Visa Lawyer Blog

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As I am writing this blog entry from my office in downtown San Diego, San Diego County residents are ordered from their homes as wind-driven wildfires spread from the East County toward the coast.

In what may be the worst disaster to hit our county in decades, we can see a community coming together. Rich and poor, legal and illegal immigrants sharing shelters and stories. In such days we are all the same, just people trying to survive this disaster. Stories like Mario’s the undocumented landscaper, assisting the family of a Border Patrol agent to load their truck so they can evacuate on time, will remain forever in my reflection on this terrible period in our city’s history.

My thoughts are with the families and the firefighters keeping them safe.

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I read Ruben Navarrette Jr. article on CNN earlier today and he couldn’t be more accurate with his analysis of the above.

As an Immigration attorney, I often hear complaints from clients about Police Officers trying to play Immigration Judges. Staements like “your apssport has already expired so how come you are still here” (Most passport have extension sections that the officer was not aware of, also passports do not control one legal status in the US).

Until there centralized training for all US Police officials on immigration related isseus they should remain in the role as protectors of our society from criminals and leave the immigration enforcement to the Federal Governmet. Illegal immigrants that are afraid to ask for help from the police can be more like the subject of abuse by the real criminal our police officers should be going after.

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Civil Rights movement leadres are not happy about House bill 1804, a tough Oklahoma immigration law that will go into effect November 1, 2007.This law blocks undocumented immigrants from obtaining jobs and places strict requirements for receiving public benefits. It also forces that law enforcement check a suspect’s legal status on felony and DUI cases and requires court officials to consider a person’s immigration status in setting bail.

Read more about this story here

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California farmers wait for comprehensive immigration reform and prepare for work in the fields. The Associated Press reported that some Oregon farmers contend the U.S. government’s decision to place National Guard troops along the Mexican border is contributing to a shortage of workers to pick their ripe fruit.

The stepped up efforts to crack down on illegal immigration is having an unwanted effect on American farmers. Some claim recent raids and threats to prosecute companies that hire undocumented workers have resulted in a severe labor shortage that could force some farms out of business and lead to higher food prices.

We are hoping for an immediate reform with respect to the H2A visa system, currently the only guest worker like system to hire farm workers. The system itself is very complicated and I am not surprised why not so many employers are actually trying to comply.

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This will be useful to all our clients ready to schedule appointments in Ciudad Juarez. The following information was provided by Edward R. an AILA member in El Paso in response to one of AILA members in San Diego questions about the timing of and scheduling of InfoPass appointments in Ciudad Juarez:

“As to the pilot program in CJ [Ciudad Juarez] for 601s, the process is to book an INFOPASS appointment to submit the waiver filing after denial. This person [our chapter member] is trying to time the appointment so that the client will not have to wait long between denial and possible approval of the waiver. The pilot allows for 601s that are obviously approvable to be approved on the very day of the INFOPASS appointment. This results in the approved IV within a few days after that, if not the same day, and the applicant who was facing a long delay for waiver adjudication is suddenly just waiting in line for formal admission as LPR.

Problem is that everyone wants to do the same thing and the INFOPASS appointment schedule, which was the off the shelf solution for a DHS program, is not robust enough to handle the volume thrown at it. It creates a bottleneck and no one can get appointments. DHS knows about this and is trying to resolve the issue, but the more appointments they release, in theory, the demand will devour and all will end up in the same position down the line.

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It is always interesting to read what members of Congress think about key issues, in this case immigration.

Sen. Lott’s opinion was published in the Clarion Ledger, among other things he says:

As you know, I had hoped to pass a broader immigration reform bill this year. I saw the July immigration debate as an opportunity, not necessarily to get an ideal border security plan in place, but as a foundation on which to build Senate support for stronger border security than we now have.

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A few hours ago we got reports from clients and media outlets in Los Angeles, about the big raids conducted by ICE and the Border Patrol, rounding up thousands of illegal aliens and processing expedited removals. This is just the beginning and the government is planning further raids before the holiday season in December.

See more info here

Read more from the Herald Tribune here

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Recently the Department of Labor announced that the permanent foreign labor certification program’s backlog has been eliminated, with nearly 95 percent of cases completed and the rest awaiting responses from employers. The BECs have begun a transition and shutdown phase that will continue through December.

I can say that this is excellent news for many of our applicants that were waiting for so long for the DOL to get the files out with certifications. I am just hoping that we the free time on the DOL’s hands they might just expedite PERM processing and handling to make it really an online experience.

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It was actually a strange day for me today. After a hectic week trying to get most of our H2B visa cases ready for filing, I was actually dreaming about this at night. In my dream all H2B visas were gone on Monday morning and all the angry employers are burning tires in front of my office.

Well, when I arrived to the office on Monday, I realized that my dream has become a reality. No not the tires burning, but the H2B cap was reached. Many of the employers waiting so patiently to file for new temporary workers, will need to wait for April and loose million of dollars as a result. I was furious, but we need to start planning ahead and help the clients deal with this crisis.

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Every year I hear the same complaints from our farmer clients, there are just not enough workers in this country to keep with the demand. What choice do they have but to hire illegal workers.

According to the Department of Labor’s National Agricultural Workers Survey, 53 percent of the hired crop labor force lacked authorization to work in the U.S. in 2004-05. Worker advocates and grower associations agree the actual figure is probably closer to 80 percent.

Three-quarters of the hired farm work force in the U.S. was born in Mexico. And more than 40 percent of crop workers were migrants, meaning they had traveled at least 75 miles in the previous year to get a farm job, the survey showed.

Now a growing immigration raids is making life more difficult for everybody. flurry of immigration raids has some farmers in upstate New York worried about their ability to harvest all of their fruits and vegetables.

The farmers blame a growing immigrant farm labor shortage on a dramatic rise in immigration enforcement at a time when national security restrictions have already sharply curtailed attempts by foreign workers to gain lawful seasonal employment in the United States.

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