Immigration News Weekly

State Department Gets 6.4 Million Entries For 2008 Visa Lottery
 

News Blaze, December 23. More than 6.4 million entries have been received for the 2008 Diversity Visa Lottery, the State Department announced December 15.
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Diversity Visa Lottery Sees Increase
 

Hardbeatnews, December 19. Applicants to the recently-concluded 2008 Diversity Visa or "greencard" lottery increased by 900,000 compared to the 2007 period.
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Belize’s LA Office To Offer Greencard Lottery Advise
 

HardBeatNews.com, November 20. The Consulate General of Belize in Los Angeles will hold three more session to assist Belizeans and other Caribbean nationals locally with the application process for the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program DV-2008.
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Residency Lottery Promotes Diversity
 

JournalStar.com, November 20. Shin Fukui looks straight at the camera, waiting for his picture to be taken. “Your eyes were closed,” Sergei Nosov tells Fukui as he reviews the image. They prepare to do it again, Nosov telling Fukui to look above the flash this time.
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Ghanaians In Marriage Of Convenience — For US Visa
 

Graphic Ghana, November 21. Ghanaians are entering into fraudulent marriages to benefit from the United States (US) Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery Programme. The Embassy of the US in Accra is, therefore, working with the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) to identify and arrest culprits. A Vice-Consul of the Embassy, Mr Michael W. Gray, at a press conference in Accra , said fraud by Ghanaians in relation to the programme made it difficult for legitimate people to get the visas.
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Visa Lottery Deadline Approaches
 

El Diario, November 19. Immigrants, and people who want to immigrate to the United States, have less than two weeks to apply for the Diversity Immigrant Visa Lottery.
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Signs of Hope on Immigration
 

New York Times, November 20. Opinion. The political earthquake in Washington has knocked loose some of the big obstacles to fixing the immigration system. A decent solution is now there for the taking, if President Bush and the newly Democratic Congress are willing to grab it.
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Iran Fingerprints US Visitors
 

Aljazerra.com, November 19. According to a bill recently approved by the Iranian parliament, digital fingerprinting will from now on be applied on all U.S. citizens who seek to enter Iran, AFP reported.
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Experts Say Immigration Bill Will Not Be Dems’ Top Priority
 

Daily Dispatch, November 18. It doesn't appear the Democrats will make immigration reform a top priority when they take over the Congress in January. And if a package of reforms is not started within six to eight months of the 110th Congress' start, the issue will be dead until after the 2008 presidential election.
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Breaking The Wall On Immigration Reform
 

Washington Post, Novermber 17. One of the quick and easy conclusions drawn from the Republican defeat in last week's midterm elections is that immigration as an issue failed to galvanize voters. It was "the dog that didn't bark," immigration advocates quipped, or, as The Wall Street Journal put it, the "fool's gold of American politics." Few races were decided because of what candidates did or failed to do on immigration.
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Scott Stroud: Latino Backlash Against GOP Immigration Policy A Gift To Demos
 

MySanAntonio.com, November 17. Republican efforts to placate anti-immigration voters by calling for enforcement-only laws, including a 700-mile border fence, appear to have backfired. They also offer newly empowered Democrats with a gift-wrapped opportunity to press their advantage. An exit poll of 1,215 Latino voters in eight states, including Texas, showed that in the midterm elections, 66.6 percent of Latino voters supported Democrats in congressional elections this year, while 28.7 percent supported Republicans.
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An Insider Look on How To Get A US Visa: Student Intern Reveals All
 

Asian Tribune, November 17. For many people, getting a US visa, whether a non immigrant student visa or an immigrant visa more commonly known as the 'green card' is a dream come true. Whether a student or a family member waiting to join loved ones in the United States, many people attempt to enter the United States legally through one form of visa or another. One way to accomplish this is through the Diversity Lottery, wherein only 55,000 visas for permanent residency are allocated to new immigrants. The US Department of Homeland Security randomly selects 110,000 applicants to fill up the 55,000 visa quota.
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Jailing Of Clerics Angers Muslims
 

Boston Globe, November 17. Muslim leaders in the Boston area expressed outrage yesterday over the arrest and jailing of two senior clerics in an alleged scheme that provided religious-worker visas to immigrants who used them for secular jobs. Federal immigration agents on Wednesday arrested Hafiz Abdul Hannan , the leader of the Islamic Society of Greater Lowell in Chelmsford, and Muhammed Masood , the leader of the Islamic Center of New England in Sharon, along with 31 other people nationwide.
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Foreign Students Returning To U.S.
 

Washington Times, November 16. American universities are gradually regaining international students after experiencing drops following September 11, with the numbers of newly enrolled international students increasing nearly 8 percent, according to the Institute of International Education's annual report. The report said that during 2005 and 2006, the number of new students was 142,923, increasing about 7.7 percent from 131,945 the previous school year. The total number of international students -- including those already enrolled -- was 564,766.
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Study Calls For Relaxing Legal Immigration Quotas
 

Contra Costa Times, November 16. Illegal immigration has been a hot topic in Washington this year, but after last week's elections, the venture capital industry is hoping to steer the conversation instead to legal immigration. The reason: They argue that lawmakers who have pushed for tighter immigration controls risk hampering both the high-tech industry and the overall economy. 'Roughly 50 percent of our portfolio companies were started by foreign-born entrepreneurs,' said venture capitalist Roger Lee of Battery Ventures on Sand Hill Road, a self-described 'staunch supporter of more open borders.'
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More International Students Enrolling At Utah Universities
 

Salt Lake Tribune, November 15. Hamida al-Masudi had to fly from her hometown of Babylon, Iraq, to Amman, Jordan, three times to secure her student visa to study political science at the University of Utah. While the four-hour interrogation Iraqi citizens must go through to get into Jordan was frustrating, it wasn't nearly as frustrating as the visa application process. The three trips spanning two months were necessary because she had to do everything in person at a U.S. embassy. Even with all the miles logged, the 30-year-old al-Masudi nearly missed the deadline for showing up to class in January.
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Move Brings New Career
 

IndyStar.com, November 15. When Tatiana Melnichak came to Indiana from Belarus five years ago, she came with no money, no knowledge of the English language, a husband, their 5-year-old son and mixed feelings. On one hand, she was scared of the unknown. She had no family in the United States and no inkling of the country's geography. On the other hand, the move represented a new adventure: a chance to experience the American lifestyle. Melnichak will discuss her journey to Indiana and how she copes as an immigrant Friday at an Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, event, "Immigration in Indiana: Real Life Diversity."
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US Warns Nigerians On Visa Lottery Programme
 

Nigerian Tribune, November 14. The United States government has restated that its diversity immigrant visa application is free. The American government also warned Nigerian applicants to be wary of fraudulent websites posing as official U.S government sites. In a statement issued by the U.S. embassy in Abuja yesterday, it was made known that some companies are now posing as the U.S government to get money from applicants in order to assist them to complete lottery entry forms.
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Tech Asks Departing Republicans For Favors
 

CNet News, November 14. As Republican politicians return this week to Washington for the waning days of their rule of Capitol Hill, technology lobbyists are frantically pressing for last-minute legislation before Democrats take over next year. At issue are proposals including renewing a popular tax credit for research and development expenses and expanding the number of H1-B visas, which are temporary visas designed for skilled foreign workers. Many spending bills to fund the federal government through the next year have yet to be considered, and the final versions could include antipiracy measures and Web censorship requirements.
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The Virus That Ate DHS
 

Wired News, November 2. A Morocco-born computer virus that crashed the Department of Homeland Security's US-VISIT border screening system last year first passed though the backbone network of the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement bureau, according to newly released documents on the incident. The documents were released by court order, following a yearlong battle by Wired News to obtain the pages under the Freedom of Information Act. They provide the first official acknowledgement that DHS erred by deliberately leaving more than 1,300 sensitive US-VISIT workstations vulnerable to attack, even as it mounted an all-out effort to patch routine desktop computers against the virulent Zotob worm.
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McCain Discusses Immigration Policy In Sioux City
 

Sioux City Journal, October 23. U.S. Sen. John McCain, seen by some as the Republican Party 2008 presidential front-runner, discussed immigration policy during a stop this morning in Sioux City. McCain spoke emphatically about securing the U.S./Mexican border with a fence and technological means, saying that is something Americans expect to have accomplished. "We have to secure our border -- that is our first and foremost priority," he said. McCain demurred on what should be done with the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants now in the nation, saying "I am willing to negotiate anything." He noted speaking with a construction company official at the Clarion Hotel event, who spoke in defense of a temporary worker program.
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Allen, Webb Are Not Spotlighting Their Positions on Immigration
 

Washingtonpost.com, October 21. Millions of protesters took to the streets this year to demand amnesty for unauthorized immigrants. Congress debated immigration bills for months before approving a 700-mile border fence. In several fiercely contested political races nationwide, illegal immigration has taken center stage.
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US Warns, Beware Of ’Green Card’ Scams
 

African News Dimension, October 20. The American Embassy in Dar es Salaam has cautioned visa applicants against companies that claim to offer assistance in obtaining US visas through ’’Green Card’’ visa programme. There are revelations that some fraudulent websites posing as official US government sites have sought money in order to complete lottery entry forms in the green card programme.
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A Twist on the Old Dream: Looking to Ireland for Jobs
 

New York Times, October 20. The jobs fair that Ireland is holding tonight in Midtown Manhattan was envisioned as an invitation home to hard-pressed Irish immigrants living illegally in New York. Instead, to the surprise of organizers, it is mainly American citizens who have shown interest and seem eager for a new career and a new life in Ireland’s booming economy.
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Newt Gingrich Lays Out Immigration Plan
 

Arizona Republic, October 20. Newt Gingrich has his own plan for tackling illegal immigration, an issue that could help decide state and federal election campaigns in Arizona and across the nation. The former U.S. House speaker from Georgia who engineered the 1994 Republican takeover of both the House and Senate, spoke Thursday at a $250-a-plate luncheon fund-raiser for U.S. Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz., at the Westin Kierland Resort & Spa. Hayworth faces Democrat Harry Mitchell and Libertarian Warren Severin for the Congressional District 5 House seat in the Nov. 7 general election.
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Quick-Scan Passport Cards Proposed For Some Hemisphere Travel
 

GovExec.com, October 18. The State Department on Tuesday proposed that Americans traveling frequently between the United States and Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean, use passport cards that can be easily scanned to help quicken the pace of travel and trade. The cards could contain Radio Frequency Identification chips readable from up to 20 feet away, the proposal, published in the Federal Register, said. Such cards could be distributed and put into use as early as January 2008, the notice said. The cards would 'assist [the Homeland Security Department] in expediting the movement of legitimate travel within the Western Hemisphere,' because machines could read them from a distance, the proposal stated.
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Live In The U.S.; Bahamians Can Enter Lottery For U.S. Green Card On-Line
 

The Freeport News, October 18. As of today, the opportunity for Bahamians interested in living and working permanently in the United States will come again with the launching of the Diversity Visa programme promoted by the U.S. Embassy in The Bahamas. According to Virginia Sher Ramadan, the new U. S. counsul general to The Bahamas and Turks and Caicos, every year the United States gives by way of a 'lottery' about 50,000 visas worldwide. She said the lottery for 2008 has begun and on-line applications are now being accepted until December 3. She advised that the only way for interested individuals to apply is on-line at www.dvlottery.state.gov.
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Suit Seeks Data on Immigration Profiling of Arabs
 

New York Time, October 18. In an effort to establish whether the government is using prohibited profiling methods against Arab-Americans and Muslims, a civil rights group filed a suit yesterday against the Homeland Security Department and one of its branches, Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
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Chertoff Urges Latin America To Back Passport Rules
 

The National Journal, October 17. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff on Tuesday pleaded with Latin American business leaders to support increased security measures and not to block U.S. efforts to issue new passports, strengthen border controls and otherwise bolster protections.
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U.S. Visa Lottery Fever
 

PhmyNews, October 17. The United States is a dreamland for people from developing countries and many other people around the globe. In Nepal every youth dreams of the U.S. even though it's hard to get a visa. There are many ways to get a U.S. visa but the Diversity Visa (DV) Program is one of the most popular of them all.
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West Africa: US Consulate Counsels Visa Lottery Applicants
 

United States Consulate in Lagos has urged Nigerians to carefully fill the 2007 Diversity Visa Lottery forms to ensure higher success and selection rates. During a chat with newsmen at the Consulate Public Affairs section yesterday in Lagos consulate officers, Amy Lillis and Hannah Cheves said applicants should take time to study the instructions as the United States government wanted as many eligible candidates as possible to win.
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Americans Moving to Baja
 

Chicago Tribune, October 15. Every weekend, Carmen Tetelboin joins the Baja boom. After work on Fridays, the Los Angeles resident drives four hours across the border to Baja California, where life is so good and living so cheap, it beats the other California, she contends. Owning a condo on the coast, she and her husband are part of an American colony exploding during the past five years along 75 miles of pristine beaches, cliffs and towns south of Tijuana. What's drawing them are oceanfront homes at a fraction of the multimillion-dollar prices on the U.S. side.
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Some In House Vow Tough Immigration Bills
 

Texas Star-Telegram, October 14. Banning illegal immigrants from state-funded prenatal care and denying U.S. citizenship to their children who are born in the U.S. are part of an agenda some state Republicans are promising for the upcoming Legislature. A handful of Texas House members said this week that they intend to file bills that would deny job opportunities and government services to illegal immigrants. Other likely bills would scrap in-state tuition and tax the money that is wired to Latin America.
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Waiting List Long For Legal Immigration
 

Chicago Tribune, October 13. Teodora Unlayao was a 34-year-old single woman when she applied in the Philippines for a legal U.S. visa to reunite with her sister in Glenview. Now the mother of a college student, Unlayao is almost 58. And she is still waiting. Though she is eligible to immigrate to the U.S., only a limited number of Filipinos are admitted to rejoin their families each year. Immigration demand worldwide is at least triple the supply, and the odds are much worse for Unlayao because she hails from a high-immigrant country.
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U.S. Embassy Warns Against Diversity Of Visa Scams
 

ofw.balita.ph, October 12. The United States Embassy here on Thursday warned the Filipinos against the diversity of visa scams.While there is the 2007 U.S. Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery process that was officially started, Filipino citizens born in the Philippines are not eligible for this program. The U.S. Embassy is over some innocent citizens who might fall prey on unscrupulous persons who are trying to make money by telling their prospective victims that they can help anyone win an immigrant visa in the DV Lottery. The Embassy advised the Filipinos to be cautious when receiving an electronic mail (e-mail), phone calls, or letter from said syndicate.
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Fewer Immigrants Americanizing Their Names
 

New York Times, October 12. To the people who suggest it might be easier if he calls himself Victor, Vartan Zhamkochyan has a simple answer: no way. And though his last name is more of a tongue twister than his first name, that, too, is nonnegotiable. Mr. Zhamkochyan and his wife, Naira Mnatsakanyan, shunned the time-honored immigrant tradition of anglicizing their names when they became United States citizens last month. Both are determined to keep using their full Armenian names, despite the obvious inconveniences.
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DV-2008 Green Card Lottery Q&A
 

ilw.com, October 16. The Department of State annually holds the Diversity Visa program (also known as the Green Card Lottery) where 55,000 green cards are awarded by random computer selection. The next lottery will be the DV-2008 lottery and the entry period will begin in October 2006. As a service to readers of our web site, we are pleased to make available our Lottery FAQ - a detailed question and answer document that provides all of the information needed to enter the lottery.
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Immigration And The Family Left Behind Are The Topic Of PBS Documentary
 

Sun-Sentinel.com, October 11. What happens to the women left behind by husbands and sons who leave to work arduously and illegally in the United States?
Director Heather Courtney set out to answer the question using video letters exchanged between people living on separate sides of the border. The result was her documentary, Letters From the Other Side, which airs on PBS this week.
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Poll: Immigration Not A Top Issue For November Election
 

Whittier Daily News, October 10. While House and Senate Republicans made illegal immigration their top priority before hitting the campaign trail this month, a new Pew Research Center poll finds that most Americans won't be focusing on immigration come Nov. 7. Just 24 percent of voters name immigration as a key election issue, compared with 51 percent who cite Iraq and 37 percent who cite terrorism, according to the poll. 'It matters a great deal to a small minority of voters, but it is not a top-tier issue for a majority of voters,' said Carroll Doherty, Pew's associate director.
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As Numbers Grow, More Area Indians Are Splitting Lives Between Countries
 

Washington Post, October 9. Growing up in the United States, Rajeev Sharma viewed India as a something of a 'backwater.' Now the Rockville resident goes there for business each month, and he feels respect for his birthplace -- and a bit more Indian. When Rahul Ghate arrived from India for graduate school a decade ago, he met few Americans familiar with his culture. Now the Fairfax County technology executive finds that Americans often strike up chats about his country. Things have changed fast for Indians in the Washington region, most strikingly their sheer presence. After doubling in the 1990s, the area's Indian population -- immigrants and Indian Americans -- grew an additional 50 percent in the past five years, from about 70,000 to nearly 107,000. Foreign-born Indians now rival Koreans as the area's most populous immigrant group after Salvadorans. Nationally, the Indian population soared in the past five years from more than 1.6 million to 2.3 million, second only to the Chinese among Asian ethnic groups.
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Some Foreign Students Miss H-1Bs
 

Yale Daily News, October 5. After studying at Yale for four years, Semih Salihoglu '06 was ready to continue his life in the United States as a software engineer for Google in New York City. A Turkish citizen, Salihoglu was a computer science and economics double major and holder of the highest grade-point average in Silliman College after seven terms - an ideal candidate for many jobs in the United States. But his plans were disrupted when he was denied the necessary visa for employment for foreign workers with the equivalent of a bachelor's degree or higher, the H-1B. 'It was shocking because no one thought there was any risk in not getting an H-1B visa,' Salihoglu said.
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Lottery Winners 'Are Assets'
 

Fiji Times, October 3. WINNERS of the Diversity Visa Program, commonly known as the Green Card Lottery, are a tremendous asset to the United States of America, says US Embassy consul Debra Towry.
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Greencard Lottery ‘08 Gets Underway Tomorrow
 

Hardbeatnews.com, October 2. Caribbean and other nationals looking to take a chance on the 2008 Diversity Visa Lottery can begin submitting their applications from noon tomorrow.
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US Visa Lottery Programme Announced
 

The Peninsula, October 3. The US Embassy here has announced the Diversity Visa Lottery Programme (DVLP) for the year 2008. An official press note issued by the Embassy yesterday, said the online entries will be accepted from tomorrow. The Diversity Visa Programme (DVP) is mandated by the US congress and is administered on an annual basis by the US Department of the State. It makes permanent residence visas available to persons meeting the eligibility requirements. The visas are distributed among six geographic regions with a greater number of visas going to regions with lower rates of immigration.
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Senate Approves Fence For Border
 

Washington Times, September 30. The Senate last night gave final approval for construction of 700 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border. The bill passed on an 80-19 vote (see how your senator voted here). One Republican, 17 Democrats and the chamber's lone independent voted against the measure. The bill 'will have a real impact on our homeland security now and is a vital step toward fixing the problem of illegal immigration,' said Majority Whip Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, adding that Congress also has increased the number of Border Patrol agents and detention beds for apprehended illegal aliens.
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US Green Card Lottery (DV-2008) Information
 

Workpermit.com, September 29. The United States Department of State currently is responsible for operating and maintaining the program. The official name for the program is the DV-2008 Diversity Visa lottery, commonly referred to as the Green Card Lottery since that is the visa type issued to qualified winners. Entries for the Green Card (DV-2008) lottery must be submitted electronically between noon Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) (GMT-4), Wednesday, 04 October 2006 and noon Eastern Standard Time (EST) (GMT-5) Sunday, 03 December 2006. Applications MUST be submitted electronically; paper entries will NOT be accepted. Applicants are strongly encouraged not to wait until the last week of the registration period to enter. Heavy demand may result in website delays. No entries will be accepted after noon EST on 03 December 2006 for any reason.
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The H-3 and J-1 Training Categories
 

ilw.com, September 29. There are two major categories for individuals seeking training opportunities in the United States . The J-1 exchange visitor visa contains a subcategory reserved for trainees. And the H visa category has an H-3 classification for trainees as well. This article seeks to review the two categories and discuss the advantages of pursuing one visa type versus the other.
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Visas For Skilled Workers Still Frozen
 

Washington Post, September 28. For technology companies and research institutions that have spent recent autumns lobbying for permission to hire more foreign workers, this was supposed to be the year that ended the annual rite of desperation. A bill that passed the Senate this spring would have doubled the number of visas issued every year for highly skilled professionals, such as scientists and engineers. And it would have helped clear a backlog of applications for permanent residency from such workers. But the attempt by Congress to rewrite the nation's immigration laws has bogged down in controversy over border security and illegal immigration. That means changes in the skilled-worker programs, while less controversial, are also in limbo.
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Irish Immigration Slowing
 

IrishEchoOnline, October 3. The planes are packed but this time the passengers really mean to use the return ticket. They will fly back to Ireland with bags full of shopping, happy memories of the "hollier" in Florida, or the outlines of a megabucks business deal with the t-shirted titans in Silicon Valley. The Irish are coming to America, hundreds of them every day. But very few of them are staying put. This is something new.
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Key Dates in Recent Immigration History
 

CNN.com, September 27. Some key dates surrounding the immigration issue follow.
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Leading Muslim Scholar Is Denied U.S. Travel Visa
 

Washingtonpost.com. The government has rejected the visa application of one of Europe's best-known Muslim intellectuals, saying that he supported a terrorist group. His attorneys allege that the United States is using charitable donations he made as a pretext for stifling his views. Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss citizen who teaches at Oxford University, was denied a temporary business and tourism visa Thursday "based solely on his actions, which constituted providing material support to a terrorist organization," Janelle Hironimus, a State Department spokeswoman, said Monday.
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U.S. Govt. Slammed On Immigrant Policy
 

United Press International, September 19. The NumbersUSA advocacy group Tuesday criticized U.S. government efforts to reduce the backlog of people seeking immigration benefits. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, or USCIS, last week announced it was going to meet the October deadline promised by President George W. Bush to catch up on a major backlog of applications for immigration benefits, including green cards, work permits, and U.S. citizenship.
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Immigrant Businesses Transform Cities
 

United Press International, September 19. The NumbersUSA advocacy group Tuesday criticized U.S. government efforts to reduce the backlog of people seeking immigration benefits. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, or USCIS, last week announced it was going to meet the October deadline promised by President George W. Bush to catch up on a major backlog of applications for immigration benefits, including green cards, work permits, and U.S. citizenship.
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Write Your Senators, Oppose Immigration Enforcement-Only Bills
 

Justice For Immigrants, September 25. The U.S. Senate may soon consider several immigration enforcement bills prior to adjournment for the mid-term elections. These bills will soon be approved by the U.S. House of Representatives and will be sent to the Senate for consideration or could be attached to the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill. These bills represent pieces of H.R. 4437, the House enforcement-only bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in December. The House of Representatives has refused to meet with the U.S. Senate to reconcile differences between H.R. 4437 and S. 2611, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act passed by the Senate in May.
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US Sets Application Period For Immigration Green Cards
 

Deutshe Press, September 19. The US government will accept applications for the lottery system for immigration green cards beginning next month, the US State Department said Tuesday. The application period for the 2008 Diversity Visa Lottery will begin on October 4 and close on December 3.
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Caution: US Embassy Warns Public Against Visa Lottery Fraud
 

Kuwaittimes.net, September 18. The Consular Section of the American Embassy in Kuwait alerts the public to various visa fraud schemes that seek to take advantage of applicants for visas to the United States. Such schemes can be perpetrated by individuals or organisations, some of which falsely claim to represent the government of the United States or to have inside knowledge of visa issuance procedures. Visa applicants should be aware of such misleading claims and should obtain all information about visa applications only from US government sources such as the American Embassy website at http://kuwait.usembassy.gov.
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Church Leaders Speak Out Against Immigration Sweeps
 

SFGate.com, September 14. Leaders of four different religious faiths spoke out Wednesday near Santa Cruz on behalf of families of scores of immigration violators deported last week as controversy continued over federal immigration sweeps that have netted thousands of people since May. The 107 arrests in near Watsonville, Santa Cruz and Hollister last week were part of a new crackdown on illegal immigration by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
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Stranded S.F. State Instructor May Get New Visa
 

SFGate.com, September 14. An Egyptian-born San Francisco State University instructor, who has been stranded in Canada for three months while waiting for the U.S. State Department to give him security clearance, may be returning soon to the Bay Area. Assistant Professor Mohammad Ramadan Hassan Salama, who traveled to the U.S. Consulate in Toronto on June 20 and was stuck there after the consulate canceled his scholar visa, said he was told Wednesday that he would be issued a new visa today.
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The Waiting Game Of Legal Immigration
 

Chicago Daily Herald, September 13. Zenaida Valero measures her life in dates: her children's birthdays, her wedding, her arrival in this country and the day she applied to bring her Filipino daughter here. April 19, 1995. Today - 11 years, four months, three weeks and four days later - Valero still waits. Her daughter's petition winds its way through an immigration system clogged with requests by other mothers, husbands and daughters.
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Special ‘Welcome Home’ To International Students
 

Connect2 OWU, September 13. When Aycan Garip arrived on the Ohio Wesleyan University campus last year, she was greeted by a team of International Students Orientation leaders, who may have made all the difference. Garip, from Cyprus, is a sophomore now, and one of a group of student leaders, most of the international students themselves, who spent the week before classes started helping more than 60 fellow students from 24 countries adjust to life on a small private American university campus.
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Keep The Immigration Debate Civil
 

LATimes.com, September 12, Opinion by Gov. Arnold Schwarzegger. BY NOT FINISHING comprehensive immigration reform this year, Congress left behind a poisoned debate that will continue to fuel a growing anger in our country. Latino leaders, meeting in Los Angeles last week, were already debating whether they should continue marching in the streets, disrupt the economy or register voters. At the same time, people who are angry about the federal government's failure to stop illegal immigration have introduced local measures to take away housing, jobs and even medical assistance from noncitizens in their communities. On both sides, people are demanding to be heard.
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Immigration Issue Continues To Bedevil Congress
 

NPR, September 13, Podcast. Immigration consistently tops the list of issues voters care about. Legislators have spent months haggling over an immigration reform bill, with no end in sight. At a policy forum Tuesday, Republican leaders in Congress took up the issue again. But Democrats say it's just politics as usual.
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Frist Admits Immigration Legislation Dead
 

Washington Post, September 9. Congress will not address major immigration revisions before the Nov. 7 election, the Senate's top Republican said yesterday, but he and his allies hope to limit political damage to their party by telling voters they have poured millions of dollars into one component of the controversy: tightening the border with Mexico. Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) acknowledged that a broad-based immigration bill, backed by President Bush and passed by the Senate, is dead for now.
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Indian H1-B Visa Holders Paid Less Than US Citizens
 

Rediff News, September 9. Indian IT workers are paid considerably less than their American counterparts who have similar qualifications, making the H-1B visa programme "deeply flawed", according to a study. The study by the Institute of Electrial and Electronics Engineers US said holders of H-1B visas, given to professionals in America and largely availed by Indian IT workers, are "taken advantage of" contrary to claims by US industry.
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H-1B Visa Holders Are Paid Less
 

IBN Live, September 8. H-1B visa holders are "taken advantage of" and contrary to claims by US industry, are paid less salary than similarly qualified American citizens, says a new study. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Vice-President Phiroz Vandrevala even admitted that his company enjoys a competitive advantage because of its extensive use of foreign workers in the United States on H-1B and L-1 visas, according to the study by IEEE-USA, a unit of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc
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Policy Set For '08 Could Speed Up, Or Snarl, Border Traffic
 

San Diego Union Tribune, September 7. New procedures expected to start in January 2008 that will require all U.S. citizens and foreigners entering the United States to have passports could help speed traffic through area ports of entry, Adele Fasano, the local director of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, predicted yesterday. Many San Diego and Baja California political and civic leaders disagree. They fear that wait times currently averaging more than an hour only will grow, thus harming the border economy.
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IMMIGRATION Q&A
 

Newsday.com, September 3. Q: I've been living in this country for seven years without legal immigration status. I'm from Venezuela. I came with a tourist visa, which expired about three years ago. The first thing I did back in 1993 was to apply for a business visa. I got it but in order to apply for the extension for the next three years I needed to prove my business was doing well, which I failed to do. So I became illegal. But I did obtain a valid Social Security number and I've been paying all my taxes. I have no problem with the criminal justice system and I have a valid driver's license.
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Former Iranian President Given US Visa
 

Zaman Online, September 01. The U.S. issued a visa to the former Iran President Muhammad Khatemi, inviting him to a conference in Washington D.C. U.S. State Department Spokesman Tom Casey noted that they also issued visas for the Iranians that would accompany Khatemi on his visit to U.S., and added no restrictions will be applied on the group during their visit.
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Fake Marriages Dominate Visa Lottery Fraud
 

Public Agenda News, September 01. The U.S. Embassy says its officials are working with Ghana Police CID document fraud unit to fight widespread fraud by applicants for the U.S. visa lottery (called the Diversity Visa or DV) and to protect honest applicants from extortion.
Of particular concern this year is the growing number of fraudulent marriages arranged for immigration purposes only. Officials detected fraud in a high percentage of applications where spouses were added after the date of the original DV entry. The Embassy says it feels obliged to investigate every case. Given the very large number of short-term marriages awaiting investigation, and that the DV year ends at the end of September, not all investigations may be completed before the end of the program year.
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Before Bashing Immigrants, at Least Try to Get the Facts Straight
 

Dallas Morning News, August 28, Opinion by Linda Chavez. Facts are stubborn things, but not nearly as stubborn as factoids. And nowhere do factoids trump facts more frequently than in the immigration debate. The latest example comes from Pat Buchanan in his new book, State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America, where he regurgitates factoids ad nauseam, all with the purpose of blaming Mexicans for just about everything wrong with America.
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How To Avoid Diversity Visa Lottery Scams
 

Emigrant Online, August 28. Q: I applied for the Diversity Visa lottery and just received an e-mail saying I had won. It also says I need to mail a $749 "clearance/acceptance fee" to an individual in Texas. Also, the e-mail address given for correspondence is at yahoo.com.cn. This all looks fishy to me. Is it?
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Over 3000 Ghanaians Win US Visa Lottery
 

African News, August 11. A total of 3080 Ghanaians have won the 2007 edition of the US Diversity Immigration Visa Lottery (DV-2007), a substantial drop over the 2004 highs of 7,145. Ghana was allocated the fifth highest number of visas in Africa behind Nigeria, Egypt, Ethiopia and Morocco. According to a release announcing the results, approximately 50,000 applicants have been registered and notified. The winners may now make an application for an immigration visa. The diversity lottery was conducted under the terms of United States section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act and makes available *50,000 permanent resident visas annually to persons from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. Approximately 82,000 applicants have been registered and notified and may now make an application for an immigrant visa.
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Cost of Senate Immigration Bill Put at $126 Billion
 

Washingtonpost.com, August 22. The Senate's embattled immigration bill would raise government spending by as much as $126 billion over the next decade, as the government begins paying out federal benefits to millions of new legal workers and cracks down on the border, a new Congressional Budget Office analysis concludes.
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US Immigration Group Calls for Comprehensive Reforms
 

Voice of America, August 3. A coalition of former U.S. immigration and homeland security officials is calling for comprehensive immigration reform, similar to that proposed by the Bush administration and some members of the U.S. Senate. The group says those who portray immigration reform as choice between stronger border security and liberalized employment programs are wrong. They say real reform integrates both approaches.
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Dallas Program Effective In Cutting Greencard Jam
 

Arizona Daily Star , August 5. Green-card-application backlogs may compromise national security, a Homeland Security ombudsman says, because thousands of foreigners are being given work permits even though they're ineligible for legal permanent residence. But a Dallas pilot program to weed out ineligible green-card applicants has proven so successful that an influential senator is asking Citizenship and Immigration Services if it can be expanded nationwide.
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Lawmakers Challenge Visa Lottery
 

Star-Telegram, August 6. Beatrice Kibibi was leery when she received a letter from the U.S. government at her home in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The 39-year-old couldn’t imagine what American officials wanted. She recalls thinking, “Maybe it’s a commercial - they want to sell me something.” Instead, Washington was giving her something she wanted very badly, something she had applied for: a permanent visa to live in the United States. What’s more, her husband and children could immigrate with her. They could stay as long as they wanted and could eventually become U.S. citizens.
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Immigration: Getting In Legally Takes A Long Time
 

Utah News, July 30. Immigrating to the United States couldn't have been smoother for Ali Bahadur. After a simple interview at the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan, he was given a sealed packet to take with him to New York, where he went through customs. "Within half an hour, I got a (green) card, right there," he said of the identification allowing him to live and work in the United States. "It was so easy." That was in 1978, when Bahadur moved to the Salt Lake Valley from his native Pakistan. His brother sponsored his green card. During the next two years, Bahadur was able to bring his wife, Parveen, and their four children to the Salt Lake Valley. But Bahadur, now a U.S. citizen, shakes his head when he hears about how difficult it is to immigrate legally today. A nephew had to wait a decade for permanent residency amid a growing waiting list for a limited number of visas. Security checks are stringent, and interviews more complex.
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Lottery Winners Are In The Green
 

NorthJersey.com, July 30. If you won the DV-2007 green-card lottery, by now you should have received notification from the U.S. Consular Center. The Center sent the winning notices July 18. If you don't receive your notice soon, you can assume you didn't win. The Center does not notify those not selected. Winners were chosen at random from 5.5 million qualified entries. This year, Nigeria had the most winners, followed by Egypt, Ukraine and Ethiopia.
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CO Immigration Law To Take Effect Tomorrow
 

Rocky Mountain News, July 29. Colorado's new landmark anti-illegal-immigration law cuts a wide swath through local and state government and will require tens of thousands of Coloradans to prove they're in the country legally before obtaining benefits. Interviews with officials at more than 20 state and local agencies indicate that House Bill 1023 will impact services ranging from liquor and business licenses, unemployment benefits, in-state tuition and government-issued college financial aid.
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Highest Number Of U.S. Visa Lottery Applications From Australia
 

Pacific Magazine, July 24. Australia provided the highest number of selected applicants for permanent resident visas under the United States diversity lottery (DV) for 2007, according to information released this week by the U.S. State Department.
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Republican Dispute On Immigration Bill Encompassed Even Its Name
 

New York Times, July 23. After more than two weeks of Congressional hearings over immigration reform, there is no sign of compromise between the House Republican majority and the Senate on the issue, which has bitterly divided Republicans. The lawmakers are even arguing over names. At hearings last week in Washington, House Republicans routinely referred to an immigration bill the Senate passed in May as the “Reid-Kennedy bill,” associating it with two Democrats, Senators Harry Reid of Nevada, the minority leader, and Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, the liberal lawmaker who was one of its authors.
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Attorney General Urges Congress To Find Immigration Compromise
 

San Francisco Chronicle, July 22. U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, speaking at a Santa Clara forum Friday, called on members of Congress to end the election-year maneuvering and compromise on their widely different views of immigration reform. During a summer when members of the House and Senate are holding hearings across the country on competing immigration bills, Gonzales has been on the road touting President Bush's immigration reform proposal -- which combines a temporary guest worker program and legal status for the nation's estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants with stepped-up border and workplace enforcement, a plan that resembles the Senate bill.
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US Immigration Debate Hits First Data Shares
 

Reuters, July 21. Shares of First Data Corp. fell 4.8 percent on Friday, their biggest one-day drop since 2003, after the company said debate about United States immigration policy was weighing on results in its Western Union division. First Data said late on Thursday that second-quarter earnings rose 11 percent to a level in line with analysts' expectations. However, First Data Chief Executive Ric Duques said in a conference call that immigrants, especially those without documentation, are increasingly concerned about wiring money back home because they do not want to attract government attention.
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1700 Bulgarians Compete For US Green Card
 

Sofia News Agency, July 21. 1700 Bulgarians from a total of 82 000 people around the world have been invited to apply for the US Green Card lottery 2007, the national radio reported. Among the East European nations, Ukrainians and Albanians have expressed the greatest interest in becoming US residents with some 7200 applicants for Ukraine and 2000 for Albania. A computer-generated random lottery drawing chooses applicants for Diversity Visas lottery. The US State Department notifies successful candidates and they may apply for visa.
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Sri Lanka gets 383 slots from US Diversity Visa Lottery 2007
 

Colombo Page, July 20. Over 300 Sri Lankans will soon be eligible to obtain permanent resident visas in the United States under the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program. The 2007 US Diversity Visa Lottery has awarded visas to 383 Sri Lankans. United States Tuesday announced the results of the program and have notified the winners.
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6 North Koreans to Get US Permanent Residency
 

The Korea Times, July 20. The United States will grant six North Korean citizens permanent resident rights for the fiscal year 2007 that begins this October, the U.S. State Department said Wednesday. The North Koreans are among the 50,000 winners of the 2007 Diversity Visa Lottery, it said in a press release posted on its Internet site.
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Immigration Policy Lifts Prison Firms
 

Int’l Herald Tribune, July 20. As the Bush administration gets tougher on illegal immigration and increases its spending on enforcement, some of the biggest beneficiaries may be the companies that have been building and running private prisons around the United States.
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States Take On Illegal Immigration
 

AP, July 19. Dismay over Washington gridlock on immigration has inspired cities and states to pass their own measures, most of which make life harder for undocumented workers and demand that employers, law enforcement officers and even landlords act as the front line. The city of Hazleton, Pa., last week passed one of the harsher laws, approving $1,000 fines for landlords who provide housing to illegal immigrants and denying business permits to employers who give them jobs. Local governments from California to Idaho to Florida are weighing similar steps. States approved nearly 60 new laws in the last few months, overwhelmingly restrictive or punitive.
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Irish In America Are 'Under Siege'
 

Irish Echo, July 19. Irish immigration activists warned U.S. lawmakers last week that the future of the Irish community in America is at risk if comprehensive immigration reform is not passed. 'The facts are clear to us,' said Niall O'Dowd, chairman of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform. 'Without immigration reform, the Irish-born community in the United States will no longer exist and one of the greatest contributors to the success of this nation will be no more.' Speaking as a witness before the U.S. Senate's Judiciary Committee hearing on immigration, O'Dowd said that the Irish undocumented community in the U.S. was 'under siege' and that America would be the 'big loser' should Irish immigrants have to return home.
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PanAfrica: Diversity Visa Process Selects 82,000 Applicants
 

AllAfrica.com, July 20. Approximately 82,000 people in 175 nations have received letters from the U.S. State Department informing them that they are eligible to apply for a permanent resident visa to the United States. Only 50,000 such visas are issued each year in what is known as the Diversity Visa Lottery. More than 5.5 million people submitted entries in the registration process held during the last quarter of 2005. A media note issued by the State Department July 18 says 82,000 applicants were selected at random in the lottery and encouraged to apply. It is likely that many people involved in this initial stage will not follow through with their applications, so the selection of more than 80,000 should insure that all visas allowed under this program will be issued, the media note said.
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More House Hearings On Immigration Likely
 

DenverPost.com, July 19. After more than 50 congressional hearings on immigration, lawmakers complained Tuesday about the prospect of even more hearings in a House-Senate standoff over how to deter illegal immigrants. House Republicans have called for six more hearings this month - and possibly more in August. The hearings began after the Senate passed a bipartisan immigration bill offering a chance at citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants. The latest round of hearings has been criticized as a political maneuver to delay immigration legislation and to help Republican candidates in an election year. Even a Republican joined the criticism Tuesday.
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Perspectives On Immigration: Managing Immigration As A Resource
 

AILA, July 20, Opinion. The current immigration debate is about how best to repair an immigration system that everyone agrees is broken. For Congress, the question has come down to this: do we pursue an enforcement-only strategy and focus solely on keeping people out, or do we adopt a more comprehensive approach that includes new enforcement strategies but also improves our ability to let people into the country legally?
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US Immigration Law Unlikely Soon, Bush Tells Fox
 

Reuters, July 17. President Bush has told Mexican President Vicente Fox that the U.S. Congress is unlikely to pass immigration reforms before elections in November, Fox said on Monday. The Mexican president asked Bush about the negotiations in Congress over an immigration overhaul when the two leaders met at the G-8 summit in Russia at the weekend. Bush cautioned that time was running out. 'He pointed out that this period is very short, there are only two or three weeks before Congress members go on the election campaign,' Fox told Mexican radio on a flight from St Petersburg to Madrid.
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Bush-Kennedy Alliance May Win the Day on Immigration (Update1)
 

Bloomberg.com, July 17. Lindsey Graham, a pro-immigration American politician, knows the ugly side of this issue: Some of his constituents derisively call him Lindsey ``Gomez.'' Yet the South Carolina Republican senator sees the raging immigration debate as a healthy primer on the political, economic, social and historical strengths of the U.S. ``Immigration causes us problems, sometimes brings out nativist feelings,'' he says. ``But, more than any other country, in the end, America sees the value of immigration.'' The 51-year-old Graham is a John McCain-in-waiting: a bright, inclusive, press-friendly conservative Republican with a decidedly independent streak. Along with President George W. Bush and Senator McCain, an Arizona Republican, he espouses a more open immigration policy. Most Republican office-holders have a distinctly more negative view of the U.S.'s estimated 11 million undocumented, or illegal, immigrants.
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Cost Of Remittances Ripe For Legislation
 

San Francisco Chronicle, July 16. Nubia comes down to a storefront in San Francisco's Mission District every month to wire $100 to her family back in Medellin, Colombia. Retired from housecleaning, Nubia, 63, saves the money out of her Social Security pension. She was dismayed last week to find out that the $4 cost of sending the money had increased to $6. 'The extra money is too much,' she said in Spanish through a translator, declining to give her last name. 'All these places have become very expensive. I want to find out if I can send from one bank to another' for less money. A $2 price hike doesn't sound like a big deal. But that extra $2 multiplied by millions of remittances -- the money immigrant workers send to relatives back home -- adds up to a staggering amount of money paid by those who can least afford it.
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More Immigrant Bashing on the Way
 

AlterNet.org, July 6, Opinion. While the rest of you were celebrating life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, I was keeping an eye on Karl Rove -- because someone has to. A "Bush Signals Shift in Stance on Immigrants" headline is the early warning sign that we're about to get an all-out immigrant-bashing campaign for the fall, complete with xenophobia, racism and blaming the weakest, least powerful people in the country for everything that's wrong with it.
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Sensenbrenner Continues McCarthy Legacy of Fear Politics
 

HispanicVista.com, July 5, Opinion. Congressman Sensenbrenner held a series of town hall meetings this week in an effort to push his vision of immigration reform. To promote his narrow-minded ideas, the Wisconsin Republican Congressman made use of tabloid-like tactics as a means to market his bankrupt anti-immigrant campaign.
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Commentary: Immigration Hearings 'Cynical And Cowardly'
 

CNN.com, July 6. I knew that holding congressional field hearings on immigration was a bad idea. But I had to see one up close before I could know just how bad. When House Republicans said they couldn't work out differences between their immigration reform bill and the bill approved by their GOP colleagues in the Senate, and that they would spend the summer holding public hearings, I knocked them for ducking their responsibility.
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Splits Over Immigration Reform On Display From Coast to Coast
 

WashingtonPost.com, July 6. House and Senate Republicans sparred over immigration in hearings on opposite coasts Wednesday, holding firm to their starkly different viewpoints on what has become one of the most intractable and divisive issues to confront the GOP in years.
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Bush Toughens Immigration Stance
 

Yahoo! News, July 6. President George W. Bush is adopting a tougher line in the contentious debate on overhauling US immigration laws, putting an emphasis on border control and strict enforcement measures favored by his conservative base.
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Specter, Kennedy Say They're Open to Immigration Compromise
 

Bloomberg.com, July 6. Two key supporters of a Senate immigration measure calling for guest-worker and legalization programs said they would consider linking those provisions to toughened border security to help break a legislative deadlock. Senators Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican who heads the Judiciary Committee, and Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, indicated interest in a compromise that would delay the Senate programs until House demands for improved border security are met.
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Immigration Compromise Difficult to Forge
 

NPR, July 6, Podcast. David Martin talks with Lynn Neary about a compromise plan for immigration legislation. Martin is Professor of Law at the University of Virginia.
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Immigration Legislation At Standstill
 

CBS News, July 5. President Bush stopped by a doughnut shop Wednesday to promote a program to help verify that workers are in the country legally. Behind the scenes, he explored a proposal for breaking a congressional gridlock blocking action on immigration legislation.
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I Bought A 'Green Card' For $110 From ID Ring
 

New York Post, July 5. For an illegal immigrant desperately seeking to work in New York City, getting a high-quality forged green card or Social Security card is almost as easy as buying a soft-shell taco, a Post investigation has found. The well-organized underground market that churns out these fraudulent documents is surprisingly easy to penetrate - The Post was able to find a man who deals in the bogus cards and buy one in just under three hours.
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Immigration Judges Criticized
 

McClatchy News Service, July 5. After Islamic militants murdered Seemab Shah's father, she said, they came for her. Terrified, she left her newborn son in the care of relatives and fled Pakistan for the United States. She beseeched a U.S. immigration judge to grant her asylum. As proof of the danger to her family, she presented the court with her father's death certificate and newspaper photos of him lying in a pool of blood. Despite the evidence, Judge Donald Ferlise concluded that Shah's father wasn't dead. Rejecting Shah's story as 'totally incredible,' he denied her request to remain in the United States.
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Access to Job Market in U.S. a Matter of Degrees
 

Los Angeles Times, July 3. This spring, a U.S. high-tech company recruited British citizen Gareth Lloyd for a possible engineering job. But before the Irvine office made its hiring decision, the number of available visas for skilled workers ran out, in a record time of less than two months. Lloyd, who has degrees in applied physics and electrical and electronics engineering, found another job in Germany. 'I was a little bit incredulous,' Lloyd, 34, said in a phone interview. 'It seems arbitrary to put some kind of quota on this.' Much of the national debate on immigration has centered on undocumented workers who fill agriculture, construction and service jobs. But highly skilled foreign scientists, engineers and computer programmers recruited by U.S. companies to work here legally also have a lot at stake in the outcome. 'The major focus for all the laws and all the bills has mainly been for illegal immigrants,' said Swati Srivastava, an Indian software engineer who lives in Playa del Rey and is waiting for her green card. 'We kind of get pushed to the sidelines.'
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The Use And Abuse Of L-1 Visas
 

HR Magazine, July 1. The L-1B visa has become more than just a procedure for employers transferring their foreign workers to U.S. posts for temporary assignments. The visa is now practically combustible, the center of rising discontent among some immigration and employment experts. Many contend that the L-1B, introduced in 1970 to help multinational companies relocate key employees to posts in the United States from other countries for limited-term assignments, is being used to replace higher-paid U.S. workers with much cheaper labor from overseas. Some experts also argue that the L-1B is being used to circumvent the tighter rules and restricted availability of the familiar H-1B visa.
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Lawmakers Hear Americans' Voices On Immigration
 

USA Today, July 5. Congressional Republicans heard lively testimony Wednesday from mayors, sheriffs and ordinary citizens in two public hearings held on both coasts to discuss illegal immigration. The hearings in San Diego and Philadelphia marked the opening of a summer season that will take proponents of competing immigration proposals in Congress across the country. The aim is to demonstrate public support for their plans.
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Transcript of President Bush Talk On Immigration Reform
 

WashingtonPost.com, July 5. BUSH: Yes, thank you. I just had a really interesting conversation. First of all, this business is owned by two Iranian-American brothers. They are small business owners; they are entrepreneurs; they are employing people. And then I met with the district manager who works with the two Iranian-American brothers, happens to be a Guatemalan-American citizen. She is learning business. She is taking on additional responsibilities.
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In A Tight Race, Immigration Is The Hot Issue
 

MSNBC, July 5. Why is Republican Rep. Jim Gerlach beginning his television campaign here in Pennsylvania’s Sixth Congressional District with an ad criticizing President Bush on illegal immigration?
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Immigration Debate Spurs New Bills From House, Senate
 

Yahoo! News, July 3. Bringing San Diego to the forefront of the immigration debate, House Republicans will hold field hearings on the issue Wednesday at an Imperial Beach border patrol station. Two opposing immigration bills from the House and Senate will head for negotiations after the hearings senators and representatives are holding across the country this summer. San Diego area representatives have been heavily involved in the debate, some authoring sections of the House bill.
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Legal Immigrant Status Leads To Business Success
 

NewsOK.com, July 3. Miguel Salazar’s massive desk with carved trim sits below a vaulted ceiling in a private office off the showroom floor at his roofing business.
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Proud To Be In The USA
 

Indianapolis Star, July 1. She was living in Pasadena, Calif., with her great-aunt, and her visa was set ... his family left Nigeria after he won a green card in the Diversity Lottery Program.
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House Hearings Threaten Senate Immigration Bill
 

CNN.com, June 21. In a move that could prevent immigration legislation from passing Congress this year, the House will begin a fresh series of hearings on immigration next month, Republican leaders announced Tuesday. The hearings will be held in Washington and across the country "so we understand what the American people are saying," said House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois.
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Immigration Measure Travels Toward Delays
 

Int’l Herald Tribune, June 21. In a decision that puts overhaul of immigration laws in serious doubt, House Republican leaders now say they will hold summer hearings outside Washington on the politically volatile subject before trying to compromise with the Senate on a chief domestic priority of President George W. Bush. "We are going to listen to the American people, and we are going to get a bill that is right," Speaker J. Dennis Hastert said Tuesday. He said he had informed Bush of the plan. The unusual decision to set a new round of hearings on legislation already passed by the House and Senate places a serious roadblock in the way of Bush's drive for changes in immigration policy.
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Leaders: Broad Immigration Bill Unlikely
 

AP, June 21. In a defeat for President Bush, Republican congressional leaders said Tuesday that broad immigration legislation is all but doomed for the year, a victim of election-year concerns in the House and conservatives' implacable opposition to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants.
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House Plans Community Hearings On Immigration
 

Reuters, June 21. In an election-year battle over immigration, congressional Republicans said on Tuesday they plan to take the issue directly to voters with hearings across the country on whether millions of illegal immigrants should have a path to citizenship. The hearings are being called by Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives, which passed a tough border control and work place enforcement bill and oppose the citizenship plan in the Senate's version. Details are still being worked out but Rep. Peter King of New York said House leaders planned to take the hearings "to the places where we can get the best input." Hearings would likely be held in July and August, he said.
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House Calls for New Hearings Before Changes to Immigration
 

NYTimes, June 21. In a decision that puts an overhaul of immigration laws in serious doubt, House Republican leaders said Tuesday that they would hold summer hearings around the nation on the politically volatile subject before trying to compromise with the Senate on a chief domestic priority of President Bush. "We are going to listen to the American people, and we are going to get a bill that is right," said Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, who said he had informed Mr. Bush of the plan. The timing means that formal Congressional negotiations will not begin until September, just as Congressional campaigns are entering their crucial final weeks, when lawmakers typically shy away from difficult issues. "I don't know how likely that is," Representative Roy Blunt of Missouri, the House Republican whip, said about reaching an agreement before November.
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Programmers File Federal Complaints Over 'H-1B Only' Ads
 

The Computer World, June 19. The Programmers Guild is filing a stack of complaints with the U.S. Department of Justice against some 300 IT employers it says are discriminating against U.S. citizens and permanent residents by placing advertisements that specifically seek 'H-1B only' visa holders or workers who have student or L-1 visas.
John Miano, founder of the Summit, N.J.-based Programmers Guild, said today that he has collected some 1,500 IT job advertisements in the past six weeks from a variety of online jobs boards that express preference for hiring visa holders. Miano said the practice is widespread because 'for the most part, there isn't much enforcement going on. So we are trying to do what we can do to bring private enforcement against these employers.' Miano said H-1B workers are in demand because 'they are cheap and they make good slave labor.' The guild has filed about 100 complaints with the DOJ's Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Discrimination, and it plans to file another 200. It's not to difficult to find IT job advertisements that seek specific skills, and H-1B opponents have long circulated examples of these advertisements on mailing lists. For instance, in a search on the job board run by Dice Inc., iGate Mastech, a Pittsburgh-based IT staffing agency with about 1,000 employees, has an advertisement for eight Java developers with three to five years of Java development experience. The ad says: 'Only looking for H-1B visas and should be willing to transfer.'
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Univ of Arkansas Graduate Cleared in Terror Case
 

Associated Press, June 20. A University of Arkansas graduate has been acquitted of attempting to provide material support to a Palestinian terrorist organization but convicted of immigration charges. Arwah Jaber, 33, faces a maximum of 10 years in prison on each count of obtaining his naturalization unlawfully and making false statements on passport and immigration applications. The government moved to revoke his citizenship after the jury returned its verdicts Monday. U.S. District Judge Jimm Larry Hendren on Tuesday gave both sides 10 days to submit written arguments on that issue. Jaber came to the attention of authorities when he talked openly about joining Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a group the U.S. government considers a terrorist organization. He was arrested last year as he was about to board a flight and maintains he was going to the Middle East to visit relatives. The government says he wanted to join the holy war.
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Immigration Bill Unlikely To See Early Compromise
 

Daily Bulletin, June 20. Republican leaders have decided to stick with a hard-line stance on immigration, sucking the wind out of prospects for major reform before Election Day. After inching toward a compromise on a Senate bill that would offer a long-term path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants, House GOP leaders have reversed course in recent days. They watched how San Diego Republican Brian Bilbray narrowly defeated Democrat Francine Busby on June 6 for the 50th Congressional District seat after calling for construction of a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, and they began weighing their own popularity.
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Senate Swayed By Analyst's Immigrant Count
 

San Francisco Chronicle, June 20. As obvious as the question seemed, nobody had really calculated how many more people the Senate's immigration bill would add to the U.S. population when the Senate opened debate on the issue last month. So when a think tank analyst projected more than 100 million over the next 20 years -- raising the U.S. population by a third, or nearly three Californias and perhaps even twice that -- it landed like a perfectly timed statistical bomb. Now, as the bill moves forward, the debate isn't just about the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants already living in the county -- but the tens of millions of new legal immigrants the legislation might produce in the future. (Editor’s Note: This report is now available on our Free Downloads page.)
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Charges Dropped For Some Students Charged In Immigration Walkouts
 

USA Today, June 20. A judge has dismissed charges against five students who were ticketed for violating a city youth curfew while protesting national immigration policies. Municipal Court Judge Dan McNeary dismissed two of the cases June 8 and three others on Thursday, Round Rock City Attorney Steve Sheets said. Prosecutors had asked the judge to drop the charges. Sheets said cases are still pending against 93 other students who have pleaded not guilty. Eighty-three others pleaded guilty or no contest and accepted either $200 fines or up to 32 hours of community service. The students fighting the charges argue that the city's curfew ordinance includes exemptions for free speech and free assembly.
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Ordeal Of Entering U.S. Legally: No Plan In Congress Will Solve The Complexities, Experts Say
 

San Francisco Chronicle, June 19. When Alfonso Farfán fell in love with an old family friend in 2002, he set out to bring his sweetheart and her two children home with him. But nothing has gone as planned. After waiting a year for a fiancee visa for her to move here from El Salvador, he learned the paperwork had been lost. The new application was delayed two years because U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services kept using an old address for Farfán, married now to Elizabeth Farfán, although he had twice updated their records. And when the family's green cards arrived six weeks ago, one was missing.
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Australia To Feel The Effects Of US Immigration Intake
 

Australian Visa Bureau, June 19. As part of a debate in the US regarding illegal immigrants, of which there are 12 million, the country's Senate recently passed a bill to increase annual employment-based migration - which carries with it permanent residency in the US - from 14,000 to 650,000. Another aspect of the bill includes increasing the cap for the popular H1-B from 65,000 a year to 115,000. A change which has been backed by several industry and technology leaders in the US, including Bill Gates. At the Centre for Population and Urban Research at Monash University, director Bob Birrell says these kinds of changes will have a 'dramatic' effect on Australia's skilled migration program. Professor noted in an interview last week with a leading Australian newspaper that there is already significant competition for skilled migrants. Australia, in Birrell's opinion, comes second after the US and in front of Canada in the migrant choice pecking order.
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Anti-Immigrant Conservatives Urge Bush To Join House Bill
 

Washington Times, June 19. Top conservative leaders have written President Bush telling him to drop his insistence on a guest-worker program and a path to citizenship for illegal aliens and instead support the 85 percent of congressional Republicans who want to tighten law enforcement first. Signers include William J. Bennett, Robert H. Bork, Ward Connerly, David A. Keene, Phyllis Schlafly and a number of think-tank academics and pundits. The immigration debate is the first major issue on which Mr. Bush finds himself opposing a majority of Republicans in Congress and depending on Democrats to deliver a victory. In their letter, the conservatives tell Mr. Bush to side with his fellow Republicans in Congress or risk repeating the 1986 immigration law that promised enforcement and amnesty but delivered only the amnesty.
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Immigration Reform Doubts Rise On Hill
 

Washington Times, June 15, 2006. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are increasingly doubtful that Congress will pass any sort of immigration reform legislation this year. 'My gut [feeling] is that it's undoable,' Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat, said yesterday about a compromise this year between the House and Senate bills. 'The bills are too different. The sides are really polarized.' Rep. Tom Tancredo, Colorado Republican and leading critic of the approach favored by Mrs. Feinstein, yesterday gave immigration legislation a 20 percent chance of passage this year. A poll of lawmakers published in this week's National Journal found that 44 percent of those anonymously surveyed said they doubt any compromise can be reached this year.
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Senate Says ‘Yes” To Green Card Lottery
 

IrishEchoOnline, June 6. The undocumented Irish in the U.S. can still hope. But for precisely what is still in question this week. Nevertheless, prospects for immigration reform that will grant at least some relief to as many as 50,000 Irish rose when the U.S. Senate last week voted in favor of a reform bill that carries the essential principles outlined in an earlier version of the bill penned by Senators Edward Kennedy and John McCain.
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US Embassy In Sofia Warns Of False Green Card Messages
 

Sofia News Agency, June 5. The US Embassy in Sofia has labeled as false recent notices sent via email that purport to notify recipients they have won the Diversity Visa Lottery, also known as the "Green Card Lottery". The new scheme, which makes possible misuse of personal data and invites the recipients to send money, comes at the start of the official campaign that informs winners and may seriously embarrass them. People have been contacted via e-mail and by phone. The notification however is not sent by the Kentucky Consular Center in the U.S, which is the only governmental agency, authorised to do so. "These emails and calls are in no way connected with the Embassy, the U.S. Department of State or any U.S. Government agency, said an official statement of the US Embassy in Sofia," circulated to the media.
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US Says 2007 Limit On Visas For High-Tech Workers Already Met
 

Associated Press, June 2. The government has already reached the limit on high-tech worker visas for 2007 even though the fiscal year doesn't start until Oct. 1, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services said yesterday. High-tech companies said that underscores the need to increase the 65,000 annual cap on the popular H-1B visas used to bring in engineers, computer programmers and others. Immigration legislation passed by the Senate would increase the number to 115,000, but a House version of the bill doesn't address the issue, and it's unclear whether lawmakers will be able to write a compromise bill.
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Bush Shuns Republicans' Stand To Return Illegals
 

Washington Times, June 2. President Bush yesterday rejected House Republicans' stance that illegal aliens must return home, calling it 'wrong and unrealistic' and saying many will have to be allowed to stay. Speaking to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a block from the White House, Mr. Bush also directly challenged businesses to hire only legal workers, and said those that don't should be prepared to face increased fines. In addition, he said both the House and Senate will have to compromise, but said voters expect a bill and he said that bill should tackle both enforcement and a pathway to citizenship for illegal aliens.
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Bush Urges Compromise In Immigration Debate
 

Reuters, June 1. President George W. Bush said on Thursday an overhaul of U.S. immigration law will require compromise on both sides of the volatile issue and there was "no excuse" for putting it off. With concern growing that a proposed new immigration law will be difficult to pass ahead of congressional mid-term elections in November, Bush kept up the pressure for legislation that would include a temporary worker program. Lawmakers from the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate are preparing to convene a conference committee to reconcile competing bills passed by each chamber.
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Immigration Bills Curb Court Reviews
 

USA Today, June 1. Immigration legislation now before Congress is threatening a long-standing safeguard to keep politics out of final decisions about who becomes an American, legal experts and immigrant rights advocates say. The House and Senate have passed immigration bills that would reduce or eliminate federal courts' ability to intervene when immigration officials decide that applicants for citizenship lack "good moral character," a legal requirement. Critics of the proposed change contend the final say of a subjective standard should not be left to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, whose director is a presidential appointee. "Should you have a political branch of the government deciding who gets to vote?" Seattle immigration lawyer Robert Gibbs said.
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Immigration Agency Head Slams Senate's Alien Bill
 

Washington Times, June 1. The Senate immigration bill makes the same mistake as the 1986 amnesty by restricting the ability of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to share information on illegal alien guest-worker applicants who are criminals and terrorists, the agency's director said yesterday. Emilio T. Gonzalez, whose agency would have to administer a guest-worker program, said not allowing the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to share information on someone who applies means they cannot begin the process of removing criminals and national security threats, even after they are rejected from the guest-worker program.
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Cameroon: Going To America
 

AllAfrica.com, June 1. This year's U.S. visa programme ends in September. Appearing in extra-large traditional regalia is no guarantee to obtain American visa. The chances even get slimmer when one gives wrong information or presents fake documents at the consular office.
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Agency Studies Higher Fees for Immigrants
 

Associated Press, May 31. The Homeland Security Department is studying whether legal immigrants seeking citizenship and other benefits should pay higher application fees. The fees now charged don't reflect the full cost of doing business, Emilio Gonzalez, director of the department's Citizenship and Immigration Services, said Wednesday. Applying for citizenship now costs $330. Applying for a green card conveying legal residency costs $325. Applicants also now pay a $70 fingerprinting fee in each case. ''American citizenship is priceless,'' said Gonzalez, a naturalized citizen. ''I think people will pay.'' The study will review costs of facility improvements, training, equipment and technology and determine how much of a fee increase is needed to cover them. If the agency needs new facilities, it ought to be able to build them and pass on that cost, Gonzalez said. The Senate passed a bill last week that would offer a chance at citizenship for many of the 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants already in the country. It would require the immigrants to pay at least $3,200 in fees to get on the path to citizenship. The bill must be negotiated with the House, which passed a very different bill focused on immigration enforcement.
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Senate Immigration Bill Raises H-1B Limit
 

InfoWorld, May 30. Flying mostly under the radar in a controversial immigration reform bill that passed the U.S. Senate last week was a provision that would raise the cap on the number of high-skilled foreign workers allowed into the U.S. Some tech companies praised the wide-ranging immigration bill, which passed the Senate Thursday, because it would raise the cap on the hotly debated H-1B program, often used by U.S. technology companies to hire foreign IT workers. The bill would increase the annual H-1B cap from 65,000 to 115,000, but many Republicans in the House of Representatives have criticized other provisions in the bill, saying it's too soft on illegal immigration.
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All Eyes On Congress As Lawmakers Try To Reconcile Two Vastly Different Immigration Reform Proposals
 

Daily Bulletin, May 28. The nation's top lawmakers are poised for a landmark clash in the coming months on whether illegal immigrants should be given a pathway to citizenship. A bill passed last week by the Senate would do just that, while a bill passed in December in the House would make it a felony to be in the nation illegally.
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Green Card Lottery Passes Senate But Debate Remains With House
 

SFGate.com, May 25. The Senate agreed to an amendment Wednesday that would alter the diversity visa, a program established by Irish ethnic lobbyists in 1990 that distributes 50,000 visas by lottery every year to applicants from countries that send few immigrants to the United States. The only requirements are a high school diploma and two years of work experience. Originally intended to benefit Europeans who cannot gain visas through employment or family relations, the diversity visa is used today chiefly by immigrants from Africa and the Middle East. The House bill would eliminate the diversity visa. The Senate adopted 56-42 an amendment by Sens. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., to restrict two-thirds of the diversity visas to immigrants with advanced science degrees. "The fact is these countries which qualify under what's called a diversity lottery actually have a large number of people here already illegally, and most of these people are unskilled -- they just showed up," Gregg said. "Instead of giving a lottery to an unemployed cabdriver in Kiev, we're going to say to a physicist in Kiev, you've got a shot."
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Legacy Of The UnForseen: A Summary Of US Immigration Policies
 

SFGate.com, May 7. Many of the most radical changes in the origins and numbers of America's vast flow of immigrants were unintentionally set in motion, experts say, by politicians who expected an entirely different result.
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Getting Into U.S. Takes Lots Of Luck (Green Card Lottery) Or Years Of Paperwork
 

Beaumont Enterprise, April 26. It's a lottery with a prize more valuable to some than a multi-state lotto jackpot. Each year in the U.S. Diversity Visa Lottery, the state department randomly issues 55,000 immigrant visas to applicants waiting for their paperwork to be finalized.
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Breaking The Visa Backlog
 

BusinessWeek, April 25. Tony Edson has one tough job. As the State Dept.'s deputy assistant secretary for visa services, Edson tries constantly to balance two divergent policy goals: securing U.S. borders from terrorists and other bad guys, while keeping them open for engineers, workers, and other high-skilled immigrants. It's a hot-button issue that has a lot of tech companies, who rely on skilled employees from overseas, worried. (EDITOR'S NOTE: Excellent Article).
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CNN Immigration News For Students
 

CNN.com, April 25. The subject of immigration has been hotly debated since the founding of the United States. Questions about who should be allowed to enter and how they should be treated when they do have generated centuries of immigration legislation. Since Congress took up the issue of immigration reform, demonstrations have erupted around the United States. Use the information in this Extra! to help students examine the issue of immigration.
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Foundations Of Immigration Law
 

ilw.com, April 24. There are five (5) Major Immigration Status/ Visa Categories and for the purposes of this paper, the first three will be discussed. 1) Non-Immigrant Visas – temporary visitors (work, student, visitor, etc.) 2) Immigrant Visas – lawful permanent residents (green card holders) 3) Asylees and other special groups – Asylum, refugee, and TPS status holders 4) Citizens, and 5) Undocumented – illegal immigrants.
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Kennedy Urges Bush To Push Immigration Bill
 

Reuters, April 23. A key Democrat said on Sunday that Congress could pass a bill to revamp the nation's immigration laws if President Bush would take on his Republican Party's right wing, which opposes it. There's strong support for it," Sen. Edward Kennedy), a Massachusetts Democrat, said of the bipartisan measure that he crafted largely with Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
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US Diversity Visas For Nepali From New Delhi
 

Nepalnews.com, April 22. The United States Embassy in Kathmandu on Friday said that until the embassy in Kathmandu resumes visa services, US Embassy in New Delhi would accept non-immigrant, immigrant, and Diversity Lottery visa applications of Nepali citizens and non-Nepali citizens legally residing in Nepal effective April 24.
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Romario's Debut With Miami FC Delayed While He Waits For Visa Stamp
 

Slam! Sports, April 22. Romario's debut for Miami FC will be delayed because he's home in Brazil waiting for his visa to be stamped by the U.S. Consulate, the team said.
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Immigration Reform Splits Catholics, GOP
 

Associated Press, April 22. The national immigration debate is muddying Republican relations with Roman Catholics — coveted swing voters who comprise about one-quarter of the electorate. While Catholic bishops and many Republican politicians share opposition to abortion, they're often split over the specifics of immigration reform. Church leaders are challenging — and in some cases even vowing to defy — the tougher enforcement proposals by GOP lawmakers.
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Frist Will Try Anew For Immigration Bill By Memorial Day
 

Associated Press, April 22. Majority Leader Bill Frist intends to seek Senate passage of immigration legislation by Memorial Day, hoping to revive a bill that tightens border security and gives millions of illegal immigrants a chance at citizenship, Republican leadership aides said Friday.
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Frist Will Revive Immigration Bill
 

CNN, April 21. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist will bring a stalled immigration bill back to the Senate floor by Memorial Day, a Republican leadership aide said Friday. In what the aide called a "bow" to right-wing critics of the bill, the Tennessee Republican also will propose increasing funding for border security by $2 billion. Frist said he would revive the bill after it stalled in the Senate earlier this month, but he gave no timetable.
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9/11 Film Actor Denied US Visa
 

itv.com, April 22. An Iraqi actor who plays the lead hijacker in a new film about 9/11 has been refused a visa to attend the premiere in the US. Lewis Alsamari was told by the US embassy in London that he is unlikely to be allowed to enter the country for the first public screening of United 93 in New York, where it is due to open the Tribeca Film Festival.
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US Visa Services For Nepalis In New Delhi Effective April 24
 

eKantipur.com, April 21. The United States Embassy here on Friday said that until the embassy in Kathmandu resumes visa services, US Embassy in New Delhi would accept applications. "The U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu remains closed for visa services," said a statement issued by the embassy in Kathmandu today. "Until the U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu is able to resume visa services, the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi will accept non-immigrant, immigrant, and Diversity Lottery visa applications for Nepalese citizens and non-Nepalese citizens legally residing in Nepal effective April 24, 2006."
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U.S. Issued 304,374 Visas to Chinese
 

Associated Press, April 21. Chinese citizens received the highest number of U.S. visas on record last year as China's economic power expanded, a U.S. Embassy official said Friday. The number of U.S. visas granted to Chinese had fallen sharply with tighter security screening after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, but rebounded in the following years. Last year, the United States issued 304,374 nonimmigrant visas to Chinese tourists, students and others, a 29 percent increase over 2004, said Michael Regan, the U.S. consul general in charge of visas.
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IT World Partner HI-Touch Imaging Technologies
 

Thisdayonline.com, April 19. As more international players continue to scramble for the Nigerian digital photography market, IT world has entered into a trade agreement with a world wide Hi-Touch Imaging technologies, a leading multinational desktop digital imaging and photograph company. for the distribution of HiTi photo printers in the Nigerian market and the rest of West African sub-region.
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Iranian Used Green Card To Enter US
 

Washington Times, April 20. An Iranian government official who recently entered the United States used a green card issued 13 years ago, and U.S. officials said yesterday that they were investigating whether he broke the law by accepting a position with a state sponsor of terrorism. Mohammad Nahavandian, an economics and technology aide to Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, raised questions about his immigration status when he arrived in the United States two weeks ago, apparently to attend a conference.
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Amid Immigration Debate, Companies Push for More Specialty Work Visas
 

Fox News, April 19. As the immigration debate rages on across the nation, technology companies and business groups are becoming increasingly concerned that their calls for more specialty work visas will be lost in the political shuffle. While much of the conversation in recent weeks has focused on unskilled, undocumented workers, business leaders continue to speak out about what they say is a shortage of H-1B visas, which are used for temporary employment in 'specialty' industries such as engineering and medicine.
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Immigration Views Are As Diverse As City
 

Houston Chronicle, April 16. Pei-Fen Hsieh spent five years, thousands of dollars and countless hours making sense of complex immigration paperwork before she became a U.S. citizen last year. And so Hsieh — who came to this country on a student visa from Taiwan nearly a decade ago and now lives in a Houston town home and works as an accountant — knows how time-consuming and frustrating the system can be. As for last week's protests over immigrant rights, she says, she understands 'why they had to come to the country illegally.'
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Some Provisions Of Immigration Measure Seen As Unworkable
 

Chicago Tribune, April 17. The sweeping immigration bill the Senate will tackle upon its return to Washington next week has been hailed as a compromise that marries tough border enforcement with humane treatment of illegal immigrants. Yet it contains provisions that immigration experts and even many lawmakers say are highly unrealistic, and that were inserted largely to placate tough-on-immigration senators and win enough support for passage. Roughly 12 million illegal immigrants would have to pass background checks before receiving immigration papers under the bill. But a government bureaucracy already struggling with its workload would perform the checks, and experts say these new demands would overwhelm the system.
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Getting A Visa
 

MercuryNews.com, April 17. Foreign citizens who want to enter the United States must first get a visa from their local U.S. Embassy. There are two categories of visas: Non-immigrant, for a limited visit for a specific purpose, and immigrant, for those who want to live permanently in the United States.There also are different kinds of non-immigrant visas, including the A-1 for diplomatic visitors, the H for temporary workers and the F-1 for students. Most non-immigrant visas are given to tourists and business visitors. The process for getting an immigrant visa is complicated, and applicants usually have to be sponsored by a relative who is a U.S. citizen or by a U.S. employer.
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Current Issues of Immigration in America
 

American Chronicle, April 23. For a great many people born in this great nation, citizenship is taken for granted. However, aliens, seeking permanent residences, have long appreciated the abundance of wealth and opportunity available to citizens residing in this country.
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Bush, Reid Trade Insults On Immigration
 

Associated Press, April 13. President Bush accused Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid on Thursday of “single-handedly” thwarting action on Immigration legislation, and got a brisk retort in return. "President Bush has as much credibility on immigration as he does on Iraq and national security,” shot back the Nevada Democrat.
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Reid, Frist Jockey Over Immigration Bill
 

Associated Press, April 13. The Senate's top Democrat asked Majority Leader Bill Frist on Wednesday to return to work on immigration legislation immediately after the Senate completes a bill with more money for military operations in Iraq and hurricane relief.
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GOP: No Felony For Lacking Valid Visa
 

Chicago Tribune, April 12. Republican leaders in the House and the Senate called Tuesday for removing a provision in the House-passed immigration bill that would make it a felony for a foreign national to be in the U.S. without a valid visa. The written statement from House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee did not represent a change in position for the Republican leadership, which supports making the offense a misdemeanor.
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Kyl: Immigration Reform Can't Please All
 

Associated Press, April 12. Any compromise from Congress on overhauling the nation's broken immigration system won't fit the agendas of all politicians, nor will it confront all the personal circumstances of the estimated 11 million people who are in the country illegally, U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl said Wednesday. Kyl, whose state is the busiest illegal entry point into the country, said the country's immigration problems have mounted for years and that any changes from Congress will be painful.
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Reid Seeks Immigration Bill Rescheduling
 

Associated Press, April 12. The Senate's top Democrat asked Majority Leader Bill Frist on Wednesday to return to work on immigration legislation immediately after the Senate completes a bill with more money for military operations in Iraq and hurricane relief. Congress is on a two-week recess and the Senate is scheduled to consider the war spending bill when it returns April 25. Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said in a letter to Frist that the need for an immigration bill was highlighted by rallies across the nation this week protesting a House bill that would subject illegal immigrants to prosecution as felons.
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Paths To Legal Residency
 

OCRegister.com, April 12. Senators will reconsider legislation in two weeks that would give the 11 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S. a path to a green card and citizenship. New temporary workers would get the same opportunity. But this would take years and be expensive - $2,000 fines for those here illegally, application fees, background checks, an English requirement.
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GOP Seek Toned-Down Immigration Bill
 

MSNBC.com, April 12. The two top Republicans in Congress, confronted with internal party divisions as well as large public demonstrations, said Tuesday they intend to pass immigration legislation that does not subject illegal aliens to prosecution as felons.
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Lawmakers Draw Immigration Battle Lines
 

CNN.com, April 2. "It is incumbent upon us in the Senate to compromise," Majority Leader Bill Frist said on CNN's "Late Edition." He called the nation's immigration system "flat-out broken." Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, cast the fight ahead -- and the impact it might have on Latino citizens, the nation's fastest-growing voting bloc -- as "a defining moment for the Republican Party."
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Frist Wants Immigration Vote This Week
 

Yahoo! News, April 2. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Sunday he wants a full Senate vote on an immigration bill this week and believes that urgent action is needed despite sharp divisions over whether proposed legislation would amount to amnesty.
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Economics of Immigration Could Defy Laws
 

Yahoo! News, April 2. To the mostly immigrant workers and American employers who cross paths at El Centro Humanitario -- a former car wash converted to a day labor agency on the fringes of downtown Denver -- the nation's heated debate over illegal immigration is no abstract concept. It's economic reality.
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US Visa Program For Asian Professionals Comes Under Scrutiny
 

Yahoo News, April 2. A US program that recruits mostly highly educated Asian professionals has come under increasing scrutiny as Americans debate moves to tighten immigration regulations. Launched in 1990, the H-1B visa program allows foreign scientists, engineers and technologists to be employed for up to six years, at the end of which they must obtain a permanent residency or return home.
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H-1B Visa Cap Comes Under Fire In US
 

Times of India, April 1. After a promising start in the Senate, a plan to nearly double the quota for H-1B visas for foreign workers has run into trouble in the US Congress.
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Students Across the Nation Protest Immigration Bills
 

AP, April 1. Thousands of students protesting tough immigration bills being debated in Congress marched in Virginia, California, Texas, Nevada and other states Friday.
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Q & A On H1-B Visas
 

Washington Post, March 31. While the country and Congress debate the future of illegal workers in America, a quieter fight involving immigration is being battled. This week, both the House and Senate heard arguments on whether to extend the H-1B visa program which has been used to lure highly-skilled workers to the United States.Washington Post Staff Writer S. Mitra Kalita was online Friday, March 31 to discuss her story; a transcript follows.
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Immigration Issues Split Democratic Groups
 

NPR, March 30. The Democrats seems less divided than the Republicans on the issue of immigration. But there are still divergent views among some Democratic supporters, such as blacks and labor unions.
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Homeland Security To Fingerprint Sailors
 

AP, March 29. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security plans to collect digital fingerprints of merchant sailors arriving at American ports, believing that will improve security and allow more seafarers to visit the United States, a department official said.
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H-1B Visa Increase Advances In Senate
 

San Jose Mercury News, March 28. A Senate committee voted Monday to significantly increase the number of visas for highly skilled foreign workers as part of a controversial immigration bill that faces an uncertain future in Congress. Silicon Valley high-tech companies are strongly backing the proposed increase in H-1B visas, which currently are capped at 65,000 a year. Various exemptions in the program for certain types of jobs, such as those with non-profit organizations, mean that approximately 220,000 foreigners a year now actually receive the six-year visas.
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Senator Harkin Speaks In Favor Of Immigration Plan
 

Radio Iowa, March 29. Iowa Senator Tom Harkin today spoke in favor of the proposed Senate immigration plan. During debate on the Senate floor, the democrat, defended the controversial program that would let immigrants already illegally in the U.S. gain their citizenship. Harkin says, 'We're not talking about amnesty. That would be wrong.' Harkin says it's an earned program of legalization that allows the illegals to earn their way by working, paying a fine and learning English.

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GOP May Lose Hispanic Vote
 

Washington Post, March 29. Karl Rove must be seeing Pete Wilson in his nightmares. President Bush's architect has been laboring to build up the GOP among Hispanic voters, and he's been succeeding: Bush won more than 40 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2004, double the level attained by Bob Dole eight years earlier. Some of that is attributable to Hispanic voters' particular affinity for Bush, a former border state governor. But the change has been marked enough to make some smart Democrats fear they're at risk of losing their hold on a large and fast-growing slice of voters.
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McCain Kennedy Reported To Senate Floor
 

ilw.com, March 29. The New York Times reports "With Republicans deeply divided, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted on Monday to legalize the nation's 11 million illegal immigrants and ultimately to grant them citizenship, provided that they hold jobs, pass criminal background checks, learn English and pay fines and back taxes."
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Bush Addresses Heated Immigration Debate
 

ABC News, March 25. Hundreds of thousands of people converged in cities around the nation for pro-immigrant rallies as the U.S. Senate prepares to debate legislation increasing penalties for undocumented aliens and the people who hire them.
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Amid Immigration Bill Protests, Bush Says Enforce Existing Law
 

CNN.com. As thousands of people were expected to protest legislation cracking down on illegal immigrants on Saturday, President Bush said he planned to toughen enforcement of immigration laws.
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Immigration Battle Looms In Congress
 

CBSNews.com, March 24. Anticipating turbulent debate over immigration, President Bush urged Congress on Thursday to grapple with the emotional issue in a way that avoids pitting groups against each other. The Senate is to take up immigration next week — and the president and the leader of his party are starting out with different ideas about the best way to address the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants already in the country.
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Immigration Debate Is Shaped By ’08 Election
 

WashingtonPost.com. President Bush's effort to secure lawful employment opportunities for illegal immigrants is evolving into an early battle of the 2008 presidential campaign, as his would-be White House successors jockey for position ahead of next week's immigration showdown in the Senate. Bush called on Congress yesterday to tone down the increasingly sharp and divisive rhetoric over immigration, as he renewed his push for a guest-worker plan that would allow millions of illegal immigrants to continue working in the United States. But Bush's political sway is already weakened by public unease about the war in Iraq and by Republican divisions.
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US Immigration Debate Intensifies
 

BBC News, March 24. Thousands of people in the US city of Milwaukee have protested against plans to criminalise undocumented workers. They oppose a bill passed last year by representatives that would make it a felony to be in the US illegally.
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H1-B Engineers Earn 17% Less
 

Daily Texan, March 23. Nothing pays the bills like an engineering degree, but for noncitizens who are engineers, it pays 17 percent less. Of the 10 jobs with the highest average starting salary in 2005, seven required an engineering degree, according to a National Association of Colleges and Employers survey released last year. Chemical engineering was ranked the highest, with a starting salary of $54,256, a 4.3-percent increase from the previous year.
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Asylum Applications Fall In Half Worldwide
 

UNHCR News, March 20. In the last five years, the number of asylum seekers arriving in all industrialized countries has fallen by half, according to preliminary annual figures released by the UN refugee agency on Friday. Asylum applications in 50 industrialized countries fell sharply for the fourth year in a row in 2005, reaching their lowest level in almost two decades. EDITOR'S NOTE: The summary report is now available in our Free Downloads page.
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Immigration Compromise Near
 

San Jose Mercury News, March 19. Senators struggling to craft a comprehensive immigration overhaul neared a breakthrough Thursday with a tentative agreement that would put millions of illegal residents on a path toward permanent residency and U.S. citizenship.
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Senate Pursuing An Immigration Solution
 

Deseret News.com, March 19. Congressional efforts to revamp the nation's immigration laws are hung up on what Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., calls "the real enchilada" — what to do with the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants already living inside U.S. borders. Despite weeks of intense work on an immigration overhaul, leading senators are no closer to figuring out the solution. And lawmakers in the House largely have avoided the issue altogether by passing a get-tough bill that focuses on securing the nation's borders.
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Immigrant Experience: Ins And Outs Fiancee Who Overstayed Her Visa
 

San Jose Mercury News, March 19. Q I came to the United States with a visitor's visa and have now overstayed. My fiance and I are planning to be married soon. He is a U.S. citizen. What is the procedure for someone in my situation in order to adjust my status? What are the repercussions of my overstay?
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Taiwan Student Visas At Five Year High
 

Central News Agency, March 18. A five-year high number of 15,525 Taiwan students acquired a U.S. visa to study in the United States in 2005, according to the latest statistics compiled by the Ministry of Education (MOE). Most of the Taiwan students who headed overseas for study went to English-speaking countries, with the United States remaining the top destination last year, the tallies showed.
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Senators Wary Of Rushing Bill On Immigration
 

San Jose Mercury News, March 16. Senators from both parties appealed for more time Wednesday as they struggled to come up with an immigration bill dealing with border enforcement, U.S. demand for low-wage workers and the fate of 11 million people in the country illegally. There is little consensus on how to set up a guest-worker program that does not provide amnesty to illegal immigrants. So it appears unlikely that the Senate Judiciary Committee, whose chair is Sen. Arlen Specter, will meet its deadline of agreeing on a bill this week.
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Specter Calls Frist’s Immigration Proposal A ‘Collosal Mistake’
 

Bloomberg, March 16. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, whose panel has been debating immigration legislation for more than two weeks, said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist would make a ``colossal mistake'' by introducing his own measure to the full chamber. Frist, a Tennessee Republican, set a deadline of March 27 to begin considering immigration legislation in the Senate. The Judiciary Committee, meeting for the last time before a weeklong recess, has not finished debate on a proposal by Specter.
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Frist Pressures Panel On Immigration
 

CNN.com, March 16. Majority Leader Bill Frist, who is looking at running for president in 2008, prepared his own bill focused more narrowly on tightening borders and said the Senate will begin debating it the week after next if the Judiciary Committee cannot agree on a broader bill by then.
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Immigration Issue Could Trip Up Bush
 

USNews.com, March 15. Republican strategists are warning that the White House may be headed for another political embarrassment – this time over the immigration issue. The problem, the strategists say, is that President Bush keeps pushing for a guest-worker program as part of his overall solution to the immigration problem while most House Republicans give a much higher priority to strengthening border security.
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Bush Using Straw-Man Arguments In Speeches
 

USNews.com, March 15. Some look at the challenges in Iraq and conclude that the war is lost and not worth another dime or another day," President Bush said recently. Another time he said, "Some say that if you're Muslim you can't be free." "There are some really decent people," the president said earlier this year, "who believe that the federal government ought to be the decider of health care ... for all people." Of course, hardly anyone in mainstream political debate has made such assertions. When the president starts a sentence with "some say" or offers up what "some in Washington" believe, as he is doing more often these days, a rhetorical retort almost assuredly follows.
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NAFSA: Association of International Educators: 'What's Still Wrong with U.S. Visa Policy -- The Case of the Indian Scientist
 

Yahoo News, March 2. Today NAFSA: Association of International Educators issued the following statement, regarding U.S. visa policy: During his visit to India this week, President Bush may encounter questions about the case of Indian scientist Goverdhan Mehta. If he does, it will be an important opportunity for him to rise above the rhetoric on U.S. visa policy and take steps to address this serious obstacle to his efforts to ensure that the United States presents an open and welcoming face to the world.
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Naturalized Citizen Longs To Be Reunited With Husband
 

Portsmouth Herald, March 6. For a year and a half, Ekaterina Atanasova and her husband, Nikola, have been living on two different continents. The longtime sweethearts were married in their home country of Bulgaria in 2004, but because Ekaterina holds a green card and her husband does not, the two are forced to live apart. Atanasova came to the United States in 2003, leaving her family, fiancé and friends behind. She was able to get a visa after two years through the U.S. Diversity Program, which aims to bring immigrants from countries outside of Central America and Asia.
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L.A. Cardinal Mahony Attacks Immigration Bill
 

NPR, March 6, Podcast. Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles says an immigration bill under consideration in Congress would put serious limits on the church's ability to serve illegal immigrants. He called for priests to defy the law if it passes. Liane Hansen speaks about the issue with Kevin Appleby, director of migration and refugee policy for the United States Conference of Bishops.
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Immigration Bill Tests Our Sensibilities
 

TheCalifornian.com, March 6. On March 27, the Senate will begin debate on H.R. 4437, the Border Protection, Antiterrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005. The result is likely to be a civil liberties emergency on par with anything ever seen in the United States. Consequences will be drastic for thousands of employers and millions of families in communities such as Salinas across the nation.
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Pasadena Activists Oppose HR 4437 As ‘Overly Punitive’
 

Pasadena Star News, March 5. City leaders and Latino activists say a House bill aimed at curbing illegal immigration would turn hard-working men and women into felons and force an already marginalized population further into the shadows. Their concerns prompted the Pasadena City Council to prepare a resolution in opposition to the bill, arguing it is 'overly punitive' and puts local police in the position of enforcing federal immigration laws.
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Thousands Protest Proposed Crackdown On Immigration
 

Corvallis Gazette-Times, March 4. A boisterous but peaceful march of about 4,000 demonstrators opposed to pending stricter immigration legislation drummed and chanted through downtown Portland on Saturday, bringing together Hispanic organizations, labor unions, churches and social groups.
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Majority On Hill Back Guest Worker Plan
 

Washington Times, March 4. Republicans and Democrats in Congress would accept a guest-worker plan, according to a new poll that found more than 70 percent of senators and representatives supporting the idea. The National Journal Insiders Poll, a survey of members of Congress, found both parties are ready to accept a plan that would allow more foreigners to legally come to work in the United States. Support was 73 percent among Republicans and 77 percent among Democrats.
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Cuban Academics Denied Visas for Meeting
 

Associated Press, March 2. Cuban academics hoping to attend a gathering of Latin America experts in Puerto Rico were denied visas by the American government, marking the latest in the current U.S. administration's trend of shutting out Cubans. Some 55 philosophers, economists, and historians were told last week they'd be unable to travel to this month's Latin American Studies Association congress in San Juan. Visa requests for four academics were still pending, said Sheryl Lutjens, an American political science professor at Northern Arizona University.
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Political Views Exclude Some from Visiting the U.S.
 

NPR, March 2, Podcast. The American Civil Liberties Union and three academic groups are challenging a provision in the USA Patriot Act. The so-called "ideological exclusion provision" allows the government to deny prospective visitors to the United States a visa because of political views.
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Senate Tackles Immigration , Border Control
 

MSNBC, March 2. The Senate on Thursday took up what a key senator called the “gigantic task” of tightening U.S. borders against illegal immigration, while maintaining the flow of low-wage workers for U.S. business. The effort pits two Republican bases against each other leading up to the midterm congressional elections. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., opened the panel’s first of what will be many sessions trying to put together the legislation, saying he’s been flooded with negative reaction to a bill that he proposed as a starting point.
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Bush Poll Slump Put Republicans on Edge
 

Reuters, March 1. President George W. Bush's slumping popularity is stirring election-year anxiety among some Republicans taken aback by his failure to head off tempests such as dispute over an Arab company's plans to take over key U.S. port operations. Bush's approval rating dropped to an all-time low of 34 percent in a CBS poll this week and has been mired around a lackluster 40 percent in other recent polls.
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Writer Seeking Residency Tapped for Prize
 

Associated Press, February 28. Yiyun Li, an acclaimed short story writer fighting for permission to remain in the United States, is among the finalists for the Kiriyama Prize, given annually for books about the Pacific Rim and South Asia.
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Immigration Reform Highly Unlikely In 2006, Kolbe Says
 

AZCentral.com, February 28. Immigration reform won't happen this year, Iraq may indeed be on the edge of a civil war and Americans are getting worked up for nothing as outrage flares over a United Arab Emirates firm managing American ports. So says Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe, a committee chairman overseeing the U.S. foreign policy budget and a key player in international relations.
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Tommy Lee Jones Calls Mexican Border Wall 'A Great Stupidity'
 

Dominican Today, February 25. U.S. actor and director Tommy Lee Jones called plans by United States lawmakers to build a high fence all along the border with Mexico 'a great stupidity.' 'We should take it only for the idiocy it is – a destructive, bad, impractical idea that anyway is not going to happen. Even if they get together enough money to do it, almost anybody can dig a hole under it or blow up a piece of it,' the actor, who speaks fluent Spanish, said at a press conference here.
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Oklahoma Conservatives Not OK With Bush's Immigration Plan
 

Rep. John Sullivan, R-Tulsa, is brimming with frustration over growing communities of illegal immigrants settling in Oklahoma while authorities up to the White House and President Bush seem slow to react. Illegal aliens are endangering Oklahomans by driving without licenses or auto insurance and straining local social services, Sullivan said.
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Senate To Take Up Immigration
 

If immigration reform were a game of chess, the first gambit would have taken place in December when the House passed its border-security bill. But the pieces will really start to move tomorrow when the Senate Judiciary Committee holds its first meeting on the subject.
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Top Indian Scientist Declines To Accept U.S. Visa After False Accusations
 

India Daily, February 26. It was too little too late for the Indian scientist. Top Indian scientist Goverdhan Mehta has declined to accept the visa belatedly granted to him by the US, which had earlier denied him the travel document in controversial circumstances.
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Domestic Violence Victims Seeking Immigration Relief
 

Provo Daily Herald, February 25. The number of immigrant women who disclosed they were domestic violence victims doubled in four years under a federal law letting them report the abuse without losing their chance to gain legal status.Women whose immigration status hinged on their marriage to a U.S. citizen or legal resident can apply for immigrant visas on their own through provisions in the Violence Against Women Act. The law also applies to children who were abused by a parent.
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U.S. Grants Reprieve To Temporary Protected Status Immigrants
 

South Florida Sun Sentinel (Ft Lauderdale), February 24. At most, the week brought a temporary victory for immigrants with Temporary Protected Status. On Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security announced a 12-month extension of a federal program that prevents the deportation of immigrants from El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. The program had been set to expire as early as July for some. The reprieve means one more year those affected can live and work legally in the United States and their children can attend public schools. But the 12-month extension does not end the uncertainty.
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World Science Body Slams Tougher U.S. Visa Rules
 

Yahoo News, February 23. A leading world science body denounced tougher U.S. visa policies on Thursday after its Indian-born president said he failed to get permission to enter the country on charges he was hiding information that could be used for chemical weapons.
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McCain In Miami to Push Immigration Reform
 

MiamiHerald.com, February 22. Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican presidential hopeful behind one of the key immigration bills in Congress, is launching a nationwide publicity blitz before arriving in Miami Thursday to garner support for legislation to legalize up to 11 million illegal immigrants. McCain told The Miami Herald in a telephone interview Tuesday that his bill, co-sponsored with Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., provides the only realistic way to solve what he described as a ''national security'' problem: the government's inability to identify the millions of unauthorized migrants. Other bills that would attempt to force the departure of undocumented migrants are not taking reality into account, he said.
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Experts Say Student Terror Links Could Be Formed Overseas
 

Toledo Blade, February 23. Terrorists could be attracted to college students, such as a University of Toledo student indicted by a federal grand jury, because of their technological capabilities, two terrorism experts said yesterday. 'There always is an effort to recruit students,' said John Nutter, director of institutional research at the University of Toledo and a terrorism expert who has written books about covert operations. 'Terrorists have to handle technology, so you try to recruit from the brightest people you can.
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McCain Launching Immigration Effort
 

Arizona Republic, February 22. Sen. John McCain on Tuesday said he is launching a national campaign, not as a candidate for president but on behalf of his immigration-reform bill. The Arizona Republican will headline a series of rallies organized by immigration advocates and immigrant-service groups beginning Thursday in Miami before moving on to New York and Los Angeles and possibly other cities. The goal: to push the Senate to approve his guest-worker proposal rather than the narrow approach focused on border security already passed by the House.
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Indian Software Firms To Lobby Bush To Increase Visa Quota
 

Industry Week, February 22, Indian software firms said Feb. 21 they would lobby U.S. President George W. Bush during his March visit to double the visa quota for Indian information technology professionals. India employs 700,000 software professionals, up from 7,000 a decade ago, and many of them work abroad using special visas on contracts won by local technology companies.
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3 Charged In Terror Plot; Local Suspects Planned Attacks In Iraq, U.S. Says
 

ToledoBlade.com. In a simple West Toledo ranch house and during target practice at a local shooting range, three area men plotted to build bombs and help assist the insurgent attacks in Iraq, federal authorities alleged yesterday.
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State Department Unveils Trial Of Electronic Passports
 

National Journal's Technology Daily, February 21. The State Department on Friday announced it has started issuing electronic passports on a trial basis. Diplomats received the first e-passports containing radio frequency 'contactless chips' and face recognition technology in late December. The e-passport contains a chip, which is embedded into the cover of the document and includes a digital image of the traveler, as well as their name, date and place of birth, gender, passport number and dates of passport issuance and expiration.
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States Question Costs of Real ID Act
 

Los Angeles Times, February 20. When Congress rushed passage of the Real ID Act last spring, the idea was to foil terrorists. States would be required to replace their current drivers' licenses with forgery-proof identification cards embedded with private information that government agents anywhere in the country could quickly scan to verify a person's identity.
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US Student Visa: When To Apply
 

ReDiff.com, February 20. You have been accepted by a school in the US. When must you apply for a student visa? US visa expert Dr Arun Vakil, in a live chat with Get Ahead readers on February 9, said: "You can book 90 days before the commencement of your school in the US provided you have not got any other student visa before.
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Phoenix Citizenship Office Hopes To Cut Time Lags
 

Arizona Republic , February 11. Immigrants are waiting too long for their green cards and citizenship applications to be processed by the Phoenix office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency's new director said Friday. Robert J. Okin said his goal is to reduce the processing times for permanent residency and citizenship applications to six months by Oct. 1, the start of the next fiscal year. He said it now takes about 12 months to process permanent residency applications, also known as green cards, and citizenship applications.
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Tips for US Visa Interviews
 

Rediff.com, February 13. You have applied for a non-immigrant US visa. But you need to wait for a certain period before you are granted an appointment for your visa interview. Waiting can be an agonising process, especially if you need to reach the US by a certain date. Here are some tips and information that will help you receive your visa on time.
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The DV Lottery: A Fantastic Dream Or An Unexpected Nightmare?
 

Nepalnews.com, February 12. ‘Leave the country in any way you can: go to Australia, Europe, the US or anywhere for that matter but do not waste your time here…’ has become the motto of the Nepalis today. The US Diversity Visa programme truly provides an exit strategy for Nepalis wanting to do just that. If you are lucky, you can go to America with your family without the need of admittance to a college or having to pay an agent. For average Nepali, it strikes as a perfect scenario. May be that is why, “Oh he is very lucky, he got the DV this year, he is going to America with his family and has already resigned from the job….” is a common conversation in any Nepali neighbourhood or gatherings.
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Seized With Heavy Hand At Border For Paperwork Errors
 

New York Times, February 10. One is a second grader in Manhattan. Over the protests of his American mother, immigration officials have been trying to deport him ever since he returned from a brief visit to his native Canada without the right visa. Another is an Irish professor of literature invited to teach at the University of Pennsylvania last month. He was handcuffed at the Philadelphia airport, strip-searched, jailed overnight and sent back to Europe to correct an omission in his travel papers.
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Intel Chairman Calls For More H1-Bs
 

UPI, February 8. A leader of a semiconductor company wants the United States to ease immigrations standards to make it easier to hire and retain foreign nationals. Intel Chairman Craig Barrett, appearing on a question-and-answer forum on FT.com, said a market-based approach to granting work visas should replace the current system, which sets numerical limits on such documents. Several leaders of technology companies have made similar requests of U.S. officials, the Financial Times said Wednesday. The visa classification that allows foreign engineers and scientists to temporarily relocate to the United States has a limit of 65,000. Some 140,000 green cards, allowing permanent stays, are granted each year.
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Film Depicts Plight of Cuban Rafters
 

Associated Press, February 8. When director Carlos Gutierrez set out to make a short film about two Cuban rafters stranded on a deserted island off the coast of Florida, he hoped the movie might renew interest in the U.S. government's wet foot/dry foot immigration policy. He never set out to make a movie ripped from the headlines. Then last month the Bush administration sparked a firestorm when it declared an abandoned bridge in the Florida Keys didn't count as 'dry land' and sent back 15 Cubans who had landed there. Suddenly the Miami-native found himself not only promoting his new Spanish-language film but smack dab in the middle of a major political debate.
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State Wins Judgment In Immigration Scam
 

Houston Chronicle, February 7. The Texas Attorney General's Office announced Monday that it had won a $10 million judgment against a Pasadena-based immigration consultant accused of bilking hundreds of immigrants out of hundreds of thousands of dollars for fraudulent services.
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Judge Revokes Man's U.S. Citizenship; Criminal History, Lying Cited
 

Salt Lake Tribune, February 7. A federal judge has revoked the American citizenship of a Layton man who lied about his criminal history, ordering him to turn in his naturalization papers. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball 'is entered forever restraining and enjoining' Martin Treto from claiming any rights he obtained as a result of his Dec. 19, 1996, swearing in as a U.S. citizen. The order, handed down last week, told the 33-year-old to also surrender any passport or voter registration card.
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Tunnel Discovery Questions Logic Of Border Fence Proposal
 

San Diego Union, February 5. On the surface, the stretch of U.S.-Mexico border just west of the Otay Mesa port of entry looks heavily fortified: two rows of tall fence with a wide strip of no man's land in between, illuminated at night by stadium-style lighting. Yet roughly 90 feet beneath the fences and lights runs the longest smuggling tunnel ever discovered along the border. The 2,400-foot passageway was discovered late last month, almost two years after its construction began. Inside sat more than two tons of marijuana.
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Taken For A Green Card Lottery Ride
 

Kenya Standard, February 5. Kenya’s newest con artists are on the prowl — this time riding on Kenyans’ desperation to make new lives for themselves abroad. The cartels of bogus brokers, operating from posh locations in Nairobi’s Central Business District and several obscure outlets in the back streets, now sell vital stolen and forged documents ranging from marriage certificates to land title deeds and bank statements. They also provide ‘services’ to those interested in participating in the US Diversity Immigrant Visa programme, better known as the Green Card Lottery.
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Bush Asks For More Visas For High-Tech Workers
 

Financial Times, February 3. President George W. Bush, who is touring the country as part of a weeks-long campaign to promote his 2006 agenda, called on Congress yesterday to raise the number of visas that allow companies to fill high-tech jobs with foreign workers.
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SI Contract Renewed To Run Visa Lottery Program
 

FCW.com, Feb 1. SI International will manage and operate the National Visa Center and the Kentucky Consular Center under an $84 million contract with the State Department. The contract renews an older one and spans an initial one-year base period with four one-year options. SI has been the prime contractor for NVC since 1994. The contract makes SI responsible for handling 10 million pieces of mail and more than 700,000 phone calls each year under the permanent immigrant visa program. The company will also process millions of electronic submissions to the eDiversity Lottery program.
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Calm Heads Must Break Immigration Impasse
 

Indianapolis Star, January 30. Immigration is steadily rising to the top of the national agenda. Nearly everyone agrees that our current policy is not working, but consensus on this complex and emotional issue has been hard to come by. For more than a decade, illegal immigration to the U.S. has risen even as we have sharply stepped up efforts to secure our southern border, and illegal immigration is now more common than legal immigration. Meanwhile, the U.S. economy increasingly depends upon illegal immigrants to fill low-wage jobs that Americans are not as likely to take. This dilemma of rising illegal immigration and dependence upon illegal labor has prompted legislative proposals from President Bush and leading members of Congress, as well as impassioned and at times acrimonious debate.
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Amid Immigration Debate, Work Lures Legal Foreigners
 

Arizona Daily Star, January 30. As Congress prepares to debate the merits of bringing in guest workers from other countries, hundreds of thousands of foreigners already legally teach in America's classrooms, nurse the sick in hospitals and tidy rooms in resorts. Long before the clamor over rival guest-worker proposals reached Capitol Hill, people from all over the world had become a fixture in the U.S. labor force. In the last fiscal year ending Sept. 30, about 640,000 foreigners received visas as guest or temporary workers, according to the most recent data from the U.S. State Department.
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Central American Special Temporary Residency Debate Heats Up
 

AP, January 29. Special temporary U.S. residency issued to thousands of Central Americans is due to expire in the coming months, and with the debate over immigration increasingly fierce, many of the immigrants fear they will be sent home. The temporary status granted to Nicaraguans and Hondurans after Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and to Salvadorans following a devastating earthquake in 2001 has been renewed repeatedly with little public debate, but opposition is growing
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