Immigration Law

ICE BREAKS UP LARGE IDENTITY THEFT RING AT POULTRY PLANTS

Posted on April 17, 2008
Now that employers are starting to get tough on checking that employees' social security numbers match their names, some employees that are illegally in the country are getting around that by simply making sure that their names actually do match their numbers...

IMMIGRANT OF THE DAY: ISABEL ALLENDE - AUTHOR

Posted on April 15, 2008
Isabel Allende was born in Peru to Chilean parents. Her father was a diplomat and a first cousin of Salvador Allende, the leader of Chile deposed in a 1973 coup by Augusto Pinochet. Ms. Allende, a naturalized US citizen, began her career more than 40 years ago in South America as a journalist...

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES PASSES RELIGIOUS WORKER EXTENSION BILL

Posted on April 15, 2008
The US House passed by voice vote HR 5570, a bill which extends the green card program for special immigrant religious workers in religious occupations and vocations. The program was set to expire on October 1st of this year. The extension is until October 1st, 2010...

USCIS CONDUCTS H-1B LOTTERY

Posted on April 15, 2008
From USCIS: WASHINGTON - U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) today conducted the computer-generated random selection processes on H-1B petitions, to select which H-1B petitions for fiscal year 2009 (FY 2009) would continue to full adjudication...

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RHODE ISLAND CABINET MEMBER ATTACKS BOSS OVER SANCTIONS ORDER THEN BACKS DOWN

Posted on April 14, 2008
Patricia Martinez, the director of the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth and Families and a member for three years of the Cabinet of Governor Carcieri, last week blamed the governor for creating a climate of hatred across the state and the order is "really slamming immigrants...

CANDIDATES GET SNIPPY OVER WHO BROKE MOST IMMIGRATION LAWS

Posted on April 14, 2008
Lessons on hypocrisy.

GROUP FILES COMPLAINT OVER ELTON JOHN CONTRIBUTION TO CLINTON CAMPAIGN

Posted on April 14, 2008
This is not an immigration law story per se, but it raises interesting questions about the role of immigrants in US electroral system. Judicial Watch has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission over that Elton John concert last week. It seems there is a bar against foreign nationals providing contributions of money or "other things of value"...

UNDER THE SAME MOON

Posted on April 13, 2008
Reader Giuseppe tells me there's another immigration-themed movie currently in theaters. It's called Under the Same Moon and here's a plot synopsis: Nine-year-old Carlos aka Carlitos is one of the countless children left behind by parents who come to the U...

IMMIGRANT OF THE DAY: GENE SIMMONS - ROCKER

Posted on April 12, 2008
I saw Gene Simmons this evening on the Tonight Show in a funny bit and then remembered that the popular lead singer of the rock group KISS is an Israeli-born US citizen. The singer's outrageous onstage antics and outfits have been matched by his off stage behavior...

ICE TO DOUBLE FOREIGN STUDENT TAX

Posted on April 12, 2008
The folks at ICE are promising enhancements to the Student Exchange Visitor Program in exchange for a massive increase in fees. Somehow, I've heard that line before. Here's what's increasing: The rule would double the fee for nonimmigrant students to $200 Most exchange visitor fees would rise from $100 to $180 The fee for au pairs, camp counselors and summer work/travel program participants remains $35 There is no fee for government sponsored exchange visitors Fee for school certification would rise from $350 to $1,700 Site visit charges would increase from $230 to $655 for each site visit

"THE VISITOR WILL MAKE LOU DOBBS' HEAD EXPLODE"

Posted on April 12, 2008
I've been hearing from various folks about this new movie and can't wait until it gets to Memphis. NPR's Daniel Holloway has a review you can listen to here. Hat tip to Will Coley for telling me about the film and to Dan Kowalski for sending the review link.

IMMIGRANT OF THE DAY: ANN-MARGRET - ACTRESS

Posted on April 11, 2008
Even since I was a kid and saw Ann-Margret play her glamorous stone-age alter ego on The Flintstones, I've liked this great Academy Award nominated actress. Most people don't know she's actually a Swedish immigrant. Ann-Margret has starred in a variety of light and serious roles over the years including musicals like Viva Las Vegas with Elvis Presley and Bye Bye Birdie, comedies like The Cheap Detective and Grumpy Old Men and dramas like Magic and Any Given Sunday...

TENNESSEE ATTORNEY GENERAL RULES BILL CRIMINALIZING WORKING ILLEGALLY UNCONSTITUTIONAL

Posted on April 11, 2008
While state legislatures don't seem to have a problem passing grossly unconstitutional bills on immigration, state attorneys general seem to take their oath to uphold the Constitution a little more seriously. Tennessee's Attorney General is the latest to weigh in...

H-1B NUMBERS RELEASED

Posted on April 10, 2008
Wow. 163,000 applications received with 31,200 claiming advance degrees under the 20,000 bonus cap. That means that the odds are no better than one in two (assuming the cases filed are approvable). Here is the USCIS announcement - Download h1b_cap_08_numbers...

TOMMY LEE JONES DOESN'T MINCE WORDS ON FENCE

Posted on April 10, 2008
The big-time actor says the border fence plan "bears all the credibility and seriousness of flying saucers from Mars or leprechauns. Or any manner of malicious, paranoid superstition. In other words, it's bull[bleep]."

CBS EVENING NEWS BROADCASTING IMMIGRATION SERIES

Posted on April 09, 2008
CBS News with Katie Couric is featuring a series of stories on immigration that you can catch on the broadcast or at their web site. Here''s a description of the reports: "IMMIGRATION NATION" PART ONE 4/7 - Born in America We profile and witness an Mexican woman giving birth in America, after crossing the border into Texas to guarantee her son American citizenship with its privileges, including health care and education...

US CITIZENS BEING CAUGHT UP IN FAULTY E-VERIFY SYSTEM

Posted on April 08, 2008
Expect to keep hearing more of these stories.

USCIS: H-1B CAP HIT

Posted on April 08, 2008
No surprise that the main 65,000 cap has been hit. What is more of a surprise (though not a big one) is that the 20,000 master's cap has been hit for people with advance degrees from US institutions. USCIS has not released word on the actual number of cases received yet.

SPEAKING OF NUMBER CRUNCHING

Posted on April 08, 2008
The Department of State has released dozens of different statistical reports on consular processing. Analyze away!

SAVE BILL WOULD COST $40 BILLION

Posted on April 08, 2008
The Congressional Budget Office has crunched the numbers.

IMMIGRANT OF THE DAY: TAKEO KANADE - ROBOTICS PIONEER

Posted on April 08, 2008
Japanese-born Takeo Kanade is one of the country's foremost researchers in the area of computerized vision and has been the Director of the famous Robotics Insittute at Carnegie Mellon University. If you want to see an interesting application of his research, check out the demonstration of CBS' Eye Vision, used to give a 360 degree feel to coverage of sporting events...

CONGRATS TO WINNERS OF MVL'S VIDEO WINNERS

Posted on April 07, 2008
I posted the YouTube links to the nominees last week. You can see the wnners here.

CHERTOFF: FIRST WE BRING THE PUBLIC TO THEIR KNEES AND THEN WHEN THEY BEG FOR MERCY....

Posted on April 07, 2008
Well, that's basically the current immigration policy of the country. Enforce to the point that the economy is falling apart and then have Congress finally create a workable guest worker program. And, by the way, we can deal with those twelve million people illegally here when Americans are feeling generous...

IMMIGRANT OF THE DAY: TRACY ULLMAN - ACTRESS/COMEDIENNE

Posted on April 07, 2008
British-born Tracy Ullman has been a favorite of mine ever since her brilliant sketch comedy show on Fox, The Tracy Ullman Show, aired in the 1980s. Ullman's show was one of the first shows on the new network. Aside from the live sketches, Ullman's show includes cartoon shorts for The Simpsons...

SOY HOMBRE

Posted on April 06, 2008
This has been an emotional week here in my hometown of Memphis. The world's attention was focused on a relatively modest building on a quiet street downtown that was the site of one of the saddest events of the 20th century - the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King...

THE NEW OPT RULE FAQ

Posted on April 05, 2008
OK, here are FAQs on the new OPT rule, E-Verify, a complete list of qualifying STEM professions and the full text of the OPT rule. I'll consider the two FAQs to be works in progress so please post questions in the comments and I'll consider them for inclusion in revised versions of the articles...

STEM PROFESSIONS

Posted on April 05, 2008
I'm still working on the FAQ, but here's a question and document you may find helpful given some of the questions you're posting. The CIP is hundreds of pages long, but I've extracted the relevant pages and redacted out professions not qualifying. So every occupation on the attached lists will qualify as a STEM profession...

IMMIGRANT OF THE DAY: LUC RICHARD MBAH A MOUTE - BASKETBALL PLAYER

Posted on April 05, 2008
USC - You'll be glad to know my Immigrant of the Day hiatus is over. I needed a break for a few weeks from the feature and now am ready to resume. And what better way than by featuring Cameroon native Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, the star player for the UCLA Bruins who will take the court in San Antonio in a few hours to compete against the University of Memphis for a spot in Monday's NCAA Championship game...

MESSAGE TO USCIS: FIX E-VERIFY BEFORE COURTS SHUT IT DOWN

Posted on April 05, 2008
Yesterday, USCIS changed the equation in their effort to get America's employers to use E-Verify. As the H-1B program continues to grow more and more useless as demand for the visa far outstrips supply, companies are faced with the unpleasant choice of simply doing without needed global talent or moving operations overseas where protectionist immigration policies are not an issue...

DHS' OFFICIAL WINK-WINK REAL ID ANNOUNCEMENT

Posted on April 04, 2008
This is one of the stranger immigration stories in the news today. Remember REAL ID, the mandate passed by Congress in 2005 that largely creates a national ID card by requiring all states to make extremely expensive changes to their drivers licenses to make it impossible for people illegally in the US to get driving privileges? Apparently, many states didn't like being told to spend all that money and not be reimbursed by Washington...

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