Month: November 2007

END OF FBI NAME-CHECK DELAYS?

AILA is reporting that:  “In a meeting with AILA and other organizations, DHS Secretary Chertoff indicated that USCIS and the FBI are changing parts of the name check process, with the expected result that a large proportion of the backlog should be cleared within six months. The changes are consistent with Secretary Chertoff’s risk management approach. The Secretary hopes that, in addition to clearing the backlog, a large percentage of the kinds of applications and situations that have previously been caught in name check delays will, in the future, be cleared quickly. However, he cautions that some checks still will be delayed by investigations, but that that number should represent a small proportion of the numbers previously delayed.” [AILA InfoNet Doc. No. 07113061 (posted Nov. 30, 2007)].

SCHUMER: USCIS SHOULD REHIRE RETIREES TO HELP ADJUDICATE NATURALIZATION APPLICATIONS

According to an AP article that appeared on www.chron.com: “Immigration officials should rehire retirees to help clear a backlog of applications that could keep some people from becoming citizens in time to vote in the November 2008 elections, Sen. Chuck Schumer said Thursday.”

HAVE THE ANTI-IMMIGRATIONISTS WON THE “BRANDING WAR”?

When I’m at a restaurant, I order a Coke rather than a cola, if I have a runny nose I request a Kleenex rather than a tissue, and when I need to check my e-mail at 2 in the morning, I use my Blackberry rather than my mobile PDA.  Companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars promoting their trademarks so that ideally, their brands will become synonymous with or even replace how people commonly refer to the product that bears the name.

Think of the two words most commonly used in the immigration debate recently, those that conjure up the strongest emotions. I would bet those words would be “illegals” and “amnesty”.

Could other words be used to describe those who are unauthorized to be in the US? Of course… if referring to the class as a whole, the term “undocumented aliens” was a valiant effort on the part of pro-immigrationists to minimize the negative a connotation of the label. But now even the mainstream newspapers carry headlines such as “Illegals to be Given Driver’s Licenses”.  It hardly seems fair to paint young children who had no choice and entered the US unlawfully with their parents with the same brush as convicted felons or gang members who also happen to be undocumented.

Amnesty is defined as “the act of an authority (as a government) by which pardon is granted to a large group of individuals.”   The Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) bill that was proposed by the Senate and failed to pass earlier this year mainly because opponents successfuly argued that it amounted to amnesty.  However, CIR was more accurately referred to as “earned legalization” where undocumented aliens would have had to: learn English, pay back taxes, pay a hefty fine and been free of serious criminal convictions among other criteria.

The DREAM Act which would have granted legal status to children and young adults who arrived in the US before the age of 16 and who had lived in the USA at least five years — if they completed two years of post-secondary education or two years of military service also went nowhere as anti-immigrationists successfully derailed the effort by labeling it amnesty. Even though most reasonable people would agree that children should not be punished for the actions of their parents.

The terms “illegal” and “amnesty” (especially when used in the same sentence) add fuel to a fire that’s already red-hot and needs to be extinguished before this country can move forward with meaningful dialog and work towards a solution to fix our broken immigration system.   However these terms are not going anywhere.  Those who support CIR will need to redouble their efforts in 2009 and work on both the substance of what such a CIR bill should contain and on branding their message.

DHS TO SURVEY SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS ABOUT “NO-MATCH” RULES

According to an article in Fortune Small Business:  “On Friday, Federal Judge Charles Breyer agreed with a complaint that the Department of Homeland Security had not considered how onerous the rules are for businesses, and gave the DHS until March 24, 2008, to survey small business owners and get their take on how the illegal immigration rules affects them.”

NEW JERSEY AG RECOMMENDS OFFICER BE DISCIPLINED FOR QUESTIONING WITNESSES TO A CRIME ABOUT THEIR IMMIGRATION STATUS

According to an article on allamericanpatriots.com:  “New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram said today that a Newark police officer improperly questioned witnesses to a crime scene about their immigration status in violation of a state law enforcement directive that specifically prohibits police from inquiring about the immigration status of any victim, witness or person requesting police assistance. Milgram recommended that the police officer be disciplined and recommended training on the immigration directive for all Newark police officers.”

Community Policing has been successfully implemented in many parts of the country and around the world.  Law enforcement has to earn the public trust.  If witnesses to violent crimes refuse to come forward for fear of immigration-related consequences, society as a whole will lose out.

REVISED RULE FOR EMPLOYERS THAT HIRE IMMIGRANTS

The New York Times reports that:   “The Bush administration will suspend its legal defense of a new rule issued in August to punish employers who hire illegal immigrants, conceding a hard-fought opening round in a court battle over a central measure in its strategy to curb illegal immigration, according to government papers filed late Friday in federal court.”