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[June 15, 2008]
IMMIGRANTS
TRANSFERRED AFTER RIOT
President Bush signed a new law amending portions of the Immigration and
Nationality Act to allow certain spouses of members of the military to
naturalize overseas where they are stationed. Before January 2008, these
spouses could only naturalize while physically within the United States.
With all the immigrant bashing that is taking place nowadays, the reality is
that the 21 new citizens fighting for the U.S. were born in American Samoa,
China, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Great Britatin, Grenada, Haiti, Hungary,
Israel, Jamaica, Liberia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Nigeria, the Philippines,
Russia and Togo.
Immigration raids are taking place all over the country. Families are
hiding immigrants and lining up lawyers in case of arrest. Business leaders
are nervous and activists are outraged. Many believe that the stepped up
worksite enforcement raids are part of a Department of Homeland Security
strategy to force a revival of last year¡¯s failed effort to reform the
nation¡¯s immigration laws. The idea is that disruptions caused by raids
would unite business interests and immigration hard liners to convince
legislation to reconsider immigration reform.
GLOBAL ENTRY PILOT
U.S. Customs
and Border Protection began processing applications for the Global Entry
Pilot Program which is designed to expedite the screening and processing of
low risk frequent international travelers entering the U.S. The
program started in three initial airports: John F. Kennedy in New York,
George Bush International Airport in Houston, Texas and Dulles International
Airport in Washington, DC.
Global Entry
is available for U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents who are
frequent international travelers, provided they have not been found guilty
of a criminal offense, charged with a customs or immigration offense, or
declared inadmissible to the U.S. under immigration regulations.
Applications for enrollment in the program are available through the Global
On-Line Enrollment System (GOES). The application process consists of
three steps: (1) the applicant must complete and submit an on-line
application and pay a $100 fee; (2) CBP officers will review the applicant¡¯s
information and a background investigation will be conducted; and (3) the
applicant will undergo an interview with CBP officers at an enrollment
center at JFK, Houston or Dulles Airports.
Upon
returning from international travel, Global Entry -enrolled travelers may
bypass the regular passport control line and proceed directly to the Global
Entry kiosk. There, the traveler will activate the system by inserting his
or her passport or US permanent resident card into the document reader. The
kiosk will direct the traveler to electronically provide his or her
fingerprints and will compare that biometric data with the fingerprint
biometrics on file. A digital photograph will also be taken of the
traveler. The traveler will be prompted to answer several CBP declaration
questions posted on the kiosk¡¯s touch-screen. Once the process is
successfully completed, the traveler will be issued a transaction receipt
which must be presented to the CBP officer as the participant leaves the CBP
inspection area.
A federal
appeals court ordered the reinstatement of 33 janitors in Los Angeles who
were fired because their social security numbers did not match the
government¡¯s database, a ruling that could strengthen unions¡¯ case against
the Bush Administration¡¯s proposal to pressure employers to get rid of
suspected illegal immigrants.
The decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San
Francisco did not address the legality of the Administration¡¯s so-called
no-match ru le, which a federal judge blocked in October. The rule would
threaten employers with civil fines and criminal prosecution unless they
fired workers who failed to clear up discrepancies between their social
security numbers and government records.
Help dispel
the myth that illegal immigrants are a threat to public safety because they
are more likely to commit crimes!!!
The facts
are very different. Statistics prove that immigrants are five times
LESS likely to commit crimes than the native-born. In a 2007 study,
University of California, Irvine sociologist, Ruben G. Rumbaut found that in
2000, the 3.5 % incarceration rate of native-born men age 18 - 39 was five
times higher than the rate for immigrants which was 0.7 percent.
Moreover,
among native-born male high school dropouts, 9.8% were behind bars, compared
to only 1/3 % of immigrant dropout.
In addition,
undocumented immigration is not associated with higher crime rates.
Although the undocumented immigrant population doubled from 1994 to 2005,
the violent crime rate in the U.S. declined by 34.2% and the property crime
rate fell by 26.4% during the same period. Border cities and other cities
with large immigrant populations also experienced decreasing crime rates.
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