[November 15, 2007]

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT LICENSE PLAN DROPPED

            The Governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer, who planned to give illegal aliens drivers licenses changed his mind and now dropped the idea because of overwhelming public opposition.  Spitzer, a Democrat, proposed the initiative in an effort to improve safety in New York, home to at least one million illegal aliens who drive and work in New York.

WHO¡¦¡¦IS REALLY DANGEROUS?

            The Immigration Service fights the Mexicans.  Not one spy or militant Islamic has been uncovered among them.  They come to work and feed their families and we all benefit from their labor.  Why doesn¡¯t the government fight the real culprits.

            How about the government chasing the really dangerous people like the case of Nada Prouty, an illegal immigrant from Lebanon with relatives linked to the militant Islamic group Hezbollah who paid a U.S. citizen to marry her and then lied her way through national security background checks to become an agent for the FBI and the CIA.  She used her position to secretly access government computers for secret information and a U.S. investigation finally uncovered her.

Nada Nadim Prouty, a 37-year-old Lebanese national, pleaded guilty to conspiracy, unauthorized computer access and naturalization fraud in federal court in Detroit and agreed to cooperate with authorities in an ongoing investigation into her security breaches. 

Prouty's case is a major embarrassment for the FBI and the CIA, which supposedly had tightened their personnel screening and monitoring after CIA officer Aldrich H. Ames and FBI Special Agent Robert Hanssen were caught selling secrets to foreign governments. But officials emphasized that the investigation had not uncovered any evidence that Prouty gave Hezbollah or its operatives classified information.

Law enforcement officials said a multi-agency probe was underway to determine how the breaches occurred, what Prouty may have done with the information she accessed from FBI computers, and whether she improperly obtained information from the CIA.

"It is hard to imagine a greater threat than the situation where a foreign national uses fraud to attain citizenship and then, based on that fraud, insinuates herself into a sensitive position in the U.S. government," U.S. Atty. Stephen J. Murphy in Detroit said in a statement.

In her signed plea agreement, Prouty admitted to accessing FBI computer files on Hezbollah first in 2000 and again in 2003, when she accessed case files on a top-secret national security investigation into the militant group that the FBI was conducting.

9^th CIRCUIT COURT REINSTATES CASE

OF WRONGLY PENALIZED IMMIGRANT

            A federal appeals court has ordered an immigration judge to reopen the case of a Mexican woman whose petition to stay in the United States was denied because she overpaid a court fee.

            The 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled earlier this month that the Board of Immigration Appeals erred when it tossed out Angelica Maria Lopez-Vega¡¯s appeal because she sent the court a check for $220 instead of $110.   ¡°We fail to understand how an overpayment would result in the rejection of a notice of appeal,¡± a three-panel judge wrote in an unpublished decision.

Federal circuit courts have repeatedly taken aim at the Board of Immigration Appeals, issuing harshly worded decisions critical of some judges.  Legal observers, however, said the case is just another reminder of a flawed immigration court system.  ¡°The Board of Immigration Appeals seems to use any excuse to dismiss a case.¡±

JURY CONVICTS A MAN IN DENATURALIZATION CASE

            In a rare criminal denaturalization case, a Santa Ana, California jury has convicted a man born in Afghanistan of lying on his citizenship application.

            Hares Ajmal Ahmadzai, 35, was found guilty of failing to tell federal officials about prior arrests while applying for citizenship.  He faces up to 10 years in prison and could face deportation charges in immigration court.  Ahmadzai came to the U.S. as a child and applied for citizenship in 1992.  He was sworn in two years later. 

            Since 1999, 200 people nationwide have had their citizenship revoked based on civil charges.  And in the past year, only three criminal denaturalization cases have been filed in Los Angeles, according to a spokeswoman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

            Immigrants applying for citizenship are asked several times during the application process to disclose any arrests or convictions.  In addition, the FBI conducts background checks on those applying for citizenship.

            Federal officials said Ahmadzai lied to them several times, including in 1992 when he applied for citizenship and failed to disclose a 1989 traffic stop that led to an arrest. In addition, he failed to disclose three arrests that took place between the time he applied and the time he was sworn in as a citizen, explained an assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted the case.

FEDERAL MEDICAID RULES AIMED AT WEEDING OUT UNDOCUMENTED ACTUALLY BAR MANY U.S. CITIZENS FROM HEALTH CARE

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            According to a new report by the Oregon Department of Human Services, new federal rules that require Oregon to verify the identity and citizenship of individuals applying for Medicaid-funded programs have barred over 1,000 Oregonians, mostly children and citizens, from getting health care.

            ¡°The new rules were imposed in a misguided attempt to keep non-citizens from receiving health care benefits for which they are not eligible.  Ironically, the primary impact has been to keep citizens from receiving health care benefits for which they are eligible,¡± said Janet Bauer, a policy analyst at the Oregon Center for Public Policy.  Bauer noted that 91 percent of denied individuals reside in households where English is the primary language.

            The report also shows that children have been disproportionately harmed by the new provisions.  The state study found that nearly two-thirds of those who were denied health services were children.  ¡°The federal rules have backfired in Oregon and kids are getting the brunt of it,¡± said Bauer.

NEW FORMS I-19, FOR EMPLOYERS

            USCIS announced that it has released a new version of Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, as well at the M-274, Handbook for Employers, Instructions for Completing the Form I-9.  The form and handbook are supposed to be available on the USCIS website.  Form I-9 can be found at http://www.uscis.gov/i-9.  M-274, Handbook for Employers, Instructions for Completing the Form I-9 can be found at http://www.uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments/m-274.pdf.  USCIS ¡°encourages¡± the use of the new form immediately, but indicates that it will not be required until notice is published in the Federal Register.

Paying the Price: The Impact of Immigration Raids on America's Children

There are approximately five million children living in the U.S. with at least one undocumented parent. The well-being of many of these children, many of whom are U.S. citizens and have known no other country but the U.S., have been threatened over the past year due to intensified immigration enforcement activities conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) through large-scale worksite raids of businesses that hire undocumented workers. By arresting and deporting their parents, these raids have put the children of undocumented workers at great risk of family separation, economic hardship, and psychological trauma, as they are invariably dependent on their parents for protection, education, development, and emotional and financial support.