Greg Siskind on Immigration Law and Policy

OMBUDSMAN ISSUES ANNUAL REPORT

The USCIS Ombudsman's office has released its 2009 report to Congress. It's got a lot of analysis of problems at USCIS, some interesting statistics not previously available and a number of useful recommendations.

FRIEDMAN: INVENT, INVENT, INVENT

Thomas Friedman has a great op-ed piece in today's NY TImes that emphasizes that the US is going to have to innovate like crazy if we're going to emerge from this recession on top. And a liberal skilled immigration policy has got to be part of our strategy. Here are some of the key quotes:

I still believe that America, with its unrivaled freedoms, venture capital industry, research universities and openness to new immigrants has the best assets to be taking advantage of this moment — to out-innovate our competition. But we should be pressing these advantages to the max right now.

***

Now is when we should be stapling a green card to the diploma of any foreign student who earns an advanced degree at any U.S. university, and we should be ending all H-1B visa restrictions on knowledge workers who want to come here. They would invent many more jobs than they would supplant. The world’s best brains are on sale. Let’s buy more!

WASHINGTON STATE GRANTING IN STATE TUITION TO NIV KIDS

I just had a consultation this week with an engineer working on an H-1B for several years with one of America's best known companies. He's got an unusual skill set that makes him highly valuable to the company and he is a good candidate for eventually getting a green card, something he and his company both want to see happen. Unfortunately, he's in a green card category that will be backlogged for several yaers.

But this fellow is facing a real problem. He has three teenage children and is facing paying out of state tuition costs for the universities in his state, something that will end up costing him more than his house by the time he's finished paying. Private universities are even more expensive.  And he's not interested in saddling his kids with massive debt. But until he gets the green card, this is what he's facing.

It's not a dilemma that is very unusual in this country. But at least American citizen and permanent resident parents have the option of claiming in state tuition rates. My taxpaying engineer client doesn't get that choice.

And that's why I was really happy to hear Washington state gets the problem and is now going to treat non-immigrant workers, such as those on H-1Bs, who have been in the state for at least a year, as residents for purposes of claiming in state tuition rates. Companies like Microsoft and Amazon will have a major new incentive to help them recruit top talent. And Washington state's universities will now have a bumper crop of extremely talented kids (I can tell you from experience that these families produce a lot of very gifted children).

Hopefully, other states will take note and pass similar measures.

[hat tip to Dan Kowalski for the link].

HIV TRAVEL BAN CLOSE TO ENDING

This is a long time coming and wonderful news for many who have been waiting for years for this. The Office of Management and Budget has completed review of a regulation which will remove HIV from the list of communicable diseases barring admission to the US. DHS will publish the rule for comment before it goes final, but the end is now in sight.

IMMIGRANT OF THE DAY: LAKSHMANAN SATHYAVAGISWARAN - CORONER TO THE STARS

Okay, I was trying to come up with some kind of Michael Jackson tie in for my IOTD and nothing was coming to mind until a helpful reader suggested Dr. Sathyavagiswaran, an Indian native, who is the Chief Medical Examiner at the Los Angeles Coroner's office. The doctor appears to be quite a character in movieland with his debut in the OJ trial. More recently, he testified in the Phil Spector murder trial. And now he will help the world find out exactly what happened to the King of Pop.

I have to say that even though yesterday's news was depressing (to be honest, I was a lot more upset about Farrah Fawcett dying than Michael Jackson), I laughed out loud when I saw various news correspondents standing in front of the coroner's office. The office has a video billboard attached to the official sign that posts various inspiring quotations as well as warnings on activities to avoid (drunk driving, etc.) that presumably keep the coroner busy. So when I heard about Dr. Sathyavagiswaran, I decided to go to the Coroner's web site to learn a little bit more and found that the Coroner's office has an online gift shop (!) that actually sells souvenirs from the coroner's office. It even has a clever name - Skeletons in the Closet.

Ya gotta love LA.

6/25 PODCAST NOW AVAILABLE

Yesterday's call was our first all Q & A session. I'll be posting the announcement for our July 8th program shortly.
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USCIS BEGINS ACCEPTING CONCURRENTLY FILED I-360/I-485 PETITIONS FOR RELIGIOUS WORKERS

Good news for religious workers who now get the same benefit available to I-140 applicants.

USCIS Notice June 26, 2009

Court Notice to Pending I-360s Applicants

Ruiz-Diaz v. U.S., No. C07-1881RSL (W.D. Wash.)

Introduction

On June 11, 2009, the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington issued
an order in Ruiz-Diaz v. U.S., No. C07-1881RSL (W.D. Wash.). The court found that 8 CFR §
245.2(a)(2)(i)(B), which does not allow religious workers to concurrently file an Application to
Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status (Form I-485), was invalid and unenforceable.

The court ordered USCIS to accept a properly filed I-485 and I-765 from a beneficiary of a
religious worker I-360. The court order also allows individuals whose concurrent filings were
previously rejected to reapply for adjustment of status. The order accords a spouse and children
of I-360 beneficiaries the same benefits. Below is the court notice regarding the decision and
information about the filing of applications for individuals with pending I-360s.

Notice

According to our records, you have a pending Form I-360 religious worker petition with USCIS
and may be eligible for benefits under Ruiz-Diaz v. United States, No. C07-1881RSL (W.D.
Wash. June 11, 2009).

Persons with pending Form I-360 religious worker petitions are immediately eligible to file a
Form I-485 and/or Form I-765. Individuals whose applications are properly filed with
appropriate filing fees and supporting documentation with USCIS by September 9, 2009 will
have any period of unlawful presence or unauthorized employment tolled until USCIS issues a
final administrative decision. Failure to file prior to September 9, 2009, will result in the
accrual of unlawful presence or unauthorized employment time.

Persons who want to file an Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status (Form
I-485) and/or an Application for Employment Authorization (Form I-765)1 must mail the
applications, with the required fees, to:

California Service Center
P.O. Box 10485
Laguna Niguel, CA 92677-1048

1 Applicants may also file an Application for Travel Document, Form I-131, as long as they are eligible and properly
file the application.

–more –
 
Page 2

Any person who has a Form I-360 religious worker petition pending with USCIS as of June 11,
2009, will have any period of unlawful presence that began accruing as of the date of filing of
the I-360 tolled until September 9, 2009. In addition, any period of unauthorized
employment that occurred after filing of the I-360 will be tolled until September 9, 2009.
Persons who properly file the Form I-485 and Form I-765 applications on or after June 11, 2009
and have their applications received by USCIS prior to September 9, 2009 also will have the
accrual of unlawful presence and unlawful employment tolled until USCIS issues a final
administrative decision.

Spouses and children who are the beneficiaries of properly filed Forms I-360 by religious
workers may be accorded the same status and order of consideration as the principal, unless the
spouse and child are already entitled to another immigrant status and immediate issuance of a
visa under section 203(a), (b), or (c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 8 U.S.C. §
1153(a), (b), or (c).

For additional information please see the USCIS webpage at www.uscis.gov.

OBAMA'S WORDS TO THE MEDIA ON THE IMMIGRATION SUMMIT

MCCAIN: REPUBLICAN SUPPORT FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM WILL BE TIED TO GUEST WORKERS

I'm glad we've got Republicans like John McCain who told President Obama at yesterday's White House meeting that he needs to stand up to labor unions and support an expansion of guest worker programs. If we're going to avoid a re-run of 1986's legalization program - which dealt with the problem of illegal immigrants in the US in the 80s but failed to have any impact on stopping the flow of illegal immigration that has brought us to where we are now - then we need to have a guest worker program that will meet the needs of employers and the country in the years to come. Otherwise, we'll be talking about immigration reform in 2025 or so wondering how we got to the point where we need another legalization program.

THE ELEMENTS OF THE 2009 IMMIGRATION REFORM BILL

We don't have actual legislation to examine yet, but Senator Schumer has outlined the major components of the bill he'll introduce:

1.      Illegal immigration is wrong, and a primary goal of comprehensive immigration reform must be to dramatically curtail future illegal immigration.
 
2.      Operational control of our borders--through significant additional increases in infrastructure, technology, and border personnel--must be achieved within a year of enactment of legislation.
 
3.      A biometric-based employer verification system—with tough enforcement and auditing—is necessary to significantly diminish the job magnet that attracts illegal aliens to the United States and to provide certainty and simplicity for employers.
 
4.      All illegal aliens present in the United States on the date of enactment of our bill must quickly register their presence with the United States Government—and submit to a rigorous process of converting to legal status and earning a path to citizenship—or face imminent deportation.
 
5.      Family reunification is a cornerstone value of our immigration system.  By dramatically reducing illegal immigration, we can create more room for both family immigration and employment-based immigration.
 
6.      We must encourage the world’s best and brightest individuals to come to the United States and create the new technologies and businesses that will employ countless American workers, but must discourage businesses from using our immigration laws as a means to obtain temporary and less-expensive foreign labor to replace capable American workers; and finally
 
7.      We must create a system that converts the current flow of unskilled illegal immigrants into the United States into a more manageable and controlled flow of legal immigrants who can be absorbed by our economy.

 

The problem I see for now is that some of these provisions could be great - or terrible - depending on the details. For example, encouraging the "best and brightest" to come to the US is great, but then Senator Schumer talks about discouraging business from using immigration laws to attract cheap foreign labor. That sounds good, but if this is code for coming up with protectionist rules that are about keeping out foreign workers rather than curtailing fraud.

And the last point - creating a system to convert the flow of unskilled illegal immigrants into a controlled flow sounds great. Maybe we'll get an actual guest worker system - something that was lacking in the 1986 immigration law that many blame for the failure of that law to end the problem of illegal immigration. But the last phrase - "can be absorbed by our economy" - is pretty broad and could mean extreme limits on numbers or something more flexible with the market determining numbers.

When the bill comes out, all will be revealed, of course, but in the mean time we'll have to keep guessing.