Violence Against Women Act Under Attack!

AILA Action Alert:

Since 1994, Congress has worked together to protect victims of violence by initially passing and then continually reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, or VAWA. In part, VAWA was created because Congress recognized that abusers were using the immigration status of their victims as a weapon. As the New York Times has pointed out, "even in the ultrapolarized atmosphere of Capitol hill, it should be possible to secure broad bipartisan agreement on reauthorizing [VAWA]," a law that protects victims of domestic violence, sex crimes, other serious crimes, and trafficking.

This week, a version of VAWA (H.R. 4970, Rep. Adams, R-FL) that will actually do harm to victims will be on the House floor. H.R. 4970 is likely to come up on Wednesday, so we have a small window of opportunity.  H.R. 4970 will place victims of domestic violence in danger, deter victims of crime from cooperating with law enforcement, and hold victims of abuse to a higher standard than other applicants for immigration benefits. In short, H.R. 4970 denies victims protection and even helps perpetrate the very abuse from which they are seeking to escape. Instead of H.R 4970, the House should pass the Senate's bi-partisan version of VAWA (S. 1925) which protects victims of violence, including especially vulnerable populations like immigrants.



Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin gives up U.S. citizenship

Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin has given up his U.S. citizenship, a move that will reduce his taxes when Facebook goes public in the coming weeks.

Saverin, who was born in Brazil and moved to the U.S. in 1992 and has been a U.S. citizen since 1998, has decided to become a resident of Singapore. He is said to own around 5 percent of the company, which has a valuation of between $77 billion and $96 billion according to paperwork filed ahead of its initial public offering.

In a statement, Saverin’s spokesman Tom Goodman said that the switch was done, in part, for business reasons.

“Eduardo recently found it to be more practical to become a resident of Singapore since he plans to live there for an indefinite period of time,” said Saverin’s spokesman Tom Goodman. “He has invested in Asian, U.S. and European companies. He also plans to invest in Brazilian and global companies that have strong interests in entering the Asian markets. Accordingly, it made the most sense for him to use Singapore as a home base.”

Business reasons aside, it will certainly benefit Saverin to be a non-U.S. citizen once the company he helped to found hits the public market.

“It definitely is going to reduce his tax burdens,” said Edward Kleinbard, a professor at the University of Southern California’s Gould School of Law who specializes in tax law.

Saverin won’t be able to duck all of his taxes, Kleinbard said, but he will be able to avoid paying some charges he would have picked up if he had stayed a U.S. citizen.

He said that Saverin will have to pay taxes on the value of the company before he switched his citizenship, while company was still private. Saverin could argue that the value was lower before it was publicly traded.

Kleinbard said that there aren’t that many expatriations — likely fewer than 2,00o per year — but most are cases where immigrants (or those with dual-citizenship) return to their home in another country. There are also cases where U.S. citizens who have married foreign nationals will expatriate to live in their spouses’ home countries.

“There a only a handful of cases with very high net-worth individuals,” he said. “Those are very exceptional cases.”

Green Card Holders Need to Naturalize to Vote and Help Immigration Reform!

Immigrant-rights groups are knocking on doors, making phone calls, and tweeting to encourage the more than 8 million green-card holders eligible to become citizens to naturalize and vote on Nov. 6.

“Imagine the kind of voice and attention Latinos and immigrants can bring to the issues facing the nation if a greater number of immigrants took that step of becoming a citizen and becoming a voter,” said Clarissa Martinez of the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic-advocacy group. Legal immigrants can vote only if they take the steps to become a citizen--what’s called the naturalization process.

The failure of more immigrants to do so is one reason why Hispanics are growing much faster as a share of the population than as a share of the electorate; although census figures show that Hispanics provided more than 50 percent of the nation’s total population growth from 2000 to 2010, their share of the vote rose only from 7 percent to 9 percent in the presidential elections from 2000 to 2008.

In 2010, more than 8 million people were eligible to become citizens, according to the Homeland Security Department. But only 619,913 of them--less than 1 percent of those eligible--completed the process.
A significant increase in those numbers could change the political landscape, notes Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum.

In Arizona alone, for instance, approximately 170,000 green-card holders are eligible for citizenship, according to the Office of Immigration Statistics. If those people naturalized and registered to vote, they would represent almost 4 percent of the eligible voter population in a state that has been roiled by controversy over its tough immigration law--and which President Obama is hoping to contest in this fall's election.

At least two groups are working to increase the number of potential citizens who naturalize and then register to vote. To vote by November, potential citizens must begin the process by the end of April.

About the same time, Become a Citizen Now launched a separate citizenship drive, targeting eligible green-card holders in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Tennessee, Washington state, and Wisconsin.

Earlier this month, Reform Immigration for America announced a social-media campaign that encouraged immigrants to naturalize and oppose laws like Arizona’s, which the group says promotes racial profiling.

The Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that opposes illegal immigration and supports reducing the number of legal immigrants allowed to enter the country each year, doesn’t oppose the groups’ efforts to help people naturalize.

Doris Meissner, then the commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, said that the rising number of new citizens in the mid-'90s was the result of the 1986 law that gave 3 million illegal immigrants legal status and of changes within INS to handle the workload.

The political stakes in the naturalization drives again could be substantial. In 2008, exit polls showed Obama carrying two-thirds of Hispanic voters. Recent polls generally show him running at least that well with them again this year after a primary campaign during which Romney veered sharply to the right on immigration issues, pledging to pursue a policy that encouraged illegal immigrants to “self-deport.” But Republicans lately have escalated their efforts to woo Hispanics by emphasizing their continuing economic struggles during the slow recovery from the Great Recession.

Immigration is an emotional issue that drives immigrant voters--particularly Latinos--to the left, said Juan Miranda, a 39-year-old from central Mexico who became a citizen in 2008.

Similar naturalization drives, though, have generated intense political controversy in the past. During the 1996 presidential elections, some Republicans protested what they said was a rush by the Clinton administration to naturalize more voters - voters, the Republicans worried, who would support Democrats.

Doris Meissner, then the commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, said that the increased numbers of new citizens in the mid-90s was the result of the 1986 law that gave about three million illegal immigrants legal status and changes within the INS to handle the workload.

The political stakes in the naturalization drives again could be substantial. In 2008, exit polls showed Obama carrying two-thirds of Hispanic voters. Recent polls generally show him running at least that well with them again this year after a primary campaign during which Romney veered sharply to the right on immigration issues, pledging to pursue a policy that encouraged illegal immigrants to “self-deport.”

But Republicans lately have escalated their efforts to woo Hispanics by emphasizing their continuing economic struggles during the slow recovery from the Great Recession. Immigration is an emotional issue that currently drives immigrant voters - particularly Latinos - to the left, said Juan Miranda, a 39-year-old from central Mexico who became a citizen in 2008.

Changes to Naturalization Oath Ceremonies

USCIS - Washington Field Office (WAS) (located on Prosperity Avenue in Fairfax, VA) has several large Oath Ceremonies scheduled in the coming months of May and June with an 800 person swearing in ceremony scheduled for Wednesday April 25, 2012 at George Mason University.

Today they welcomed 15 Immigration Services Officers who will be at WAS on a 90 day detail to address their workload and help WAS return to their national processing times. While these officers are here, there are several officers (7) for whom work stations have been set up in the traditional ceremony room.  For the next 90 days therefore the ceremony room is not available for same-day ceremonies.

WAS will continue to schedule several large ceremonies at off-site venues and does intend to commence using the 1^st floor ceremony room for some naturalization ceremonies (which also means that INFOPASS appointments will only be scheduled in the morning on those dates).  At a minimum, WAS still plans to conduct same-day ceremonies for those who are back in the office for a re-exam or and RFE by appointment if at all possible so the applicants don’t have to come back a third time. 

WAS has also notified AILA that it has commenced the scheduling of Saturday interviews (N400s only) which will be conducted through the summer months, depending on their naturalization queue. If anyone needs to reschedule an appointment, they should follow the regular reschedule procedures(i.e. send an email to was.interviewreschedule@dhs.gov). 

Dept. of Homeland Security's Decision to Amend Immigration Waiver (Extreme Hardship) Process

The Department of Homeland Security proposes to change its processes to enable spouses and children of U.S. citizens physically present in the United States to apply within the U.S. for the waiver they need to become U.S. permanent residents. The current procedure requires the spouse or child to leave the United States, file the waiver application in the home country, and wait for processing while separated from their U.S. citizen loved ones.

The proposal would permit immediate family of U.S. citizens to apply for a provisional waiver of unlawful presence while remaining in the U.S., thereby minimizing the time they would be separated from their families during the process. To obtain the waiver, applicants would still need to meet the strict letter of the law which requires them to prove that family separation will cause their American citizen spouse or parent extreme hardship.

If the waiver is granted, the foreign national must leave the U.S. and apply for and receive an immigrant visa abroad before returning to the U.S. The change will give countless American families a chance to stay together safely and legally.

"Today's proposed change, permitting the waiver request to be decided stateside, is a positive step for keeping families together. It would result in a significant change in process for many individuals and, if implemented, will literally save lives. People have been kidnapped and murdered waiting for waivers in Juarez, Mexico, and other countries," said Eleanor Pelta, President of AILA. "It's a move that will be less destructive to families and bring about a fairer and more streamlined waiver process.

"Unfortunately USCIS's proposed rule would exclude many people who are stuck in the same situation, and would provide for procedures that may undercut the very efficiencies that a revised process would provide. That doesn't make any sense," continued Pelta. "The proposed rule only applies to a limited group of applicants, namely the immediate relatives of U.S. citizens who can show extreme hardship to a U.S. citizen spouse or parent. This leaves out broad categories of close family members who also have to wait abroad for their waiver, including the spouses and children of people who have green cards and the adult children of U.S. citizens. It also needlessly keeps review of the agency's decisions and other pieces of the process outside the U.S., thus undercutting some of the very reasons for the process change in some cases." In February, AILA, joined by over 40 other organizations, offered several recommendations to improve the provisional waiver plan. AILA will submit formal comments during the 60-day comment period.



RESIDENTS TARGETED IN 2007 NEW HAVEN IMMIGRATION RAID REACH LANDMARK SETTLEMENT WITH THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

 11 Plaintiffs to Receive $350,000 and Choice of Immigration Relief or Termination of Deportation Proceedings

            New Haven, Conn. – Eleven New Haven residents whose homes were illegally raided by immigration agents almost five years ago have reached an unprecedented settlement of their civil rights lawsuit against top U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials, local agents, and the United States. The plaintiffs and their counsel will announce the settlement at a press conference on Wednesday, February 15, 2012 at 10:30 AM at the Wilson Branch Library in New Haven, Connecticut.

            The eleven men alleged that in the early morning hours of June 6, 2007, approximately 20 ICE agents together with other federal, state, and local officers spread out across the predominantly Latino neighborhood of Fair Haven, invaded homes without warrants or consent, and illegally seized and arrested the men. Agents drew their weapons, pushed through the doors of residents’ homes, banged on bedroom doors, forced several men out of bed, and frightened young children present in some of the homes.

            The raids came just two days after the Board of Aldermen had approved Mayor DeStefano’s proposal for an Elm City Resident Card program to offer identification cards to all New Haven residents without regard to immigration status.  The plaintiffs alleged that the raids were carried out in retaliation for the City’s municipal identification program and other integrationist measures, and that they were targeted solely on the basis of their Latino appearance.

            To settle the claims in Diaz-Bernal et al. v. Myers et al., No. 3:09-cv-1734-SRU (D. Conn. filed Oct. 28, 2009), the federal government will pay $350,000 and has offered plaintiffs the choice of either immigration relief known as deferred action or termination of pending deportation proceedings. The agreement appears to be the largest monetary settlement ever paid by the United States in a suit over residential immigration raids, and the first to include both compensation and immigration relief.  

            “I remember everything that happened to me that morning as if it were yesterday,” Edinson Yangua-Calva, one of the plaintiffs, stated. “There are things I haven’t been able to get over, it is something that stays with you forever,” he explained.

            “This settlement means a lot to me,” stated Cristobal Serrano-Mendez, another plaintiff. “Five years of pressure on the government has led to this agreement, and I think that the government knows it did something wrong.”

            Amilcar Soto Velasquez, another plaintiff, sees the settlement as an opportunity to tell other victims of raids and abuse that they should not become disillusioned. “They should keep fighting,” he stated.

            The eleven Plaintiffs, Eduardo Diaz-Bernal, Florente Baranda-Barreto, Edilberto Cedeño-Trujillo, Washington Colala-Peñarreta, Julio Sergio Paredes-Mendez, Cristobal Serrano-Mendez, Jose Solano-Yangua, Silvino Trujillo-Mirafuentes, Gerardo Trujillo-Morellano, Amilcar Soto Velasquez and Edinson Yangua-Calva, were represented by law students and attorneys at the Worker & Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic of the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization at Yale Law School in New Haven, Connecticut, and pro bono counsel from Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP of New York.

Susan G. Komen for the Cure has reversed its decision to end grants to Planned Parenthood (02/03/2012)

The renowned breast-cancer charity had been deluged with negative emails and Facebook postings since news broke Tuesday that it was halting most of the grants -- they totaled $680,000 last year -- that Planned Parenthood affiliates used for breast exams.

For more information visit WTOP.com or tune to 103.5 FM.

Virginia Drivers Wrongly Charged Under Virginia Law- (12/26/2011)

RICHMOND, Va. - Virginia motorists are being ticketed and convicted of a violation that is not a crime under state law: driving without proof of insurance.

According to Virginia Lawyers Weekly ( http://bit.ly/w0OeIG), court records show that drivers in several localities have been hit with hefty fines and court costs for failing to produce an insurance card during a traffic stop.

State law requires motorists to either carry liability insurance or pay a $500 uninsured motor vehicle fee to the Department of Motor Vehicles. Anyone who fails to do so, or who lies to the DMV about having insurance, can be convicted of a misdemeanor punishable by a $500 fine _ but the statute says nothing about driving without proof of insurance, several lawyers confirmed.

Some Virginia police officers, however, cite that statute in charging drivers with failure to have proof of insurance.

Court records show local police have written tickets for "no proof of insurance" in Colonial Heights and Prince William, Sussex and Dinwiddie counties. One driver was fined $100 plus $10 in court costs after being found guilty in Sussex County in May.

Attorneys who reviewed the statute agreed it does not criminalize failure to have an insurance card in your car. Read more here.

January 2012 Visa Bulletin - Priority Date for EB-2 Candidates for India and China is January 2009!

The priority date for EB-2 (Advanced Degree) candidates from India and China is January 2009.  This means that if you have an approved I-140 in the EB-2 Advanced Degree category, in less than 3 years, you may be eligible to file your green card application.  For the January 2012 visa bulletin, click here.

Prosecutorial Discretion Pilot Program in Baltimore Pushes Back Immigration Court Hearings

According to AILA, on December 4, 2011, the ICE Office of Chief Counsel in Baltimore will launch a  Prosecutorial Discretion Pilot Program (PD)  to review the almost 5,000 non-detained cases currently on its docket and determine which ones should be administratively closed with the acquiescence of the respondent. The pilot program is scheduled to last until January 13, 2012 at which time the office will review the data collected and the results and share them with ICE Headquarters.

This information will then be used to inform ongoing nationwide implementation of the review process as per instructions from Peter S. Vincent, ICE Principal Legal Advisor, in his November 17, 2011 memorandum. ICE Baltimore has begun preparations for the review and shared the following information with AILA in order to facilitate the process for ICE, AILA members, their clients and pro se respondents.

The effect of the pilot program is that all hearing dates for non-detained clients in removal proceedings in Immigration Court in Baltimore, Maryland will be rescheduled.  If you have a hearing date before an Immigration Judge in Baltimore, Maryland, you should call the EOIR hotline (1-800-898-7180) to verify the date of your next hearing.

Skilled Workers from India and China Can Get Green Cards "First Come First Serve" Basis

WASHINGTON — On Tuesday, November 29, 2011, the House voted to end per-country caps on worker-based immigration visas, a move that should benefit skilled Indian and Chinese residents seeking to stay in the United States and the high-tech companies who hire them.

Read entire article here.

Padilla v. Kentucky - Applies to Convictions Entered After April 1, 1997.

In an impressively well-reasoned decision, the Maryland Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, held that Padilla v. Kentucky, 130 S. Ct. 1473 (2010), applies retroactively to convictions entered after April 1, 1997. Denisyuk v. State, No. 45, slip op. (Md. Oct. 25, 2011) (Bell, Harrell, Barbera, Greene, JJ.).

This case involved a noncitizen who pleaded guilty to second degree assault on November 2, 2006. He did not appeal.  Instead, over a year after he was convicted he filed a post-conviction relief (PCR) petition seeking to vacate the conviction and requesting a new trial on the bases that “(1) the plea was rendered involuntary by the omission of advice concerning the potential immigration consequences of the plea; and (2) the failure of defense counsel to advise him of those potential consequences of his conviction constituted ineffective assistance of counsel in violation of the Sixth Amendment.” 

Though he initially won (at the post-conviction court) on the Sixth Amendment ineffective assistance of counsel argument, that court “ruled against Petitioner on his claim that the guilty plea was unknowing and involuntary.”  On the state’s appeal to the state intermediate court, that court dismissed the PCR petition entirely two days before Padilla was issued.

USCIS Issues Guidance on Referring Cases to Immigration Court

This Policy Memorandum (PM) establishes new USCIS guidelines for referring cases and issuing Notices to Appear (NTAs) in a manner that promotes the sound use of the resources of the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice to enhance national security, public safety, and the integrity of the immigration system. This PM supersedes Policy Memorandum No. 110, Disposition of Cases Involving Removable Aliens, dated July 11, 2006.

Download from our Media page.

TPS Extensions for Honduras and Nicaragua

Temporary Protected Status Extended for Nicaraguans Re-registration Opens Nov. 4, 2011 

Temporary Protected Status Extended for Hondurans Re-registration Opens Nov. 4, 2011

DHS Secretary Napolitano Testifies on E-Verify

On Wednesday, October 26, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano testified about Department oversight before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary. Napolitano’s testimony included a discussion E-Verify’s role in DHS’ smart and effective approach to worksite enforcement.

Read the full testimony here.

Starting October 30: Change in Filing Location for Forms N-300, N-336, N-600 and N-600K

Beginning Oct. 30, 2011, applicants are advised to file the following forms at a USCIS Lockbox instead of their local USCIS field or district office: 

• N-300, Application to File Declaration of Intention
• N-336, Request for a Hearing on a Decision in Naturalization Proceedings (Under Section 336 of the INA)
• N-600, Application for Certificate of Citizenship
• N-600K, Application for Citizenship and Issuance of Certificate Under Section 322

 For more information, please visit USCIS' website.

Encouraging Entrepreneurs and High Skilled Workers to Bolster the U.S. Economy and Spur Job Growth

USCIS announced its new “Entrepreneurs in Residence” initiative.  This innovative program will utilize industry expertise to strengthen USCIS policies and practices surrounding immigrant investors, entrepreneurs and workers with specialized skills, knowledge, or abilities.  “Entrepreneurs in Residence” builds upon a series of previous efforts announced in August by Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas to promote startup enterprises and spur job creation.  

For more information on this initiative please see the attached News Release. 

USCIS Redesigns Employment Authorization Document and Certificate of Citizenship

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Alejandro Mayorkas today announced the launch of an enhanced Employment Authorization Document (EAD) and a redesigned Certificate of Citizenship (Form N-560) with new features to strengthen security and deter fraud.

Read the News Update.

Temporary Protected Status Extended for Sudan Re-registration Opens November 3, 2011

WASHINGTON— Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano extended the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation for Sudan for 18 months. She also designated the new Republic of South Sudan for TPS for 18 months. Both the extension and the new designation are effective Nov. 3, 2011, and will continue through May 2, 2013.

Please read entire update here

USCIS News Update - Relief Provided to Thousands of Victims of Crimes

WASHINGTON - U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), marking a significant milestone in its efforts to provide relief to victims of crimes, has for the second straight year approved 10,000 petitions for U nonimmigrant status, also referred to as the U-visa.

On an annual basis, 10,000 U-visas are set aside for victims of crime who have suffered substantial mental or physical abuse and are willing to help law enforcement authorities investigate or prosecute crime.

Please read entire update here and here.

USCIS Publishes CNMI Transitional Worker Final Rule

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published a final rule in today’s Federal Register that establishes a Transitional Worker (CW) classification for workers in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). The CW classification allows employers in the CNMI to hire nonimmigrant workers who are otherwise ineligible to work.

Read the news update.

Preparing for the Naturalization Test: USCIS Citizenship Resource Center

At USCIS, we know that the decision to become a U.S. citizen is one of the most meaningful decisions in an individual’s life. USCIS has a lot to offer for those wishing to become citizens. Learn more here.

Certain Fees May Not Be Collected From H-2A and H-2B Workers

As the traditional harvest season approaches, USCIS reminds petitioners that certain fees may not be collected from H-2A and H-2B workers, according to 8 C.F.R. § 214.2(h)(5)(xi)(A) and § 214.2(h)(6)(i)(B).

USCIS realizes that delays in adjudicating these petitions may affect employers’ ability to place workers in time-sensitive jobs. To avoid delays, USCIS urges petitioners to submit sufficient information regarding their recruitment efforts and the nature of fees collected from H-2A and H-2B workers.

Read more.

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