New York, April 2011
The United States Immigration Newsletter
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17 Years in Jail for Corrupt Ex Immigration Attorney
 Los Angeles, CA:
A former immigration attorney with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement will have to spend 17 years in prison, after being convicted of over 30 felonies. Among other things, the 40-year-old man was convicted for having accepted over $400,000 from illegal immigrants in the United States, in return for helping them to remain in the country. The ex
ICE assistant chief council is also guilty of obstructing justice, committing fraud and identity theft, as well as evading taxes. Since 2000, the man and his 41-year-old wife had deposited nearly $1 million in the bank, not counting the man’s salary from the U.S. government. Part of the evidence in the
trial of the former immigration attorney was a surveillance video from a casino, where he accepted $20,000 from an informant for the federal government. According to the prosecutor, the former immigration attorney was arrested only minutes after the video was shot. The man would pose as an influential immigration official or even a judge, offering to help illegal immigrants for money. On one occasion he even appeared in court without authorization, helping a women avoid
deportation by having her case dismissed. He did so by telling the immigration judge that the woman had been helping the Immigration and Customs Enforcement in other cases. In return the woman’s mother paid the former immigration attorney over $7,000, in addition to working for free as his housekeeper. The wife has pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy, and will be sentenced later this year.
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Check Your Own Employment Eligibility Online
 Washington, D.C.:
In March, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)
rolled out a new online system that allows workers in the United States to check their own employment eligibility status. The new self-check tool is part of E-Verify, a tool that allows employers to check whether employees, or potential employees, are authorized to work in the United States. The new tool is called E-Verify Self Check, and can be used voluntarily by individuals who want to check whether they are allowed to work in the U.S., or who want to make sure they are listed correctly in the E-Verify system. E-Verify compares information from federal government databases to determine whether a particular individual is allowed to accept employment in the U.S. According to the USCIS director, “E-Verify is accurate in 96 percent of cases.” In the new
E-Verify Self-Check system, users, for example immigrants, will be able to discover and notify the government of any incorrect information that might be recorded in DHS’ or the Social Security Administration’s databases. It is still optional for most employers to use E-Verify to check workers’ employment authorization, but companies that have contracts with the federal government is required to use the system. It would require an act of Congress to make the online-work authorization system mandatory for all companies in the U.S., but already more than 250,000 companies use E-Verify, according to the USCIS, and since October of last year, 7 million searches have been entered in the E-Verify system. |
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Passcard in the Fast Lane
 Donna, TX:
Travelers who cross the border from Mexico to the U.S. at the Donna-Rio Bravo international bridge can experience that the time they have to wait in line to get into the US is shortened, after a new fast-lane is opened end of March. The new “Ready Lane” uses a system with radio frequency identification – RFID. This new technology makes it possible to process certain newer types of travel documents faster than before, and faster than what is possible with the older types of travel documents. Among the types of travel documents that can travel in the fast lane are the U.S. Passport Card, the new type of “greencard” – or permanent resident card, and the new
border crossing card. The new RFID system is faster because Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers do not have to enter the travelers’ information manually at the border inspection. Instead the information on the travel documents is transmitted to the CBP before the traveler even arrives at the checkpoint. For travelers to the U.S., the left lane of the bridge will be entirely devoted to the new system. The new Lane is not like the Secure Electronic Network for Travelers Rapid Inspection – SENTRI, which is a program that dedicates commuter lanes for those who cross the border daily. There is no prior registration or additional fees to make use of the “Ready Lane” system; as long as travelers carry the appropriate kind of RFID-technology travel documents. |
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Arizona CEOs Oppose Tougher Immigration Laws
 Phoenix, AZ:
Five new bills that were targeting illegal immigration have recently been rejected by lawmakers in the
Arizona State Senate. A couple of the bills were meant to force the U.S. Supreme Court to make a ruling against the practice of automatically awarding U.S. citizenship to babies born to illegal immigrants in the United States; so called anchor babies. Other bills would require hospitals to report un-ensured patients who are unable to prove that they are in the United States legally; and require schools to notify the authorities of students who can’t show that they are legal residents. The defeat of the five new measures in the Arizona State Senate came after at least 10 of the Republican senators voted on the democrat-side of the party line, and bear witness of an attitude shift among Arizona lawmakers since last year’s enactment of SB 1070. That piece of legislation brought both law suits and organized boycotts to Arizona. According to experts, part of the shift in attitude is due to the fact that
this year is not an election year, and that many of the politicians in Arizona today are more concerned with rebuilding a struggling economy and creating new jobs, than they are with fighting
illegal immigration. In addition, CEOs from as many as 60 different Arizona organizations have signed a letter to the state’s legislators that expresses concern that new immigration-related laws could bring state businesses even more problems with boycotts and decrease in business opportunity. The letter was mentioned on several occasions in the senate floor session that preceded the rejection of the five new immigration bills. |
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Immigrant Assistance Center turns 40
 New Bedford, MA:
The Immigrants’ Assistance Center, located in the South End of the city of New Bedford, MA, celebrates 40 years of helping immigrants in the United States adjust to their new country. The center is a non-profit organization and when it was founded in the early 70s, it was primarily to assist the large number of Portuguese
immigrants
that were arriving in the U.S. during that time. Today most of the people that
immigrate to the United States come from other parts of the world, but the
Immigrants’ Center’s mission to help the new arrivals get settled is the same;
except for the fact that they now focus on helping immigrants in general, rather
than focusing specifically on the Portuguese. Mostly, the Immigrants’ Assistance
Center strives to assist legal permanent residents – people who already have a
green card – with their economic problems, as well as teaching them the English
language and helping them get adjusted to their new culture. At the center,
immigrants struggling with the English language can even get help with every-day
tasks like reading the mail. The focus of the Immigrants’ Assistance is not so
much on helping illegal immigrants, even though the issue of illegal immigration currently has a large presence in the public debate. The Center helps permanent residents become citizens of the United States, and
those who already got their U.S.
citizenship can go to the center to get help registering to vote and otherwise execute
their rights and duties as a U.S. citizens. |
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130 Immigrants Arrested in Virginia – Risk Deportation
 Washington, D.C.:
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently conducted a sweep operation in Northern Virginia, rounding up 130 people of foreign nationality who are either illegal immigrants, or immigrants with criminal convictions. According to ICE, more than half of those who were arrested in the operation had several convictions of crimes, 10 had returned illegally to the United States after having been deported. Some of the crimes that the arrested immigrants have been convicted of include rape, assault, burglary, and drug possession. There were also several fugitives among the arrested. Among the detained were several – over 20 – that had no prior convictions, but were in the U.S. illegally; and there were at least four green card holders, immigrants with
permanent resident
status, who had criminal records that included sexual assault, grand larceny and
child abuse. The round-up were executed in more than 10 different counties in
Northern Virginia, including the county of Prince William, where illegal
immigration has been a hot issue lately after a nun was killed by a drunk
driver. The driver was in the U.S. illegally, and was waiting for removal
proceedings after having been caught driving under the influence several times.
The illegal immigrant had not been kept in detention because it wasn’t
considered likely that he would escape. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says
that even though people driving under the influence is an important issue, ICE
focuses its resources on detainment and
removal of immigrants who committed more serious crimes, like murder and rape. |
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