USCIS, FBI ELIMINATE NATIONAL NAME CHECK BACKLOG

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that, in partnership with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), it has met all milestones set forth in a joint business plan announced April 2, 2008, resulting in the elimination of the FBI National Name Check Program (NNCP) backlog."Our close partnership with the FBI has resulted in the accomplishment of this significant achievement with national security as its foundation," said USCIS Acting Deputy Director Michael Aytes. "This continued working relationship will help to ensure that name check processing is accomplished as quickly as possible without compromising security concerns."The final goal of the business plan was to achieve a sustainable performance level by the NNCP of completing 98 percent of name check requests submitted by USCIS within 30 days, and the remaining two percent within 90 days. In the majority of instances, however, the completion of a backlogged FBI name check has resulted in a "no record response." As a result, USCIS has been able to resume normal processing of most cases which most often ends in a final determination of eligibility. Next steps in the adjudication of cases that were previously delayed as a result a pending FBI name check request may now include updating fingerprint results, scheduling interviews, requesting additional evidence and other reviews to determine whether the applicant is eligible for the requested immigration benefit.

To read more about this article, visit www.USCIS.org

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DEPARTMENT OF STATE: LIMITED AVAILABILITY FOR VISAS TO THOSE BORN IN INDIA OR CHINA

Mr. Charles Oppenheim of the Department of State Visa Office has advised AILA of the following predictions for the movement of priority dates for the remainder of FY2009 and future years. He estimates that all 140,000 employment-based immigrant visa numbers will be used this fiscal year (October 1, 2008 through September 30, 2009). EB1 and EB2 Visas for China and India remain in high demand, while EB3 visas for China and India will be unavailable for the rest of the year.

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ATTORNEY GENERAL DOES AWAY WITH COMPEAN ORDER

The Attorney General Eric Holder vacated the order issued in Matter of Compean by Attorney General Mukasey, and announced his intention to initiate a new rulemaking proceeding for regulations to govern claims of ineffective assistance of counsel in removal proceedings. The order in Matter of Compean limited non-citizen's ability to make claims of ineffective assistance of counsel in immigration proceedings.

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USCIS RESUMES PREMIUM PROCESSING SERVICE FOR FORM I-140, Immigrant Petition For Alien Worker

USCIS announced that effective June 29, 2009, it will resume Premium Processing Service for Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker. Under the Premium Processing Service, USCIS guarantees petitioners that, for a $1,000 processing fee, it will issue either an approval notice, or where appropriate, a notice of intent to deny, a request for evidence or open an investigation for fraud or misrepresentation, within 15 calendar days of receipt. If the petition is not processed within 15 calendar days, USCIS will refund the $1,000 fee and continue to process the request as part of the Premium Processing Service. In addition to faster processing, petitioners who participate in the program may use a dedicated phone number and e-mail address to check on the status of their petition or ask any other questions they may have concerning their petition. Premium Processing Service continues to be available for previously designated classifications within Form I-140 and Form I-129, Petition for Nonimmigrant worker. To read more about this update, visit the USCIS website at: www.USCIS.gov

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THE CAP HAS NOT BEEN REACHED! USCIS CONTINUES TO ACCEPT H-1B PETITIONS

There are still a number of H1-B Visas available, but you will need to file now!
Contact Joseph Law Firm, P.C. at 303-297-9171 or at www.immigrationissues.com to inquire about the available H1-B visas.

USCIS announced it continues to accept H-1B nonimmigrant visa petitions subject to the fiscal year 2010 (FY 2010) cap. USCIS will continue to monitor the number of H-1B petitions received for both the 65,000 regular cap and the 20,000 U.S. master's degree or higher educational exemption cap.

USCIS has received approximately 44,000 H-1B petitions counting toward the Congressionally-mandated 65,000 cap. The agency continues to accept petitions subject to the general cap.

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AILA to Host the 4th Annual Immigrant Liberty Awards on June 19th, 2009

The Immigrant Liberty Awards honor the outstanding work of immigrants and their allies in Colorado. The proceeds from this event go to benefit the Rocky Mountain Survivors Center (RMSC) and the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network (RMIAN). The Joseph Family Foundation is proud to be a sponsor of this event.

Click on the following links to view the invitation and registration form:

INVITATION

REGISTRATION FORM

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DOL ANNOUNCES NEW iCERT PORTAL SYSTEM FOR TEMPORARY AND PERMANENT LABOR CERTIFICATIONS

The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) is announcing a new electronic system for submitting the Labor Condition Application (LCA) and the Application for Permanent Employment Certification.

The Department plans to initially activate the iCERT system for purposes of establishing user accounts and filing the new LCA form (9035E). The system will be located at http://icert.doleta.gov. On and after April 15, 2009, the iCERT portal will be available for the sumission of ETA 9035E (electronic LCA H-1B application). The current electronic LCA system will continue to be available through May 14, 2009. However, effective May 15, 2009, the LCA for the H-1B program will be available for submission only through the iCERT portal system.

The PERM application, FORM ETA 9089, will become available for application submission on September 1, 2009. To allow for an appropriate transition, both systems will be active during the month of September. However, beginning October 1, 2009, PERM applications will be submitted electronically only through iCERT system accounts.

For more information, visit the ETA website for the iCERT Factsheet.

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USCIS REMINDS ALL U.S. EMPLOYERS OF REQUIREMENTS TO USE REVISED FORM I-9, EMPLOYMENT ELIGIBILITY VERIFICATION

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a reminder that the revised Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification (Rev. 02/02/09), goes into effect on April 9th, 2009 for all U.S. employers. The revision date is printed on the lower right-hand corner of the form.

The interim final rule, published Dec.17, 2008 in the Federal Register, revised the list of documents acceptable for the Employment Eligibility Verification (Form I-9) process. Employers may no longer use previous versions of the Form I-9. Click Here to View and Download the Revised Form I-9.

The revised list improves the security and effectiveness of the Form I-9 process. The list specifies that expired documents are no longer acceptable forms of identification or employment authorization. Allowing for expired documents makes it more difficult for employers to verify an employee's identity and employment authorization and compromises the Form I-9 process.

USCIS also updated the Handbook for Employers - Instructions for Completing Form I-9 to reflect the requirements of the revised Form I-9. Employers who do not have computer access can order Forms I-9 by calling our toll-free forms line at 1-800-870-3676. USCIS forms and information on immigration laws, regulations, and procedures can also be requested by calling the National Customer Service Center toll-free at 1-800-375-5283.

For more information about this update, visit the USCIS website at: www.USCIS.gov

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USCIS CONTINUES TO ACCEPT H-1B PETITIONS

There are still a number of H1-B Visas available, but you will need to file now!
Contact Joseph Law Firm, P.C. at 303-297-9171 to inquire about the available H1-B visas.

USCIS announced it continues to accept H-1B nonimmigrant visa petitions subject to the fiscal year 2010 (FY 2010) cap. USCIS will continue to monitor the number of H-1B petitions received for both the 65,000 regular cap and the 20,000 U.S. master's degree or higher educational exemption cap.

USCIS has received approximately 42,000 H-1B petitions counting toward the Congressionally-mandated 65,000 cap. The agency continues to accept petitions subject to the general cap.

Additionally, the agency has received approximately 20,000 petitions for aliens with advanced degrees; however, we continue to accept advanced degree petitions since experience has shown that not all petitions received are approvable. Congress mandated that the first 20,000 of these types of petitions are exempt from any fiscal year cap on available H-1B visas.

Petitions filed on behalf of current H-1B workers, who have been counted previously against the cap, will not count toward the congressionally mandated FY 2010 H-1B cap.
Therefore, USCIS will continue to process petitions filed to:

- Extend the amount of time a current H-1B worker may remain in the United States.

- Change the terms of employment for current H-1B workers.

- Allow current H-1B workers to change employers.

- Allow current H-1B workers to work concurrently in a second H-1B position.

U.S. businesses use the H-1B program to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise in fields, such as scientists, engineers, or computer programmers.

To read more about this update, visit the USCIS website at: www.USCIS.gov

For more information about H-1B Visas, visit the Joseph Law Firm, P.C. website at: www.immigrationissues.com

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TSA ANNOUNCES NEW SECURE FLIGHT PROGRAM FOR ALL DOMESTIC FLIGHTS

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced today the implementation of the Secure Flight program, which shifts pre-departure watch list matching responsibilities from individual aircraft operators to TSA and carries out a key recommendation of the 9/11 Commission. To date TSA has assumed the watch list matching responsibility for passengers on domestic commercial flights with four volunteer aircraft operators and will add more carriers in the coming months. "The implementation of Secure Flight is a critical step towards mitigating threats we know exist in our aviation system," said TSA Acting Administrator Gale Rossides. "Secure Flight improves security and protects passenger privacy and civil liberties by ensuring the confidentiality of government watch list matching protocols."

Under Secure Flight, airlines will gather a passenger's full name, date of birth, and gender when making an airline reservation to determine if the passenger is a match to the No Fly or Selectee lists. By providing the additional data elements of gender and date of birth, Secure Flight will more effectively help prevent misidentification of passengers who have similar names to individuals on the watch list.

In addition to addressing misidentification, Secure Flight protects sensitive watch list data and enables officials to address security threats sooner, keeping air travel safer. By implementing one watch list matching system, the program provides a fair and consistent matching process across all airlines.

TSA continues to provide a robust redress process through the Department of Homeland Security's Traveler Redress Inquiry Program (DHS TRIP) (www.dhs.gov/trip), a single portal for travelers to seek redress for adverse screening experiences and resolve possible watch list misidentification issues. Secure Flight uses the results of the redress process in its watch list matching process to prevent future misidentification of passengers who may have a name that's similar to an individual on the watch list.

The second stage of implementation, which is expected to begin in late 2009, will assume the watch list matching function for passengers on international flights from U.S. Customs and Border Protection and international air carriers.

TSA's goal is to vet 100 percent of all domestic commercial flights by early 2010 and 100 percent of all international commercials flights by the end of 2010.

For more information on Secure Flight visit www.tsa.gov.

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Secretary Napolitano Issues Immigration and Border Security Action Directive

U.S. Department of Homeland Security(DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano announced today a wide-ranging action directive on immigration and border security.

The Directive requires specific department offices and components to work together and with state and local partners to review and assess the plans and policies to address: criminal and fugitive undocumented persons; legal immigration benefit backlogs; southbound gun smuggling; cooperation with the National Guard; widows and widowers of U.S. citizens; immigration detention centers; and electronic employee verification.

CLICK FOR THE FULL ACTION DIRECTIVE

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Voting: Do it because you can

This is a day where I am so proud to be an immigration attorney. Today I received a message from Tony Suda. Tony has been a client of Joseph Law Firm, P.C. for several years. Today, he cast his first ballot as a Citizen of the United States of America. He e-mailed me to express his gratitude for our services and to describe the emotion that he felt as he cast his ballot in this historic election. This is a picture of Tony, casting his vote.

On this day, we will elect our first African-American President or our first female Vice President. This is truly an amazing and inspirational step-forward for our democracy. However, on this historic day, as Barack Obama and Sarah Palin enter the ballot booths, it is important to remember that African-Americans did not even enjoy the right to vote until 140 years ago when Congress passed the 15th Amendment. It is even more shocking that women did not have the right to vote until 1920 when the 19th Amendment was passed. Voting is the ultimate symbol of political power and denial of the right to vote the ultimate tool of political disenfranchisement.

I am struck by the fundamental importance of the vote and the power of the vote as a tool for political, societal and moral change. People have marched, struggled and died to exercise the right. The ability to vote is the single most important of our Constitutional rights. It is our vote that enables us to elect our leaders, to determine which ballot initiatives reflect our values, who will speak for us in government, and who will express our will in the laws that are passed for our communities and our country.

At the same time it is important to know that many of the people I represent have never enjoyed this most fundamental of rights. In fact, many of them have come to this country fleeing oppressive governmental regimes that would imprison, torture or kill them for even considering expressing political opinions that are contrary to those of the political party in power. To these individuals, their ultimate dream in seeking refuge in the United States is that one day, they too would be able to freely cast their vote, voice an opinion--even a contrary one--and live to tell about it.

Immigrants do not have the right to vote. This is a right reserved exclusively to citizens. For many immigrants, it is a decades-long and torturous road to citizenship and the right to vote, but it is one that they are more than willing to take. To the extent that they have no right to vote, immigrants (both documented and undocumented) are the most politically disenfranchised group of people living in our country.

It is a travesty that those most effected by our nonsensical and broken immigration system are completely powerless to change it. It is up to us as Citizens today to cast our votes for leaders who will be courageous enough to fix our broken system, and it is up to our elected leaders, whoever they may be, to put politics aside and fix it.

Fixing our broken system means allowing the millions of undocumented people who are living here, paying taxes and contributing to our economy to come out of the shadows. It means sorting between those who are here to do us harm and those who are merely trying to provide a decent living for their families. It means allowing those who are willing to learn English, pay taxes and avoid committing crimes to regularize their status and to put them on a pathway to citizenship. It means ending the decades-long backlogs in family and employment based immigration and eliminating the systemic incentives to cross the border illegally because it is impossible to do it legally. It means creating a sensible guestworker program that matches willing workers with needing employers so as to improve our economy and create jobs.

Cast your vote today. Cast it because you can. Cast it for the sake of the millions around the world and in our own country who do not have the freedom or power to voice an opinion.

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Rational Thinking on Immigration and Crime . . .

Last week, a tragedy occurred within a couple of miles of my office in Aurora, Colorado. A 23-year-old man barrelled his car into a pick up truck that was parked outside the store. The truck careened through the glass walls of a Baskin Robbins ice cream store killing both passengers in the truck and three-year-old Martin Kudlis who was inside enjoying his last ice cream.




Police arrested 23-year-0ld Francis Hernandez after the incident. Hernandez now faces very serious charges of vehicular homicide, hit and run, and vehicular assault among others. Hernandez has a lengthy rap sheet and has had run-ins with the law before. He now will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law and face the consequences of his actions. Those consequences will include not only legal penalties, but the heavy weight on his conscience of the lives that he has taken.




This tragedy is completely incomprehensible. There is no explanation for why things like this happen in our world, and when things are incomprehensible, we want answers. We search for reasons--we look for blame. It is natural. Immediately after the tragedy, the public wanted somewhere to project their sorrows and somewhere to place the blame, and as often occurs, the public turned its blame to the system. There were immediate accusations that Hernandez must be undocumented. There were questions raised regarding his citizenship. There were complaints filed against the Aurora police department and Immigration and Customs Enforcement alleging that Hernandez was an "illegal" immigrant and that he had somehow bucked the system and escaped deportation. They claimed that this would never have happened had Hernandez been deported.


In anger and pain, the public called for radical, draconian and flat-out unconstitutional changes to the laws. The public demanded that bail be denied to non-citizens who get caught in the criminal system. The public called for prosecutors to refuse to give plea agreements to non-citizens. While the public is rightfully angry for this tragedy, laws made out of emotions make for bad law. Furthermore, such knee-jerk reactions to tragedy only serve to divert the attention away from the victims of this tragedy and further divide us when we should come together.


While Hernandez should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law for this offense, it is important to clarify that he did not commit this offense because of his country of origin. He did not commit this offense because of his status in this country. He did not commit this offense because he is a citizen or because he is not a citizen. Those facts have nothing to do with the commission of this offense. While the public should be angry at Hernandez for this tragedy and for the lives lost, it should end there.


The anger that the public displays is greatly fueled by persistent myths in the media regarding immigration and criminality. The media constantly bombards the public with the myth that immigrants are somehow more violent that citizens and that they are more prone to crime than native-born citizens. The facts simply demonstrate otherwise.


Statistics from the Immigration Policy Center bear out the following actual facts about immigrants and crime:


Immigrants are 5 times less likely to be in prison than the native born.


A 2007 study by UC-Irvine sociologist Ruben G. Rumbaut found that the 3.5% incarceration rate for native-born men age 18-39 was five times higher than the 0.7% rate for immigrant men in 2000.


Undocumented immigration is NOT associated with higher crime rates.



The Bureau of Justice Statistics found that although the undocumented immigrant population doubled from 1994 to 2005, the violent crime rate in the United States declined by 34.2% and the property crime rate fell by 26.4% in the same period. Border cities and other cities with large immigrant populations also experienced decreasing crime rates.



Crime is lowest in States with the most immigrants.



According to a 2008 report from the conservative Americas Majority Foundation, crime rates are lowest in states with the highest immigration growth rates. From 1999 to 2006, the total crime rate declined 13.6% in the 19 highest-immigration states, compared to a 7.1% decline in the other 32 states. In 2006, the 10 "high influx" states--those with the most dramatic, recent increases in immigration--had the lowest rates of violent crime and total crime.

New Jersey: An analysis from the New Jersey Department of Corrections and U.S. Census Bureau by New Jersey's Star Ledger in April 2008 found that "US citizens are twice as likely to land in New Jersey's prisons as legal and illegal immigrants." In fact, "non-US citizens make up 10% of the state's overall population, but just 5% of the inmates in prison."

California: Foreign-born adults in California have lower incarceration rates than their native-born counterparts. According to a June 2008 report from the Public Policy Institute of California, "the incarceration rate for foreign-born adults is 297 per 100,000 in the population, compared with 813 per 100,000 for US-born adults. The foreign-born, who make up roughly 35% of California's adult population, constitute 17% of the state prison population, a proportion that has remained fairly constant since 1990."



In the face of this tragedy, now is the time for us to come together. Let us not be divided by scapegoating and rash policy-making based on fear. Do not let myths and stereotypes blind us to the facts.



In this time of tragedy, let us not forget that three-year-old Martin Kudlis was himself the child of Russian immigrants who came to this country because this country was founded on principles of justice, fairness and equality before the law.

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