A “desktop raid” is how the workers’ representative, John M. Grant, vice president of Local 770 of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, described the scenario. Overhill, a $200-million-a-year company that provides frozen meals for clients such as American Airlines, Panda Express, Safeway and Jenny Craig, says it had no choice: An Internal Revenue Service audit found that 260 workers had provided “invalid or fraudulent” Social Security numbers. The government took no action against the workers. But Overhill did: All of the employees were fired May 31.  We link to the story

In an effort to keep you updated on E-Verify developments, we thought our readership would find this information useful in terms of evaluating whether or not E-Verify would be a workable tool for you.  Please refer to: http://www.docstoc.com/docs/6774576/E-Verify-Update.

If you haven’t had a listen to our Compliance Podcast, you can access it here, along with a list of our compliance services and solutions here.

The company used false information for H-2B work visas and charged workers fees ranging from $400 to $3,000 and allegedly threatened workers with a $5,000 fee if they returned to their home country, the Attorney’s Office said.

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Business Week Magazine started a conversation about a hot topic this month.  We link to the first article in a series that will examine immigration issues amid a recession by Moira Herbst.

124,000 employers in the USA are enrolled in E-Verify, with 10,000 of them in California.  In this climate of workplace enforcement, it’s not surprising that 1,000 employers are signing up every week.  E-Verify is a web-based identification program that enables employers to check whether an employee is authorized to work.  More on this story …

The 1st hearing, in a series of hearings to be held, took place on April 30, 2009 in the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Refugees to address issues surrounding comprehensive reform in the 111th Congress.  The witnesses included former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, former INS Commissioner Doris Meissner and reps from the business community, organized labor, religious institutions and anti-immigration groups.  They addressed the topics of unauthorized workers in the USA economy, worksite enforcement against employers and employees and temporary workers, including skilled foreign workers.

The hearings are the latest step in the Senate’s efforts to address coprehensive reform.

If you’re an employer, compliance with immigration laws is crucial. We are in a historic moment regarding U.S. Immigration reforms. Major U.S. companies have been slapped with steep fines for non-compliance with immigration laws and contractors have been closed and even jailed for employing illegal immigrants.

Now is the time for prudent companies to implement a Corporate Immigration Compliance Program. Our firm’s years of experience and knowledge with employer compliance and worksite enforcement issues can assist your business in offsetting the extent of sanctions and other ICE enforcement threats. Because of this, employer compliance is becoming more complex and enforcement (investigations and audits) is increasing.

In order to effectively deal with these issues and avoid the very severe consequences for non-compliance, employers must take the time to develop a strategy and be prepared in advance with an Immigration Compliance Program. Immigration Solutions has created a package of services and solutions to assist you with your compliance procedures that can be tailored to your specific needs and concerns.

Review our services page for more information.

Contact us, we’ll be glad to schedule an initial consultation with a licensed immigration attorney who specializes in compliance, 562 612.3996 or info@immigrationsolution.net

By Thomas J. Joy, Esq.

October 2008 Newsletter

October 1, 2008 marks the start of the new government Fiscal Year 2009 (“FY 2009”). At this time the new annual quota of immigrant visa numbers becomes available. Unfortunately, retrogression is still with us.

The anxiously awaited State Department October Visa Bulletin indicates EB-3 cutoff dates as follows: China (October 1, 2001), India (July 1, 2001), Mexico (July 1, 2002), Philippines (January 1, 2005), all other countries (January 1, 2005). Earlier visa bulletins had predicted that FY 2009 would start with the more favorable cutoff dates that had existed in June 2008 just before the EB-3 category became totally unavailable from July through September 2008. 

However, heavier demand from USCIS than anticipated has caused the State Department to establish cutoff dates further back than those that existed for June 2008. Finally, a note in the October Visa Bulletin states that little if any forward movement is likely until the extent of the USCIS backlog of old priority dates can be determined. As a result, at this time, it is impossible to predict or even guess how soon immigrant visa numbers will become available for later filed cases. We will keep you advised of any new information as it is released by the State Department. 

In the area of proposed new laws to increase the immigrant visa quotas for nurses and to recapture unused immigrant visa numbers from previous annual quotas, significant progress has been made as previously reported here. The nurse legislation and the recapture legislation introduced in the House of Representatives has been repeatedly postponed for further hearings and the recapture legislation introduced in the Senate has not yet been scheduled for hearings. 

This proposed legislation is the result of bipartisan efforts. With Congress leaving for the upcoming national elections and the ongoing problems with the US economy, it is unlikely that this pending legislation will be enacted this year. 

However, due to the bipartisan support for and the significant progress of this pending legislation this past year, we are optimistic that same or similar legislation will be reintroduced in the new Congress which will start in early 2009.

As stated here previously, we advise and encourage you to continue to file your Schedule A immigrant visa petitions for nurses. This initial step in the immigrant process is not prevented by the presence of retrogression. 

By filing now, you will be ahead of the competition when retrogression is lifted by the enactment of the proposed nurse and recapture legislation.

The Sanctuary, a pro-immigrant and civil liberties group, asked the presidential candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain, to complete a questionnaire that featured a number of immigrant-related questions.

Senator McCain has yet to send his response, but Senator Obama has answered the survey with some informative answers to his plans for immigration reform.

The questionnaire is featured below:

CANDIDATE QUESTIONNAIRE
Name: Barack Obama
Party Affiliation: Democrat
Address: xxxxxxx Chicago, IL 60601
Home Phone:
Campaign Phone Office: xxx-xxx-xxxx
Office Sought/Opponents in:

If you are a State candidate, please indicate your State Registration Number:
The Sanctuary is a multi-issue organization working in the service of human rights, human reasoning
and progressive discussion. Therefore it is critical for us to understand your position on the following
issues.

Please give specific answers to the questions and answer them as thoroughly as possible. Please type
your answers. Use additional sheets as necessary.

1. Could you please articulate what you think are the most pressing issues for the U.S. immigrant
community, at home AND abroad, and how you would hope to address those issues as President?

At home, the immigrant community faces a real challenge from the tension our inability to fix
our immigration system has engendered. Abroad, not enough is being done to encourage job
creation and economic development and to decrease the pressure to immigrate without
authorization to the U.S. in search of work.

2. Do you support comprehensive immigration reform?

Yes.

3. What policy conditions would comprehensive immigration reform have to meet in order for you to
support it? Please be specific?

I fought in the U.S. Senate for comprehensive immigration reform. And I will make it a top
priority in my first year as president. Not just because we need to secure our borders and get
control of who comes into our country. And not just because we have to crack down on
employers abusing undocumented immigrants. But because we have to finally bring the 12
million undocumented out of the shadows.

We should require them to pay a fine, learn English, abide by the law, and go to the back of the
line for citizenship – behind those who came here legally. But we cannot – and should not –
deport 12 million people. That would turn American into something we’re not; something we
don’t want to be.

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