|
U.S. Immigration
Officials Want Biometrics Of Departing Visitors Too |
CaribWorldNews, WASHINGTON,
D.C., Weds. April, 23, 2008:
U.S. immigration officials, not satisfied with just capturing
the biometrics of incoming Caribbean and other visitors, now
want their exit data too.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security yesterday proposed a
plan that could establish biometric exit procedures at all U.S
air and sea ports of departure. The plan is targeted at mainly
non-U.S. citizens who are already required to submit digital
fingerprints and a digital photograph for admission into the
country.
Under the proposed US-VISIT Exit proposal, the DHS says it would
require non-U.S. citizens who provide biometric identifiers for
admission to also provide digital fingerprints when departing
the country from any air or sea ports of departure.
`The 9/11 Commission called for biometric entry and exit records,
because biometrics confirm that travelers are who they say they
are and the purpose of their travel is as they claim it to be,`
said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. `We've built
an effective entry system, and combined with the proposed exit
system, we'll have made a quantum leap in America's border security.`
Currently, visitors departing the U.S. are asked to largely return
their paper Form I-94 or Form I-94W to airline or ship representatives.
The proposed rule would require commercial air carriers and cruise
line owners and operators to collect and transmit international
visitors' biometric information to DHS within 24 hours of leaving
the United States. Carriers are already required to transmit
biographic information to DHS for all passengers prior to their
departure from the United States.
The DHS says it intends to implement air and sea biometric exit
procedures by January 2009, fulfilling a key provision of the
Implementing the Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of
2007.
The notice of proposed rulemaking will be published in the Federal
Register and will provide the general public an opportunity to
submit written comments electronically or by mail at www.dhs.gov
over the next 60 days. CaribWorldNews.com
|
Over 200 Haitians
Repatriated |
CaribWorldNews, MIAMI,
NY, Thurs. April 17, 2008:
Two hundred and forty seven Haitians were this week repatriated
to Cap-Haiten, Haiti after being picked up by the Coast Guard
over the weekend.
The Haitian migrants were located on two over-crowded sailboats
Saturday and Sunday approximately 17 miles west of Great Inagua,
Bahamas.
Crewmembers located a 35-foot sail freighter with an unknown
number of people aboard, approximately 20 miles southeast of
Great Inagua Sunday morning but due to safety concerns, decided
to wait until sunrise before attempting to transfer the migrants.
The next morning, the Harriet Lane crew launched two small boats,
distributed life jackets and embarked 131 Haitian migrants.
The repatriation comes as Haitians rioted over rising food prices
in the country. CaribWorldNews.com
|
Cubans get better
chance to enter US legally |
HAVANA, Cuba, April 16,
2008: The United States
(US) government has started a new programme to reunite Cuban
families as part of a plan to issue 20,000 immigration visas
a year every year.
Consul General Sean Murphy said the first official travel documents
have already been delivered to an eligible family under the Cuban
Family Reunification Programme (CFRP).
Families will now be able to obtain a "parole" document
to enter US territory, instead of staying in Cuba to apply for
permanent legal residence in the United States.
Murphy explained that while under previous rules people might
have to wait for a visa for up to 10 years, the waiting period
will be no more than 10 weeks.
"The purpose of the programme is to expedite family reunification
through safe, legal and orderly channels of migration to the
United States and to discourage dangerous and irregular maritime
migration," said a press release from the US Interest Section
(USINT) in Havana.
USINT said that approximately 12,000 immigrant visa petitioners
have been notified that their family members are eligible for
the CFRP and to date more than 5,000 of them have asked to participate
in the programme.
Murphy said the prospects are good for people in the US to be
reunited with family members who now live in Cuba.
He said the programme is open, with no deadline and special to
Cuba.
Under what is known as the "wet foot, dry foot" policy,
the US repatriates would-be Cuban immigrants intercepted at sea,
but those who manage to reach dry land can obtain residence in
the United States under the Cuban Adjustment Act, no matter how
they entered the country.
So far this fiscal year, 2,891 Cuban nationals have tried to
reach the United States across the Florida Straits, 21 per cent
more than in the equivalent period of the previous year.
Official estimates in Cuba have indicated that between 1.3 million
and 1.5 million Cubans and their descendants currently live abroad,
most of them in the US.
|
Lawsuit claims
immigration raids are unconstitutional |
Newark, NJ, April 03,
2008: Warrantless immigration
raids that have led to the deportation of hundreds of illegal
immigrants living in New Jersey in recent years violate the U.S.
Constitution, a human rights group associated with Seton Hall
University charges in a lawsuit filed today.
The lawsuit, filed by Seton Hall Law School's Center for Social
Justice and the Roseland law firm Lowenstein Sandler, challenges
a growing and widespread tactic by U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) in which immigrants are arrested at their homes
in pre-dawn raids.
Based on eight home raids that occurred across New Jersey between
August 2006 and January 2008, the suit alleges ICE agents lied
about their identity, illegally forced their way into homes and
often claimed to be looking for someone who did not even live
at the address.
In some cases, the plaintiffs charge, they arrested and detained
people living legally in the U.S.
"This is the first lawsuit in the country to focus on the
consistency of these abusive home raid practices across an entire
state, and over a significant period of time,'' Bassina Farbenblum,
an attorney at the Seton Hall Center for Social Justice, said
in a prepared release.
"Our complaint shows that what happened to our plaintiffs
in the middle of the night was not exceptional," she added.
"It was part of a routine, widespread practice, condoned
at the highest levels of government, that tramples the rights
of citizens and non-citizens alike."
None of the raids involved valid warrants and none of the eight
gave consent for agents to enter their homes, the lawsuit says.
In one case, Maria Argueta, a legal U.S. resident living in North
Bergen, says she was arrested by agents who did not ask to check
her paperwork, detained 24 hours without food or water. In another,
ICE agents and police from Penn's Grove stormed a house with
guns drawn, looking for a man ICE had deported two years earlier.
In New Jersey, the raids are conducted by four fugitive operations
teams, part of a nationwide program launched in 2003 to round
up illegal immigrants who had ignored old deportation orders.
The program once set a goal of making criminals comprise 75 percent
of its arrests. But government auditors found that, in order
to boost arrest statistics and meet the 1,000-arrests-per-year
quota set by their bosses, agents turned their attention away
from criminals and other tough targets, such as illegal immigrants
who use fake or stolen identities, government auditors found
last year.
In a story published in December, The Star-Ledger reported the
four New Jersey teams arrested 2,079 people in the year that
ended Sept. 30 - twice as many as the year before, when two teams
were on the streets. The paper found that 88 percent of those
arrested had no criminal histories and were picked up instead
for civil immigration violations
|
Call for action
on deportees |
Bridgetown, Barbados,
March 29, 2008: BARBADOS
IS HOPING for quick action from the United States on the concerns
Caribbean countries have raised about Washington's continued
deportation of Barbadians and other West Indians with criminal
records.
Prime Minister David Thompson disclosed this yesterday during
a Press conference shared with the United States Assistant Secretary
of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Thomas Shannon, at Ilaro
Court .
"I hope that this will be one of the areas in which we can
get some quick results because it is a major concern," Thompson
told reporters.
The problem of deportees featured in discussions which Thompson,
The Bahamas' Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham and Belize's leader
Dean Barrow had with President George Bush in the White House
last week as well as the talks between Thompson and Shannon
yesterday.
Mechanism
"A mechanism" to deal with the problem had also been
discussed, Thompson said, without going into details.
The Prime Minister spoke against the backdrop of speculation
that Barbados and other Caribbean nations may soon be forced
to absorb more criminal deportees from the United States.
This was triggered by a decision by the United States Sentencing
Commission to lighten punishment retroactively for some drug
crimes.
Crime
One worry for Caribbean countries was that some deportees left
the region as children and no longer had family ties, a network
of friends or any kind of support system. Another was the deportees'
involvement in crime.
Shannon, who is on a swing through the Caribbean, noted that
the United States hoped to be able later to sit down with CARICOM
leaders and work on a security co-operation agenda.
Trafficking in whatever form was now managed and run by organised
crime networks and cartels which were "transnational actors"
with no respect for sovereignty and with "enormous"
resources of telecommunications, money, weapons and transportation
at their disposal, Shannon pointed out.
On the other hand, the small states of the Caribbean were "not
adequately equipped" to face these problems, he told reporters.
|
Immigrants:
"We Were Set Up by Amtrak and Greyhound!" |
New York, March 25, 2008:
Families who were targeted
for deportation after riding on Amtrak and Greyhound today denounced
the private transport companies for laying a trap for them.
Immigrant rights activists joined the families who rallied
in front of Amtrak and Greyhound headquarters to hold the travel
companies accountable for taking their money and not warning
them that they may be interrogated, arrested and detained by
immigration officials.
Sonia, who immigration officials arrested along with her family
while they rode peacefully on an Amtrak train, gave a written
statement that was read by Maria Muentes of Families For Freedom
a network by and for families facing and fighting deportation.
Her statement described the terror of being grilled by immigration
officials and separated from her family. "This is the last
thing I expected coming home. They seemed to be approaching all
of the Latinos on the train and asking them for papers. One family
even had work permits but immigration officials told them that
this was not enough and they were detained also. I'm a customer,
I paid just like everyone else, but my family and I were treated
like we are less than human beings," Sonia's family was
detained at the Amtrak station and then transported to an Immigration
and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility where some members were
sent home and others imprisoned in the Buffalo Federal Detention
Facility.
After being bonded out they experienced the same terror a second
time coming home on the Greyhound bus.
"What this says to us is that immigrants--documented or
undocumented--can expect to be targeted and inspected every single
time they board Amtrak or Greyhound to go anywhere near a U.S.
border crossing. That these companies do not warn people they
may end up in immigration detention through the simple act of
purchasing a ticket is unconscionable," said Maria MuentesThis
shocking trend is part of the Department of Homeland Security's
efforts to deputize everyone in the community to help them enforce
immigration law.
"They claim that they are simply stepping up border inspections
but essentially they are bringing the border to you. Its easy
pickings for them to target unsuspecting people on these busses
and trains but a nightmare for New York City families who will
face deportation as a result of having taken that train or bus
ride," demanded Juan Carlos Ruiz, Director of New York New
Sanctuary Movement.
A woman who has witnessed these raids gave impromptu testimony.
She said she came out to support the rally because her grandparents
were in Auschwitz and when she heard of these bus raids it reminded
her of stories that she heard them tell about their persecution
under the Nazi regime. Families for Freedom, who helped organize
this rally, want to warn immigrants of the following,
¸ When stopped by immigration officials it is your right
to ask for an attorney. Say, "I cannot answer your questions
without my attorney present."
¸ Don't sign anything.
¸ Don't Lie.
¸ Do not be combative, be polite and clear. You don't want
to give them an excuse to assault you physically.
¸ Make sure someone in your family knows where you are
going and has all your information so they can find you if you
are detained.
¸ Expect to be investigated by immigration officials each
and every time you ride Amtrak or Greyhound or anytime you drive
near the border.
An Agent, a
Green Card, and a Demand for Sex
By NINA BERNSTEIN |
New York Times, March
21, 2008: No problems
so far, the immigration agent told the American citizen and his
22-year-old Colombian wife at her green card interview in December.
After he stapled one of their wedding photos to her application
for legal permanent residency, he had just one more question:
What was her cellphone number?
The calls from the agent started three days later. He hinted,
she said, at his power to derail her life and deport her relatives,
alluding to a
brush she had with the law before her marriage. He summoned her
to a private meeting. And at noon on Dec. 21, in a parked car
on Queens
Boulevard, he named his price - not realizing that she was recording
everything on the cellphone in her purse.
"I want sex," he said on the recording. "One or
two times. That's all. You get your green card. You won't have
to see me anymore."
She reluctantly agreed to a future meeting. But when she tried
to leave his car, he demanded oral sex "now," to "know
that you're serious." And
despite her protests, she said, he got his way.
The 16-minute recording, which the woman first took to The New
York Times and then to the Queens district attorney, suggests
the vast power
of low-level immigration law enforcers, and a growing desperation
on the part of immigrants seeking legal status. The aftermath,
which included
the arrest of an immigration agent last week, underscores the
difficulty and danger of making a complaint, even in the rare
case when abuse of
power may have been caught on tape.
No one knows how widespread sexual blackmail is, but the case
echoes other instances of sexual coercion that have surfaced
in recent years,
including agents criminally charged in Atlanta, Miami and Santa
Ana, Calif. And it raises broader questions about the system's
vulnerability
to corruption at a time when millions of noncitizens live in
a kind of legal no-man's land, increasingly fearful of seeking
the law's protection.
The agent arrested last week, Isaac R. Baichu, 46, himself
an immigrant from Guyana, handled some 8,000 green card applications
during his three years as an adjudicator in the Garden City,
N.Y., office of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services,
part of the federal Department of Homeland Security. He pleaded
not guilty to felony and misdemeanor charges of coercing the
young woman to perform oral sex, and of promising to help her
secure immigration papers in exchange for further sexual favors.
If convicted, he will face up to seven years in prison.
His agency has suspended him with pay, and the inspector general
of Homeland Security is reviewing his other cases, a spokesman
said
Wednesday. Prosecutors, who say they recorded a meeting between
Mr. Baichu and the woman on March 11 at which he made similar
demands for sex, urge any other victims to come forward.
Money, not sex, is the more common currency of corruption in
immigration, but according to Congressional testimony in 2006
by Michael
Maxwell, former director of the agency's internal investigations,
more than 3,000 backlogged complaints of employee misconduct
had gone
uninvestigated for lack of staff, including 528 involving criminal
allegations.
The agency says it has tripled its investigative staff since
then, and counts only 165 serious complaints pending. But it
stopped posting an
e-mail address and phone number for such complaints last year,
said Jan Lane, chief of security and integrity, because it lacks
the staff to
cull the thousands of mostly irrelevant messages that resulted.
Immigrants, she advised, should report wrongdoing to any law
enforcement agency they trust.
The young woman in Queens, whose name is being withheld because
the authorities consider her the victim of a sex crime, did not
even tell
her husband what had happened. Two weeks after the meeting in
the car, finding no way to make a confidential complaint to the
immigration
agency and afraid to go to the police, she and two older female
relatives took the recording to The Times.
Reasons to Worry
A slim, shy woman who looks like a teenager, she said she had
spent recent months baby-sitting for relatives in Queens, crying
over the
deaths of her two brothers back in Cali, Colombia, and longing
for the right stamp in her passport - one that would let her
return to the
United States if she visited her family.
She came to the United States on a tourist visa in 2004 and overstayed.
When she married an American citizen a year ago, the law allowed
her to
apply to "adjust" her illegal status. But unless her
green card application was approved, she could not visit her
parents or her brothers' graves and then legally re-enter the
United States. And if her application was denied, she would face
deportation.
She had another reason to be fearful, and not only for herself.
About 15 months ago, she said, an acquaintance hired her and
two female relatives
in New York to carry $12,000 in cash to the bank. The three women,
all living in the country illegally, were arrested on the street
by customs
officers apparently acting on a tip in a money-laundering investigation.
After determining that the women had no useful information, the
officers
released them.
But the closed investigation file had showed up in the computer
when she applied for a green card, Mr. Baichu told her in December;
until he
obtained the file and dealt with it, her application would not
be approved. If she defied him, she feared, he could summon immigration
enforcement agents to take her relatives to detention.
So instead of calling the police, she turned on the video recorder
in her cellphone, put the phone in her purse and walked to meet
the agent.
Two family members said they watched anxiously from their parked
car as she disappeared behind the tinted windows of his red Lexus.
"We were worried that the guy would take off, take her away
and do something to her," the woman's widowed sister-in-law
said in Spanish.
As the recorder captured the agent's words and a lilting Guyanese
accent, he laid out his terms in an easy, almost paternal style.
He would not ask too much, he said: sex "once or twice,"
visits to his home in the Bronx, perhaps a link to other Colombians
who needed his help
with their immigration problems.
In shaky English, the woman expressed reluctance, and questioned
how she could be sure he would keep his word. "If I do it,
it's like very hard for me, because I have my husband, and I
really fall in love with him," she said.
The agent insisted that she had to trust him. "I wouldn't
ask you to do something for me if I can't do something for you,
right?" he said, and
reasoned, "Nobody going to help you for nothing," noting
that she had no money.
He described himself as the single father of a 10-year-old daughter,
telling her, "I need love, too," and predicting, "You
will get to like me because I'm a nice guy."
Repeatedly, she responded "O.K.," without conviction.
At one point he thanked her for showing up, saying, "I know
you feel very scared."
Finally, she tried to leave. "Let me go because I tell my
husband I come home," she said.
His reply, the recording shows, was a blunt demand for oral sex.
"Right now? No!" she protested. "No, no, right
now I can't.
He insisted, cajoled, even empathized. "I came from a different
country, too," he said. "I got my green card just like
you."
Then, she said, he grabbed her. During the speechless minute
that follows on the recording, she said she yielded to his demand
out of fear
that he would use his authority against her.
How Much Corruption?
The charges against Mr. Baichu, who became a United States citizen
in 1991 and earns roughly $50,000 a year, appear to be part of
a larger
pattern, according to government records and interviews.
Mr. Maxwell, the immigration agency's former chief investigator,
told Congress in 2006 that internal corruption was "rampant,"
and that
employees faced constant temptations to commit crime.
"It is only a small step from granting a discretionary waiver
of an eligibility rule to asking for a favor or taking a bribe
in exchange for
granting that waiver," he contended. "Once an employee
learns he can get away with low-level corruption and still advance
up the ranks, he or she becomes more brazen."
Mr. Maxwell's own deputy, Lloyd W. Miner, 49, of Hyattsville,
Md., turned out to be an example. He was sentenced March 7 to
a year in
prison for inducing a 21-year-old Mongolian woman to stay in
the country illegally, and harboring her in his house.
Other cases include that of a 60-year-old immigration adjudicator
in Santa Ana, Calif., who was charged with demanding sexual favors
from a
29-year-old Vietnamese woman in exchange for approving her citizenship
application. The agent, Eddie Romualdo Miranda, was acquitted
of a
felony sexual battery charge last August, but pleaded guilty
to misdemeanor battery and was sentenced to probation.
In Atlanta, another adjudicator, Kelvin R. Owens, was convicted
in 2005 of sexually assaulting a 45-year-old woman during her
citizenship
interview in the federal building, and sentenced to weekends
in jail for six months. And a Miami agent of Immigration and
Customs Enforcement responsible for transporting a Haitian woman
to detention is awaiting trial on charges that he took her to
his home and raped her.
"Despite our best efforts there are always people ready
to use their position for personal gain or personal pleasure,"
said Chris Bentley, a
spokesman for Citizenship and Immigration Services. "Our
responsibility is to ferret them out." When the Queens woman
came to The Times with her recording on Jan. 3, she was afraid
of retaliation from the agent, and uncertain about making a criminal
complaint, though she had an appointment the next day at the
Queens district attorney's office.
She followed through, however, and Carmencita Gutierrez, an assistant
district attorney, began monitoring phone calls between the agent
and the young woman, a spokesman said. When Mr. Baichu arranged
to meet the woman on March 11 at the Flagship Restaurant on Queens
Boulevard,
investigators were ready.
In the conversation recorded there, according to the criminal
complaint, Mr. Baichu told her he expected her to do "just
like the last time," and
offered to take her to a garage or the bathroom of a friend's
real estate business so she would be "more comfortable doing
it" there.
Mr. Baichu was arrested as he emerged from the diner and headed
to his car, wearing much gold and diamond jewelry, prosecutors
said. Later
released on $15,000 bail, Mr. Baichu referred calls for comment
to his lawyer, Sally Attia, who said he did not have authority
to grant or deny
green card petitions without his supervisor's approval.
The young woman's ordeal is not over. Her husband overheard her
speaking about it to a cousin about a month ago, and she had
to tell him the
whole story, she said.
"He was so mad at me, he left my house," she said,
near tears. "I don't know if he's going to come back."
The green card has not come through. "I'm still hoping,"
she said.
|
Jamaicans Secured
More Temporary Work Visas In 2007 |
CaribWorldNews, NEW YORK,
NY, Mon. Mar. 17, 2008:
Jamaicans accounted for the second most number of temporary work
visas issued last year, Department of Homeland Security statistics
show.
Nationals of Jamaica who seek work in the U.S. as seasonal workers
made up 14,682 of the visas issued last year. It was the only
Caribbean country in the top five to secure as many visas.
And the number was second only to Mexico, which accounted for
over 85,000 of last year`s temporary visas. The Dominican Republic
also made the top 10 list but was lower down the scale with just
1,146 visas issued last year.
U.S. officials are limiting the temporary work visas this year
to just 66,000, almost a 50 percent cut from last year. The move
would mean less low level workers for hotels and resorts who
depend on the cheap labor in the summer months to keep their
business running. CaribWorldNews.com
|
Citizenship
Act Named After Slain Trinidadian Soldier Passed In Senate |
CaribWorldNews, WASHINGTON,
D.C., Mon. Mar. 17, 2008:
A citizenship act named after a slain Trinidad-born solider has
been approved unanimously by members of the U.S. Senate, family
members tell CWN.
S 2516 or the Kendell Frederick Citizenship Assistance Act was
approved late last week by `unanimous consent.` The bill, which
aims to assist foreign-born members of the U.S. armed forces
in obtaining United States citizenship. now goes to the House
for approval. It was introduced in the Senate by Senator Barbara
A. Mikulski.
Last year, the bill was first introduced in the House by Congressman
Elijah Cummings. It was passed by voice vote there last November
before being taken up in the Senate.
Army Spc. Kendell Frederick, 21, who was born in Trinidad but
lived in Randallstown, Maryland, was killed on October 19, 2005
in a convoy on his way to be fingerprinted for his citizenship
application, while serving in Iraq.
Spc. Frederick had apparently tried for more than a year to become
a U.S. citizen, but his application was delayed several times
due to miscommunication and misinformation from the U.S. government.
Senator Mikulski introduced the act she said, to make it easier
for service members to get their citizenship applications processed
and demands better coordination among U.S. immigration and military
officials.
Spc. Frederick was the son of Michelle Murphy and the nephew
of Dr. Elaine Simon, head of the Baltimore Carnival Association.
He had graduated from Randallstown High School in 2004 and moved
to Michigan for a job as a mechanic. He enlisted with the Army
Reserve's 983rd Engineer Battalion out of Monclova, Ohio and
served as a power generator equipment mechanic.
More than 35,000 non-citizens are currently on active duty in
the U.S. military. In 2002, President Bush signed an executive
order that gives active duty members of the U.S. military citizenship
immediately.
The story of Frederick's death is just one of those told in a
new book called Faces of Freedom by Rebecca Pepin. Proceeds go
to charities that help injured veteran recover. Frederick is
survived by his mom, two sisters, a brother, a step-father and
his father, Peter Ramsahai of Trinidad. CaribWorldNews.com
|
Reprieve for
a beleaguered Haiti, |
The Boston Globe, Boston.com,
March 16, 2008: LAST
MONTH, Haiti's president, René Préval, wrote to
President Bush asking
for a favor: For the time being, please stop deporting Haitians
who are in the United States without legal status. It's a controversial
request - one that would affect perhaps 20,000 people who entered
this country illegally, are seeking asylum, or are appealing
immigration decisions. The proposal is a tough sell politically,
but it makes global sense.
Préval wants Bush to grant Haitian immigrants "temporary
protected status." It's a legal time-out for immigrants
who come from countries facing crises such as armed conflicts
and natural disasters. The status already applies to certain
Nicaraguan immigrants, who are covered because of devastation
caused in 1998 by Hurricane Mitch. Immigrants from El Salvador
are covered because of earthquakes there in 2001.
To make his own case, Préval points to devastating storms
that struck Haiti in 2004, causing thousands of deaths, widespread
homelessness, and the destruction of fertile land. Préval
does not say so in his letter, but as Bush knows, Haiti is also
chronically racked by poverty, AIDS, violence, and illiteracy.
Haitian workers in the United States play a key role in combating
those problems. Préval points to how much his country
relies on money that Haitians earn in the United States and send
to relatives at home.
In 2007, remittances to Haiti from the United States totaled
an estimated $1.26 billion - about 24 percent of Haiti's gross
domestic product, according to the Inter-American Development
Bank, which finances development projects in Latin America and
the Caribbean. It dwarfs the $129 million in foreign aid that
Haiti got in 2007 from the US Agency for International Development.
Remittances act as an unofficial antipoverty program. Haitians
use the money for food, clothes, medicine, educational costs,
as well as opening bank accounts, building homes, and launching
small businesses.
Given this economic benefit, granting temporary protected status
for Haitians is a simple way to help their native country build
a better future. Temporary status would only apply to Haitians
who could prove they were in the United States before a set cutoff
date. New immigrants would not be covered.
The plight of Haitians at risk of deportation only underscores
the inadequacy of US immigration policy. Haiti now depends upon
workers who have found a place in the US economy despite their
lack of legal status. These Haitian immigrants probably would
have gotten some protection last year. But immigration reform
efforts in Congress failed.
Now, Bush should direct the Department of Homeland Security to
grant temporary protected status, to help preserve the remittances
that finance Haiti's fragile quest for progress.New York Times, March
13, 2008: The search
for a silver bullet to slay illegal immigration continues. Hard-liners
are turning the country upside down looking for it.
They are looking in Washington, where Senate Republicans last
week offered more than a dozen bills to further enshrine mass
deportation as
the national immigration strategy. It is a grab bag of enforcement
measures that will be useful for tough-talking campaign commercials,
but
will not actually solve anything.
Republicans and some Democrats in the House are trying to force
a vote on a bad bill called the SAVE Act, which among other things
would force all workers, including citizens, to prove they have
a right to earn a living - a bad idea compounded by the notoriously
bad state of federal
government records.
The error rate in just one database, the Social Security Administration's,
is believed to be more than 4 percent, making it likely that
many thousands of Americans would face unjust firings and discrimination,
and waste a lot of time and effort trying to clear their names.
The harsh-enforcement virus has spread far beyond the Capitol.
In states like Oklahoma, laws have been enacted to force illegal
immigrants
further underground, off official registries and into anonymity,
by denying them identification like driver's licenses. In a growing
number
of states and counties, politicians are offering up police officers
to the federal government for immigration posses. From Prince
William
County, Va., to Maricopa County, Ariz., officers who pull people
over for minor traffic infractions are checking immigration papers,
too.
Many law-enforcement professionals say this is reckless and self-defeating,
because it sends a deep, silencing chill into immigrant
communities. Citizens and legal residents will inevitably be
hassled for looking Latino. And it is expensive; Prince William's
new law is
expected to cost $26 million over five years, plus a few million
more to outfit police cars with cameras, as a hedge against lawsuits.
Maybe some people do not mind that immigration zealotry is sending
the country down a path of far greater intrusion into citizens'
lives, into
a world of ingrained suspicion, routine discrimination and economic
disruption. Is that what we want - to make the immigration system
tougher without fixing it? To make illegal immigrants suffer
without any hope of ever becoming legal, because that is amnesty?
Could it be that tightening the screws relentlessly on illegal
immigrants, even if some citizens suffer in the process, is all
for the greater good?
Which is - what exactly? To drive a large cohort of workers out
of a sputtering economy? To take more people off the books? To
prop up the
under-the-table businesses that inevitably evade such crackdowns?
To worsen wages and working conditions for all Americans, since
nobody
works more cheaply and takes more abuse than a terrified, desperate
immigrant?
This is a country that runs on routine amnesties. Where would
the courts be without plea bargains, or state budgets without
periodic tax
forgiveness? Are illegal immigrants the one class of undesirables
for whom common sense, proportionality, discernment, good judgment
and
compassion are unthinkable?
It is frightening to think that this country's answer could be
an emphatic yes.
US fails to
protect immigrants' rights, UN report asserts
"Biased picture" cited in response |
WASHINGTON, March 9,
2008: The United States
has failed to uphold its international obligations to protect
the human rights of migrants, subjecting too many to prolonged
detention in substandard facilities while depriving them of an
adequate appeals process and labor protections, a United Nations
investigator said.
In the international body's first scrutiny of US treatment of
its 37.5 million noncitizen migrants, UN investigator Jorge Bustamante
on Friday took particular aim at what he criticized as the "overuse"
of detention for immigrants.
Noting that the annual detainee population has tripled in nine
years to 230,000, he called on the United States to eliminate
mandatory detention for certain migrants and instead expand the
use of alternatives, such as electronic ankle bracelets.
Bustamante also urged that migrants be given the right to legal
counsel, more impartial hearings, and improved holding facilities,
particularly for women and children.
"The United States lacks a clear, consistent, long-term
strategy to improve respect for the human rights of migrants,"
said his report, which was presented to the UN Human Rights Council
in Geneva on Friday. Bustamante serves as the body's Special
Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants.
In a statement to the council, the US delegation called the report
disappointing.
The report "focuses only on a narrow slice of the migrant
population in the United States and makes no effort to recognize
notable, positive aspects of US migration policy," the statement
said. "This results in an incomplete and biased picture
of the human rights of migrants."
The delegation said the United States had one of the world's
most generous immigration policies, offering more than 11 million
migrants green cards, citizenship, asylum, refugee resettlement,
and temporary protected status between 2000 and 2006. The UN
estimates that global migrants number 200 million, with the United
States by far the largest haven with 35 million as of 2000.
Kelly Nantel, spokeswoman for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement,
also criticized Bustamante, saying he did not adequately consider
the voluminous information provided him by US officials documenting
migrant protections in place here.
Those include the right to seek administrative review of detention
and deportation decisions, along with access to federal courts
to challenge removal orders.
Bustamante "has made a number of inaccurate or misleading
claims and has drawn sweeping conclusions that appear to be based
on anecdotal evidence from a small sample of individuals, for
which he fails to provide appropriate evidence and reasoning,"
Nantel said.
At the US government's invitation, Bustamante visited seven cities
last year to interview dozens of migrants, community activists,
immigration attorneys, and senior government officials.
He toured the US-Mexican border and visited an Arizona federal
detention center but was denied access to facilities in Texas
and New Jersey.
|
Q&A with
Attorney Albert Baldeo |
New York, March 8, 2008:
Q1. Under what conditions
can I be denied U.S. citizenship?
A1. US citizenship can be denied for any
of the following reasons:
1. If you advocate or if you are a member of any organization
that is opposed to organized government (i.e., if you preach
and practice anarchy).
2. Membership in communist organizations.
3. If you advocate the overthrow of the U.S. Government by force,
sabotage, violence or terrorism.
4. If you publish any material advocating the methods of item
(3).
5. Exemption from services in the armed forces of the U.S.(unless
the alien status does not permit the individual to serve on the
armed forces or if the alien had served in the armed forces of
his/her own country).
6. Desertion from military forces and draft evasion result in
permanent ineligibility for citizenship.
Q2. I lost my passport with my I-94 card and
INS could find my entry record. My spouse filed for me in 1997.
What should I do when I file my adjustment of status application?
A2. You can adjust status (get interviewed in the
US, without leaving for your home country), if you file again,
and petition for a replacement I-94 card. Or you can pay the
$1,000 fee. Since your husband filed for you before January15,
1998, you qualify to have the INS interview here even without
proof of lawful entry. I don't advise travel abroad. As I have
pointed out several times, getting travel permission from the
INS won't protect you from the 10-year bar to permanent residence.
That bar applies to people who leave the US after one year or
more of unlawful presence here. You'd need a waiver of the bar
to get permanent residence.
Q3. Both my I-140 and EAD was approved last year. My I-485
remains pending. My work permit will expire this month and I
haven't heard anything from them yet, not even done finger prints.
Is that normal?
A3: Yes, this is normal. Processing times vary by office.
Generally, inquiries become appropriate when they get 30 days
or more beyond your receipt date and you have heard nothing.
Your EAD is renewable in one-year increments and you should renew
it. It is advisable to file your EAD renewal no later than 90
days prior to your EAD expiration.
Q4. When an H-1B status holder marries a US citizen, if he/she
loses their job during the I-130/I-485, is he or she still legally
in the U.S.?
A4: A properly filed I-485 application (including one which
is filed concurrently with an I-130 family-based permanent residency
petition) preserves lawful stay in the U.S. assuming that it
was filed while the applicant held lawful status in the U.S.
Q5. Is it a 'must' to have my passport stamped after I-485
approval? Is this step required to get the physical green card,
or does it just help for travel?
A5: You or your attorney should have asked for your passport
stamp reflecting your permanent residency during your interview.
Though not required for the actual Green card, it helps to show
proof that you are a Lawful permanent resident of the USA, and
helps especially for travel before your Green card actually arrives.
Q6. When a H-1B status holder marries a US citizen, if he/she
loses job during the I-130/I-485, is he or she still legally
in the U.S.?
A6: A properly filed I-485 application (including one which
is filed concurrently with an I-130 family-based permanent residency
petition) preserves lawful stay in the U.S. assuming that it
was filed while the applicant held lawful status in the U.S
Q7. Is it a 'must' to have my passport stamped after I-485
approval? Is this step required to get the physical green card,
or does it just help for travel?
A7: You will receive your passport stamp reflecting your
permanent residency when you visit the local Service Center where
your actual alien registration card (green card.) is processed.
Q8. Can my employer sponsor me as a nanny? I came here legally
but overstayed my time.
A8. Even if your employer sponsors you, it will take some
time to get permanent residence. As a live-in nanny, your employer
has to have certification from the U.S. Department of Labor to
employ you as a nanny. But even if the Labor Department certifies
your case, because you are here illegally, you must return home
for your green card interview. If you have been here illegally
for more than 180 days, the law bars you from returning to the
U.S. for at least three years, and perhaps as long as 10. Let
us hope the law changes. Write your political representatives
and lobby for change.
Q9. What happens to my green card if I go abroad for an extended
period?
A9. If you will be out of the country for less than 180 days
then you should have no problems re-entering using your Green
Card alone. If you will be out of the country for more than180
days but less than a year, a re-entry permit is a good idea.
If you will be out of the country for more than one year without
an approved re entry permit, you will be construed as having
abandoned your permanent residence, and you can lose your green
card.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Attorney at Law Albert Baldeo does extensive
work in Accidents, Real Estate and Business Closings, Incorporations,
Public Benefits law and Immigration. He can be consulted FOR
FREE at 106-11 Liberty Avenue, Ozone Park, NY 11417. Tel: (718)
529-2300.
Latinos Seek
Citizenship in Time for Voting
By JULIA PRESTON |
New York, March 7, 2008: A lawsuit filed Thursday in a federal
court in New York by Latino immigrants seeks to force immigration
authorities to complete hundreds of thousands of stalled naturalization
petitions in time for the new citizens to vote in November.
The class-action suit was brought by the Puerto Rican Legal Defense
and Education Fund on behalf of legal Hispanic immigrants in
the New York City area who are eager to vote and have been waiting
for years for the federal Citizenship and Immigration Services
agency to finish their applications. The suit demands that the
agency meet a nationwide deadline of Sept. 22 to complete any
naturalization petitions filed by March 26.
Latino groups hope to summon the clout of the federal courts
to compel the Bush administration to reduce a backlog of citizenship
applications that swelled last year. According to the Migration
Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research group in Washington,
more than one million citizenship petitions were backed up in
the pipeline by the end of December, the majority from Latino
immigrants.
Despite protests over the delays from lawmakers, Latino groups
and immigrant advocates, the immigration agency is currently
projecting wait times of 16 months to 18 months to process the
petitions.
"The reality is that large numbers of Latinos will not be
able to vote in the elections because of these delays,"
said Cesar A. Perales, president of the defense fund. "Now
the world will know that the Latino community expects the Bush
administration to get this done on time."
Christopher S. Bentley, a spokesman for Citizenship and Immigration
Services, said he could not comment on pending litigation.
"Our commitment is to work through the naturalization applications
as quickly as we can without compromising the security and integrity
of the process," Mr. Bentley said.
The lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New York, asserts
that the agency violated immigrants' due process rights by routinely
failing to finish their applications within a 180-day time period
that Congress has set as a standard. It also asserts that the
Bush administration did not follow regulatory procedures in November
2002 when it ordered the Federal Bureau of Investigation to deepen
its background checks of citizenship applicants.
Foster Maer, a lawyer for the defense fund, said it would soon
file motions asking the court to order the agency immediately
to meet the September deadline, which is intended to leave new
citizens time to register to vote.
Manuel Martinez, 35, a legal immigrant from Mexico who is a plaintiff
in the suit, filed his petition in January 2006. It has been
delayed because the F.B.I. has not completed the required background
check, he said. He said he suspected the problem was that he
has a common Hispanic name.
"I want to be a citizen yesterday, not tomorrow," said
Mr. Martinez, who has lived in the United States since 1990.
"I am really worried about the economy, and the deficit
is too much. I need to vote."
A fee increase, raising naturalization costs 80 percent to $595,
went into effect on July 30. Legal immigrants were also spurred
to seek citizenship by worries about the divisive debate over
immigration and by citizenship campaigns by Latino groups.
"It is astonishing the government should be so unresponsive
to immigrants who have enthusiastically taken all the steps to
become Americans," said Janet Murguía, president
of the National Council of La Raza, a Latino group that supported
the suit.
|
Immigration
changes in Britain worry Caribbean |
London, England, February
24, 2008: A new immigration
pro-posal announced recently to increase citizenship fees and
landing charges for visa holders arriving in the United Kingdom
(UK) has left Caribbean nationals and non-European residents
in Britain worried.
One of their major fears is that thousands of persons who have
been living and working in the UK for decades might receive little
or no social security benefits.
Already, some lobby groups, including the Jamaica diaspora and
Facilitator for a Better Jamaica (FFBJ), are examining the proposal
and other immigration developments to make an appropriate response
and representation.
Fund social benefits
Under the new immigration proposal, immigrants arriving in
Britain will be required to pay an extra £20 landing charge
on top of their visa fees. Naturalisation fees attract over £700,
while it costs £75 for a British passport.
At the same time, there is widespread speculation that there
will be additional increases in immigration fees at the start
of the financial year in April.
The extra charge is slated to fund schools, hospitals and other
social services said to be under stress from an influx of migrants
mainly from countries of the European Union. The British government
is expected to rake in £15 million a year from the levy.
At the same time, social benefits in Britain are to be linked
with citizenship and those who have been denied British passports
will lose a wide range of welfare services, including child benefits,
housing benefits and income support.
Prisoners who serve time in Britain will automatically lose their
rights to British citizenship and the benefits it offers.
Founder of Facilitators for a Better Jamaica (FFBJ) Sylbourne
Sydial said his concern was not one of alarm, but one of unease
as the new measures being implemented were a "smack in the
face of multiculturalism and a shift from the Commonwealth."
"Since the formation of the FFBJ's home office consultation
team," he said, "we have seen that these different
and new proposals - in the form of increase in fees, reduction
in vacation period, £20 landing charges and the many changes
in the immigration rules - show very clearly that there is a
shift in UK policy towards former Commonwealth nations of which
Jamaica is a part."
While a number of Jamaicans and other West Indian nations with
whom The Sunday Gleaner spoke are seeking to speed up
the process of acquiring citizenship, Jamaican-born journalist,
Luke Williams, believes the long-term impact on Jamaica and the
Caribbean will be devastating.
"What is happening is demoralising and is exploitation in
many forms including financial and brain drain. It's a double-whammy:
They (the British Government) are getting extra money from the
high fees and putting pressure on those not considered the best,
as well as getting rid of those they do not want," he said.
A Jamaican-trained medical doctor (Dr Brown) at the Greater Almond
Street Hospital in Central London noted that many West Indian
doctors are now looking alternative places to practise their
skills.
"Many are looking at places like the US and Canada. Some
may even return home as the European Union has opened up and
there is an influx of doctors," she said.
A spokesperson for Jamaican High Commissioner to the UK, Burchell
Whiteman, said the issues are evolving and that the high commissioner
will not comment until definite govern-ment policies are known.
After the War,
a New Battle to Become Citizens
By FERNANDA SANTOS |
NY Times, February 24, 2008: Despite a 2002 promise from President Bush to
put citizenship applications for immigrant members of the military
on a fast track, some are finding themselves waiting months,
or even years, because of bureaucratic backlogs. One, Sgt. Kendell
K. Frederick of the Army, who had tried three times to file for
citizenship, was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq as he returned
from submitting fingerprints for his application.
About 7,200 service members or people who have been recently
discharged have citizenship applications pending, but neither
the Department of Defense nor Citizenship and Immigration Services
keeps track of how long they have been waiting. Immigration <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/i/immigration_and_refugees/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier>
lawyers and politicians say they have received a significant
number of complaints about delays because of background checks,
misplaced paperwork, confusion about deployments and other problems.
"I've pretty much given up on finding out where my paperwork
is, what's gone wrong, what happened to it," said Abdool
Habibullah, 27, a Guyanese immigrant who first applied for citizenship
in 2005 upon returning from a tour in Iraq and was honorably
discharged from the Marines as a sergeant. "If what I've
done for this country isn't enough for me to be a citizen, then
I don't know what is."
The long waits are part of a broader problem plaguing the immigration
service, which was flooded with 2.5 million applications for
citizenship and visas last summer - twice as many as the previous
year - in the face of 66 percent fee increases that took effect
July 30. Officials have estimated that it will take an average
of 18 months to process citizenship applications from legal immigrants
through 2010, up from seven months last year.
But service members and veterans are supposed to go to the head
of the line. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, President
Bush signed an executive order allowing noncitizens on active
duty to file for citizenship right away, instead of having to
first complete three years in the military. The federal government
has since taken several steps to speed up the process, including
training military officers to help service members fill out forms,
assigning special teams to handle the paperwork, and allowing
citizenship tests, interviews and ceremonies to take place overseas.
At the same time, post-9/11 security measures, including tougher
guidelines for background checks that are part of the naturalization
process, have slowed things down.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/f/federal_bureau_of_investigation/index.html?inline=nyt-org>,
which checks the names of citizenship applicants against those
in its more than 86 million investigative files, has been overwhelmed,
handling an average of 90,000 name-check requests a week. In
the fiscal year that ended in September, the F.B.I. was asked
to check 4.1 million names, at least half of them for citizenship
and green card applicants, a spokesman said.
"Most soldiers clear the checks within 30 to 60 days, or
60 to 90 days," said Leslie B. Lord, the Army's liaison
to Citizenship and Immigration Services, the federal agency that
processes citizenship applications. "But even the soldier
with the cleanest of records, if he has a name that's very similar
to one that's in the F.B.I. bad-boy and bad-girl list, things
get delayed."
Such explanations are why Mr. Habibullah has decided that once
he does become a citizen - if he ever becomes a citizen - he
will change his name.
"I figured that's part of the reason things got delayed,"
he said. "You know, that I have a Muslim name."
Thousands of Muslim civilians have also found themselves waiting
months or years for background checks, and have filed a class-action
lawsuit in federal court in Denver. But advocates for the immigrant
service members said that those with pending applications are
from a variety of backgrounds and that they do not suspect a
pattern of discrimination against Muslims.
Some 31,200 members of the military were sworn in as citizens
between October 2002 and December 2007, according to the immigration
service, but a spokeswoman, Chris Rhatigan, said she could not
determine how long it took for them to be naturalized since the
agency does not maintain a database tracking military cases.
Over all, 312,000 citizenship or green card applications are
pending name checks, including 140,000 that have been waiting
more than six months, immigration officials said. This month,
immigration authorities eased background-check requirements for
green cards, saying that if applicants had been waiting more
than six months, they could be approved without an F.B.I. check,
and approvals could be revoked later "in the unlikely event"
that troubling information was found.
After hearing complaints from at least half a dozen service members
over the past three months, Senator Charles E. Schumer <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/charles_e_schumer/index.html?inline=nyt-per>
of New York has drafted a bill to create a special clearinghouse
to ensure that applications from active and returning members
of the military are processed quickly and smoothly. A spokesman
said several other lawmakers reported hearing many similar stories.
"These are men and women who are risking their lives for
us," Mr. Schumer said in a telephone interview. "They've
met all the requirements for citizenship, they have certainly
proved their commitment to our country, and yet they could lose
their lives while waiting for a bureaucratic snafu to untangle."
In interviews, immigration lawyers and military officials said
that in general, the naturalization process takes service members
between six months and a year, which is about half the current
average wait for civilians. But some cases drag on much longer
because of background-check delays or because applications are
misplaced, or notices are mailed to stateside addresses after
an applicant has been deployed, causing appointments to be missed.
"You try to resolve these things amicably, reaching out
to the military, reaching out to immigration officials, but you
hit roadblock after roadblock," said David E. Piver, a Pennsylvania
lawyer who filed at least six petitions in federal court over
the past five years on behalf of service members experiencing
longer than usual delays on their citizenship applications.
"It's usually not any substantive issue that's causing those
delays," he said. "What it boils down to are bureaucratic
snafus."
Feyad Mohammed, an immigrant from Trinidad and Tobago who lives
with his parents in Richmond Hill, Queens, was naturalized last
month - four years after he filed the first of four citizenship
applications, and six months after his honorable discharge from
the Army as a sergeant.
Mr. Mohammed first applied in 2004, after he returned from the
first of his two tours in Iraq. But the application seemed to
have been lost; when he checked after a few months, he said,
no one at the immigration service could tell him where it was
or even if it had been received. He filed again in 2005, but
missed his interview several months later; it had been scheduled
in Iraq, during his second combat tour, but he was home on leave
on the appointed day.
After he was discharged in July 2007, Mr. Mohammed filed another
application. The paperwork was returned because he had not included
a check covering the processing fee, he said, ignoring a Bush
administration initiative that exempts combat veterans from application
fees for up to a year after discharge. It was then that Mr. Mohammed
reached out to Senator Schumer's office, which helped him file
a fourth, and final, time.
When he was sworn in Jan. 25 at the federal courthouse in Downtown
Brooklyn, Mr. Mohammed said, he felt "relieved."
"I was a citizen," he said. "I could finally move
on with my life."
But Sergeant Frederick, a 21-year-old immigrant from Trinidad,
would be awarded citizenship only posthumously, on the day of
his burial. He is one of more than 90 immigrant service members
to be naturalized after losing their lives in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Sergeant Frederick's mother, Michelle Murphy, said that he had
filed his citizenship application a year before he was deployed
to Iraq in 2005, but that his application was sent back to her
Maryland home three times - once because of incomplete biographical
information, again because he had left a box unchecked, and once
more because he had not paid the fee.
Finally, Ms. Murphy said, Sergeant Frederick received a letter
saying that the fingerprints he had included with his application
could not be read and that he needed to submit new ones. She
contacted immigration officials, who arranged for him to submit
a new set of fingerprints on Oct. 19, 2005, near his base in
Tikrit. On the way back from the appointment, his convoy hit
a roadside bomb.
"If somebody is fighting for a country, if he's deployed,
if he's in the middle of a war, it shouldn't be that hard for
them to become a citizen," Ms. Murphy, 42, said in a telephone
interview.
After his death, the immigration service began accepting enlistment
fingerprints with service members' citizenship applications,
provided applicants authorized the military to share their files
with immigration officials. A bill to make such sharing automatic
has been passed by the House and is pending a final Senate vote.
In the meantime, Mr. Habibullah is working as an aircraft hydraulics
mechanic in Connecticut, though he hopes to get a better-paying
job in the federal government once he is naturalized. In October,
Mr. Habibullah's father and grandmother became citizens in separate
ceremonies, though they applied fully two years after he did.
Mr. Habibullah has passed the citizenship test and been interviewed,
and he said he does not know what to do to move his application
through the backlog faster.
"Every time I ask about it, I get the same answer: it's
pending the background check," Mr. Habibullah said as he
looked over his military medals, which are displayed on a wall
in the Mount Vernon, N.Y., apartment he shares with his wife
and 1-month-old son. "I'm at the point right now that I've
almost given up on it."
|
US on guard
for Cuba migration after Castro |
MIAMI, USA (AFP), February
23, 2008: US authorities
do not predict a fresh wave of Cuban migration amid political
power-shifts on the communist island, but say they are on guard,
after a string of regional migration crises.
As Cuba readies to name a new president Sunday, the Miami-based
US Southern Command says it will await a Pentagon order if the
Coast Guard needs backup in the Florida Straits, shark-infested
waters between the US state of Florida and Cuba.
"We are not foreseeing at this point that any migrant crisis
is going to take place, but if it were to happen, the Southern
Command will join in if asked by the Homeland Security Department
and ordered to by the Defense Department," the command's
spokesman Jose Ruiz told AFP.
"We will provide support with navy ships if the Coast Guard
is overwhelmed. The ships that are to be used in these cases
are outfitted to take on migrants, and then help them until there
is a repatriation," said Ruiz.
Fidel Castro said this week he would step aside as president
of the Caribbean's biggest island after almost 50 years.
Amid great expectations for Cuban change in Florida, where more
than 800,000 Cuban-Americans live, some have speculated that
any twitch of instability in Cuba could send Cubans sailing in
large numbers for the United States again.
There is a vital reason: US policy grants any Cuban who reaches
US shores automatic residency, the right to work, temporary health
care and expedited US citizenship.
It is unlike US policy toward any other communist regime. Cuban-American
lawmakers have enshrined all these "rights" for those
who flee, hoping to embarrass the Americas' only one-party communist
regime.
Cuba regularly calls for this policy to end, saying Cubans needlessly
risk their lives at sea, and arguing Washington should give out
more legal immigration visas to Cubans.
In contrast, Cubans trying to reach US shores who are picked
up at sea by US authorities are returned to Cuba. Hence the nickname
for the US policy toward illegal Cuban emigrants: "wet-foot,
dry-foot."
In south Florida, it is a common news story to see boatloads
of Cubans arriving on local beaches in smugglers' boats. Family
members in Florida usually pay 5,000-10,000 dollars to have them
smuggled in.
The last time the US military joined in migrant-intercepting
missions was in 1994. The Cuban government, which requires people
to get permission to travel abroad, allowed more than 30,000
people to leave by sea at that time.
In addition to Cubans, some 25,000 Haitians in 1994 set sail
hoping to reach the United States. Unlike the Cubans, most were
sent home since they are economic refugees, not fleeing communism,
the US government says.
The best-known and biggest migrant crisis happened 14 years earlier.
In 1980, the Cuban government temporarily allowed people to leave
without normal permission and regulations. Some 125,000 people
left between April and October in the Mariel boat lift, named
for the port from which most set out.
"At US Southern Command, as always, we are monitoring events
in Cuba closely, in close coordination with our interagency partners,"
said Admiral James Stavridis of the Miami command center, which
monitors military developments in Latin America, on Wednesday.
A source in the Coast Guard said it was closely monitoring events
and "we have enough boats and staff to carry out an operation,"
if needed.
US migration officials say that in 2006, 3,076 Cubans arrived
on US shores, up from 2,810 the previous year. Between September
2007 and Tuesday, when Castro announced his plans, the Coast
Guard had picked up 1,040 Cubans at sea.
US immigration authorities say there is a contingency plan for
a migrant crisis, but that they don't expect it will be used.
"We hope people do not go to sea out of desperation. It
is illegal, and extremely dangerous," said Barbara Gonzalez,
an immigration spokeswoman.
|
Haitian president
wants temporary protective status for Haitians in America |
Port au Prince, Haiti,
February 21, 2008: Haitian
President René Préval has finally asked the U.S.
government to extend temporary protective status to Haitians.
The designation is long overdue, and President Bush would do
well to grant Préval's request.
Haiti , already the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere
, was further devastated by last year's Tropical Storm Noel,
the latest in a string of natural disasters that have rocked
the country in recent times.
TPS would temporarily protect Haitians already in the United
States -- many of them parents of U.S. born children -- from
deportation. TPS is not permanent status, and the protection
covers periods less than 18 months, though it can be renewed.
TPS's benefits include work permits enabling the holders to earn
enough to keep relatives back home afloat through remittances.
Stabilizing such families would benefit Haiti , as Préval
tries to institute economic and political reforms. It could also
prevent an immigration crisis from erupting toward the United
States if desperate families head for our shores.
President Bush has the power to extend the temporary protection,
and he should. But it may take some prodding from Florida 's
representatives in Congress and Gov. Charlie Crist, who should
all be encouraging the president to grant Préval's request
immediately.
Individuals from Central American countries have received TPS
during natural disasters, as have Somalis and Sudanese people
fleeing strife. But Haitians have been denied the courtesy. It's
a double-standard that perpetuates the view of U.S. immigration
policy as discriminatory toward Haitians.
Since being elected to office in 2006, Préval has had
an amiable relationship with the Bush administration. He met
with Bush in 2007, expressing his concern about the strain that
deportations were having on the fragile Haitian economy. Préval
hoped U.S. immigration reforms would solve the TPS problem.
But the legislation stalled, and today he needs the support of
the U.S. government as he tries to stabilize his country. Florida
's elected officials
can and should help him in this effort.
Feared Sweeps
for Illegal Workers Found Just One
By COREY KILGANNON |
February 19, 2008: To great fanfare in October 2006, Steve
Levy, the Suffolk County executive, signed a new law requiring
6,000 contractors working for the county to affirm that their
employees were not illegal immigrants, prompting fear of impromptu
inspections and roundups of Hispanic men.
Since then, county officials have found exactly one worker without
proper immigration documents, after conducting two sweeps of
a total of 33 contractors last summer and fall. A second worker
at the same construction company, North Star Concrete, was initially
suspected, but the $9,500 fine regarding his status was dismissed
when the company produced proper documentation.
"All that fuss over the need for this law and they only
cite one guy?" complained Ricardo Montano, a Suffolk County
legislator who opposed the initiative, officially called Local
Law 52. "Where are all the illegal workers Steve Levy was
talking about?"
Mr. Levy, a Democrat, has built a national reputation for taking
a hard line against illegal immigration by proposing a bill to
outlaw loitering by day laborers and bringing federal officials
into the county jail to check inmates' immigration status. His
spokesman, Mark Smith, said that the county never planned on
widespread enforcement of the new law, and that the fact that
only one undocumented worker had been found was testament to
its power.
"It's really meant to keep the contractor honest as a deterrent
approach, as the I.R.S. does with its audit process," Mr.
Smith said. "Not everyone is going to get audited, and the
vast majority is going to comply." He added, "We never
had a predetermined number, that we were going to catch X number
of people."
The owners of North Star, Mario and Abilio Salgado, declined
to be interviewed for fear of further alienating county officials,
and would not name the cited worker. Their lawyer, Robert J.
LaReddola, said that he would continue to press the county's
Labor Department to dismiss the remaining $9,500 fine, and that
the company had paid all taxes and insurance for the employee,
whom it hired through Laborers' Local 66, thinking he had a valid
federal tax identification number and union card.
"This law is arbitrary and unfair and maybe unconstitutional,"
Mr. LaReddola said. "They're putting the fear of God into
these men."
The case is being closely watched by both immigrant advocates
and the construction industry, especially because the county
Legislature is now considering a bill to expand the requirement
to confirm workers' legal status to cover all 15,000 licensed
contractors in Suffolk, not just those doing work for the government.
Introduced last month by Brian Beedenbender, a protégé
of Mr. Levy's, the bill would carry stiffer penalties, including
the loss of county licenses and up to four years in jail. It
is scheduled for public hearings beginning March 4 and could
come up for a vote by March 18.
Suffolk County is one of several municipalities nationwide to
have experimented with such laws after seeing sharp increases
in their Hispanic populations, which are often blamed for spikes
in crime and overtaxed social services, schools, hospitals and
jails.
Judges in Arizona, Missouri and Oklahoma have recently turned
back contractors' challenges of similar laws in those states,
though earlier, a federal judge had blocked Hazleton, Pa., from
enforcing a law barring businesses from hiring illegal immigrants
and landlords from renting them rooms (the city is appealing
the ruling).
Mayor Louis J. Barletta of Hazleton said that as soon as the
laws were enacted there, "People were loading vans and trucks
and literally leaving town in the middle of the night, so it
would be fair to assume they were illegal."
"It's illegal to hire illegal aliens, so you have to go
after the magnet: the businesses drawing them in," he said.
Mr. LaReddola, the North Star lawyer, says the Suffolk legislation
had upset contractors, who were baffled by "a myriad of
confusing immigration laws." In addition to making job estimates
and calculating square footage, he says, contractors are now
trying to brush up on the difference between a resident alien
card and an alien registration card, and how an H-1B visa (for
high-tech workers) differs from an H-2B visa (for temporary nonagricultural
jobs) from an L-1 visa (usually for corporate employees).
"You're asking construction guys to do the work of attorney
generals," he said, adding that a slip-up with one employee
could ruin a company's reputation for years.
But Mr. Smith, the county spokesman, said the local law should
change nothing for law-abiding contractors, since there has long
been a federal law to similar effect: Section 1324a of Title
8 of the United States Code declares it unlawful to hire undocumented
immigrants. Mr. Levy's "Affidavit of Compliance" simply
has contractors swear to follow those laws "with respect
to the alien and nationality status" of workers.
Mr. Levy created the law, Mr. Smith said, because the county
could not get federal authorities to enforce their law; he feared
that businesses hiring undocumented immigrants for low wages
would undercut contractors who follow the law.
Mr. Smith said inspections had been limited so far to heavy construction
companies, on the theory that they were more likely to hire illegal
workers. No extra money has been allocated or task forces formed.
Typically, a pair of officials - one from the county's Department
of Labor and one from the Department of Public Works - has been
sent to a construction site to see who is working and get a list
of employees from the foreman, then to check workers' documents
at the contractors' main offices.
North Star, which has 50 employees and is based in Farmingville,
long a flashpoint of controversy over immigrant day laborers,
was pouring concrete at the county Fire Academy in November when
county officials showed up asking for papers.
Steve Flanagan, the business manager for Laborers' Local 66 in
Melville, N.Y., said he could not immediately identify the North
Star worker who was caught by the county.
But Mr. Flanagan said North Star brought several Hispanic workers
to the hiring hall last summer, produced the Social Security
cards and photo identification required for new union members,
and promised to employ the men for two years and file their names
with the Internal Revenue Service.
"North Star came in with paperwork and it looked legit -
a Social Security number and a photo ID - and now they're trying
to pin it on us?" Mr. Flanagan said.
Mr. Smith said that county officials had not yet decided whether
to report illegal immigrants found during the inspections to
federal authorities. (A separate Levy initiative authorized local
police officers to report suspected illegal immigrants to federal
immigration authorities .)
Mr. Beedenbender, the county legislator, said that if his law
is approved, it would also be selectively enforced by current
county officials, with more money and employees to be budgeted
depending on the number of complaints about violators.
The proposal the law has the support of the Democratic majority
in the county Legislature, but has drawn sharp rebukes from Mr.
Montano and Vivian Viloria-Fisher, two Hispanic Democrats who
have fallen out with Mr. Levy because of what Mr. Montano calls
his "anti-Hispanic stance."
"These laws are all a public relations ploy playing to an
anti-immigrant mentality," he said. "Steve Levy has
used the community as political punching bag. He's alienated
all the Hispanic leaders with his demagoguery. I'm Puerto Rican,
so he can't deport me."
New York Times, February 17, 2008: Three bits
of news from the first two months of 2008 highlight the galling
inconsistency and inadequacy of the federal government's system
for turning immigrants into citizens.
The first is that the wait for citizenship and green cards is
up - way up. Citizenship and Immigration Services reported in
January that the average time to process a citizenship application
had risen to 18 months, from seven, and that green cards would
now take a year, instead of six months or less.
It was a sorry moment for the agency, which jacked up its fees
last year with a promise to use the new money to end vast paperwork
backlogs. The opposite happened: the agency is drowning in applications
from people who filed before the increase to avoid being gouged.
The second was the news last week that the agency had finally
taken a baby step toward clearing its green-card backlogs by
easing a rule on background checks by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The F.B.I. will still do full checks on every applicant, comparing
fingerprints against a criminal database and names against lists
of criminals and terrorists. It's just that those who have had
to wait more than six months for a green card because of one
last, unfinished piece of an application - a "name check"
of people who have ever been mentioned in criminal investigations,
even peripherally - will get their cards.
The move is sensible, and long overdue. The understaffed agency
has faced mounting pressure to act. An increasing number of immigrants,
after waiting years for name checks, have sued and won, with
federal judges ordering the government to do its job.
The third development is the surge in businesses using E-Verify,
the federal system for checking employees' immigration status.
As more states and localities have adopted harsh campaigns to
purge undocumented immigrants, E-Verify has taken on a larger
role, with 52,000 employers now using it, compared with 14,000
a year ago. President Bush's new budget includes $100 million
to expand E-Verify, which the citizenship agency calls "a
cornerstone" of "long-term immigration reform."
You can tell a country's priorities from what works and where
the money goes. With billions for border and workplace enforcement,
the government has been rushing to impose ever more sophisticated
and intrusive means to keep immigrants out. Yet it continues
to tolerate a creaky, corrosively inept system for welcoming
immigrants in - an underperforming bureaucracy that takes their
money and makes them wait, with a chronic indolence that is just
another form of hostility.
A call to halt
deportations
By JACQUELINE CHARLES |
Miami, Feb. 16, 2008:
After refusing for two
years to ask for a U.S. halt in deportations of undocumented
Haitians, Haiti's President René Préval has asked
President Bush to grant them temporary protected status.
In a two-page letter to Bush dated Feb. 7, Préval wrote
that while he had apprehensions about seeking the TPS designation
in the past, the devastation caused by Tropical Storm Noel in
October has changed his mind.
`LIMITED RESOURCES'
''It will take years for our fellow citizens . . . to recover
from the consequences of that storm and of other other natural
disasters that preceded
it,'' Préval wrote. ``The extension of the TPS to Haitians
would protect the children born on U.S. soil as well as their
parents, and would enable my government to concentrate its limited
resources upon economic and political reconstruction instead
of having to provide social services to [deportees].''
Veronica Nur Valdez, a spokeswoman with U.S. Citizenship and
Immigration Services, said the agency is processing the request.
The decision on TPS is made by the president, but the U.S. Department
of Homeland Security can make a recommendation on whether to
grant it. DHS did not act on a similar request by former Prime
Minister Gérard Latortue in 2004 following devastating
storms that killed thousands.
Local immigration advocates and South Florida elected officials
have long advocated TPS for the 20,000 Haitians they believe
are living in the United States illegally. TPS would entitle
them to temporary residency and work permits for up to 18 months.
In Miami, those advocates applauded Préval's request and
urged Bush to approve it.
''This is a significant development which again strongly raises
the need for Haitians in the United States to receive equal treatment
and protection under the law,'' Steve Forester, senior policy
advocate for Haitian Women of Miami, said in an e-mail.
''There is a great strain being put on his government having
to absorb people who are being deported from the United States,''
added Miami Democrat Rep. Kendrick Meek.
''We are putting Haitians in a situation where roads are washed
out, areas of the country are experiencing hard economic times
and they are not going to serve a purpose to the families they
leave behind,'' he said.
But Meek, like others, said he doubted Bush would approve the
request because of the president's failure to approve it in the
past, the electoral campaigns and the fact that immigration reform
remains a divisive battleground.
''I would love to be proven wrong,'' Meek said.
Dan Erikson, a Caribbean analyst with the Inter-American Dialogue
think tank in Washington, said Haiti faces an uphill struggle.
`SUCCESS STORY'
''The Bush administration recently has been touting Haiti as
somewhat of a success story. The argument becomes that if the
U.S. is spending all of this money helping to stabilize Haiti
and yet its citizens still require TPS, then things are not going
as well as has been advertised,'' he said.
A spokesman for Rep. Alcee Hastings, a Miramar Democrat who unsuccessfully
championed a TPS bill in the last three sessions, welcomed Préval's
request but questioned its timing.
''The concern we have is what message is the president trying
to send to the U.S.: That the instability in Haiti is so great
that he thinks we ought to keep people here?'' said the spokesman,
David Goldenberg.
|
US to overhaul
guest worker program |
CaribWorldNews, WASHINGTON,
D.C., Thurs. Feb. 7, 2008: The
U.S. Department of Labor wants to overhaul the federal guest
worker program for agriculture.
The plan, which failed to pass the Congress last year, proposes
`modernizing` the H-2A program for employing foreign workers
in temporary or seasonal agricultural jobs.
`This issue must be addressed now, or our country will see eroding
competitiveness in its agricultural sector, crops being left
to rot in the fields, and increasing shifting of domestic food
production to overseas,` Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao said
in a statement yesterday. `These proposed changes to the H-2A
program will provide farmers with an orderly and timely flow
of legal workers and increase protections for both U.S. and foreign
workers."
President Bush has been a consistent supporter of the guest worker
plan and immigration reform since taking office but two major
attempts to get a comprehensive immigration reform bill to him,
to be signed into law, fell through in the House.
The department's proposed changes will allow farmers to apply
to bring in foreign workers if they can show the supply of U.S.
workers is inadequate. And it proposes a system for calculating
how foreign workers are paid and centralizing the application
process under the federal government.
The new regulations would be the first changes to the H-2A visa
system in 20 years. About 75,000 foreign workers participated
in the H-2A visa program last year. Meanwhile, 600,000 to 800,000
undocumented laborers worked on U.S. farms illegally, the Labor
Department estimates. CaribWorldNews.com |
|
