Greg Siskind on Immigration Law and Policy

IMMIGRANT OF THE DAY: SHAMI FAROUK - ENTREPRENEUR AND POLITICIAN

 
Palestine-born hair-care entrepreneur Shami Farouk made news this week when he announced he will spend $10 million of his fortune to finance a race for governor of Texas. He hopes to raise another $10 million along the way. Farouk is obviously not the typical Texas politician, but  is hoping home state will emulate neighboring Louisiana which elected Bobby Jindal, an Indian-American to lead the state. 

DOBBS CONSIDERING RUN FOR SENATE

Media sources are reporting that former CNN anchor Lou Dobbs is considering taking his $8 million severance package and using the funds to finance a run for the Senate against NJ Democratic Senator Bob Menendez. Menendez’s office issued a statement this week regarding the speculation:

 'Senator Menendez has his nose to the grindstone to help create an economic recovery for New Jersey families and will not be distracted by an election three years away,' Menendez spokesman Afshin Mohamadi told the New York Times. 'I'm sure that he would relish eventually having an opponent from so far out of the mainstream and who has never done a thing for the hard-working people of New Jersey, but the senator's focus is on jobs, not Dobbs.'

[UPDATE] Apparently, Lou has bigger ambitions.

IMMIGRANTS MORE LIKELY TO SUPPORT BANS ON SMOKING

Interesting. I guess as I’m in Europe all week and see smokers everywhere, I’ve been working under the assumption that smoking is much more prominent outside the US and immigrants would therefore be more likely to be smokers. But apparently immigrants to the US are coming in bigger numbers from countries where smoking is less prominent. From the AP:

 

The strongest American advocates for smoking bans in public venues are the newest Americans, one study said.

 

Immigrants and their children were most likely to approve of smoke-free spaces, according to an analysis of data from the U.S. Census' Current Population Survey from 1995-2002.

 

Over those years, 75.7 percent of foreign-born U.S. residents supported a smoking ban in at least four different types of public space, while 59.1 percent of U.S.-born Americans with U.S.-born parents did so. Of

the total population, 61.6 percent said they would support a ban in at least four of the six public venues listed, which included bars, restaurants, offices, hospitals, and indoors sports venues and shopping malls.

 

The report can be found at http://ajph.aphapublications.org/.

THE CALCULUS ON IMMIGRATION REFORM

While many presume that the poor economic circumstances in the US will scuttle immigration reform in coming months, I’ve been repeating my observation that the White House and congressional leaders are more worried about not locking in Hispanic voters which shifted a substantial percentage of their votes to Democrats in the last few election cycles. Now a new report is showing that six of the eight states expected to gain congressional seats based on the 2010 census will do so because of Hispanic population shifts. According to the Deseret News in Salt Lake City:

 

'The states likely to gain political power following the 2010 Census are currently largely Republican dominated' and in most cases 'will owe this expanded power to Latinos who moved to their states,' says the study by the America's Voice Education Fund, an organization based in Washington, D.C., that advocates comprehensive immigration reform.

 

'Ironically, many members of the delegations who will benefit … have embraced policies that are hostile to Latinos and immigrants. It will be interesting to see how the 2010 Census impacts politicians' attitudes toward immigrants and Latinos who help them expand their powers in Congress,' the report said.

 

*****

The study projects that eight states will gain seats in the upcoming census — Texas (gaining four), Arizona (gaining two) and one each for Florida, Georgia, Nevada, Oregon, South Carolina and Utah. Each House seat gained also brings an extra vote in the Electoral College.

 

'Without Latino population growth, six of the eight states gaining representation would most likely not have achieved their current projected seats,' the study said. 'Only Georgia and Utah would have gained their new seats without Latino growth.'

 

It is true that votes will likely be lost from some who see immigrants as contributing to job loss amongst Americans. But polling shows that most Americans consider immigration a low priority – not even a top ten issue. The hard core small minority (probably no more than 20 to 25% in my opinion) that have strong feelings on the subject are likely voting Republican anyway so going forward with immigration reform won’t alter the political equation. But Democrats have an opportunity to “lock down” gains among Hispanic voters and making them permanent members of the Democratic coalition. And as the America’s Voice report shows, the electoral power of Hispanics is increasing. And unlike the general public, Hispanic voters DO consider immigration policy a key issue when they consider for whom to vote. Failing to move immigration reform soon could create an opening for Republicans to claim that Democrats are not serious about immigration reform and just give lip service to the issue.

 

The report can be found here.

WHITE HOUSE EMPLOYER COMPLIANCE CAMPAIGN GOES INTO OVERDRIVE

Immigration and Customs Enforcement Assistant Secretary John Morton announced today that the agency will inspect the I-9 records of approximately 1000 companies around the US, dwarfing the announcement in July that nearly 600 firms were being investigated. Only 500 firms were audited in 2008. This time the employers being targeted are firms involved with "critical infrastructure" projects.

ICE also released some interesting data showing the impact of its new enforcement initiatives:

Statistics since implementation of new ICE worksite enforcement strategy on April 30:

• 45 businesses and 47 individuals debarred;
  • 0 businesses and 1 individual were debarred during same period in FY 2008.
• 142 Notices of Intent to Fine (NIF) totaling $15,865,181;
  • ICE issued 32 NIFs totaling $2,355,330 in all of FY 2008.
• 45 Final Orders totaling $798,179;
  • ICE issued eight Final Orders totaling $196,523 during the same period in FY 2008.
• 1,897 cases initiated;
  • ICE initiated 605 cases during the same period in FY 2008.
• 1,069 Form I-9 Inspections;
  • ICE initiated 503 Form I-9 Inspections in all of FY 2008.

In July, ICE issued 654 NOIs to businesses nationwide in the largest operation of its kind before today - part of ICE's effort to audit businesses suspected of using illegal labor.

Statistics resulting from the 654 audits announced in July:

• ICE agents reviewed more than 85,000 Form I-9s and identified more than 14,000 suspect documents - approximately 16 percent of the total number reviewed.
• To date, 61 NIFs have been issued, resulting in $2,310,255 in fines. In addition, 267 cases are currently being considered for Notices of Intent to Fine (NIFs).
• ICE closed 326 cases after businesses were found to be in compliance with employment laws or after businesses were served with a Warning Notice in expectation of future compliance.

LEARNING FROM THE ANTIS

I usually use this space's real estate to criticize the tactics of the antis. But I'll give them some credit for the extremely effective job they did during the first two rounds of immigration reform earlier this decade. That was largely because of a well organized grass roots effort that left the pro-immigrant forces in the dust. The Reform Immigration For America coalition has sought to help the pros get caught up. And they are starting to show real muscle. Last night, an estimated 60,000 people participated in 1000 house parties across the country where they listened in to a speech from Representative Luis Guttierez.

In the mean time, here in London, I spoke at the IBA Global Immigration Conference on a panel on skilled immigration along with lawyers from 8 other countries. My main takeaway is that our competitor countries are increasingly using their immigration systems to attract top immigrants and the US is falling behind.Skilled worker reforms will be a part of the comprehensive immigration reform (including liberalizing per country quotas, providing more visa opportunities for highly skilled immigrants, allowing adjustment applications to be submitted even if green card numbers are not available, etc.). So hopefully skilled immigration advocates will work on immigration reform efforts and not stay on the sidelines.

H-1B NUMBERS DOWN TO FINAL 10,000

USCIS is reporting that as of November 6th, 54,900 H-1Bs had been issued against the 65,000 annual quota. While this represents a dramatic drop in H-1B applications over previous years. In 2007, nearly 200,000 applications were filed in the first week applications were open and in 2009, the application period is now in its seventh month. Usage seems to be about 1,000 cases a week so we're probably looking at January or February to run out of numbers.

Incidentally, yesterday I was the moderator of a panel on the impact of the global recession on national migration policies in Amsterdam. One of my panelists was a senior executive at a well-known global IT consulting company that has been a heavy user of H-1B visas in years past. He mentioned that the company has shifted substantially to hiring local talent as much as possible in the many countries where it operates, particularly as rising unemployment has made more talented workers available. He noted that it is usually much cheaper to hire workers in the country where they are operating than having to send in foreign workers (no lawyer fees, immigration filing fees, transportation costs, assistance with relocation needs, language and cultural training, etc.). Aside from the economic downturn, this could be part of the reason why H-1B usage is down so much particularly with IT consulting companies. 

I'm off to London to speak at a panel at the International Bar Association's global immigration conference and will be attending tomorrow and Friday so blogging will likely be lighter than normal.

IMMIGRANT OF THE DAY: EUGENIA BRIN - SCIENTIST

 

I had a chance to get to know Genia Brin, Google founder Sergey Brin's mom, when we jointly served on the board of HIAS. She's an impressive woman who could sit back and relax, but instead she goes to work everyday as a NASA scientist and works on climate and forecasting projects for our nation's space agency. This week Genia entered the public limelight when she co-wrote an op-ed piece for the New York Daily News making the economic case for immigration reform. Genia has not forgotten her own immigrant experience and is heading up a major project for HIAS involving archival preservation relating to the Russian Jewish wave of immigration in the 70s, 80s and 90s.

WHITE HOUSE SIGNALS IMMIGRATION REFORM EFFORTS DEFINITELY A GO FOR 2010

This is key. We've been hearing that the White House was still up in the air between the energy bill and immigration and that one of the two would likely be pushed back until after the election. Now it looks like the White House thinks it can walk and chew gum (presumably after the President's approval ratings are slipping as people sense the White House is not actually keeping any of its promises).

IMMIGRATION HUMOR: LOU DOBBS "QUITS" CNN, DEMANDS THAT PEOPLE STOP PUTTING QUOTES AROUND "QUIT"

More fun Dobbs humor at Ridiculopathy.