This Month in Immigration – May 2011

By cchoi | Published: June 3, 2011

SB 1070 COPYCATS. Federal Judge Waddoups has temporarily barred a Utah law – similar to Arizona’s anti-immigrant law, SB 1070 – from taking effect. HB 497 would give new, expanded powers to state and local police to question people they detained about immigration status. In a lawsuit, the ACLU and other groups claimed the law would interfere with federal immigration law and lead to racial profiling. The judge did not rule on the law, but set a hearing for July 14. Class action lawsuits were also filed in Indiana and Georgia, challenging discriminatory laws inspired by SB 1070.

In Arizona, Governor Brewer has appealed the injunction against SB 1070 to the U.S. Supreme Court after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s order placing the law on hold until a decision on the merits can be reached in the lawsuit filed against Arizona by the U.S. Department of Justice.

E-VERIFY. By a 5-3 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Arizona’s law penalizing businesses and imposing sanctions on employers that hire undocumented workers, rejecting arguments that states have no role in immigration matters. The 2007 law requires that employers use E-Verify – a federal employment verification program that has a disproportionate negative impact on APIs – or risk losing their business licenses. The decision comes as the state is appealing a ruling that blocked SB 1070 from going into effect.

Meanwhile, Rep. Smith (R-TX) has announced that he will introduce a bill to make E-Verify mandatory in June.

IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT. In a 43-22 vote, the California Assembly passed the TRUST Act (AB 1081), sponsored by Asm. Ammiano (D-SF).  The bill seeks to repair the damaging impacts of ICE’s Secure Communities program (S-Comm), which has faced criticism for undermining public safety and functioning without transparency or local oversight.

This follows a move by Illinois Governor Quinn to cancel his state’s participation in the program, as well as a move by New York Governor Cuomo to suspend participation in the controversial program.

CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT. Reps. Chu (D-CA) and Biggert (R-IL), and Sens. Brown (R-MA), Feinstein (D-CA), Hatch (R-UT), Murray (D-WA), Cardin (D-MD), and Rubio (R-FL) have introduced resolutions calling on Congress to formally acknowledge and express regret for the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Laws. Enacted between 1882 and 1904, the Chinese Exclusion Laws were a set of laws that severely restricted the naturalization and immigration into the U.S. of people of Chinese descent.  Although the laws were repealed in 1943, Congress has never formally acknowledged or expressed regret for the harm and destruction these discriminatory laws caused in the API community.

JAPANESE INTERNMENT. The U.S. Department of Justice released an unprecedented admission in Japanese American incarceration cases, finally admitted its mistakes in the cases challenging the government’s World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans. The “confession of error,” by acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal, is the first such admission of wrongdoing since the 1940s, when the Supreme Court ruled against Korematsu and Hirabayashi, two young men who challenged the incarceration and related curfew orders that compromised the civil rights of Japanese Americans.

IMMIGRATION REFORM. In a recent speech in El Paso, TX, President Obama renewed his call for comprehensive immigration reform (CIR), unveiling a blueprint entitled, “Building a 21st Century Immigration System.” This follows increased pressure from immigrant rights advocates to take action on CIR.

Meanwhile, Democratic legislators are calling on Obama to step up on providing administrative relief for immigrants – to scale back his aggressive deportation policy, particularly in cases when children are seeking an education or families would be split apart.

IMMIGRANT STUDENTS. Policies benefiting DREAM Act-eligible youth have recently moved forward in several states. Maryland’s legislature passed a bill that would allow undocumented students to qualify for resident tuition in state colleges and universities. The Illinois legislature passed a law creating a DREAM Fund, which would raise private money and award scholarships to worthy immigrant students (California is considering similar legislation). In California, the California DREAM Act has advanced, which would allow undocumented university students to apply for financial aid in the state.

Sen. Durbin (D-IL), Rep. Berman (D-CA) and others have also reintroduced the DREAM Act – which has been introduced every year in Congress since 2001.

INDEFINITE DETENTION.  The House Immigration Subcommittee recently held a hearing on a bill introduced by Rep. Smith (R-TX), which would give the DHS Secretary authority to detain immigrants indefinitely if they are subject to a final order of removal and cannot be deported for some reason, or if they are subject to a removal order that has been stayed by a judge while their immigration case is on appeal. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Zadvydas v. Davis (2001), that immigrants who have been ordered removed cannot be imprisoned by the government for more than 6 months if there is no reasonable likelihood that the individual will be removed. The “Keep Our Communities Safe” Act would eliminate the 6-month time limit.

More than half of the people in immigration detention have never been convicted of any crime. H.R. 1932 would, in effect, mean life in prison for certain immigrants who have been ordered removed but who cannot be deported because, for example, the immigrant’s country of origin will not accept deportees from the U.S. Moreover, countries like China, India, Iran and Laos are very slow to issue travel documents to ICE.

RIGHT TO EDUCATION. In a joint letter, the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education recently reminded school districts that all students, regardless of their immigration status, can enroll at public schools. The letter issued a stern warning to districts that student enrollment practices that may “lead to the exclusion of students based on their or their parents’ or guardians’ actual or perceived immigration status” would “contravene Federal law.”

U-VISAS. The U.S. Department of Labor has issued new protocols, laying out guidelines and procedures on when and whether to certify/complete a petition for a U-Visa.

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WATCH OUT FOR:

Dream Act (House: 12 co-sponsors, Senate: 34 co-sponsors).

Reuniting Families Act (House: 77 co-sponsors).

Birthright Citizenship Act of 2011 (House: 76 co-sponsors, Senate: 4 co-sponsors).

 

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This Month in Immigration – April 2011

By cchoi | Published: May 3, 2011

IMMIGRATION REFORM. On April 19, reiterating his commitment to comprehensive reform, President Obama met with stakeholders to discuss how to fix the broken immigration system. The meeting took place with a broad group of stakeholders, including former CA Gov. Schwarzenegger, former DHS Secretary Chertoff, the mayors of New York and San Antonio and law enforcement, business and religious leaders.

ARIZONA’S SB 1070. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an injunction against Arizona’s anti-immigrant law, SB 1070, thereby blocking its most controversial provisions from taking effect. In a 2-1 decision, the court decided that SB 1070 interfered with federal authority over immigration policy and law.

But this decision has not deterred other states from passing copycat bills. HB 87 in Georgia – which allows police to ask for “papers” from people they suspect to be undocumented – passed on April 14. ­­­­Alabama is also nearing final approval of a copycat measure.

FEDERAL BUDGET. With the threat of a shutdown, Congress finally approved a budget that will keep the government running through FY 2011. Although there was no bar on spending for immigrant integration programs (as was present in the House’s budget), it included a host of cuts that will impact immigrants: 1) cuts USCIS’s budget by more than a third ($87.7 million) from 2010 funding, 2) halves funding amounts for refugee and asylum adjudications. This will likely lead to an increase in fees.

SPECIAL REGISTRATION. On April 28, the NSEERS (National Security Entry-Exit Registration System) program was ended. NSEERS was a counter-productive response in the wake of September 11, 2001. It required immigrants from predominantly Muslim countries to register at ports of entry and local immigration offices, and to be fingerprinted, photographed and questioned at length because of their countries of origin. Although the regulation itself will remain in place, all currently listed countries will be removed from the NSEERS list.

IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT. Rep. Lofgren (D-CA) has called for an investigation into the actions of federal immigration officials, stating that DHS was dishonest with local governments and with Congress about whether local jurisdictions could opt out of Secure Communities (S-Comm), a controversial federal enforcement program.  She also questioned DHS’s legal authority to require mandatory participation in S-Comm. California Asm. Ammiano has sponsored a bill, AB 1081, that would give cities and counties an opportunity to decide whether they want to participate in S-Comm.

IMMIGRANT STUDENTS. Sens. Durbin (D-IL), Reid (D-NV) and 20 Democratic senators sent a letter to President Obama asking him to stop deporting undocumented youth who would qualify for the DREAM Act if it became law.  The Senators asked that the Obama Administration consider implementing a formal and consistent process for applying for and receiving deferred action and tracking of DREAM Act cases.

Meanwhile, Maryland is on track to becoming the 11th state to allow undocumented students to pay in-state tuition at public colleges and universities, similar to AB 540 in California.

LGBT AMERICANS AND IMMIGRATION. The Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) was recently re-introduced by Rep. Nadler (D-NY) and Sen. Leahy (D-VT). The legislation is backed by 98 co-sponsors in the House and 18 in the Senate, a record for the bill on reintroduction. It has been introduced in every session of Congress since 2000.

The bill would allow LGBT Americans to obtain green cards for their partners while they wait for repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

On behalf of LGBT detainees, 13 complaints were also filed with DHS, alleging civil and human rights abuses. Some facilities are located in California – including the Theo Lacy Facility, Santa Ana City Jail, Mira Loma Detention Center and El Centro Processing Center.

LANGUAGE ACCESS. DHS has released a new guidance on limited English proficiency to help DHS grant recipients to understand and implement their obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VI mandates the provision of meaningful language access to limited English proficient (LEP) individuals. Such recipients include state and local emergency management agencies, fire and police departments, mass transit authorities, and community emergency response teams.

DUE PROCESS. A federal appellate court recently reversed a decision that prevented non-citizens from presenting new evidence on their removal cases – evidence that could potentially change the outcome – because they are outside the U.S. Federal law gives non-citizens 90 days to file a “motion to reopen,” which allows the submission of new evidence after a removal order becomes final. The court emphasized that allowing immigration courts to refuse to hear motions in such cases enabled DHS to unilaterally restrict the opportunity to seek reopening by simply deporting a person.

HOUSE SUBCOMMITTEES. The House Social Security Subcommittee held a hearing to challenge E-Verify and question the SSA’s role in verifying the legal status of workers.

The House Immigration Subcommittee has also continued its series of hearings to portray immigrants and immigration in a bad light, including a hearing on: 1) H-1B visas, although there is an inadequate supply of immigrant visas in the employment immigration system, 2) eliminating the Diversity Lottery visa program, although proposing to reduce legal immigration would create incentives to increase illegal immigration, and 3) H-2A temporary agricultural worker program, although passing AgJOBS would help to stabilize the agricultural work force.

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WATCH OUT FOR:

H.R.282: Requiring federal contractors to participate in the E-Verify program. (Gallegly (R-CA), 11 co-sponsors)

H.R.98: Illegal Immigration Enforcement and Social Security Protection Act of 2011 (Dreier (R-CA), 12 co-sponsors)

H.R.140: Birthright Citizenship Act of 2011 (King (R-IA), 73 co-sponsors)

 

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This Month in Immigration

By cchoi | Published: April 1, 2011

FEDERAL BUDGET. In the first 2 months of the new Congress, much of the energy has been focused on budget and appropriations. Budget activity is more confusing this year, because the previous Congress never passed a final spending bill for the fiscal year that ends September 30, 2011. Instead, they passed a temporary spending bill that expired March 4. Thus, even as Congress begins to consider the President’s budget for FY2012, it is still working on a spending bill to fund the government for the remainder of this fiscal year 2011. The House has passed its bill, H.R. 1, which would take $100 billion off the President’s FY2011 request, or about $60 billion below 2010 levels.

Major immigration-related concerns for the budget are related to refugee assistance and immigrant integration. The House bill proposes to cut the budget for the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration by 45%. Among other things, these funds are used to provide assistance to refugees overseas, and for admission and initial resettlement of refugees to the U.S.

In his FY2011 budget request, the President asked for $18 million for the Office of Citizenship.  That amount would fund the operations of the Office and it would provide approximately $11 million for its Immigrant Integration Initiative, including approximately $8.5 million in grants to organizations to help immigrants prepare for citizenship.  The House bill would provide no appropriations for the Office of Citizenship, and language in the bill prohibits spending for immigrant integration grants. Advocates argue that cutting integration integration programs hurts all of us.

E-VERIFY. DHS has launched the new E-Verify Self-Check program, allowing individuals to check their immigration status online. In an effort to improve the accuracy of data employers use to confirm a person can legally work here, the self-check capability is available in 5 states – Arizona, Idaho, Colorado, Mississippi and Virginia, and the District of Columbia – and is expected to go nationwide within a year.

Although the program is 96% accurate, foreign born workers particularly are 20 times more likely to be flagged as not authorized to work. Advocates argue that the E-Verify Self-Check is not a cure-all, and that overall E-Verify is not ready to be made mandatory.

SAME SEX BI-NATIONAL COUPLES. The Obama Administration reneged on its announcement that it will allow LGBT bi-national couples to apply for green cards while courts consider the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Nationwide, 36,000 couples would be able to benefit from this change in policy, if it were to go into effect. Immigration Equality is currently preparing a federal court case on behalf of lesbian and gay Americans and their foreign spouses.

In addition, for the first time, a U.S. judge has suspended the deportation of the foreign-born same-sex spouse of a U.S. citizen.  This action comes amid ongoing challenges to DOMA, which bans the federal government from recognizing marriages between same sex couples.

EARTHQUAKE IN JAPAN. USCIS has advised Japanese and other foreign nationals from the Pacific who have exceeded or are about to exceed their authorized stay in the U.S. and are stranded in the U.S. due to the earthquakes and tsunami devastation in the Pacific, that they have an additional 30 days to depart. USCIS has also offered other forms of temporary relief.

UNDOCUMENTED STUDENTS. Maryland and Oregon are considering laws providing for in-state college tuition for undocumented immigrants.

PASSPORTS. The U.S. Department of State has proposed a new biographical questionnaire for passport applicants, which includes: What was the address you lived at when you were two? What’s the phone number of the first job you even had? Do you remember the address of your primary school?

MUSLIM “RADICALIZATION”. Rep. King (R-IA), chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, recently held a hearing on “Muslim radicalization,” alleging that Al Qaeda is targeting American Muslims for recruits to terrorism. Denounced by the Congressional Tri-Caucus as well as other advocates, the hearing has been criticized as a witch hunt and contributing to the rise of Islamophobia.

IMMIGRANT YOUTH. Certain persons who applied for Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) classification on or after May 13, 2005 and whose petitions were denied or revoked may be eligible to file a motion to reopen the denied SIJ petition, under a settlement agreement for the case, Perez-Olano v. Holder.

HUMAN TRAFFICKING.  As part of DHS’s Blue Campaign to combat human trafficking, USCIS will permit victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation and others who have filed civil action against their employer and held A-3 and G-5 visas to remain and work legally in the U.S. while their civil cases are pending.

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WATCH OUT FOR:

H.R.282: Requiring federal contractors to participate in the E-Verify program. (Gallegly (R-CA), 10 co-sponsors)
H.R.98: Illegal Immigration Enforcement and Social Security Protection Act of 2011 (Dreier (R-CA), 11 co-sponsors)
H.R.140: Birthright Citizenship Act of 2011 (King (R-IA), 71 co-sponsors)

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This Month in Immigration

By cchoi | Published: March 1, 2011

FEDERAL BUDGET. President Obama’s proposed FY 2012 budget for DHS illustrates conflicting priorities when it comes to immigration. On the one hand, the budget increases funding for immigrant integration, alternatives to detention, and civil-liberties oversight of enforcement programs. On the other hand, these increases are dwarfed by the size of the budget for border and interior immigration enforcement, with a focus on expanding Form I-9 audits and strengthening E-Verify.

ARIZONA. The Arizona Senate Appropriations Committee has approved a sweeping bill that targets undocumented immigrants in public housing, public benefits, and the workplace. The Committee has also approved a bill that would deny birthright citizenship to the children of undocumented immigrants. This measure was endorsed by Sen. Russell Pearce (R-AZ) who authored the controversial immigration bill SB 1070 last year.

Arizona Governor Brewer has also announced that Arizona will introduce several counterclaims against the U.S. government in the ongoing litigation over SB 1070. APALC argued that Arizona’s counterclaims are a political stunt designed to distract from the reality that SB 1070’s attempt to mandate racial profiling is unconstitutional.

IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT. All counties in California are now hooked up to Secure Communities (S-Comm), a controversial ICE immigration enforcement program that checks the fingerprints of all booked into local jails and prisons. In the past month alone, ICE has arrested 65,000 undocumented immigrants identified through Secure Communities.

Moreover, internal documents released as a result of a lawsuit against DHS by immigration advocates, revealed an agency at odds over how to handle criticism of S-Comm without running afoul of constitutional limits on what the federal government can demand of local jurisdictions.

SAME-SEX COUPLES AND IMMIGRATION. The Obama Administration has announced that it will stop defending the discriminatory federal “Defense of Marriage Act” (DOMA) in court – specifically, the section that denies federal benefits to married same-sex couples. DOMA keeps these couples from getting immigration rights, family and medical leave, Social Security survivors’ benefits, and joint tax filing, among many other benefits.

In other news, as of February 9, foreign diplomats posted to the U.S. can now attain a special visa for their same-sex partner. This temporary J-1 visa will allow their partner to live and work here legally. Gay and lesbian citizens outside of the State Department deem the policy unfair and continue to fight for the right to petition for their immigrant spouses or partners.

STATE VS. FEDERAL. Although several states have continued to pass anti-immigrant legislation this year, some states have said “no” to harmful immigration enforcement laws. States like Virginia, South Dakota and New Hampshire have rejected a host of enforcement measures targeting undocumented immigrations, while states like Oregon, Colorado and Maryland have introduced more progressive legislation.

IMMIGRANT WORKERS. ICE has served 1,000 Notices of Inspection (NOIs) to worksites around the U.S. beginning February 16. Although it has turned away from workplace raids to focus on employer compliance and higher administrative fines, ICE shows that it will continue to ramp up enforcement of immigration laws at the workplace.

E-VERIFY. On March 18, DHS will launch its E-Verify Self-Check program, where any individual who wants to check his own work authorization status prior to employment and facilitate correction of potential errors in federal databases. Although advocates believe that it is a fundamental privacy principle that individuals should have access to information about them in order to assure that information is complete and correct, some warn that if employers were to impose a self-check requirement – effectively serving as an E-Verify pre-screening tool – they would shift the cost from the employer to the employee. This would undermine the anti-discrimination provisions built into the system to ensure that authorized workers are able to contest red flags and document their eligibility to work.

DISAGGREGATED DATA. APALC has co-sponsored a bill that would break down state-collected data to help identify the unique needs of API communities. AB 1088, unveiled by  Assemblymember Mike Eng (D-Monterey Park) as part of his 2011 legislative package, would ensure that state-collected health, social services, labor  and civil rights data is disaggregated into API ethnic groups and also made publicly accessible.

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WATCH OUT FOR:

H.R.282: Requiring federal contractors to participate in the E-Verify program. (Gallegly (R-CA), 9 co-sponsors)

H.R.98: Illegal Immigration Enforcement and Social Security Protection Act of 2011 (Dreier (R-CA), 10 co-sponsors)

H.R.140: Birthright Citizenship Act of 2011 (King (R-IA), 66 co-sponsors)

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This Month in Immigration

By cchoi | Published: January 31, 2011

ARIZONA. Following the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and others in Tucson, AZ, there has been much national reflection on the more polarized and vitriolic tone of present politics, particularly the rhetoric surrounding the debate on immigration. Immigration has served as a caustic backdrop in the shooting, as Giffords was a leading voice in the immigration debate.

However, following a week’s postponement of Congress’s legislative agenda, Republicans moved forward with their agenda, starting with a Congressional hearing on worksite enforcement. They have stepped up their scrutiny of immigrant workers, where E-Verify will probably be at the heart of the first fight in the 112th Congress over immigration. The program is slated to expire in 2012.

IMMIGRATION REFORM. Despite predictions that Rep. Steve King (R-IA) would become Chair of the House Immigration Subcommittee, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) has surprisingly chosen Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-CA). In practice, Gallegly does not differ substantially with King on immigration, describing himself as one of the “top 10 illegal immigration hawks in Congress.”

In one of his first acts of the year, Smith changed the name of the Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security and International Law to the Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement, reflecting the new priorities of the Committee.

Meanwhile, President Obama has also renewed his push for comprehensive immigration reform in 2011 — even though such an effort would face even longer odds in a Congress where Republicans control the House.

Sen. Menendez (D-NJ) is looking to work with Sen. Graham (R-SC) on a bipartisan immigration reform bill during the upcoming session of Congress. Senate Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) has signaled that immigration reform is still on the Senate’s agenda.

FEDERAL VS. LOCAL. The political battle on immigration has shifted to the local level this year, as legislators in several states are proposing or will propose bills similar to SB 1070, even though a federal court has suspended central provisions of that law. Among the states are Georgia, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and South Carolina.

The efforts, led by Republicans, are part of a wave of state measures coming this year aimed at cracking down on immigrants, including measures to limit access to public colleges and other benefits for undocumented immigrants and to punish employers who hire them.

A new report shows that these harsh anti-immigrant laws enacted in communities across the country have burdened taxpayers with millions in legal expenses, inflamed racial tensions and devastated businesses.

At the federal level, most of the bills filed in the new Congress are aimed at cracking down on all immigrants. For example, Rep. Issa (R-CA) wants to eliminate the visa lottery. Rep. Blackburn (R-TN) proposed building 20 federal prisons to house illegal immigrants. Rep. Jackson-Lee (D-TX) wants to add 1,500 federal agents, 100 helicopters and 250 power boats to patrol the Southwest border.

BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP. In a press conference earlier this month, legislators from at least 5 states announced an effort to cancel the automatic citizenship (aka “birthright citizenship”) for children born in the U.S. to undocumented parents. Legal experts say it is a long shot to actually unravel the longstanding constitutional tenet that nearly all children born on U.S. soil are automatic citizens, but the legislators hope to force federal courts to consider this issue. Rep. King (IA) has already unveiled such a bill at the federal level. Sens. Vitter (R-LA) and Paul (R-KY) introduced a resolution to amend the U.S. Constitution so that those born on U.S. soil do not automatically have U.S. citizenship.

For APIs, this issue holds special significance, where in 1898, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that children born to Chinese migrants – who were themselves barred by exclusionary racial laws from becoming citizens – were U.S. citizens since they were born on U.S. soil. Repeated challenges to the 14th Amendment, several civil rights experts said, had questioned the legitimacy of Chinese American, Japanese American, and African American citizens. Each time, the challenge was refuted.

With regards to immigrant rights groups, with Republicans in control of the political game, immigration activists have had to move quickly from offense to defense. In response, immigrant rights groups have created a coalition to defend current citizenship laws. The newly formed Americans for Constitutional Citizenship includes the Asian American Justice Center and the ACLU.

DUE PROCESS. The U.S. Court of Appeals for Ninth Circuit has held, in Sazar Dent v. Holder, that a person in removal/deportation proceedings has a right to receive a copy of his administrative file.

IMMIGRANT WORKERS. ICE Director Morton has announced the creation of an employment compliance inspection center, where 15 auditors will help expedite Form I-9 audits of businesses selected for inspection by ICE. From FY2009 to date, ICE has initiated Form I-9 inspections against 3,769 businesses across the nation.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced its latest round of employer settlement agreements to resolve allegations of unlawful discrimination during the I-9 process. As with other recent settlement agreements, the DOJ found that the employers imposed unnecessary and discriminatory requirements on green card holders by improperly requesting a specific document to establish work authorization and refusing employment despite evidence of the employees’ valid documents.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) also recently released a report showing that E-Verify is not yet ready to be made mandatory nationwide. According to GAO, risks posed by mandatory E-Verify range from encouraging employers to skirt the rules to job losses for native born and immigrant work-authorized people alike, asserting that “significant challenges remain.” Were E-Verify to become mandatory, it would amount to 180,000 wrongly flagged people a year.

FAMILY-BASED IMMIGRATION. In February, like January, priority dates for family preference immigrant visas have retrogressed, where some applicants who were expecting to be able to have a current priority date and file applications to adjust their status may have to delay their applications. Applicants most severely affected this month are those in the 4th preference category (brothers and sisters of adult U.S. citizens), where visa numbers are available for persons whose petitions were filed before January 1, 2000, other than citizens of the Philippines (January 15, 1988) and Mexico. This represents the most substantial regression from the January dates, which are at January, 2002. Continued heavy demand for numbers in the 4th preference category (brothers and sisters) has required the retrogression of the Worldwide, China-mainland born, and India cut-off date for the month of February.

CALIFORNIA BUDGET.  Governor Brown recently announced his plan to address a $25.4 billion gap in the state budget for FY2011-2012. Part of his plan includes rolling back critical assistance for health care, child care and other social services to Medi-Cal, CalWORKS, and SSI recipients.

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WATCH OUT FOR:

  • H.R.282: To require Federal contractors to participate in the E-Verify Program for employment eligibility verification. (Gallegly (R-CA), 8 co-sponsors)
  • H.R.98: Illegal Immigration Enforcement and Social Security Protection Act of 2011 (Dreier (R-CA), 8 co-sponsors)
  • H.R.140: Birthright Citizenship Act of 2011 (King (R-IA), 45 co-sponsors)
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This Month in Immigration

By cchoi | Published: December 30, 2010

IMMIGRATION POLICY. Rep. Steve King (R-IA), who is expected to lead the House Immigration Subcommittee, recently outlined his immigration plans for 2011. Some of his priorities are:

  • Cancelling employers’ tax deductions for wages of workers who are undocumented immigrants
  • Requiring the Internal Revenue Service to share information with the DHS and the Social Security Administration about the immigration status of worker
  • Conducting a review of the Obama administration’s spending on border enforcement, and perhaps seeking new construction of physical fence barriers

FAMILY-BASED IMMIGRATION. Several family preference category cut-off dates have retrogressed for January 2011. Beginning in January 1, the 1st preference category (unmarried sons and daughters of U.S. citizens) will go from a 5-year to a 6-year wait. The story is much worse in the 2A category (spouses and children of green card holders), where the wait expands from 4 months to 3 years. In the 2B category (adult sons and daughters of green card holders), the wait increases from 5 1/2 to nearly 8 years. For married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens (3rd preference category) does the wait remain roughly the same: 9 years.

IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT. A federal judge has ordered ICE to release documents related to the possibility for localities to opt out of Secure Communities (S-Comm) by January 17, 2011, or explain why they must be withheld.

Recently, Washington state declined to sign an agreement with ICE to implement S-Comm, and another city in California – Berkeley, CA – requested to opt out of the program.

IMMIGRATION DETENTION. ICE has agreed to expand medical care at a San Diego detention facility to settle a lawsuit claiming inadequate treatment for immigrants facing deportation. The ACLU had sued ICE in June 2007 alleging that immigrants were subjected to long waits for treatment, denied services and refused medication, sometimes with deadly consequences.

CIVIL RIGHTS. A federal judge has ruled that ICE officials may be sued for civil rights violations, a precedent-setting victory for immigrants. This means that ICE, as a law enforcement agency, is subject to the same measures of constitutional accountability as other agencies.

E-VERIFY. The U.S. Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments for the case, U.S. Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting. The issue at hand is whether an Arizona statute that imposes sanctions on employers who hire undocumented immigrants and imposes a mandatory E-Verify system is preempted by federal law.

FEE WAIVER. USCIS has introduced the first-ever standardized fee waiver form. Form I-912 first became available for use on Nov. 23, 2010 – the same day USCIS’s latest fee schedule took effect.

ASYLUM. DHS has rejected a petition submitted by about 30 immigrant and human rights organizations asking the government to issue regulations favoring the release of detained asylum seekers. The petition requested the government to create enforceable rules establishing a presumption that any asylum seeker who passes a “credible fear” interview with an asylum officer and has no criminal history should be released from immigration detention. Advocates instead argue that immigration judges should have the authority to release asylum seekers from detention, allowing them better access to the lawyers, documentation, and information they need for a meaningful day in court.

9/11 HEALTH BILL. Recently, Congress passed the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act (“9/11 Health Bill”), which would help people who became sick after working in the World Trade Center dust created by 9/11. However, immigration advocates are concerned about the manner by which the bill intends to pay for the program, where a significant portion of the costs would be paid for by imposing fees on immigration services, such as extending fees for certain H and L visa filings. The 9/11 Health bill is not related to immigration, and according to advocates, sets a dangerous precedent of placing the fiscal burden for government programs on immigration fees.

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This Week in Immigration

By cchoi | Published: November 19, 2010

UNDOCUMENTED STUDENTS. Earlier this week, the California Supreme Court upheld California law AB 540 in the case, Martinez v. UC Regents. AB 540 is a state law that allows both documented and undocumented students to attend California’s colleges and universities and pay in-state tuition rates. The Martinez case is important for the API community. In the UC system alone, API undergraduates make up 40-44% of undocumented AB 540 students, constituting the second largest group of undocumented students in the UC.

Last September, APALC and the Asian Law Caucus, along with a coalition of nearly 80 API civil rights, legal, social service, and community organizations, filed an amicus (“friend of the court”) brief with the Court supporting AB 540.

At the federal level, members of Congress and the President are also preparing to introduce the Dream Act in the lame duck session. In a meeting with Democratic members of Congress, President Obama stated that he wants the DREAM Act passed in the lame duck session as a “down payment” on substantial immigration reform. House Speaker Pelosi (D-CA) has tentatively set November 29 for a vote on the Dream Act.

At the local level, calls asking Sen. Feinstein (D-CA) to block Steve Li’s deportation were answered. Feinstein has asked immigration authorities to halt the Bay Area student’s deportation while she considers introducing a bill that would allow him to stay in the U.S. temporarily.

IMMIGRATION REFORM. With Republicans in power in the House, several immigrant rights advocates are concerned that anti-immigrant legislation will dominate the immigration field in the next 2 years.

However, New Mexico Governor Richardson believes that the new Congress has a better chance at enacting comprehensive immigration reform than the current Democrat-controlled Congress. “It’s going to have to not be the ‘Party of No,’ ” he said of the Republicans, adding that immigration reform is ripe for a bipartisan accord.

WHITE HOUSE AAPI INITIATIVE. Last month, White House Initiative Executive Director Kiran Ahuja and Commissioner Sefa Aina convened community roundtables in Long Beach and Los Angeles. About 100 community leaders from 60 organizations, along with regional federal agency officials, discussed issues facing AAPIs in Southern California. Community leaders provided a broad range of recommendations. The next roundtable will be held in the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Area in January 2011.

LANGUAGE ACCESS. The California State Auditor’s Office released a report yesterday on the Dymally-Alatorre Bilingual Services Act, a 37-year-old California law requiring certain government agencies to provide language assistance for limited English proficient (LEP) Californians.  The Act requires both state and local governments to employ bilingual staff and translate written materials when a substantial number of non-English speaking people are served by a particular government agency. Unfortunately, the audit showed that LEP Californians are being denied the right to equal access to government services based of language barriers.

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Presently, CIR ASAP has 103 co-sponsors in the House.

CIR Act of 2010 has 2 co-sponsors in the Senate.

Reuniting Families Act has 5 cosponsors in the Senate and 81 in the House.

DREAM Act has 40 cosponsors in the Senate and 134 in the House.

SUCCESS Act has 21 co-sponsors in the House.

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This Week in Immigration

By cchoi | Published: November 12, 2010

LAME DUCK SESSION. Both House Speaker Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) want to push a vote during the lame-duck session on the Dream Act, which would provide a path to citizenship for undocumented students. The Democratic leadership is still considering how to take up the bill, whether as a stand-alone bill or using other options.

As to the future of immigration reform, an exit poll question administered by Edison Research after the election asking whether undocumented immigrants should be offered the chance to chance to apply for citizenship or be deported, voters by a 65% to 25% margin replied in California they should be offered a chance to apply for citizenship.

IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT. Officials from San Francisco, Santa Clara and Arlington, VA met with ICE officials to see whether they could opt out of the controversial Secure Communities program (S-Comm). During the meetings, ICE said that the municipalities did not have this option.

Earlier this week, APALC and the Asian Law Caucus co-authored a piece in the Daily Journal that talked about the confusing opt-out process, and how S-Comm has been detrimental towards ensuring community safety.

DEPORTATION. A new report shows that a significant and increasing proportion of cases in which ICE has sought to remove individuals from the U.S. are being rejected by the Immigration Courts. During the last three months of FY 2010, the rejection rate of ICE requests for removal (deportation) was nearly 31%.  For all of FY 2010, some courts turned down ICE removal requests more than half of the time. Among them were the Immigration Courts in Los Angeles (63% turned down). This raises questions: 1) is ICE targeting the individuals for removal who in fact should be deported?, and 2) what is the impact on those individuals the agency has wrongly sought to remove who were entitled to remain in the U.S.?

TRANSPORTATION. Last month, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials told Sikh representatives that Sikhs should now expect turbans to always be searched at U.S. airports. While procedures allowing Sikhs to pat down their own turbans and have their hands swabbed by a TSA screener remains in place, what has changed is that Sikhs must go through an additional hand wand of the turban as an additional screening procedure 100% of the time. This is true even for Sikh travelers who voluntarily choose to be screened by going through the new Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) machines.

E-VERIFY. DHS Secretary Napolitano and USCIS Director Mayorkas have announced the expansion of the E-Verify program’s capabilities to include U.S. passport photo matching.

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Presently, CIR ASAP has 103 co-sponsors in the House.

CIR Act of 2010 has 1 co-sponsor in the Senate.

Reuniting Families Act has 5 cosponsors in the Senate and 81 in the House.

DREAM Act has 40 cosponsors in the Senate and 131 in the House.

SUCCESS Act has 21 co-sponsors in the House.

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This Week in Immigration

By ssadhwani | Published: September 17, 2010

DREAM ACT AND IMMIGRATION REFORM. Next week the Senate is set to consider the $725-billion Defense Authorization bill, and with it, Senate Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) has announced that he will offer the Dream Act as an amendment, a popular bipartisan component of comprehensive immigration reform (CIR). The DREAM Act provides a path to citizenship for immigrant youth who plan to go to college or join the military. The defense authorization bill already faces Republican opposition for including a repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays and lesbians in the military.

There are an estimated 65,000 students who graduate from high school every year without legal immigration status, including many APIs. In the UC system alone, about 40-44% of all undocumented undergraduates are API.

President Obama has also promised to push the Dream Act. Following a speech at a Hispanic awards dinner, where he urged Latinos not to punish Democrats at the polls for being unable to achieve CIR, Obama met with Reps. Gutierrez (D-IL) and Velazquez (D-NY) and Sen. Menendez (D-NJ) at the White House, where he reiterated his commitment to work in a bipartisan manner to pass CIR.

Sen. Menendez announced his intent to introduce a CIR bill in the coming weeks. The bill is expected to be introduced this month and will flesh out a blueprint for immigration reform that Senate Democratic leaders outlined this year. Menendez said he would be interested in trying to pass the bill during the lame-duck session.

Meanwhile, advocates staged a surprise “pray-in” in the offices of 5 key Republican Senators – Senate Minority Leader McConnell (KY) and Sens. McCain (AZ), Graham (SC), Hatch (UT) and LeMieux (FL) – on Wednesday afternoon to try to reignite some of their past support for reforms.

IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT. Sen. Kerry (D-MA) has pitched a softer approach to immigration raids, introducing a bill that would require federal authorities to take a more humane approach when enforcing immigration laws. The “Families First Immigration Enforcement Act of 2010″ calls for ICE officials to give state agencies advanced notice before an immigration raid so they can provide translators for the detainees, to check detainees to see if any should be released on the grounds that they are too sick, too old, pregnant or nursing, or fall under other vulnerable groups, and to detain immigrants near their local ICE office – space permitting – to prevent them from being sent hundreds of miles away from their families.

LOCAL ANTI-IMMIGRANT LAWS. The U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals has unanimously ruled that a city may not punish employers who hire undocumented immigrants or landlords who rent to them, asserting that immigration is “clearly within the exclusive domain of the federal government.” The decision strikes down an anti-immigrant ordinance adopted four years ago in Hazleton, PA, that inspired a wave of similar measures elsewhere, including in Arizona. Along with numerous civil rights, religious, labor and business organizations, APALC filed a friend of the court brief opposing the Hazleton law.

The court cited 11 states and several municipalities, including two in California – Mission Viejo and Escondido. Most of these measures have been prevented from taking effect. The mayor of Hazleton, Lou Barletta, has pledged to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

ADVISORY COMMISSION ON AAPIS. 2 Californians have recently joined President Obama’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders: Sefa Aina and Dr. Khampha Thephavong. Aina is the current Director of the Asian American Resource Center (AARC) at Pomona College, and founding member of the National Pacific Islander Educators Network (NPIEN) and Empowering Pacific Islander Communities (EPIC). Dr. Khampha Thephavong is currently a primary care physician at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Fresno, California, and board member of the Lao-American Advancement Center.

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Presently, CIR ASAP has 102 co-sponsors in the House.

Reuniting Families Act has 5 cosponsors in the Senate and 81 in the House.

DREAM Act has 40 cosponsors in the Senate and 128 in the House.

SUCCESS Act has 21 co-sponsors in the House.

Posted in Immigration Reform, Recent Activity | Tagged , , , | Comments closed

This Week in Immigration

By ssadhwani | Published: September 9, 2010

TRAFFICKING. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has indicted 6 individuals for their roles in a human trafficking scheme that victimized Thai nationals. These 6 labor contractors from a Los Angeles manpower company imposed forced labor on some 400 Thai farm workers, in what the DOJ calls the biggest human-trafficking case ever brought by federal authorities.

This case is similar to APALC’s El Monte Thai garment worker case, where APALC successfully fought for a $4-million settlement from manufacturers and retailers for their exploitation and won an uphill battle to gain legal status for the Thai workers.

IMMIGRANT INTEGRATION. A common refrain among anti-immigrant activists is that today’s immigrants are not “assimilating” into U.S. society. However, a new report shows that the illusion of non-assimilation is created by looking only at newcomers who have not had time yet to assimilate as fully as earlier arrivers. Rather, the longer immigrants are here, the more they advance and the better they are integrated into our society.

BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP. A new report shows that repeal of birthright citizenship for the U.S.-born children of unauthorized immigrants would expand the unauthorized population by at least 5 million over the next 4 decades using conservative demographic assumptions.

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Presently, CIR ASAP has 102 co-sponsors in the House.

Reuniting Families Act has 5 cosponsors in the Senate and 81 in the House.

DREAM Act has 40 cosponsors in the Senate and 128 in the House.

SUCCESS Act has 21 co-sponsors in the House.

Posted in Immigration Reform, Recent Activity | Tagged , , | Comments closed

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