Tueday night to Wednesday morning, May 20-21st, 25 immigrants were arrested in the greater Bay area on immigration charges by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement  (ICE).  Of the foreign citizens arrested, six had previously been ordered deported by immigration judges, and three had actually been previously found guilty of being sexual predators.

I am pro-immigration reform, but I cannot imagine how any rationale American would feel a foreign citizen here without status who has been found to be a sexual predator deserves to stay in the US.  It makes me wonder though if more immigration raids will start trying to include a few sexual predators and/or deviants, as a way to more easily rationalize arresting other foreign citizens at the same time. 

Immigration will likely get a little less messy for Canadians (at least Canadians qualified for certain occupations that require at least college degrees)..

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it is publishing a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to increase the maximum amount of time a Trade-NAFTA (TN) professional worker from Canada or Mexico can remain in the United States before seeking readmission or obtaining an extension of stay. The proposal will extend the maximum period of admission for TN workers from one year to three years, the same term that USCIS currently may grant to H-1B specialty occupation workers.

The proposed rule will further allow eligible TN nonimmigrants to be granted an extension of stay in increments of up to three years, as opposed to the current maximum of one year. TN nonimmigrants are not subject to a maximum period of stay and thus may seek multiple readmissions or extensions, provided their intended professional activity continues and they remain otherwise eligible. Current regulations require that TN workers seek readmission or apply for an extension of stay each year.

Foreign college and graduate students on F-1 Visas in the United States who receive H-1B Visas will now be able to change their status to H-1B without consular notification.  This will greatly benefit foreign students in the US who have been approved for H-1B Visas but have a break of time between the expiration of their F-1 Visa and the start of their H-1B Visa employment.  Foreign students in this situation will now qualify for automatic extensions of their H-1B Visas.

Hundred of illegal immigrant workers were arrested yesterday at Pilgrim's Pride chicken plants.  The arrests occurred in five states and focused on illegal workers who were using fake Social Security cards.   There will not be any reprecussions to Pilgrim's Pride, because the company is said to have cooperated with agents from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

There have been many more arrests this year throughout the country of illegals workers, as the government tries to crack down on immigration violators.  And hundreds of workers translates to many people with many more relatives impacted.  However, with 10-12 million illegal immigrants in the United States (depending on which figures you go by), spending large amounts of moneyto infilltrate operations across state lines to arrest hundreds of workers seems like more of a statement.  These types of mass arrests build fear, which can be more powerful imm immigrant communities than the actual arrests themselves.  

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced earlier this month that it will complete over a million naturalization cases this year, which is 36% more naturalization cases that were adjudicated last year.   This is a very lofty goal, and I am unsure if this many citizenship cases will really be completed.  What do you think?

Many naturalization cases have been recently filed, and this is partially due to the large number of green card holders who want to particiapte in the 2008 election.   The fact is though that the processing of naturalization cases has been moving really slow over the past couple of years on account of greater delays in background checks.  So while a greater number of cases processed is needed, I can't imagine most Americans would be happy if citizenship applications received less detailed background checks. 

On April 1, 2008,  US Citizenship & Immigration Services began accepting applications for H-1B Visas to start on October 1, 2008 for the 2009 fiscal year.  There are only 62,000 new regular H-1B Visas that will be available for the entire 2009 fiscal year, and the US Citizenship & Immigration Services has refceived tens of thousands of applications already.   Additionally, irregardless of the number of Petitions received, The US Government has decided to accept cases until April 7, 2008 before tallying the number of H-1B Visa Petitions received.  Due to this, it is likely the US Government will receive over 200,000 H-1B petitions by the end of the business day on April 7, 2008, which will require all properly filed cases to be put into an application processing lottery.

It is likely that less than 1/3 of all properly filed H-1B Petitions with start dates in early October 2008 will be chosen for processing.  This makes the H-1B Visa Program, the visa for foreign professionals with at least a college degree, sort of a crapshoot at best.  We will have to wait and see how many applications the US Government does in fact receive for H-1B Visas before we can provide more information.

For a handful of years there have been substantial delays in certain cases for status adjustment and citizenship, when all background checks are supposed to be completed with 180 days.  When delays have gotten out of hand, the only real option has been to file a writ of mandamus with the District Court having authority over the immigration office where the case is located.  

By filing these writs, attorneys have been able to get District Courts to force decisions, but the process can be involved, stressful and costly for immigrants.  However, there may be a new rule coming out from the US Citizenship & Immigration Services requiring green cards to be issued after 180 days of FBI background checks soon, which would be a tremendous help for immigrants whose cases are being held up.