Month: August 2008

It looks like an ICE immigration sweep is occurring in Massachusetts as I write this, may be ongoing (for a few days) and is focusing on individuals with criminal records regardless of their immigration status.  It is estimated that 100 people have been apprehended to date.

According to a credible source, ICE conducted an immigration raid  somewhere in Massachusetts today.  Detailed information will probably be released in the coming days, I will post here if and when more news becomes available.

As of August 6th, I still have not found any publicly available data on this alleged raid.  We’ll see if it actually occurred yesterday or if a raid is imminent.  If readers have any information, please e-mail me. 

According to the Associated Press:  “New York-based Human Rights Watch surveyed detention center officials and inmates after Arellano’s death and found 14 cases in which it said HIV-infected immigrants were not given proper care while in custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”

These particular cases will result in multi-million dollar Negligence lawsuits against the government and international attention from the Press which will lead to improvements in medical care offered to detainees. 

However, equally troublesome is the fact that, according to the article “[e]xperts on AIDS and immigration said the U.S. crackdown on illegal immigration is forcing people to avoid government clinics to receive care.”  Without proper care it is likely that HIV positive immigrants will not be diagnosed and will unknowingly spread the virus to others. 

There are so many layers to the immigration issue and consequences stemming from how it is handled.  Finding ways to improve our system will not be easy but we need to encourage our elected officials to address it on a macro level.  The status quo is not working for anyone.   

According to an article on alternet.org:  “Immigration experts attribute the decrease in illegal immigration to the U.S. economic downturn, rather than stepped-up enforcement measures as findings by the Center for Immigration Studies conclude. “

Lawyers are reporting, and our office is experiencing, that some Applications for Alien Labor Certification are being approved within 90 days without audits.  This is the case even when the minimum requirements for the positions exceed the SVP.  This is promising news for those of us who feared that almost all new PERM cases would end up in the DOL’s “Audit Black Hole”. 

To balance out the good news, those cases that were audited, some of which are fast-approaching their one year anniversary from the dates of filing, for the most part remain unadjudicated.  My two cents is that the DOL is deciding how it will handle the cases audited for exceeding the SVP based on the following factors:  (1) the adequacy of the business necessity evidence provided in response to the audits; (2) whether having answered “no” to the question of whether the position’s minimum requirements as stated in the ETA 9089 exceed the “normal requirements” should result in an automatic denial regardless of evidence presented to show actual business necessity; and (3) whether the agency is open to arguments that their manner of determining whether a position’s requirements exceed the SVP is mathematically flawed and is without basis in the regulations. 

In sum, lawyers and employers will probably be getting a slew of certifications or denials once the DOL moves on these audited cases.  As with all things immigration-related at this time, only time will tell how this resolves.