Immigration Laws: January, 2004 - Number #03

The DHS has three bureaus responsible for immigration: Customs and Border Protection (www.cbp.gov), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (www.uscis.gov), and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (www.ice.gov).

Border. After September 11, 2001, the US increased expenditures on border protection, especially the Mexico-US border, funneling most migrant entry attempts into 260 miles of Arizona-Mexico border. Private militias and similar groups have moved to the Arizona desert to assist in border control efforts, but so far no terrorists have been intercepted on the Mexico-US border.

In November 2003, one group of smugglers attacked another in Arizona, killing four migrants; the attack was in retaliation for that group having earlier "stolen" migrants from it. Migrant smuggling is getting more dangerous, as drug dealers switch from smuggling drugs to smuggling migrants from Mexico into Arizona.

More unauthorized parents settled in the US are using smugglers to get their children into the US, since tougher border controls make it harder to go back and forth across the border. Every month, about 1,000 children under 18 are apprehended, most in the Arizona desert. Both American and Mexican officials complain that child smuggling has not been treated as a serious crime; smugglers are often sentenced to a few months in jail.

In May 2003, 17 of 70 migrants in a trailer truck traveling north from the Texas-Mexico border died of heat stroke. The US government indicted 14 smugglers, and had nine in custody in December 2003 on charges of conspiracy to smuggle, harbor and transport humans in a manner causing serious injury or death.

Visas. The US Diversity Visa Lottery allows foreigners in countries that sent fewer than 50,000 immigrants in the previous five years to apply for an immigrant visa. In peak years, up to 13 million foreigners sought one of the 55,000 lottery immigrant visas available. The 2004 lottery required all lottery visa applications to be filed on line, and about six million applications were received.

(916) 442-7092 - The US government has become slower in issuing visas to foreign visitors, prompting protests from universities, multinational corporations and the travel industry. The Department of Homeland Security has the final say on visa rule-making decisions and can veto State Department decisions to issue visas overseas, which critics say has created a just-say-no mentality. About 25 percent of visa applicants are denied visas. In FY01, some 10 million visas were issued; in FY02, 6.5 million were issued.

The FBI checks on about 1,000 visa applicants each business day, twice the number it handled two years ago, despite a sharp dip in the number of travelers. The State Department is adding 79 consular officers to the 843 it already has. Janice L. Jacobs, deputy assistant secretary of state for visa services, said "In the post-9/11 environment, we do not believe that the issues at stake allow us the luxury of erring on the side of expeditious processing."

Beginning January 1, 2004, an unlimited number of Mexican professionals may accept jobs in the US; US employers no longer have to file a labor condition application with DOL pledging to pay the prevailing wage. Also, a new H-1B1 visa became available to nationals of Chile (up to 1,400 visas) and Singapore (up to 5,400 visas) under free trade agreements that allow persons with a BA or more to enter the US to accept job offers.

Immigration Judges. The Executive Office for Immigration Review (www.usdoj.gov/eoir/ ) overturned an immigration judge's ruling that the parents of a US-born 11-year old "gifted" student can stay in the US to assist the child, saying that to allow the parents to stay would open the floodgates to more unauthorized parents seeking to stay because they have US-born children.

The Bush administration revamped the EOIR, reducing the number of judges on the "immigration supreme court" from 23 to 11 and allowing single judges rather than panels of three to decide cases in order to reduce a backlog of 55,000 cases. The EOIR decided about 60,000 cases in calendar year 2002, including 40 percent by "summary affirmance" of the immigration judge's decision. Since procedures changed to permit one appeals court judge to handle appeals, fewer cases are appealed to the EOIR.

Foreign Students. During the 2002-03 academic year, some 214,331 foreign student visas were issued by the US State Department, down from 234,322 in 2002 and 293,357 in 2001. The Institute of International Education (IIE) reported 586,000 foreign students enrolled in US colleges in 2003-04, about the same as a year earlier, but there was a drop in students from Middle Eastern countries, down 10 percent to 35,000. Before September 11, 2001, there were 77,000 US educational institutions authorized to admit foreign students; now there are 7,000.

Laotian Hmong. The US agreed to accept 15,300 Laotian Hmong who have been living in a Thai refugee camp for over 20 years. The Hmong fought against Laotian and Vietnamese Communists during the Vietnam War, and 130,000 came to the US after 1975 as refugees. Some 400,000 remained. Those coming to the US are among those who fled to Thailand.

Charles Piller, "Yanking the Mat for Scholars," Los Angeles Times, December 19, 2003. Teresa Watanabe, "U.S. orders couple's deportation, though judge ruled it would hurt their gifted child," Los Angeles Times, October 27, 2003.