********
The Department of State has launched an advertising campaign in the Middle East in an effort to counter growing opinion that the US is hostile to Arab and Muslim immigrants.
*********
Several Thai immigrants who were held in virtual slavery and forced to work in a Los Angeles area sweatshop have been granted permanent residency in the US. The workers were discovered during a 1995 raid, and their story became part of an exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution. They sued to recover backpay, eventually receiving more than $4 million in settlements.
*********
Three Estonian immigrants claim that the government has backed out of its promise to allow them to remain in the US in exchange for cooperating with prosecutors in a case against their former employer. The immigrants, all women, were brought to the US illegally and forced to work as maids. INS officials say that while green cards are available to some who cooperate with government prosecutions, such an offer is not mandatory and was not made in this case. The women filed a lawsuit against the INS, but it was recently dismissed by a judge, leaving them to pursue their claim administratively. In the meanwhile, the INS is moving to deport them.
*********
The Virginia Attorney General recently issued a memo to all colleges and universities in the state warning them to not allow undocumented immigrants to enroll in classes, and encouraging employees who know of undocumented students to report them to the INS. The memo makes Virginia stand out, as more and more states look for ways to make it easier for undocumented students to pursue higher education.
*********
Last week an immigration judge denied Rabih Haddad’s asylum application. Haddad, who is a founder of Global Relief, Inc., an Islamic charity, was arrested last December after the charity was accused of funneling money to terrorist organizations. Haddad had argued that publicity surrounding his case would cause him to be persecuted if he was deported to Lebanon. Finding that Haddad poses a threat to US security, the IJ also ordered him deported.
Disclaimer: This newsletter is provided as a public service and not intended to establish an attorney client relationship. Any reliance on information contained herein is taken at your own risk. The information provided in this article has not been updated since its original posting and you should not rely on it until you consult counsel to determine if the content is still valid. We keep older articles online because it helps in the understanding of the development of immigration law.