A Note from the Editors:

OMB And Immigration

Immigration law is losing some friends in a very high place - the Office of Management and Budget at the White House. This office is akin to the CFO of the Federal Government, it controls the budget a/k/a the oxygen of every Executive Branch department and agency. What's more each and every regulation of the Federal Government must be okayed by OMB before publication in the Federal Register. The Director of the OMB, Mitch Daniels, who has publicly spoken in favor of immigration, is leaving soon (the rumor is that he will run for public office in his home state of Indiana). His Deputy Director, Mark Everson, has already left. Mr. Everson was Deputy Directory of the INS in 1987 and oversaw the implementation of IRCA at that time, giving him considerable experience in immigration matters. Without these knowledgeable people in key positions, we are unsure what course the new OMB will chart with new management this fall. We will be watching, and will report to our readers.

Articles

Employment Options For Students, Part 2 of 4
Gregory Siskind offers a comprehensive look at employment options for students.

Stricter Standards To Be Applied In Identifying Suspected Terrorists
The New York Times reports "Federal authorities said today that they planned to use stricter standards for identifying and locking up terrorist suspects in light of concerns raised in a recent report that hundreds of illegal immigrants were mistreated after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks."

BICE Requests I-9 Forms As Part Of Operation Landmark Sweep
The Chicago Tribune reports "According to [local] community representatives who recently met with immigration officials, the BICE has requested documents called I-9 forms for about 30,000 workers locally. The sweep, known as Operation Landmark, has resulted in the arrests of several undocumented immigrants who worked at the Sears Tower."

PERM Labor Certification- Justifying The Proposed Regulations: Part 1 of 2
D.Ray Mantle examines the legitimacy of DOL's justifications for PERM.

Zadvydas Ruling And Its Applicability To Excludable Aliens Is Under Consideration For Review By Supreme Court
The Legal Times reports "The US Supreme Court will soon consider an urgent plea from the Bush administration to overturn a lower court ruling that would force the government to release imprisoned illegal aliens with criminal records whose native countries don't want them back."

Sen. Cornyn Plans To Introduce Guest Worker Program Bill
The Houston Chronicle reports "Sen. Cornyn (R-TX) will outline a guest worker program today that would allow some undocumented immigrants to legally hold a job for up to three years while working toward full-time residency, according to a draft of the proposal."

PERM Labor Certification- Justifying The Proposed Regulations: Part 2 of 2
D.Ray Mantle examines the legitimacy of DOL's justifications for PERM.

Detention Of The Undocumented Marks Law Enforcement's Finest Hour
A Washington Times op-ed writes "Is there any other country in the history of mankind that would flagellate itself over such trivial hardships for illegal aliens during wartime?"

BCIS To Begin Taking Online Reservations As Part Of Pilot Program
The Naples Daily News of Florida reports "Immigration officials in Florida, who process 4,000 people a day, will start taking appointments over the Internet next week as part of a pilot program called Infopass."

2-1 Court Of Appeals Ruling Approves Secret Arrests
New York Newsday reports "In a key decision in the domestic war on terrorism, a federal appellate court ruled yesterday that the government does not have to reveal the identities of the more than 750 foreigners secretly detained on immigration violations during the investigation of the Sept. 11 attacks."

Bush Says Special Registration Has No Connection To Race-Based Profiling Ban
The Kansas City Star of Missouri reports "Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Ralph Boyd said the new policy stems not from the [9/11] attacks but from President Bush's presidential campaign, when he promised if elected to enact such a ban."

Woman Accused Of Harboring Undocumented Makes First Court Appearance
The Houston Chronicle reports " 34-year-old Mexican woman accused of harboring some of the human cargo in the nation's deadliest immigrant smuggling ring made her first court appearance today."

GAO Says Revoked Visas Not Properly Tracked
The Charleston Post and Courier of South Carolina reports "Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) criticized the "legal loophole" that precludes the removal of a foreigner whose visa has been revoked: "It is unconscionable that aliens can be deported for shoplifting or stalking but cannot be deported when their visa has been revoked on grounds of terrorism."

Amnesty International Study Finds Undocumented Children Are Improperly Detained
The New York Times reports "Foreign children fleeing violence and persecution in their home countries are often improperly detained for months in bleak detention centers in the US without access to lawyers or psychological services, a study released today said."

Student In Custody For Special Registration Violation Abruptly Set Free
The Pittsburgh Post Gazette of Pennsylvania reports "A Jordanian student at La Roche College who failed to register with other men from mostly Muslim countries yesterday was freed from federal detention in York after the government abruptly dropped its insistence that he be denied bail."

How Do I Get Permission to Change to a New Nonimmigrant Status?
Read a comprehensive answer from BCIS on how to change to a new nonimmigrant status.

ILW Highlights

Processing Times Updated

Vermont, California, Texas, Nebraska and Missouri Processing Times have been updated.

Letters to Editors

To write to Editors, send emails to weeklyeditor@ilw.com.

Dear Editor:
In response to David Walker's inquiry about UK exclusion from the DV lottery I obtained the following information from the Federal Register of August 21, 2002 Volume 67 at Page 54251-54256 Registration for the Diversity Immigrant (DV-2004) Visa Program: "For DV-2004, natives of the following are not eligible to apply because they sent more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States in the previous five years: Canada; China (mainland-born); Colombia; Dominican Republic; El Salvador; Haiti; India; Jamaica; Mexico; Pakistan; Philippines; South Korea; United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories Vietnam; (Persons born in Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR and Taiwan are eligible)". Looking for the numbers, the best I could find was in the 2001 Statistical Yearbook, (the 2002 statistical yearbook is not available on the BCIS website:
(http://www.immigration.gov/graphics/shared/aboutus/statistics/ybpage.htm). In the 2001
Statistical yearbook listing under Immigrants there is this info:
http://www.immigration.gov/graphics/shared/aboutus/statistics/IMM01yrbk/IMM2001list.htm

Table 3 - Immigrants admitted by region and country of birth: fiscal years 1989-2001.
These are the number of immigrants posted for the UK: 1989 - 14090; 1990 - 15928; 1991 - 13903; 1992 - 19973; 1993 - 18783; 1994 - 16326; 1995 - 12427; 1996 - 13624; 1997 - 10708; 1998 - 9018; 1999 - 7690; 2000 - 13385; 2001 - 18436.

Every year is over 10,000 except 1998 and 1999; those two years, added into any continuous block of 5 exceed 50000 for the 5 year block. The result is that the UK has been classified as a "high-admission state" not eligible to participate in the DV in the past.

Doug Edmunds

Immigrant Life

What is the college application process?

Each school sets its own admission requirements. The college admission process consists of application forms, admission tests and essays. Colleges make admission decisions, based on academic achievement, admission test scores and applications. The academic section is generally the most important but not the only deciding factor.

Continued.

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