Pelosi Says Immigration Bill to be Finished by Summer Recess

(Reuters) Pointing to an agreement reached between farmworker unions and growers on a migrant worker program, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Saturday that she expects immigration reform to be completed before Congress takes its summer recess.

Immigration Bill to be Released!

Immigration bill to be released day before hearing

The “Gang of Eight” senators will release their immigration bill on Tuesday, just one day before the only scheduled hearing, according to news reports, bolstering GOP charges that advocates are planning to rush the controversial bill through the Senate before the public knows what is in it...(Daily Caller)

Drop in Deferred Action (DACA) Applications Blamed on High Filing Fees

Young immigrants blame high fees as deportation deferral applications drop dramatically (rawstory)

Interest in the two-year deferred-deportation program has flagged heavily in recent months, with some immigrants pointing to high application fees as an obstacle to taking part.

Univision News reported on Monday that applications to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative have decreased steadily (PDF) since October 2012, when 117,213 application were turned in, to just 16,778 for the month of March 2013. Overall, 469,530 applications have been turned in for the program, meaning that about 25 percent of DACA-eligible immigrants have attempted to take part in it...

High Tech Visas Create Problems for Immigration Bill

Hopes for a massive immigration bill have hit another blip as senators argue over plans to boost visas for high-tech workers:

According to Senate aides and industry officials, the dispute stems from disagreements over how best to punish companies that train workers in the U.S. only to ship them overseas.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who's taken the lead in pushing to crack down on outsourcing firms, also is seeking higher wages for workers brought in on the H-1B visas that go to specially skilled foreigners. High-tech industry officials say his efforts risk punishing companies not involved in the abuses he's trying to target, and lawmakers including Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., are taking the other side...

(Latino Fox News)

Possible Immigration Bill by this Weekend

"Gang of eight" hoping for immigration bill this week, Schumer says:

(CBS News) The "gang of eight" senators working on a comprehensive immigration reform bill that includes a pathway to citizenship could present the legislation by the end of this week, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Sunday on "Face the Nation."
Joined by his friend and fellow "gang" member Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Schumer said the staffs of the four Republican and four Democratic senators "are in a room working 12 hours a day, taking all the agreements that we've come to over the last three months, and turning them into legislative language, specific legislative language."

 

Senate Immigration Reform Panel Wants No Amendments to the Bill

All the members of the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” pushing immigration reform in the U.S. Senate will band together to block any efforts by other senators to offer amendments to their legislation once it is introduced, the Washington Post reported on Sunday.

“A bipartisan Senate group on immigration legislation is attempting to craft an agreement so secure that the eight members will oppose amendments to its core provisions, an arrangement that could delay the introduction of a bill, people familiar with the negotiations said,” the Post’s David Nakamura wrote...

USCIS Hits the H-1B Cap for Fiscal Year 2014

From the Immigration Department:

"USCIS Reaches FY 2014 H-1B Cap 

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it has received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap for fiscal year (FY) 2014. USCIS has also received more than 20,000 H-1B petitions filed on behalf of persons exempt from the cap under the advanced degree exemption. After today, USCIS will not accept H-1B petitions subject to the FY 2014 cap or the advanced degree exemption. 

USCIS will use a computer-generated random selection process (commonly known as the “lottery”) for all FY 2014 cap-subject petitions received through April 5, 2013. The agency will conduct the selection process for advanced degree exemption petitions first. All advanced degree petitions not selected will be part of the random selection process for the 65,000 limit. Due to the high number of petitions received, USCIS is not yet able to announce the exact day of the random selection process. Also, USCIS is currently not providing the total number of petitions received, as we continue to accept filings today. USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions that are otherwise exempt from the cap."

AP Stops Using Term "Illegal Immigrant"

Interestingly, the Associated Press (AP) News Agency has made the decision to stop using the term "Illegal Immigrant" in its publications:

"The Associated Press says their update is more about avoiding labels as a general practice than showing sensitivity to the immigrant community (though the editors did have meetings with such advocates in recent months). “We try to be fair to people’s feelings,” standards editor Tom Kent tells TIME, “but we’re not responding to one political current or another.” He says the change to the AP Stylebook, an established guide to proper usage and grammar, is no different than changes that have nixed other reductive terms, like wheelchair-bound or schizophrenic. “We’re trying to put the emphasis not on describing people but on describing actions or situations that they are in,” Kent says. (TIME discourages the use of the term “illegal immigrant” by our writers.)" (Time Magazine)

LA Times: The Difficulties with the H2-A Visa

The LATIMES has a nice article this morning about the difficulties of some immigration programs such as the H2-AAgricultural Guest Program. The high financial costs and other hardships it brings to the immigrant:

"Employers say that the H-2A agricultural visa program, under which Garcia is employed, is broken and that the complicated rules and high costs push employers to hire undocumented workers. Labor advocates say that the programs create a group of second-class citizens who are brought here to do grueling and often dangerous work without protection against abuses."

"These are not jobs generally sought by citizens. Last year, the North Carolina Growers Assn., which helps farmers such as Barr fill out the H-2A paperwork, spent $98,000 on advertising for the 8,000 jobs its members were seeking to fill. Just over 250 U.S. workers applied for the jobs, but 70 never showed up, about 180 quit in the first two days, and just 10 finished the season. 

"That's the frustration; the whole program is set up to give preference to U.S. workers," said Lee Wicker, the group's deputy director. "But U.S. workers don't want to do these jobs, and I don't say I blame them." 

Immigration Bill Not Yet Ready

Senators disagree on how close they are to a deal on immigration

Key senators trying to negotiate an agreement on immigration reform were divided Sunday on how close they are to reaching a consensus on the legislation.

Sens. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), touting a compromise on work visas brokered Friday by union officials and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, predicted that a bipartisan plan could be announced as soon as next week, when the Senate returns from a two-week recess.

But Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), whose support is seen as critical to attract the votes of conservative GOP senators to a comprehensive effort, said that talk of an agreement was “premature.”

Facebook Founder Supporting Immigration Reform - Skilled Workers

Facebook founder Mr. Zuckerberg and other Corporate giants have been making noise about pushing immigration reform. According to reports: 

"The 28-year-old billionaire is forming a political campaign group that is expected to focus initially on liberalising the US immigration and visa system. 

Mr Zuckerberg, who has previously donated $100 million (£65 million) of his $13 billion fortune to the state school system in his native New Jersey, is said to be ready to use another $20 million on the new venture. 

Work on the group will reunite him with Joe Green, his room-mate at Harvard University, who also went on to be a successful technology entrepreneur.  

The pair are courting other financial backers. Technology firms such as Mr Zuckerberg's social networking giant have complained that America's strict migration controls prevent them from recruiting talented foreigners and overseas graduates." (The Telegraph)

Hopefully their lobbying will help increase the H-1B visas for top level international talent to come and increase US productivity. 

Deferred Action (DACA) Illegal Immigrant Proves Presence Through Video Game Recrods

A young man that was brought into the US at age 1, and won approval of the Obama Administration's new Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (D.A.C.A.) program. (Journal Sentinel) Those approved under this program are allowed to remain in the US for two years without fear of removal, renewable for another 2 years. They are also allowed to get a work permit.

As part of the requirements, 5 years of continuous presence is required int he US.  This can be difficult for those that have been out of school for a period of time and that do not have a work history. An innovative attorney used the Video Games records:

"...So he went to see Milwaukee attorney Davorin Odrcic to apply. 

"He met all of the requirements. He had no criminal record, graduated from high school with honors and lived here since the age of 1," said Odrcic. But to qualify a person also has to prove continuous residency in the country since June 2007. That proved problematic. 

Most can provide high school transcripts, work records, rent receipts, medical records or other documents that provide a paper trail to establish continuous residency, he said. Because Muñoz graduated in 2005 and hadn't worked, he didn't have that documentation for 2007 on. He lived at home and didn't have medical records to back up his residency. 

...[the young immigrant[ had an Xbox Live [Video Game] account and, with it, had downloaded demos and games and communicated with other Xbox users. 

"He sent me the proof of this that had his address, his account information and proof of all the games he had downloaded or purchased since 2007. It worked perfectly to establish that he's been here continuously," Odrcic said. 

Along with the pages and pages of video game records, Muñoz included a notarized affidavit stating that he was including "true and correct copies of my Xbox purchase history."

He was able to get his work permit and finally get a driver's license allowing him to live his work and personal life without fear. 

This wonderful new program gives a breath of fresh air and freedom for many young immigrants that dream to live a full life in the U.S.