There’s been alot of chatter today about the introduction of Rep. Gutierrez’ (D-IL) immigration bill that is called Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Safety and Protection (CIR ASAP).

Yesterday, Rep. Gutierrez stated, “We have waited patiently for a workable solution to our immigration crisis to be taken up by this Congress and our President.  The time for waiting is over.”

To address some of the key points:

Backlog Reduction: This would be  a recapture of unused employment-based visas from  previous years (1992 – 2008) with an allowance for future unused visas to roll over the next year; exempting spouses and children from the annual cap; increasing the country quotas; the ability to file for AOS (adjustment of status; i.e. green-cards) before a visa number is available by paying a fee of $500, even thought a visa cannot be issued until a visa number is available.  This does, however, allow for work authorization, travel authorization and maintenance of status.

Employment Verification: Would make E-Verify work verification mandatory for all employers by phasing in current employees and new hires; would impose additional pealties on employers’ failure to follow the E-Verify program.

H-1B and L-1 Nonimmigrant Visas: Would impose requirements on employers to recruit US workers before applying for an H-1B and would increa3se penalties for H-1B violations.  Would create penalties for L-1 violations.

The Undocumented: Would create a 6-year ‘conditional’ non-immigrant status for undocumented (illegal) foreign nationals in the USA.  This would include work authorization and travel authorization; would waive unlawful presence bars and provide a path to permanent residence (green-card) and citizenship.

The Immigration Policy Center has an excellent 6-page more detailed review of the bill which we link to.

AILA applauded the introduction of Rep. Gutierrez’ Bill and stated, “We know how dedicated Rep. gutierrez is to immigration reform,” commented Bernie Wolfsdorf, president of AILA.  “Gutierrez has long been a strong and vocal leader in the CIR movement.  We look forward to analyzing this new CIR bill and hope to work with him and other members of Congress to fix our nation’s dysfunctional immigration system and help spur the country back to economic recovery.”

AILA further stated:  Already, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus and members of the Congressional Black Caucus have endorsed the bill as a solution to both stem illegal immigration and promote legal migration that will protect and strengthen our nation’s economic and national security.

Gutierrez explained at his press conference yesterday that the Senate will still take the lead on debating immigration reform with a bill to be introduced by Sen Charles Schumer (D-NY), Chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration.  Janet Napolitano (DHS Secretary) has indicated that they have provided extensive technical assistance to Schumer and his staff as they draft the bill that is predicted to be introduced early 2010.

We will continue to report on any and all news and progress on the immigration reform front.

If you’re interested in more reading….Homeland Security Today NY Times ABC News The Hill

[Courtesy of Tracker Corp]    On November 19, 2009, DHS announced issuance of 1,000 additional I-9 Audit notices to employers across the country, focusing in particular on those providing critical infrastructure and other key resources. This is on top of the 654 I-9 audit notices issued earlier this year. Speaking at a workforce symposium in Washington, DC, Assistant Secretary John Morton (of Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE]) reiterated the agency’s commitment to creating a culture of voluntary compliance through aggressive investigations and outreach programs. Assistant Secretary Morton also provided recent statistics, showing the increased level of investigations and fines:

DHS also released statistics from the 654 notices sent in July 2009. The ICE agents identified roughly 14,000 suspect documents, assessed over $2 million in fines, and issued warnings to 326 employers.

We link to the press release announcing these findings.  We link to more details on the locations of the 1,000 companies in the latest round of audits

Cite as “AILA InfoNet Doc. No. 09112060 (posted Nov. 20, 2009)”

Press Release -10/30/2009

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano today opened the new National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC) — a 24-hour, DHS-led coordinated watch and warning center that will improve national efforts to address threats and incidents affecting the nation’s critical information technology and cyber infrastructure.

“Securing America’s cyber infrastructure requires a coordinated and flexible system to detect threats and communicate protective measures to our federal, state, local, and private sector partners and the public,” said Secretary Napolitano. “Consolidating our cyber and communications operations centers within the NCCIC will enhance our ability to effectively mitigate risks and respond to threats.”

The new, state-of-the-art facility reflects the shared priority of President Obama and Secretary Napolitano to bolster information sharing and incident response in order to protect and secure the nation’s cyber networks and infrastructure.

For more on this story

It has been reported that some 20,000 more unannounced employer site visits will be taking place over the next few months by FDNS, but this time it will be to employers who have filed H-1B extensions to determine if there is ongoing compliance by the employer.

It’s been asked, do they have the legal right to do this – just show up and demand to speak with a company’s representative or executive officer?  Yes, they do, although it hasn’t been acted upon to the extent we are now observing until your $500 Fraud Detection and Prevention government filing fee created the revenue to employ some 6,500 FDNS agents.  Up until now, USCIS or DOL agents have always been in a position to do onsite employer visits when they thought necessary – but it’s been rarely acted upon.  Presently, you can add ICE and FDNS to this group – because we’re in a hunt ‘em down, enforcement climate – and it’s the employers who are being targeted.

So, how does an employer handle this?  We don’t recommend that you wait to ask this question and to get your documentation organized when the agent comes knocking.  This is serious business now, and they are not just targeting the small to medium-size employer or the employer who has financial issues and can’t respond to requests to prove the ability to pay the offered wage to the employee.

Therefore, it is recommended that you discuss this with your immigration counsel now.  If you don’t have a representative, we are available to walk you through a program that will not only assist you in organizing your Public Access information and files, but we will give you the tools to prepare the company representative that will handle the agent site visit and to prepare them for the questions that will be asked, what documentation should be organized now and beeasily accessible to present to the agent when requested – and overall, how to successfully respond to a government site visit at your place of employment.

Assistant Secretary for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) John Morton announced standardized Memorandums of Agreement (MOAs) with 67 state and local law enforcement agencies to participate in 287(g) partnerships-improving public safety by prioritizing criminal aliens who are a threat to local communities, ensuring consistent and uniform policies and providing a force multiplier for ICE’s immigration enforcement efforts across the country.

The media has been all over this story as it concerns the Maricopa County Sheriff Arpaio meltdown when the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano ordered him to stop arresting suspects based solely on the fact that they are illegal aliens. The Arizona sheriff who has been called the “toughest” in America, defiantly said he will continue his sweeps which have netted thousands of illegal aliens. He says that he can still operate within the law, under Arizona human smuggling laws – and told reporters, “it’s all politics”.

The new ICE partnerships include the Jail Model, in which local law enforcement agencies designate Jail Enforcement Officers to identify aliens already incarcerated within their detention facilities who are eligible for removal, as well as the Federal Task Force Model, in which agencies designate officers to work with Federal agents in locating, processing and removing criminal aliens from the United States.

• 55 agreements have been signed by ICE and the partnering agency;
• 12 agreements have been reached and await approval by the local jurisdiction’s supervisory authority; and
• Six agreements have negotiations underway.
• Six jurisdictions did not re-sign the new 287(g) agreement or withdrew during negotiations for a variety of reasons, including implementation of the Secure Communities program, budgetary constraints and limited program utilization.

We link to the ICE News Release for more on this story.

We’ve had several blog posts on the reverse brain drain issue.  This is a very interesting post that we found on TechCrunch today by Vivek Wadhwa, an entrepreneur turned academic who is a Visiting Scholar at UC-Berkeley, Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School and Executive in Residence at Duke University.  The writer expresses concerns as to what is occurring in the IT sector today and why the brightest and the best are deciding not to put down roots in the USA.

Vivek spent Columbus Day in Silicon Valley meeting a roomful of new Indian arrivals to the USA. The event was organized by Think India Foundation, a think tank that seeks to solve problems that Indians face.

When introducing the topic of skilled immigration, the discussion moderator, Sand Hill Group founder M.R. Rangaswami asked the obvious question. How many planned to return to India?  He was shocked to see more than three-quarters of the audience raise their hands.  One has to ask why would such talented people voluntarily leave Silicon Valley, a place that remains the hottest hotbed of technology innovation on Earth? Or to leave other promising locales such as New York City, Boston and the Research Triangle area of North Carolina?

What they learned was that the average age of the Indian returnees was 30 and the Chinese was 33. They were really well educated: 51% of the Chinese held masters degrees and 41% had PhDs. Among Indians, 66% held a masters and 12% had PhDs. These degrees were mostly in management, technology, and science. Clearly these returnees are in the U.S. population’s educational top tier—precisely the kind of people who can make the greatest contribution to an economy’s innovation and growth. And it isn’t just new immigrants who are returning home, we learned. Some 27% of the Indians and 34% of the Chinese had permanent resident status or were U.S. citizens. That’s right—it’s not just about green cards.

We link to a letter co-authored by the Semiconductor Industry of America (SIA) and the Industry of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) to the Congressional Subcommittee on Immigration.  The letter calls for sensible immigration reform – reforming quotas to match industry needs – reducing the ever-growing visa wait times for green-cards for skilled worker.

The complete title of this study is “Breaking the Immigration Stalemate: From Deep Disagreements to Constructive Proposals”.  The study was done by The Brookings-Duke Immigration Policy Roundtable at Duke University.  They describe themselves as an interdisciplinary “think and do” tank committed to understanding and addressing real-world ethical challenges facing individuals, organizations and societies worldwide.

This is an excellent study that in the end, they feel they were able to agree on a set of recommendations that address the most vexing and controversial issues stymieing immigration reform.

The study proposes 6 policy changes. These changes include emphasizing enforcement at the workplace, setting standards for the legalization of illegal immigrants and establishing an independent Standing Commission on Immigration.

The October 6 event featured the release of the Roundtable’s report and a discussion of the proposals and the potential pitfalls to achieving them. The report is the result of months of deliberation by the Roundtable, a joint project of the Brookings Institution and the Kenan Institute for Ethics. Roundtable members represent a broad spectrum of conflicting views from across the “pro-immigration” and “restrictionist” divide, but have nonetheless come together in support of this single set of recommendations.

We link to the Summary of this report, and for more reading with full audio of the event go here.

A memo by Marcy M. Forman, Director, Office of Investigations at ICE, for Assistant Director, Deputy Assistant Directors and Special Agents in Charge, outlines ICE’s new Worksite Enforcement Strategy.

We additionally link to an accompanying ICE Fact Sheet and an Overview of Worksite Enforcement.

It’s hard to imagine that USCIS could get any more enforcement oriented than this filing season, being totally preoccupied with fraud.  Computerworld reports that Senator Grassley is asking immigration officials to toughen their demands for evidence from companies hiring visa workers.

His letter to USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas, released Tuesday, also comes just prior to the start of the new fiscal year, Oct. 1 and the release of 66,700 H-1B visas petitions, a number well short of the cap, applied for since April 1, the start of the annual petition process.

In a statement accompanying the release of his letter to Mayorkas, Grassley said, that “Employers need to be held accountable so that foreign workers are not flooding the market, depressing wages, and taking jobs from qualified Americans. Asking the right questions and requesting the necessary documents will go a long way in getting out the fraud in the H-1B program.”  For more on this, please refer to above link and Grassley’s letter to USCIS.