The 652 businesses being presented with a NOI today for a Form I-9 audit have been selected for inspection as a result of leads and information obtained through other investigative means. Due to the ongoing, law enforcement sensitive nature of these audits, the names and locations of the businesses will not be released at this time.
The U.S. Government has issued this pamphlet to honor the rule of law and uphold the dignity of all who come to this country. The U.S. Government is committed to combating human trafficking and labor rights violations.
The report described the 2006 Swift raids in which thousands of workers - most of them U.S. citizens or legal immigrants - were held by heavily armed ICE agents for up to eight hours without food, water or the opportunity to use a bathroom or a telephone.Testimony alleged racial profiling and violations of constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and detention without due process. Out of an entire Swift workforce of 12,000, ICE had warrants identifying 133 suspects of identity theft, the report said.
[emphasis added]
The comments on the newspaper's website show the level of hatred against undocumented workers. Most commentators ignore the fact that most of the people rounded up were lawful, even US citizens in some cases.
If you want to live outside the US for 6 months or more, it is critical that you can show your intention to return to the US. This intent can be shown by as many of the following as possible:
1. Continuing to file US tax returns;
2. Keeping a house or other residence here;
3. Putting furniture and other belongings in storage rather than selling them;
4. Having some immediate family members staying in the US;
5. Definite plans to return to a job or studies in the US;
6. Maintaining memberships in clubs, church groups, etc in the US.
We recommend getting a reentry permit if you will be on an extended stay outside the US of 6 months or longer. A reentry permit allows a permanent resident or conditional resident to apply for admission to the US upon returning from abroad during the permit’s validity, without having to obtain a returning resident visa from the U.S. Embassy or consulate. A reentry permit does not guarantee admission into the United States. Aliens with reentry permits are still subject to inspection at the port of entry and may be denied admission if they are inadmissible.
Reentry permits are generally valid for 2 years from the date the reentry permit was issued. A 2nd reentry permit might be approved for another 2 years, and therafter they are approved for one year at a time. You should apply for this benefit before leaving the United States. Ideally, you will file at least a few months before you leave, to allow time for the biometrics appointment to be scheduled before you travel.
For more information, please see these prior blog posts: http://martinvisalaw.blogspot.com/search/label/reentry%20permit
"These new agencies will be open to the public and will provide the citizens of these communities with easy access to the full range of passport services. These agencies will have the capability to issue passports onsite and provide same-day service to qualified applicants."DOS opened a new apssport agency in Detroit in March, and plans to open facilities in Dallas and Tucson later this summer.
USCIS has updated the H-1B cap count, and now says it has 1,300 fewer cases than last time. It now has 44,400 cases against the regular (non-Master's) H-1B cap, compared with 47,500 on May 29. We wonder if this means that 1,300 cases have been denied or withdrawn, or if CIS discovered duplicate filings that it rejected. For more information, see the previous blog post here and here.
Sen. Patrick Leahy ( D-Vermont ) introduced the Uniting American Families Act ( S. 424 ) earlier this year; it has 18 co-sponsors. The bill would allow same sex couples the same immigration rights as married heterosexual couples. Passage of the bill is likely to be tied to overall immigration reform.
At the moment, same-sex partners of legal immigrants do not have the same rights to dependent status that heterosexual spouses get. This is true even if the couple is legally married in their home country. Often, the "dependent" partner must apply for a B-2 visitor visa at the consulate, to accompany his/her partner. This visa is discretionary, and consulates could refuse to issue it. In addition, B-2 status does not allow the dependent partner to work in the US. Many heterosexual dependent spouses have a status that doesn't allow them to work either, however.
As the New York Times reports:
Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/boscobridalexpos/Senator Leahy’s bill would add the term “permanent partner” to sections of current immigration law that refer to married couples, and would provide a legal definition of those terms.
“I just think it’s a matter of fairness,” he said Tuesday in an interview, noting that a number of American allies, including Canada, France and Germany, recognize same-sex couples in immigration law.
"If I am on H1B visa but I have been laid off by my current employer and they will announce my leaving in one month. I am planning to change to F1 status. If I get another employer later on that sponsor again my visa. Do I get subject to a cap?"Answer:
"I have been on an H1B visa for 2.5 years; I am considering attending grad school in Minnesota for my MSME in the Fall, so I would be switching to an F-1 student visa.
My question is: if after I graduate with my Master's Degree, I apply for & get another H1B job - so I switch from F-1 back to H1B visa - do I get a fresh 6 year timeclock started on my new H1B? Or, do I only have 3.5 years left that I can be in H1B status - because of my H1B work time before the F-1/grad school?"
"I have been on the H-1B visa for 1 and a half years.I was laid off recently and am planning to attend school which starts in July 09.
i) Do I need a F-1 visa apart from an I-20?
ii) Do I need to go out of US for stamping?"
"The approval of any such H-1B petition shall not constitute approval by USCIS for the alien beneficiary to engage in any activity requiring possession of such State or local license. It is merely a means to facilitate the state or local licensing authority’s issuance of such a license to the alien, provided all other requirements are satisfied."Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/adrianclarkmbbs/
Although we rest our holding on entirely legal grounds, we note that our decision comports with common sense. We do not believe that Congress intended for the speed at which immigration authorities attend to a pending application to be dispositive in determining when a surviving spouse like Mrs. Taing, who has diligently followed the rules, can qualify as [a spouse.] As our sister court has recently noted, the result the government seeks would "create[] an arbitrary, irrational and inequitable outcome in which approvable petitions will be treated differently depending solely upon when the government grants the approval." Lockhart, 561 F.3d at 620 (quoting Robinson, 554 F.3d at 371 (Nygaard, J., dissenting)).Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/ninjaneil902/
"They began sending letters to the US Embassy in Paris. They lobbied their congressmen to get behind their appeal. They signed a petition by the hundreds and sent it to American diplomats several thousand miles away.
Their argument: The bakery might not earn huge sums of money, but it contributed plenty to the community, providing a place for residents to gather, while offering hope that a small business, even one as unlikely as the boulangerie, could thrive in their town."
The petition was successful, and the US consulate overturned their denial and approved the E-2 visa.
The online political website Politico.com has revealed that President Obama has invited members of Congress to the White House on June 8 to discuss immigration reform. Officials are vague as to the purpose of the meeting, saying:"The meeting will be an opportunity to launch a policy conversation that we hope will be able to start a debate that will take place in Congress later in the year....This isn’t a forum or a summit with outside groups, this is solely a meeting with members of Congress on both sides of the aisle and both sides of the issue."
There has been much speculation on whether President Obama plans to tackle comprehensive immigration reform this year or now (see earlier blog posts). Maybe we will get more indication of his intentions after the meeting next month.
The New York Times today reports that census data from the Mexican government show a steep decline in emigration from Mexico to the US.
The recently released data show that about 226,000 fewer people emigrated from Mexico to other countries during the year that ended in August 2008 than during the previous year, a decline of 25 percent. All but a very small fraction of emigration, both legal and illegal, from Mexico is to the United States.The article attributes the decline to the poor US job economy and lack of jobs for emigrants in the US. However, apparently there has not been a corresponding increase in the number of Mexicans returning to live in Mexico:
Still, at least 11 million illegal immigrants remain in the United States, the demographers say. Despite collapsing job markets in construction and other low-wage work, there has been no exodus among Mexicans living in the United States, the Mexican census figures show. About the same number of migrants — 450,000 — returned to Mexico in 2008 as in 2007.Some commentators claim that the decrease is as a result of increased enforcement of immigration laws at the border and in the workplace. However, other sources in the article claim that enforcement is only a slight deterrent to Mexicans crossing illegally and that the poor job market is much more significant.
In April 2009, Secretary Napolitano issued guidance outlining that ICE will focus its resources in the worksite enforcement program on the criminal prosecution of employers who knowingly hire illegal workers in order to target the root cause of illegal immigration. ICE will continue to arrest and process for removal any illegal workers who are found in the course of these worksite enforcement actions in a manner consistent with immigration law and DHS priorities. Furthermore, ICE will use all available civil and administrative tools, including civil fines and debarment, to penalize and deter illegal employment.
- Of the individuals criminally arrested, 135 were owners, managers, supervisors or human resources employees facing charges including harboring or knowingly hiring illegal aliens. The remaining workers criminally arrested are facing charges including aggravated identity theft and Social Security fraud.
- ICE has also made more than 5,100 administrative arrests for immigration violations during worksite enforcement operations.
- ICE made more than 1,100 criminal arrests tied to worksite enforcement investigations.
reform the H-1B and L-1 guest-worker programs to prevent abuse and fraud and to protect American workers.Senator Durbin's website states the following:
The H-1B visa program should complement the U.S. workforce, not replace it,” Durbin said. “Congress created the H-1B visa program so an employer could hire a foreign guest-worker when a qualified American worker could not be found. However, the H-1B visa program is plagued with fraud and abuse and is now a vehicle for outsourcing that deprives qualified American workers of their jobs. Our bill will put a stop to the outsourcing of American jobs and discrimination against American workers.The Reform Act would
It would give lawful status to children brought to America by events beyond their control. They have grown up here, are fully integrated, and know no other country. Instead of being rounded up and deported, they will contribute to America, starting when they meet requirements that they go to college or serve in the military.Opponents say that it is an amnesty
designed to politically leverage the dilemma of the most sympathetic group of illegals into a more general amnesty.The most recent status of the DREAM Act is that a bipartisan group of senators introduced it to the latest Congress on March 26, 2009. AILA (the American Immigration Lawyers Association) estimates that 65,000 undocumented young people who have spent their childhoods in America would be impacted by this important piece of legislation annually.
According to the CIS website
USCIS will provide regular updates on the processing of FY2010 H-1B petitions. The updates can be found on the USCIS’ Web site at www.uscis.gov/h-1b_count.USCIS has received approximately 44,000 H-1B petitions counting toward the Congressionally-mandated 65,000 cap. The agency continues to accept petitions subject to the general cap.
Additionally, the agency has received approximately 20,000 petitions for aliens with advanced degrees; however, we continue to accept advanced degree petitions since experience has shown that not all petitions received are approvable.
For cases filed for premium processing during the initial five-day filing window, the 15-day premium processing period began April 7.
What is E-Verify?
E-Verify is an Internet based system operated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in partnership with the Social Security Administration (SSA) that allows participating employers to electronically verify the employment eligibility of their newly hired employees.
Background to the new rule:
President George W Bush issued an executive order in 2008, directing federal agencies to require that federal contractors agree to electronically verify the employment eligibility of their employees. The amended Executive Order reinforces the policy, first announced in 1996, that the federal government do business with companies that have a legal workforce. This new rule requires federal contractors to agree, through language inserted into their federal contracts, to use E-Verify to confirm the employment eligibility of all persons hired during a contract term, and to confirm the employment eligibility of federal contractors’ current employees who perform contract services for the federal government within the United States.
The effective date of the final rule requiring certain federal contractors and subcontractors to use E-Verify has been delayed until June 30, 2009.
The rule will only affect federal contractors who are awarded a new contract after June 30 that includes the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) E-Verify clause (73 FR 67704). Federal contractors may NOT use E-Verify to verify current employees until the rule becomes effective and they are awarded a contract that includes the FAR E-Verify Clause.
What contracts are included?
The E-Verify requirement would apply to federal contracts with a performance period longer than 120 days and a value over $100,000. The rule covers subcontractors if a prime contract includes the clause. For subcontracts that flow from those prime contracts, the rule extends the E-Verify requirement to subcontracts for services or for construction with a value over $3,000.
President Obama has chosed Alan Bersin to work with DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano to handle illegal immigration and drug violence issues along the Mexican-American border. Mr. Bersin held a similar position under Attorney General Janet Reno in the 1990s. His official title will be Assistant Secretary for International Affairs and Special Representative for Border Affairs.What's going on in Mexico, across the border, in Juarez, requires that we support the government of Mexico in its very valiant, courageous effort to both stem violence and also deal with the drug trafficking organizations.The Obama administration has promised to target border violence and work with Mexican authorities to curb drugs and arms trafficking. Hundreds of federal agents, along with high-tech surveillance gear and drug-sniffing dogs, are being deployed to the Southwest.
Multiple Obama administration officials tell CNN that the White House is not pushing to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill this year.....There are roughly 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States. In addition to making a way for some of them to stay in the country legally, CNN has learned the Obama administration wants to remove incentives to enter the U.S. illegally, beef up border security and work with Mexico to cut down on illegal immigration.The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) has published a letter commending President Obama on his plans to reform immigration. AILA comments that
Moving forward with comprehensive immigration reform will ensure that all workers are here legally, will punish unscrupulous employers who undercut their honest competitors, and will restore integrity to the labor market. It will lift wages for workers, ensure all workers are paying taxes, restore fairness to our immigration system, and create a level playing field for law-abiding employers. We laud the administration for seeing past the political and emotional rhetoric to the truth that what our country needs to climb out of the crisis toward economic growth and stability.Links to other online discussions:
