The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has announced the launch of a pilot program, Schedule Departure, which began this week in five cities.  The program ask fugitive aliens who have no criminal history and pose no threat to the community, the chance to come forward and turn themselves in, avoiding being detained, while they coordinate their removal with ICE.

Many naysayers to the announcement have said that this is another strange step in a drawn out process of how the U.S. deals with immigration.  And how they offer no true incentive for simply turning yourself in.

For more information on the ICE’s announcement:
Read this announcement from ICE
And this statement on the ‘strange’ announcement

It was earlier this year that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that the U.S. border officials DO NOT need “reasonable suspicion” in order to search information that is stored on electronic devices carried by travelers entering the United States.  These devices include, but are not limited to, a laptop computer, flash memory drive, external hard drive, mobile phone and handheld device.

The decision to allow border officials to conduct the searches is only legally binding on ports of entry under the jurisdiction of the Ninth Circuit (which includes California, among other western states), recent reports have indicated that many travelers are being asked to boot up their laptop computers so border officials can search through the hard drives on the computer.  Travelers also now must recognize that border officials may exercise their discretion to conduct searches at any U.S. port of entry, land or sea.

Some travelers have reported that their mobile phones, Blackberry’s and other handheld devices have also been searched – some just briefly looked at, but in some cases, officers have retained the device for several hours and download the content on the device.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security claims that searches and seizures of electronic devices are justified by security concerns and in order to fight child pornography.  However, many business leaders, legal scholars and civil libertarians contend that these searches violate the Fourth Amendment and constitute a violation of travelers’ privacy rights.

For more information on laptop and other handheld device searches by border officials:
Read this article from Border & Customs Patrol

Both of these bills passed the sub-committee “mark-up” stage in the House Subcommittee last week – a 7:2 vote for H.R. 5924, and 8:1 for H.R. 5882.

This is an important first step forward that will be revisited by Congress following the 5-week “August Recess”. HR 5882 could recapture close to 500,000 green-cards that were lost due to bureaucratic delays for all employment-based categories which would moreover make them current. Family based categories would move forward considerably. HR 5924 would provide 20,000 green-cards per year to RNs and PTs, exempting from the quota dependent family members. We link to the bills below as well as information concerning how a bill becomes a law.

Make sure to sign up for our 8/13/08 teleconference on “Pending Legislation and Retrogression: Strategies and Solutions”. Sign up here!

• HR 5882
• HR 5924
• How a Bill becomes a Law