USA Green Card Immigration Blog

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) now use Infopass, an appointment system to provide immigration information. Three more districts, Atlanta, Boston and Houston are added, so that the system can cover almost all metropolitan areas with immigrant residents. The system is also available in Los Angeles, New York and Miami. Earlier this year, Case Status Online service was initiated, which helped users to check the status of their pending applications, for instance their green card application. The electronic filing of the 12 most popular immigration forms was also made possible, which further reduced the hassles of long lines and pending applications.

A person residing in a serviced USCIS district and seeking immigration benefits can use USCIS Infopass to schedule meetings with immigration officers through the Internet. This online system allows users to discuss any complex issues regarding immigration services with USCIS officials. This process tends to prevent long queues and helps manage the backlog of services effectively.

USCIS Infopass is provided through a secure Internet site. Instructions are available in 12 different languages. A series of prompts instructs the user to fill in details regarding his/her name, zip code, address, phone number and a desired appointment date. Once the user has entered all the relevant details, the system generates an appointment notice, which provides the USCIS office address and instructions with respect to identification and/or additional documentation, such as a green card or work permit, that the person needs to carry to the appointment. These appointments are offered in two-week blocks.

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, which was previously known as the Immigration and Naturalization Services, INS offers immigration help in every possible way to the various applicants. They manage the approval of student visas, adoption of foreign children, family and employment immigration, and refuge and asylum cases.

In July 2008, the Los Angeles County had brought into effect strict federal verification rules to scrutinize documents submitted by the beneficiaries covered under Medi-Cal, the public healthcare program for low-income residents. These rules were enforced not only to deny health insurance to illegal immigrants, but also to ensure that legal citizens are covered under its umbrella. This check is done by verifying the documents submitted by people who apply for the healthcare policy. These documents should prove their citizenship or legal status.

Leonardo Rincon, a health worker in Los Angeles, and his colleagues have initiated the verifying procedure in their county. According to Deborah Walker, the Medi-Cal director, they haven’t yet identified any illegal immigrant who has been enjoying the benefits as a legal resident. Between July 2008 and February 2009, only less than 1% of the applicants had not submitted the necessary documents, which they eventually did produce. Even among new Medi-Cal applicants, cases of fraudulent entry were very few.

A few healthcare officials feel that the amount of fund and time invested in this verification is not offering any payback. There is also an on-going debate on curtailing new public health benefits to illegal immigrants. US citizens have access to full public health benefits, while illegal immigrants are entitled only to pregnancy and emergency care.

Members of Congress have suggested a few guidelines to improve the verification method. Applicants have to produce photo identification proof or biometric ID cards. Other methods include checks with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s immigration database and so on.

The purpose of implementing strict immigrant verification process is to discourage illegal immigrants from availing health benefits, which in turn would save huge amounts of money. There are immigrant advocates who agree to the contrary. They feel that these regulations are not cost-effective and also deprive US citizens of their healthcare policy in case they cannot produce relevant documents. Two federal studies validated their point by proving that these rules led to huge administrative costs.

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is a bureau of United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS.) Its main responsibilities are promoting national security, eliminating backlogs in immigration cases, and improving customer care services. As part of its responsibilities, USCIS handles all forms and processing materials related to immigration and naturalization.

A Notice of Entry of Appearance as Attorney or Accredited Representative, popularly known as the USCIS G-28 Form, is a standard form that notifies USCIS that you will be represented by an attorney or anyone else belonging to a religious, charitable, social service or similar organization before it. All the notifications will be sent to him from then on and whenever he files papers for you, a Notice of Appearance (NOA) must be submitted. You can change your attorney anytime by filing a new USCIS G-28 Form.

USCIS has recently announced the publication of a revised USCIS Immigration Form, which can be downloaded online by U.S. Immigration Support members with a current subscription. A grace period of 30 days has been granted. This means that, till October 30 Forms G-28 that are in the mail currently will be considered valid when received at the USCIS lockbox facility or the USCIS center. After this date any prior versions of the form received will be considered invalid. Forms filed before October 30 will be honored for previously filed cases if the forms were properly completed by an eligible attorney.

Applicants must ensure that they submit the correct form because if an incorrect form is submitted the application may be denied and not processed. So read through the immigration guide that best suits your case, containing filling instructions and the procedures before you start filling the form.

USCIS G-28 Form is included in application guides such as Green card renewal, Green card replacement and in Green card updates.

Doing away with the `widow’s penalty’ – Editorials – MiamiHerald.com.

With a 79-19 Senate vote, Congress has corrected one of the more draconian immigration policies to be visited upon foreign-born spouses of American citizens.

Called the “widow’s penalty,”‘ the policy allows immigration officials to annul spouses’ applications for permanent residency when their American husbands or wives die before the marriage is two years old.

The new immigration measure will allow foreigners married to U.S. citizens to apply for permanent residency without waiting two years, and the death of a spouse won’t be a determining factor in the outcome.

In spite of recession, there has been a constant rise in Massachusetts’s immigrant population. The rise in immigrants in this state is in contrast to the national trend, which shows a decrease in foreign-born residents after so many decades.

According to the 2008 American Community Survey conducted by the Census Bureau on 3 million households nationwide, the number of immigrants rose to 937,200 last year from 913,957 the previous year, States such as California, Florida, and Rhode Island on the other hand, have seen a decrease in the immigrant population.

So the increase in the immigrant population in the Bay State, though a modest 2.5%, has bewildered researchers and advocates. In Framingham alone, the rise in immigrants was almost a quarter of the total town’s population, much to the surprise of researchers.

Researchers have put across various theories to explain this trend. The performance of the state’s economy than other states and the exclusion of the departures from Massachusetts by the survey are some of the reasons cited. Some point out that, immigrants in Massachusetts who account for 14 percent of the state’s population are highly educated and are less likely to leave as they have an advantage even if the economy is not faring well.

Moreover, the population of illegal immigrants is also very less when compared to other states. Only one in five Massachusetts immigrants is here illegally. This is well below the national average of one in three.

Other reason for the immigrant influx in Massachusetts is the welcoming environment. For instance, Governor Deval Patrick has ordered a yearlong study on ways to integrate immigrants.

Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University is of the opinion that the availability of work was one of the main reasons that immigrants stayed in Massachusetts.

President Barrack Obama had initiated an immigration policy to legalize an estimated 12 million of USA’s illegal immigrants earlier this year. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS,) the federal agency that supervises immigration issues and grants visas, is getting ready to deal with the enormous increase in applications once this immigration policy becomes a law.

Even though the official estimate of the number of illegal immigrants who will apply for legal documents is not available, two research groups based in Washington, namely the Pew Hispanic Center and the Center for Immigration Studies, estimate that a minimum of 10.8 million illegal immigrants live in the country.

Alejandro Mayorkas, who took over as the director of USCIS in August this year, says that USCIS is equipped to process only around 6 million USA immigration applications a year. But, once President Obama’s immigration policy is passed, it may have to process that many USA immigration applications in just a few weeks. The processing of applications also involves tedious steps, such as collection of fingerprints and other biometric identity information.

USCIS is gearing up to cope up with the tremendous increase in the visa applications under Obama’s comprehensive immigration reform plan. Several measures are being implemented by the agency director Alejandro Mayorkas to process the applications faster. For instance, the agency is planning to use lockboxes to receive applications instead of local offices.

Allowing illegal immigrants to use a simple mail-in registration to set the legalization process in motion is another step that is to be taken.

The agency is also exploring ways to reduce backlogs and delays to ensure a better performance. Further, Mr. Mayorkas, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, and other officials have also been holding meetings across the United States to garner ideas from the public on how to deal with the situation.

In the current Supreme Court session, two cases dealing with critical immigration issues will be included in the docket. These two cases that will affect the immigrants significantly will be on the connection between the criminal justice system and immigration, and immigrants’ access to federal court review. The key issue that both these cases present to the Supreme Court is that, immigrants be given fair process as well as an opportunity to be heard.

The first case, Padilla v. Kentucky presented on October 13, focuses mainly on the role of lawyers in protecting the rights of immigrants. The Supreme Court will decide if a criminal defense attorney is obliged to counsel foreign-born defendants on the effect of a criminal case on their immigration case.  It will also decide if the defendants can take corrective action if defense attorneys offer incorrect advice.

The second case, Kucana v. Holder, set for argument on November 10 also deals with problems relating to US immigration. The main issue here is immigrants’ access to federal court review if there is an error in the government decision-making on immigration problems. This case will determine if the circuit courts have the authority over certain decisions like motions to reopen that are made by the Board of Immigration Appeals.

Beth Werlin, attorney at AILF’s Legal Action Center, thinks that the Supreme Court should be compelled to rule in favor of the plaintiffs in both these cases keeping in mind the fundamental principles of fairness. As it can result in deportation and permanent banishment from the U.S., these cases need to be carefully considered by the Supreme Court to affirm that the immigrants get a fair process.

There is also the concern that an adverse decision taken by the Supreme Court might result in the reversal of favorable decisions from other courts. This critical immigration issue is likely to be resolved by the decision of the Supreme Court for all the federal courts.

Maricopa County Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio — hailed by many as America’s Sheriff – is under attack for cracking down on illegal aliens. The liberal-left politicians, activists and members of the news media are vilifying Sheriff Arpaio for his department’s immigration and crime sweeps in and around Phoenix.On Friday, government officials with the Homeland Security and Justice Departments stated that the veteran lawman’s deputies could no longer make arrests based on a person’s immigration status. However, during an interview on Fox News Channel’s “Your World with Neil Cavuto,” Sheriff Arpaio told viewers that he and his deputies would continue to enforce the law and pointed to Arizona state laws that he would enforce.In response to the federal complaints regarding his activities, Sheriff Arpaio dispatched deputies on a two-day “crime suppression” operation. While heralded by the men and women he serves, Arpaio’s sweeps have been characterized as racial profiling by opponents of immigration enforcement.The nationwide enforcement of immigration law has been under the gun since President Barack Obama took his oath of office. Many political leaders, mostly Democrats, have targeted enforcement agencies and agents over the past few months with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi calling immigration raids “Un-American” and Congressman Luis Guttierez calling Border Patrol agents “The Gestapo.”Attorney General Eric Holder has also threatened Arpaio with a federal investigation of his Sheriff’s Department and its activities as a result of his success at capturing hundreds of criminal aliens.“Nothing has changed,” Arpaio told a Reuters reporter while overseeing an operation in a suburb northwest of Phoenix. “We’re still going to be doing what we’ve been doing tonight and during the last two and a half years. I don’t take orders from anyone.”Sheriff Arpaio first carried out the sweeps after his deputies underwent training offered by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that gave participating state and local police officers authority to make immigration arrests during the Bush Administration. However, during the Obama Administration deputies have now lost their arrest powers as far as immigration laws on the streets.

via The Reality Check » Blog Archive » “America’s Sheriff” Joe Arpaio vs. Obama Administration.

U.S. to Revise Detention Standards for Immigration Detainees – WSJ.com.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the Obama Administration is set to announce an overhaul of the US’s immigration detention system today.

The goal of the reform is to avoid housing criminal with non-criminal detainees.

Critics are expected to accuse the Administration of further softening its stance on illegal immigration.