A Note from the Editors:

The Department of Health and Human Services has udpated the poverty guidelines used in determining eligibility for sponsorship on the I-864 Affidavit of Support. The notice states that the guidelines go into effect the day they are published. The Federal Register notice instructs that to "obtain information on the most recent applicable poverty guidelines from the Immigration and Naturalization Service, call 1-800-375-5283. Persons with Internet access may obtain the information from the Immigration and Naturalization Service Internet site at http://www.ins.usdoj.gov/graphics/howdoi/affsupp.htm." The INS site at the time of publication still lists the poverty guidelines from April 2001.

The text of H.R. 3714, a bill to facilitate entry into the United States by nonimmigrant aliens for brief temporary stays for the serious illness or death of a member of the alien's immediate family, is now available.

Articles

September 11 Ushers in a New Era in Immigration Law and Practice - Part II
In the second of a two part series Angelo A. Paparelli and John C. Valdez explore how the September 11 attacks have changed the field of immigration law.

Deportee Sweep Will Start With Mideast Focus
The Washington Post reports that Federal agents will soon begin apprehending and interrogating thousands of illegal Middle Eastern immigrants who have ignored deportation orders, seeking ways to prosecute any who have ties to terrorism and compiling the results of interviews in a new computer database, according to a Justice Department memo.

Evidence of Source of Capital in Immigrant Investor Cases (Finale)
In the final installment in this series we reprint Lincoln Stone and Stephen Yale-Loehr's information on challenges to INS queries about the source of capital for immigrant investor visas, and provide the authors' conclusions.

Enron and Immigration: The Cost of Complexity
Gary Endelman compares the complexity of the unfolding Enron debacle with our current immigration system and notes the real cost of complexity is a loss of trust.

Lawyer, Wife Admit Smuggling Scheme
According to the Washington Post the head of one of the nation's largest immigration asylum law firms and his wife pleaded guilty to faking asylum applications to help smugglers bring hundreds of Chinese into America.

Conditional Residents May Seek Naturalization While I-751 is Pending
Cyrus D. Mehta writes about recent correspondence from the INS confirming that conditional residents may apply for naturalization while an I-751 is pending.

Private Eyes Bid for INS Business To Help Track Foreign Students
The Salt Lake Tribune reports that background-check companies and gun-toting bounty hunters are just two of the businesses vying for contracts from the INS to help track foreign students who come to the US on student visas.

The ABCs of Immigration - The Visa Waiver Program
Greg Siskind and Amy Ballentine write about the Visa Waiver Program which allows citizens of designated countries to enter the US as business or tourist visitors for up to 90 days without requiring them to obtain a visa.

ILW.COM Highlights

How to Make Sense of the Labor Certification Mess

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Letters to Editor

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

Dear Editor:

I have been receiving your weekly newsletter for the past year, and felt I had to write and add my thoughts after September 11th.

First, may I reiterate my deepest sympathies to all those whether American or other nationalities who suffered on September 11th. As a British Citizen who has an American girlfriend who worked in World Trade Centre 2. If I only went through part of the anxiety, panic and emotions felt that day, then everyone that was affected by the tradegy are hero's and certainly I believe Americans will over power evil.

However, as someone who grew up believing in the American Dream who waves the Stars and Stripes more than my own Union Jack, who knows the words to the American anthem more than my own, since September 11th. I have been deeply concerned over what I have been reading about the INS and general US immagration policy since the tradegy.

While it is true that America must protect itself, least not forget that as my girlfriend keeps reminding me its only just over 226 years since you broke away from what was the British Empire. Every American has the right to be protected of course, however every single American Citizen has at one stage been an immigrant, and as someone that holds the American beliefs dear to heart, what makes America the World's Number 1, The Home Of The Free and so much more is its liberal attitude and its multi-cultural base.

That does not mean that I support the claims to allow anyone including the 9 Million illegall immigrants into the United States but I feel it is very easy especially after September 11th to claim all immigrants are evil, or unwanted. It is very easy to ride the wave of emotion after the tradegy and throw out the key principles laid down by the founding fathers, and destroy the great respect most of the world has for your country.

I would hope that, while security measures have to be tightened for everyones safety, and concerns over the large illegal population need to be addressed, that America does not betray its core value of Freedom, and that the INS, George W Bush, other government departments and your readers take a reasonable approach to such issues and not ride the rollercoaster of emotion that is out there after the attacks.

Yours
Michael Bowdon

Dear Gregory R. Farrington and ILW.COM Readers:

I have been the Director of International Human Resources for IT companies since the early 1990s and I can assure you that there were indeed shortages in the IT Labor Market and the need for foreign workers to fill these shortages.

I can attest to the fact that to hire an information technology professional from overseas had an average cost of $10,000.00 per hire. I can attest to the fact that besides the overall cost of running ads overseas and holding in-person open houses for information technology professionals, I also had to deal with the complexities of immigration compliance and relocation. A cost that our firm would have never incurred had their been enough IT personnel in the United States.

I can attest to the fact the in order to place these workers on jobs in the United States I had to meet Department of Labor Prevailing Wages which often resulted in me paying a foreign worker well above what I was paying an American. The high prevailing wages for foreign workers in the late 1990s created an unstable salary range at the consulting firm that I was working for - as foreign workers made more than American workers overall because the DOL required us to meet certain wages that did not meet market trends at that time.

I can attest to the fact that there were not enough IBM Mainframe Programmer/Analysts in the 1990s to fulfill our client requests and I can attest to the fact that when we did find local talent their loyalty to our firm never lasted as they would jump from consulting firm to consulting firm looking for a better offer. Whereas the foreign workers that were able to meet our shortage areas worked along side our firm for years and are still working with me til this day.

Still currently working in the IT industry as the Director of International HR, I can now attest to the fact that there is still a shortage of qualified IT workers because now our clients are looking for as many skills in one person as they can possible find. Trying to locate an IT professional who has several IT skills on various platforms has proven to be difficult. The days of "I am looking for a COBOL programmer" are over. These days clients are requesting everything under the sun.

It is my feeling that the most qualified applicant should be chosen for the position.

Sincerely,
Dir. of International HR - Pennsylvania

Immigrant Life

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This week's chat schedule

When Attorney Monday, February 18 9:00 pm Eastern Time No Chat Wednesday, February 20 9:00 pm Eastern Time Mira Mdivani, Esq.

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