USA Green Card Immigration Blog

Green Card Applicants File Suit Over Glitch – WSJ.com.

A lawsuit has been filed against the State Department in federal court seeking to reinstate thousands of potential green-card winners whose chance of obtaining U.S. residency was scuttled because of a government computer error.

A record 15 million people from around the world submitted entries to the so-called diversity visa program lottery, which each year offers a quick path to a green card for 50,000 people selected by random draw.

In early May, the State Department notified 22,000 people they were chosen. But soon after, it informed them the electronic draw would have to be held again because a computer glitch caused 90% of the winners to be selected from the first two days of applications instead of the entire 30-day registration period. The government told affected individuals they would be re-entered in a new draw.

The lawsuit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Washington, seeks class-action status and names plaintiffs from more than 20 countries. The suit asks that the U.S. government restore its “broken commitment,” stating that chosen individuals had “lawfully and properly” followed rules set forth by the State Department and thought they were among the “lucky few” selected to proceed with the green-card application.

David Donahue, a deputy assistant secretary of state who oversees the program, said the original draw was voided because it “did not represent a fair, random selection of entrants as required by U.S. law,” according to a State Department website.

The lawsuit contends the “outcome was indeed not uniform, but nevertheless still random as required by law.”

Under the program, visas are made available to applicants from countries with low rates of immigration to the U.S. Winners have a shot at settling in the U.S. without a family member or employer as a sponsor, the usual routes to obtaining permanent residency.

Disenchanted applicants from across the globe created a Facebook page dubbed “22,000 Tears” and began collecting signatures for letters to the State Department and U.S. lawmakers in protest. In an email to a reporter, an applicant from Egypt threatened to kill himself if he wasn’t reinstated.

The State Department’s inspector general said earlier this month a team would be assembled to review the situation. A spokesman said Monday the review should be finished within weeks.

Los Angeles attorney Kenneth White, who is representing the individuals in the suit pro-bono, said “the basis of this case is deep-rooted in the simple and enduring American value that ‘our word is our bond.”‘

Armande Gil, a French neuropsychologist who earned her Ph.D. in the U.S., said she had a job offer in a Florida hospital that was contingent on getting the green card. “I had an interview on May 2, after I learned I had won,” she said.

Launched in 1990 to promote diversity in the immigrant population, the green-card lottery is now open to people from almost anywhere in the world, except countries that already have a large number of nationals in the U.S., including Mexico, China, India and the Philippines. No special skills are required beyond a high-school diploma. Lottery winners eventually qualify for U.S. citizenship.

The number of entries has been on the rise. This year’s total is more than 2.5 times greater than five years ago, when the lottery attracted 5.5 million entries. Immigration scholars attribute the increase to the spread of Internet connectivity and greater awareness of the lottery, which is free to enter.

Critics say the program poses security risks, lures uneducated immigrants and enables individuals with no connection to the U.S. to get into the country more quickly than those sponsored by relatives and employers. Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R., Va.) has introduced legislation to abolish it.

Crackdown on Illegal Labor Intensifies – WSJ.com.

The Obama administration intensified a crackdown on employers of illegal immigrants, notifying another 1,000 companies in all 50 states Wednesday the government plans to inspect their hiring records.

Businesses across the U.S. that rely on low-skilled labor are working to stave off Immigration and Customs Enforcement audits, which can lead to the loss of large numbers of employees, reduced productivity and legal expenses.

Wednesday’s surge in so-called silent raids drew criticism from both the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and immigrant advocates.

It brought to 2,338 the number of companies audited by ICE in the fiscal year that began Oct. 1 and topped the prior year’s record of 2,196. The audits, affecting such businesses as garment makers, produce growers and fast-food chains, result in the firing of every illegal immigrant found on a company’s payroll.

For employers, the audits can lead to both civil and criminal penalties. The possibilities range from fines and being barred from competing for government contracts to criminal charges of knowingly employing illegal workers, evading taxes and engaging in identity theft.

Employers of all sizes were notified they must hand over I-9 employment-eligibility forms, which contain Social Security numbers, dates of birth and statements by employees of their citizenship status. ICE didn’t identify the businesses because of “the ongoing, law-enforcement-sensitive nature of the inspections,” said a spokeswoman, Gillian Christensen.

Officials of ICE, a unit of the Department of Homeland Security, said the audited companies operate in areas defined as “critical infrastructure and key resources,” including food production, information technology, financial services and construction. Affected businesses could include cargo handlers, caterers of food for the military and builders of dams and highways, said immigration lawyers.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce in the past has refrained from making public comments about the audits. But on Wednesday, Randy Johnson, a senior vice president, said: “We are concerned the audits are being based more on a fishing expedition than firm facts.”

He added, “Because these audits can cost millions of dollars in lost productivity and attorneys’ fees, the government should move carefully and only when based on solid foundation that there is in fact illegal behavior.” ICE doesn’t reveal its criteria for deciding who gets audited.

The U.S. is home to about 11 million illegal immigrants; two-thirds participate in the labor force, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. They typically use a made-up Social Security Number or the identity of a legal U.S. resident or citizen.

Entire sectors have come to rely on illegal workers. Clothing maker American Apparel laid off more than a quarter of its factory workers, or 1,500 employees, after an audit in 2009. It later blamed the audit for a loss of productivity that brought it to the brink of bankruptcy.

Chipotle Mexican Grill, which owns and operates nearly 1,100 outlets, has let go hundreds of workers since an audit that began last year in Minnesota and stretched to Virginia and Washington, D.C. Restaurant analysts expect the company’s financial results to be affected as it seeks to hire and train new workers.

Illegal immigrants are the backbone of some sectors of U.S. agriculture. “Given the fact that, admittedly, 70% to 80% of our work force is improperly documented, ICE audits can eliminate that percentage of our productive capacity. You cannot stay in business,” said Tom Nassif, president of Western Growers, an association of fruit and vegetable growers and packers in California and Arizona.

Many employers say they don’t have the ability to police their work forces. They say they also fear discrimination lawsuits, which some have faced, for demanding additional documents from workers they suspect are in the U.S. illegally.

In the past, ICE agents have initiated audits in one region, and companies in the same business were unlikely to face inspection elsewhere. But “businesses can no longer assume an audit is isolated in one location. It’s spreading nationwide,” said Julie Myers, ICE chief during the Bush administration, who advises companies on immigration.

She said some companies are trying to do “proactive I-9 inspections” to ensure their work force is legal.

Larger employers have been increasingly targeted since the establishment earlier this year of an ICE audit office outside Washington.

Enforcement activity during the Bush administration focused on high-profile raids in which thousands of illegal immigrants were arrested and placed in deportation proceedings. Relatively few companies and their executives were prosecuted.

In contrast, the Obama administration has made employers the center of its enforcement strategy because jobs are the magnet for illegal immigration, officials say.

The strategy has been interpreted as an attempt by the president, who favors an overhaul of immigration laws, to show hard-liners he is cracking down on illegal immigration.

It draws flak from more than one part of the political spectrum. Advocates for immigrants say it forces workers to leave well-paying jobs with benefits for lower-paying positions in the underground economy.

“I-9 audits do not diminish the unauthorized work force. Instead, they disrupt operations and expand the cash economy, as workers find jobs with bad-actor employers who exploit them,” said Eliseo Medina, International Secretary-Treasurer of the Service Employees International Union.

Peter Schey, an attorney for American Apparel, called it “a senseless policy in the name of making a down payment on comprehensive immigration policy.”

Foes of illegal immigration, such as House Judiciary chairman Lamar Smith (R., Texas), say the audits are ineffectual because they don’t result in deportations and enable dismissed illegal workers to find other jobs and displace Americans.

Rep. Smith introduced legislation this week to make mandatory the use of E-Verify, an electronic database run by the government, which checks the work-eligibility of hires.

Wendy Madden, a business immigration attorney in Montgomery, Ala., said several of her clients, in utilities and food production, had received notices of inspection from ICE, and were surprised because they have been participating in E-Verify. “The fact you participate in E-Verify doesn’t mean you won’t be audited,” she said.

Michael Bloomberg Calls Inaction on Immigration Reform ‘National Suicide’ – The Note.

While Democrats and Republicans trade jabs over how to more quickly stimulate job growth, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg today said both parties are overlooking “the one thing” that can do the trick: encouraging more legal immigration to the United States.

“It’s what I call national suicide – and that’s not hyperbole,” Bloomberg told a symposium at the Council on Foreign Relations. “Every day that we fail to fix our broken immigration laws is a day that we inflict a wound on our economy.”

Bloomberg cited a new report by the Partnership for a New American Economy, an advocacy group he founded jointly with News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, that found more than 40 percent of Fortune 500 companies were started by an immigrant or a child of immigrants and now employ more than 10 million people worldwide.

“Immigrants and their children have been responsible for creating millions more jobs in all 50 states,” he said. “The reason is simple: immigrants are dreamers and risk-takers who are driven to succeed, because they know that in America, hard work and talent are rewarded like nowhere else.”

Bloomberg said the “single most powerful step” to spur job growth is enacting a five-point bipartisan reform that would allow foreign graduates of U.S. universities to obtain green cards; lure foreign entrepreneurs to innovate on American soil; end caps on to visas for highly-skilled workers; ensure an abundant supply of agricultural guest-workers; and set green card limits based on the country’s economic needs, not an immigrant’s family ties.

Critics of looser immigration restrictions, and a path to legal residency for the nation’s estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants, say Bloomberg’s proposals would take jobs from American workers and make the economic environment worse.

“We already have a system that allows 8 million foreign workers to hold jobs that millions of Americans who are unemployed would like to have. That’s a broken system,” said Roy Beck, president of Numbers USA, a group that favors tighter immigration restrictions.

“It’s not going to go anywhere because it makes no political sense,” Beck said of comprehensive immigration reform.  “Some people do not get that immigration is a jobs issue.”

Bloomberg disputed those arguments, insisting there is a way to address immigration – even in an election year – that will appeal to voters in both parties.

“The public cares about two things: housing and jobs. My house, my job,” he said. “And if you want to do something in this country to create jobs, better jobs and more jobs, and a better chance to keep your houses, the one thing we can do is not expensive for this country, it’s not a big stimulus of trillions of dollars, it is immigration reform.”

“That will get the best and the brightest from around the world, those that are the hungriest and willing to work the hardest to come here and create exactly what we need,” Bloomberg added.

US government targets immigration scams – The Economic Times.

HOUSTON: In an effort to stop scams that charge immigrants for bogus services, US immigration officials in Texas had sued two notaries public in Edinburg, accusing them of offering fraudulent immigration services.

The officials are stepping up efforts to prosecute con artists and educate immigrants about the schemes, according to an executive summary of the initiative released today by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The effort is starting in seven cities, New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta , Baltimore, Detroit, Fresno, California, and San Antonio, Texas and will expand nationwide, according to the summary.

The scammers “target people who are among the most vulnerable,” said Edith Ramirez, a Democrat, one of the five members of the Federal Trade Commission, in a statement.

Criminals lure victims by increasingly using the internet as well as word of mouth, fliers and paid advertisements on the radio or newspapers, the summary said.

The Obama administration held a news conference today in Washington attended by officials from the citizenship and immigration services agency, the FTC, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Justice Department.

Often the scams involve someone posing as a licensed attorney charging immigrants to file for benefits for which they are ineligible or to furnish forms that the government provides for free, according to the summary.

A common scam in Spanish-speaking communities takes advantage of immigrants’ confusion with the word “notario,” the government said.

Why Immigrants Are Good for Our Economy – Richard Florida – Business – The Atlantic.

Immigration remains a hotly debated issue across America and may prove a key sleeper issue in the looming 2012 presidential campaign, as my colleague Josh Green wrote yesterday. He notes that “whites are far more pessimistic about their prospects and their children’s prospects–and many mistakenly believe that illegal immigrants are the primary culprit.” He adds that “widespread misconceptions about the economic effects of immigration” stem “from a lack of information that’s largely due to both the Democratic and Republican parties’ unwillingness to pursue immigration reform, after years of failed attempts.”

Nonetheless, a wide body of research shows the ways that immigration powers the twin engines of American innovation and entrepreneurship. Foreign-born founders and entrepreneurs stand behind anywhere from a third to a half of Silicon Valley high-tech startups, and comprise huge shares of computer scientists and software engineers.

A new Brookings Institution report provides important new data and evidence on the role of immigration and immigrants across US metros. Two conclusions stand out.

The share of high-skill immigrants has risen consistently over the past several decades, as the chart above shows; there are more high-skill immigrants in the United States now than low skill ones. As the report notes, “In 1980, just 19 percent of immigrants aged 25 to 64 held a bachelor’s degree, and nearly 40 percent had not completed high school. By 2010, 30 percent of working-age immigrants had at least a college degree and 28 percent lacked a high school diploma.”

The map above charts immigrant skill levels–high, low or balanced–by metro area. The report classifies metros by type and timing of immigration, and notes that, “compared with their U.S.-born counterparts, low-skilled immigrants have higher rates of employment and lower rates of household poverty, but also have lower individual earnings, in all types of metro areas.” 44 of the nation’s largest 100 metro areas–including Washington, DC and San Francisco–are high-skill immigrant destinations, where college educated immigrants outnumber those that did not complete high school by at least 25 percent.

The report calls for a more pragmatic approach to immigration with a flexible admissions system that can respond to the evolving needs of the labor market as a cornerstone of regional and national competitiveness.

Let’s hope the administration, the Congress and the American people are paying attention. With such a fragile recovery, America can ill afford to cut off the stream of talented immigrants that are-and have long been-such a critical source of the innovative and entrepreneurial dynamism of its regional and national economies.

Obama is deceiving Hispanics on immigration – Andres Oppenheimer – MiamiHerald.com.

House GOP Hints At Immigration Reform For Skilled Workers.

Republican lawmakers on Thursday signaled a willingness to tackle immigration reform measures, specifically those relating to skilled worker visas.

Led by Virginia’s Bob Goodlatte, the House Republican Technology Working Group released its list of top technology concerns relating to economic growth in the U.S.

Under the banner of “Ensuring American Access to the Best Workers,” the group said it would “examine current visa and immigration laws to make sure we attract and retain the best and brightest minds from around the world.”

In addition to skilled workers, the group announced that it would also focus on access to network spectrum, cyber security issues, intellectual property protections, fair trade agreements, tax code and regulation reform.

While the GOP has historically championed free trade, tax reform and decreased regulation, the group’s embrace of immigration — however limited — was hailed by reform groups as a step forward.

Rebecca Peters, the director and counsel for legislative affairs at the American Council on International Personnel, told Huff Post that the GOP agenda was “very encouraging.” Her business advocacy group sees the recent bipartisan political movement — including the president’s immigration speech in El Paso, Texas, last month and the 2010 Republican plan for job creation — as evidence that reform might be on the horizon.

Compete America Executive Director Scott Corley, whose advocacy group focuses on immigration concerns for skilled workers, said in a statement, “We applaud the House Republican Technology Working Group for emphasizing the link between access to top talent and U.S. job creation. We encourage the growing list of supporters on both sides of the aisle to turn their talk into action.”

This Republican embrace of high-skilled immigrants partially reflects a stronger relationship between the GOP and the tech world. Both sides have dispatched emissaries in recent months: Tech companies, including Google, have ramped up their lobbying efforts in Washington, while Republican congress members have lately sought an audience with high tech denizens.

Retaining skilled workers and reforming intellectual property protections are both issues of concern to tech leaders and Republican leaders are taking notice.

“A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to talk to employers and employees out in Silicon Valley,” said House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). “They are on the frontlines of our country’s efforts to create new jobs, and they are concerned about the policies they are seeing coming out of Washington.”

Boehner has been well-compensated for the increased attention he’s paid to the tech world. In his visit to Northern California last month, he was estimated to have raised nearly a quarter of a million dollars at a Silicon Valley fundraiser in the home of HP executive Michael Holsten. Among those he met with were representatives from interest groups representing some of the Valley’s brightest lights, including Apple, Netflix and eBay.