New York, May 2011
The United States Immigration Newsletter
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Doctors Defect from Cuba, Face Visa Delays in the U.S.
 Miami, FL:
A number of medical doctors who expected a warm welcome in the U.S. after defecting from Cuba are now having difficulties getting their immigration visas from the
USCIS. The medical doctors were encouraged to defect to the United States by a program created by President George W Bush in 2006. Bush’ program was designed to weaken Cuba’s own “Doctor Diplomacy” program, under which Cuban doctors work in foreign countries as a part of Cuba’s diplomacy effort. Many of the Cuban doctors are deployed in Venezuela, where several doctors have defected and later sought to immigrate to the United States. Several of the defected Cuban doctors have experienced that their green card applications have been delayed or even denied after they admitted to having had ties to the Cuban Communist Party. One doctor that defected while he was in Venezuela was subsequently denied a green card in the U.S. because he had joined the Union of Young Communists when he was 14 years old. In the forms that applicants for green cards or U.S. citizenship have to fill out, there are questions about the applicant’s ties to the communist party, and providing a false answer to the questions on the forms could cause applicants to be prosecuted or even stripped of their new U.S.
citizenship. On the other hand, the organizations in the U.S. that are helping the defected Cuban medical doctors resettle in the U.S. say that the doctors have often not joined the Communist Party out of belief, but rather out of necessity; in order to be allowed to practice their occupation or even just to get food. The USCIS says that regardless of any programs, they process all applications for permanent resident status, or citizenship individually. Federal U.S. law makes anyone who’s been a member of the communist party in the last five years ineligible for permanent residency. For U.S. citizenship the rule is ten years.
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Graduate Degree should come with a Green Card, says New York Mayor
 New York City, NY:
The mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, says it would be a good idea to staple green cards to the diplomas of all foreign students who earn a graduate degree in the United States. Bloomberg says New York City is depending on immigrants to uphold its economy, and that it is a shame that individuals who have earned graduate degrees from universities in the U.S. takes their skills to other countries, instead of contributing to the American economy. The New York mayor talked to the press during the launch of the annual “Citizenship Now,” a hotline that has provided foreigners with immigration advice for the past eight years. The mayor’s statement came only a week after he attended an immigration summit at the White House. Also attending the summit were both the former and the current secretaries of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, as well as former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Rev. Al Sharpton, among others. At the “Citizenship Now” launch Mayor Bloomberg said that while immigrants only make up 36 percent of New York City’s population, they make up 46 percent of the resident workforce. The mayor also scolded federal lawmakers for taking too long to reform the U.S.
immigration system, and he said that the 11 million illegal immigrants that live in the United States must be given the opportunity to become legal residents, even if they won’t be allowed to become U.S. citizens. |
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County Ignores ICE Deportation Program
 Rockville, MD:
Montgomery County in Maryland resists participation in the “Secure Communities” immigration enforcement program run by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Several county council members are backing a resolution to ask county police to carry on its “current policy” rather than to participate in the program. One sponsor of the resolution says he would like the “federal policy revised.” One concern is that illegal immigrants located by the Secure Communities program are deported even if they are not actually convicted of any crime. Under the Secure Communities program fingerprints of all prison inmates in the county are sent to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The DHS will use the fingerprints to check the inmates’
immigration status. Several county council members say they will implement the program if mandated by ICE, something that has not yet happened. DHS says they will mandate the county to participate in the program. In California, U.S. House representative Zoe Lofgren accuses ICE officials of lying about counties being able to choose not to participate in the Secure Communities program. Several counties wish to opt out of the program. The DHS says participation in Secure Communities was never voluntary, but that this fact was not clearly stated by ICE in the early stage of the program. Lofgren is now asking for an investigation of several ICE officials. She says “You can’t’ have a government department essentially lying to local government and to members of Congress. This is not OK.” |
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Immigration Scammers Punished
 Oakland, CA:
A man from California has been sentenced to three years in prison by a federal court, after he was convicted for conspiracy, impersonation of a federal officer, and attempted extortion of a federal officer. Evidence showed that the 46-yearl-old man and his companions had sent extortion letters to six people. The letters were made out to be sent from the immigration authorities, and demanded a total of $50,000 to straighten out issues regarding the receivers’ immigration status. If they didn’t pay, they risked jail or deportation, according to the extortion letters. The people who received the letters contacted the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which launched an investigation into the matter. Later the now-convicted man and his comrades contacted the would-be victims by phone, pretending to be immigration officers, still demanding the money. ICE arrested the 46-year-old as he attempted to pick up the money. When arrested, the man was wearing a clown suit and was riding on a children’s bicycle. In Baltimore, Ma, another man was sentenced to 30 months in prison for another immigration scam. The 40-year-old man was convicted for identification document fraud, as he provided fake birth certificates and social security numbers to
illegal immigrants. The newly sentenced man was working for an engineering company that performed inspections of construction sites. When the man discovered illegal workers at the worksite, he would present himself as an inspector, and offer to provide the immigrants with genuine birth certificates and social security numbers. In reality the man forged the documents, charging at least nine people between $1,000 and $6,000 each. |
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USCIS Changes Employment Verification Rules
 Washington, DC:
The U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that it is adopting a rule concerning the process of Employment Eligibility Verification. Employers must complete a Form I-9 for all new people they employ. The I-9 process is meant to establish the identity of the new employee, and to verify that he or she has permission to work in the United States. The new rule makes adjustments to the list of documents that new hires are allowed to use in order to prove their identity and employment eligibility. In the revision, certain outdated documents have been removed from the list, and others have been added; particularly documentation that pertains to people from Micronesia and the Marshall Islands. It is an interim rule that has been in use for two years, and that has received a number of public comments, that has now been adopted by the
USCIS without changes. The final rule is published in the Federal Register and is also available at the USCIS website. Employers may still use the same version of the Form I-9 that has been in use since 2009. Instructions to complete the form, along with a handbook for employers, are also available at the USCIS website. |
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Visa Security Program Lacks Consistency and Efficiency
 Washington, D.C.:
The Visa Security Program was launched eight years ago by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to perform background checks on people who apply for visas to travel to the United States. The purpose of the program is to bloc visa applicants with criminal or terrorist backgrounds or connections from entering the U.S. However, a newly released report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) indicates that the Visa
Security Program is limited in its efficiency because it is inconsistent in the way it is being operated, and because it has not yet been implemented in some of the high-risk nations where it is most needed. The Visa Security Program is in place at 19 U.S. embassies or consulates, out of a total of 216. Out of 20 consular posts that have been deemed “high-risk” by the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in agreement, only 11 posts have the program in place. The main reason why ICE has not been able to get the Visa Security Program in place in the remaining high-risk posts is lack of funding. A recent airline bombing attempt by a Nigerian National gave new attention to the high-risk consular posts, since the Nigerian man received a U.S.
visa even though several warning signs were present in his background. Several years ago, ICE developed a plan to expand the Visa Security Program. If ICE had followed the plan, all the high-risk countries would have been incorporated in the program. But according to GAO’s report, ICE has neither followed nor updated their expansion plan. |
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