newsletter feb 09 2006



Newsletter US Visa Feb 06, 2006

Ending of protected status to hit Central Americans

WASHINGTON, DC - As the U.S. Senate gears up to deal with immigration reform, hundreds of thousands of immigrants from El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua are facing a deadline that could lead to a sharp deterioration of their condition here. About 300,000 Central Americans, most of them Salvadorans, are allowed to stay in this country legally under a special "Temporary Protected Status" negotiated between the United States and their home governments. They were here without documents when Honduras and Nicaragua were struck by major hurricanes in 1998 and when El Salvador was hit by a devastating earthquake in 2001. The Temporary Protected Status (TPS) has been renewed several times. If it were to end and the persons covered by it were deported, El Salvador especially would not be able to deal with the sudden addition of 220,000 people to its labor force, in a country of only 6,900,000 inhabitants. Also, Salvadorans living in the United States, including TPS people, send home over $2.5 billion each year in family remittances, which would be reduced if the TPS people were deported. All three countries are desperately dependent on TPS, and this gives the United States leverage over their governments. Many Salvadoran immigrants in the U.S. believe that the otherwise nonsensical presence of a contingent of Salvadoran troops helping the U.S. in Iraq must surely be a quid pro quo for the continued extensions of TPS.

The United States has also used the TPS program to manipulate Salvadoran internal politics. During the campaign for the March 2004 presidential election, the U.S. government put out the word that if FMLN party candidate Shafik Handal were to win, TPS would be canceled. The presidency went to right-winger Antonio Saca. Anti-immigrant forces in the U.S. demand that the TPS program be ended and its participants be deported. Nevertheless, this week Haiti requested that Haitian immigrants be brought under a Temporary Protected Status, and last year Guatemala made the same request after heavy damage from hurricanes. Colombia and Pakistan have made similar requests. Anti-immigrant spokespeople claim that the TPS people are not really refugees from natural disasters, but from poverty and underdevelopment. In this they are probably to some extent right, but draw the wrong conclusions. El Salvador would be an economic basket case with or without earthquakes. The whole Latin America and Caribbean area has been struck by a disaster bigger than any hurricane or earthquake, namely the neoliberal "free trade" and privatization policies imposed on them by the wealthier countries, especially the United States, and the international lending institutions.

Source: People's Weekly World

Massive drugs tunnel found under Mexico-US border

SAN DIEGO, CA - US authorities have discovered, what they say is the largest and most sophisticated tunnel under their border with Mexico, one that was used by drug trafficking gangs. The tunnel, lined with concrete and equipped with ventilation and lights, is one kilometer- (0.62 mile-) long, according to Mexican officials, but their US counterparts say it was only about 727 meters (2,400 feet). The secret route is cut a staggering 26 meters (85.3 feet) below ground, directly under a heavily protected sector of the frontier and is much larger than the 21 others detected under the border since the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on US soil, US officials said. "We believe this tunnel is, in fact, the largest tunnel ever found on the Southwest border," said Michael Unzueta, special agent in charge for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Diego. The tunnel, discovered late Wednesday by US Border Patrol agents who tipped off Mexican authorities, begins beneath a warehouse in the Mexican border town of Tijuana and stretches to Otay, near the California city of San Diego.

The length and well-built structure of the tunnel, which was 1.5 meters wide (4.9 feet), make it unusual. Authorities found more than two tons of marijuana in the tunnel that US officials fear could also be used by people smugglers and even terrorists trying to circumvent the border. "We're very concerned," said Unzueta. "When we find these tunnels, we see that as a vulnerability to our national security." Mexican police raided the warehouse in Tijuana and discovered a 1.8 by 3.6 meter (six by twelve foot) concrete-lined shaft equipped with a ladder that drops down to the tunnel below. A gurney hanging from a pulley system attached to one of the warehouse's beams allowed items to be moved into and out of the tunnel. Portions of the tunnel are 15-18 meters (50 to 60 feet) deep, Unzueta said. The tunnel has a lighting, ventilation and pumping system to keep seeping water out. "It's a vast and sophisticated tunnel. We know it's used for drug trafficking, obviously, but ... this tunnel truly illustrates the dangers, the risks of the security and safety concerns of the American public."

Source: Yahoo News

How U.S. Immigrants Send Money Abroad

NEW YORK, NY - Every month, José Valencia sends between $300 and $400 to his sisters and other relatives in Ecuador from the Delgado Travel office in Queens, N.Y. "We never cease to do that," says Mr. Valencia, who heads the New York Association for New Americans, an immigrant advocacy group. "We are always going to send money home." Delgado Travel, a family-owned business with 35 locations in New York, New Jersey, and Illinois, serves between 8,000 and 11,000 customers a day. But Valencia is considering switching to Citibank. "They are the biggest bank in the whole world," he says. "With a lot of these small companies, you don't know whether the money is going to get there. So I would deal with a big bank because I know that [it is] going to be there." Besides reputation, loosening regulations and lower fees are changing the way immigrants transfer money. The result may hurt longtime operations like Delgado Travel, while bringing immigrants into the mainstream financial fold.

Citibank, HSBC, Bank of America, and other banks are seeking a piece of the $100 billion immigrants send home each year. Advanced electronic systems and widespread distribution networks - a product of mergers with banks in other countries - have enabled banks in the United States to provide money transfers for lower fees. Remittance fees average about 8 percent of the amount transferred, according to the Inter-American Development Bank. By charging less than the competition, banks are gaining in popularity among immigrants. According to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on remittances published in November, banks charged just $8.80 on a $300 remittance to Mexico, whereas the US Postal Service charged $10, and money-transfer operator Western Union charged $10.70. Delgado Travel, which offers to pay out in US dollars instead of pesos, thereby avoiding any negative exchange-rate fluctuations, typically charges $12.

Immigrant-remittance stats [view image above]: Wire-transfer companies such as Western Union control the largest share of the $6 billion remittance market. But banks have been making inroads, providing remittance services abroad through international money orders and cash-to-cash wire transfers.

Source: The Christian Science Monitor

Bush asks for more visas for high-tech workers

NEW YORK, NY - 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." The problem is that Congress has limited the number of H-1B visas," President Bush said, referring to the name of the official passport endorsement. "I think it's a mistake not to encourage more really bright folks who can fill the jobs that are having trouble being filled in America, to limit their number. So I call upon Congress to be realistic and reasonable to raise that cap." The H-1B visa, which allows US employers to have access to highly educated foreign professionals, many of whom work in scientific research, medicine and technology, has been a point of contention between business and government over the past two years. High-tech industries battling talent shortages blame the visa program's low cap on approved new workers.

In 1990 - the year it took effect - the cap was set at 65,000. That number was progressively raised by Congress during the technology boom and hit an all-time high for fiscal years 2001 through to 2003, at 195,000. In 2004, however, the cap dropped back to 65,000 and has stayed there since. "It's clear we don't have enough workers with math and science degrees and in a workforce of 140m a cap of 65,000 is way too low," said Randy Johnson, the vice-president for labor, immigration and employee benefits at the US Chamber of Commerce. "The cap has filled almost immediately over the past two years." Sandra Boyd, at the National Association of Manufacturers, the industry body, said that reforms to both the H-1B visa and green card programs were key to helping US employers maintain their ability to create jobs in the United States.

Source: Financial Times

Border police on alert for illegal immigrants

DETROIT, MI - Robert Johnson was down on his luck and short on cash last month when a man named Hunt offered him $800 to smuggle two Chinese immigrants in the trunk of his car into the United States through the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel. But what looked like easy money quickly turned into a legal nightmare for the laid-off Windsor auto mechanic, 29, who joined the growing ranks of Canadian and U.S. citizens arrested at the border recently, accused of smuggling Chinese and other Asian immigrants into the United States. Since May, about a dozen otherwise law-abiding citizens, including a Wayne County juvenile detention officer, have been arrested at the tunnel or Ambassador Bridge and charged with smuggling Asian nationals into the country. In most cases, the smuggling suspects told authorities they were offered $150 to $4,000 by strangers for what initially looked like easy cash. "Getting paid $1,000 for 20 minutes of work sounds like an easy way to make money, but the implications are tremendous if you get caught," Johnson's lawyer, Mark Magidson of Detroit, said Monday. Court papers filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Detroit indicate that Johnson plans to plead guilty soon to bringing illegal immigrants to the United States for private financial gain, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Chief Ronald Smith of U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the recent influx of Chinese immigrant smuggling arrests in Detroit follow a surge in arrests at the border crossing in Buffalo, N.Y. He said the smugglers may have moved their operation to Detroit after authorities in Buffalo figured out what they were doing. "When we catch on to how they're doing the smuggling, they change their techniques," said Smith, who is based in Detroit. U.S. officials estimate that from 14,500 to 17,500 people -- mainly women and children -- are smuggled annually into the United States. Many wind up in sweatshops, domestic servitude, agricultural labor camps or prostitution. Most come from Asia, Europe and Latin America. Smith said most of the arrests in Detroit involved immigrants who came voluntarily in search of opportunity. Johnson was arrested around 3:30 p.m. Dec. 8 after driving through the tunnel in his 2002 Pontiac Grand Prix. He told a customs agent that he was going shopping in the United States, but the agent sent him to a secondary inspection because he appeared nervous and tried to use a special express inspection lane. At the secondary inspection, agents found two Chinese nationals in the trunk. He told agents that the mystery man named Hunt offered to pay him $800 for smuggling the immigrants, taking them to the Greyhound bus terminal in Detroit and buying them tickets to New York City. He said he needed the money. It's unclear what happened to the immigrants.

Source: Detroit Free Press

Application US-GreenCard

click here