Badmus

Shortly after a devastating earthquake destroyed the homes and lives of innumerable Haitians, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano announced the designation of Temporary Protective Status (TPS) for the roughly 100,000-200,000 eligible Haiti nationals currently in the United States as of January 12, 2010. As the world continues to respond with an outpouring of relief efforts, it is important to understand the facts on what TPS is, what it isn’t, how it works and who is eligible.

The Immigration Policy Center (IPC) released a fact sheet which provides background information vital to understanding TPS, including:

• Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is a temporary, humanitarian form of relief from deportation that does not include granting permanent residence or “amnesty” to unauthorized immigrants in the United States.
• The 100,000-200,000 Haitian immigrants whom the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) estimates are now in the United States on a temporary basis or without authorization will not be subject to removal as long as there is no functioning country to which they can return, and provided that they do not have criminal records.
• The Secretary of Homeland Security, “in consultation with the Secretary of State, can issue TPS for periods of 6 to 18 months and can extend these periods if conditions do not change in the designated country.”
• Major requirements for TPS include compliance with nationality and physical presence criteria (such as evidence of a passport issued by the designated country), continuous physical presence in the United States since the date TPS went into effect, timely registration, and being otherwise admissible as an immigrant.

To view the fact sheet in its entirety, see:

• Granting Refuge: Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians in the United States

Categories: Legislation and Policy, Immigration Litigation and Removal, Family Immigration, Blogroll, General |

On June 26, 2009, the ACLU of Texas made the following, highly-anticipated announcement regarding the settlement of a pending case in Brownsville, Texas, involving Mexican Americans who were categorically denied U.S. passports simply due to the fact that they were born by midwife:

State Department Agrees To Fair Issuance Of Passports To Mexican Americans (6/26/2009)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org

McALLEN, TX –The U.S. Department of State (DOS) has agreed to implement new procedures designed to ensure the fair and prompt review of U.S. passport applications by Mexican Americans whose births in Texas were attended by midwives. Under the agreement, no eligible applicant should be denied a passport.

The procedural changes are the result of a settlement agreement following a class action lawsuit filed by a coalition of civil rights and legal organizations including the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Texas, the international law firm Hogan & Hartson LLP, and Refugio del Rio Grande, Inc.

“The new procedures agreed to by the government are aimed at restoring the core American values of fairness and equality to the ways in which it issues U.S. passports,” said Vanita Gupta, staff attorney with the ACLU Racial Justice Program who worked on the case along with the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project. “Citizens will no longer be denied a passport solely because of their race, ancestry or because they happened to be born at home with a midwife.”

The settlement comes at a particularly crucial time. The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI), which went into effect June 1, requires every American who wishes to exit or enter or the United States to have a valid U.S. passport or passport card. Previously, citizens needed only a valid U.S. driver’s license to travel between the U.S. and Mexico or Canada.

“For U.S. citizens who live in the Southwest, a passport is now as necessary as a driver’s license,” said Lisa Graybill, Legal Director for the ACLU of Texas. “We are relieved that US citizens who work, shop, receive medical care, and have family on both sides of the border will no longer be in danger of losing their jobs, risking their health, or being separated from family members simply because of the circumstances of their birth.”  

Although midwifery has been a common practice for more than a century – particularly in rural and other traditionally underserved communities – the lawsuit charged that DOS was violating the due process and equal protection rights of virtually all midwife-delivered U.S. citizens living in the southern border region by forcing them to provide an excessive number of documents normally not required to prove their citizenship. Then, even after the applicants supplied further proof of their citizenship, DOS responded by summarily closing their applications without explanation.

“Because DOS lacked clear standards, countless passport applicants were treated arbitrarily, said Lisa Brodyaga, the attorney for Refugio del Rio Grande. ”With this settlement, applicants born with midwives are guaranteed the same full and fair consideration of their applications as everyone else.  This is especially critical now given that the June 1st deadline of WHTI has passed.”

The lawsuit also charged that the Department’s practices were violating the Administrative Procedure Act, which was enacted as a safeguard against arbitrary and capricious government agency procedures. During the course of the litigation, several of the plaintiffs were granted passports even though they had been denied previously on the very same showing of evidence of citizenship. 

Pending court approval, DOS will train its staff on how to fairly weigh all the evidence provided in passport applications and how to avoid improperly subjecting people whose births were assisted by midwives in Texas and along the U.S.-Mexico border to heightened scrutiny in reviewing their passport applications. All denials will be automatically reviewed by a three-member panel comprised of experienced DOS staff members, and if that panel also denies an application, DOS must communicate the specific reasons for the denial to the applicant. The applicant can then challenge the denial and ask DOS to reconsider its decision.

Additionally, anyone birthed by a midwife who has filed an application for a passport between April 2003 and September 15, 2008 and, with a few exceptions, whose application was not expressly “denied,” can re-apply for free. DOS will be setting up mobile units across the border on specific dates to assist those reapplying.

DOS has also agreed to restrictions on a list it maintains of suspect midwives and other birth attendants, which it purported to use to justify its discriminatory policies. Importantly, DOS will not deny a passport application simply because the applicant’s birth attendant or midwife is on the list. Furthermore, DOS will conduct regular reviews of the list to ensure that no one is included unless DOS has a reasonable, lawful basis to do so. These measures will help ensure that DOS does force passport applicants to take unnecessary measures to prove their citizenship and does not arbitrarily deny passports merely because the individual was born to a suspect midwife. 

“We’re very happy that we were able to come to an agreement with the government that recognizes every U.S. citizen’s constitutional right to be treated with fairness and equality,” said Adam K. Levin of Hogan & Hartson. “You can’t deny basic rights to an entire group of U.S. citizens because their parents did not deliver them in hospitals.”

…. 

To read the announcement and find links to the complaint and settlement, click here.

By Michelle Richart

Categories: Legislation and Policy, Immigration Litigation and Removal, Family Immigration, Blogroll, General |

Reuniting Families Act (S. 1085) was introduced in the Senate on 5/29/2009.

The bill aims to help family members reunite in America in a timely manner by reforming America’s family-based immigration system to end lengthy separations of loved ones, promote family stability and foster the economic growth.

For the full text, click here

Categories: Immigration Litigation and Removal, Family Immigration, Firm News, Blogroll, General |

In an immigration policy update issued on May 7, 2009, the National Immigration Forum writes:

Senate begins consideration of comprehensive immigration reform: On Thursday, April 30, the Senate Immigration Subcommittee held its first hearing to consider how to fix the immigration system. The topic, “Comprehensive Immigration Reform in 2009, Can We Do It and How?”  Witnesses presented compelling testimony from a range of perspectives–faith, business, labor, law enforcement, and civil rights. 

The first panel consisted of former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan; J. Thomas Manger, Police Chief for Montgomery County, Maryland (also speaking on behalf of the Major Cities Chiefs); Dr. Joel Hunter, Senior Pastor of Northland Church in Longwood, Florida, and a member of the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships; and Jeff Moseley, President and CEO of Greater Houston Partnership in Houston, Texas.

Greenspan noted that in this economic crisis, immigration has slowed, but that he hoped that Congress will reform the immigration system by the time this crisis fades. He talked about the role undocumented immigrants have played in the U.S. labor force, accounting for 1 in 6 new workers from 2000 to 2007. He also devoted much of his time speaking of the need for high-skilled immigrants to our economy.

Chief Manger told the Senators that one compelling reason for comprehensive immigration reform is that “[i]t is tremendously challenging to deliver police service to a community of people who are afraid to have any contact with the police.” He went on to list a host of problems arising from our broken immigration system that police agencies must deal with.

Dr. Hunter gave one of the most eloquent testimonies I have heard concerning the hardship caused by the broken immigration system. He told the Senators that, “[t]he need for comprehensive immigration reform is to create a path that will help people do the right thing.”

Mr. Mosely talked about the hardship imposed on business due to the broken immigration system. He noted that the legal channels for both low-skilled and high-skilled immigrant workers are insufficient for the needs of our economy, and the fact that there are 12 million undocumented persons here is testament to that fact. Even with unemployment up at the moment, the idea that removing the undocumented would make jobs available for American workers assumes “…that an unemployed worker in New York’s financial sector would be willing to relocate to do agricultural work in California or construction work in Houston….”

A second panel consisted of Eliseo Medina, Executive Vice President of the Service Employees International Union, representing the labor view; Wade Henderson, President and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights presenting the civil rights perspective; and Doris Meissner, formerly Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service and now Senior Fellow with the Migration Policy Institute. The one witness testifying against sensible reform was Kris Kobach of the University of Missouri Law School and formerly with the Department of Justice under Attorney General John Ashcroft.

All of the testimony, and a recording of the Webcast, is available here:

http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/hearing.cfm?id=3793

Categories: Employment Immigration, Legislation and Policy, Employer Compliance, Immigration Litigation and Removal, Family Immigration, General |

The U.S. Embassy and consulates in Mexico have announced that they will be closed until May 6 due to the swine flu outbreak.  This means that they will only be operating with regards to emergency affairs.  All visa appointments and processing has been suspended.  To read the announcement and to stay informed on all updates, see the embassy website.

By Michelle Richart

Categories: Employment Immigration, Family Immigration, Blogroll, General |

The Department of State has released the May Visa Bulletin.  Significantly, visa numbers from the EB3 and “Other Workers” categories are unavailable.  The Department of State has stated that permanent resident cards from these categories will remain unavailable until October 1, 2009, the beginning of the federal fiscal year.  Click here to view May Visa Bulletin

 By:  Martha James

Categories: Employment Immigration, Employer Compliance, Family Immigration, General |

FACT: The immigrant community is not a drain on the U.S. economy but, in fact, proves to be a net benefit. Research reported by both the CATO Institute and the President’s Council of Economic Advisors reveals that the average immigrant pays a net 80,000 dollars more in taxes than they collect in government services. For immigrants with college degrees the net fiscal return is $198,000.

FACT: The American Farm Bureau asserts that without guest workers the U.S. economy would lose as much as $9 billion a year in agricultural production and 20 percent of current production would go overseas.

More mythbusting facts on this issue can be found in the National Conference of State Legislatures Summary of State Studies on Fiscal Impact of Immigrants.

AILA InfoNet Doc. No. 09032667 (posted Mar. 26, 2009)

Categories: Legislation and Policy, Family Immigration, Blogroll, General |

On 03/26/09, Senator Durbin (D-IL) reintroduced the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act of 2007 or DREAM Act (S. 729).

The DREAM Act would facilitate access to college for immigrant students in the U.S and provide a path to permanent residence for ambitious immigrant youth who were brought to the U.S. as young children and who want to pursue higher education or military service.

AILA InfoNet Doc. No. 09032771 (posted Mar. 27, 2009)

Categories: Legislation and Policy, Family Immigration, Blogroll, General |

Name Checks Pending More Than Six Months Now Completed

On 3/4/09 USCIS announced that it eliminated the backlog for FBI name checks pending more than 6 months. The next goal is to complete name check requests pending more than 90 days by 5/30/09.  For the full press release, click here.

Categories: Employment Immigration, Immigration Litigation and Removal, Family Immigration, Medical Professionals, General |

Effective February 23, 2009, and through December 31, 2009,  certain individuals who are present in the United States on valid, non-immigrant visas, and who possess certain language skills and/or who are healthcare professionals (doctors and nurses) may apply to enlist in the Army if they have been present in that valid non-immigrant status for the past two years.  This program, called MAVNI, allows individuals to apply for U.S. Citizenship and bypass the lawful permanent resident stage of the process.  It also allows those individual in J status to apply and bypass the foreign residency requirement.

This will continue until the end of 2009 or whenver they have reached the maximum number of individuals, which is 1,000.  Those who are on the following types of visas may qualify: refugees, asylees, TPS, E, F, H, I, J, K, L, M, O, P, Q, R, S, T, TC, TD, TN, U, and V.

You can read more about the program here.  Or on the Army website here.  If you wish to apply for this program, please contact our office.

By Michelle Richart

Categories: Employment Immigration, Legislation and Policy, Family Immigration, Medical Professionals, Blogroll, General |