Immigration Newsletter

Friday, August 23, 2013

War On Undocumented Immigrants Threatens To Swell U.S. Prison Population

War On Undocumented Immigrants Threatens To Swell U.S. Prison Population

The more than 60,000 people convicted of immigration crimes this year are primarily guilty of one of two things: coming into the country without authorization, or doing it again -- either "illegal entry," or "illegal "re-entry." They're in a different segment of the justice system than the pool of undocumented immigrants awaiting deportation in the civil detention system, who aren't being detained for criminal immigration violations.

...this year, more than 60 percent of all federal criminal convictions have been for immigration-related crimes, federal data show. It's a momentous shift from a decade ago, when drug violations were by far the most common federal charge.

The expanding pool of federal inmates has meant steady business for the two largest U.S. private prison corporations, particularly as populations in state prison systems have begun to decline. Last year, Corrections Corporation of America derived 30 percent of its revenue from federal contracts with the U.S. Marshals Service and the Bureau of Prisons, a total of $546 million, according to company financial statements. The GEO Group received more than 25 percent of its revenue from those two agencies last year, a total of $384 million.
Both companies have spent millions of dollars lobbying the federal government over the past decade, and four of CCA's senior executives came from the federal Bureau of Prisons. A GEO Group board member, Norman Carlson, was a former Bureau of Prisons director.

click the link to see the rest of the story at HuffPo

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Follow the money....  

Now you know the real reason why Comprehensive Immigration Reform has been so hard to get through Congress for over a decade. Yes 9/11 was a factor, but for many years now the money (and by extension - the votes) has been predominantly on the enforcement first and enforcement only side of the equation. IMHO

USCIS Working to Correct CPR Cards Issued with Incorrect Expiration Dates - Drew Law Office, pllc.

USCIS Working to Correct CPR Cards Issued with Incorrect Expiration Dates - Drew Law Office, pllc.

USCIS Working to Correct CPR Cards Issued with Incorrect Expiration Dates

Cite as "AILA InfoNet Doc. No. 13082340 (posted Aug. 23, 2013)" 
USCIS recently alerted AILA that approximately 2,300 conditional permanent residence cards were issued with incorrect expiration dates. USCIS is attempting to rectify this by contacting affected individuals via e-mailto provide them with instructions on obtaining a replacement card. USCIS provided the following details regarding this situation:
  • Between July 22 and August 8, 2013, USCIS issued approximately 2,300 new conditional permanent resident cards with an incorrect expiration date. Instead of a two year validity period, those cards were issued with a ten-year validity period.
  • All recipients of these cards are legitimately approved conditional permanent residents; no individual received a green card in error.
  • USCIS has identified each and every conditional permanent resident who received a green card with an incorrect expiration date and has informed those individuals that they must exchange their current card for one with the correct expiration date.
  • Individuals who will need to exchange their green card do not need to file any form or pay any fee.
  • USCIS has contacted all affected individuals and provided them with options to exchange their green cards, either by mail, which is the fastest option, or in-person at a local USCIS office.
If your client received a conditional permanent residence card with a 10-year expiration date and also received an e-mail from USCIS (fromreplacecard@uscis.dhs.gov) with details on exchanging their green card, this e-mail is not a scam.
*** I do not know of any Drew Law Office, PLLC clients who would fall under this category (Conditional Residents [married less than two years] who received a ten year card instead of a two year card). If you think this might be you -- feel free to contact us. Missing the date for filing a Petition to Remove Conditions on Status is a big problem! ***

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Immigration Law Opponents Muted During August Recess

Immigration Law Opponents Muted During August Recess

The Stop Amnesty Tour event Aug. 12 in Richmond was to have been followed by events in other states, several of which subsequently disappeared from the Tea Party Patriots' website, according to an archived version circulated by the pro-immigrant group America's Voice. Organizers said most were going forward or rescheduled and disputed the claim by America's Voice that events were being canceled due to lack of interest.
"I think that when I heard about what happened at the Richmond event, we just look at what can we do to improve going forward, and one thing would be to give people more than 72 hours' notice," said Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder of Tea Party Patriots. The group is working on the events with others, including NumbersUSA, which advocates lower immigration levels.

click the link above to go to the HuffPo

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

From: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services [mailto:uscis@public.govdelivery.com] Sent: Tuesday, August 20, 2013 1:37 PM To: Subject: USCIS Stakeholder Message: Recent Telephone Scams Dear Stakeholder, In recent weeks, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) learned of a new telephone scam targeting USCIS applicants and petitioners. Scammers are using a technique called “Caller ID spoofing” to display a misleading or inaccurate phone number in a recipient’s Caller ID. The scammer poses as a USCIS official and requests personal information (such as Social Security number, passport number, or A-number), identifies supposed issues in the recipient’s immigration records, and asks for payment to correct these records. If you receive a call like that, USCIS urges you to say “No, thank you” and hang up immediately. USCIS never asks for any form of payment or personal information over the phone. Do not give payment or personal information over the phone to anyone who claims to be a USCIS official. In general, we encourage you to protect your personal information and not to provide details about your immigration application in any public area. If you have been a victim of this telephone scam, please report it to the Federal Trade Commission at https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/, or report it to an appropriate state authority. (Visit www.uscis.gov/avoidscams for information on where to report scams in your state.) If you have a question about your immigration record, please call the National Customer Service Center at 1-800-375-5283, or make an InfoPass appointment by visiting our website at http://infopass.uscis.gov/. Kind Regards, Public Engagement Division US Citizenship and Immigration Services Please do not reply to this message. Contact us at Public.Engagement@uscis.dhs.gov or USCIS-IGAOutreach@uscis.dhs.gov with any questions. Thanks to Olga for the heads up on this.

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Backlog of Pending Cases in Immigration Courts as of July 2013

Backlog of Pending Cases in Immigration Courts as of July 2013

I cannot copy the graphics from TRACs webpage so you will have to go there to see the nice tables they have created. It is a good site with lots of immigration information so you should check it out anyway. What I can tell you is that the Immigration Court backlog has increased in fairly dramatic fashion coinciding perfectly with the Obama Administration's increase in enforcement and deportations since entering office in 2008.

The backlog of deportation (Removal) cases pending are 2007=174,935; 2008=186,108; 2009=223,809; 2010=262,799; 2011=297,551; 2012=325,044; 2013=342,189

Nativists can decry the prosecutorial discretion advanced by the Obama Admin. in DACA (after the pathetic Congressional fail that was the DREAM Act) but the facts don't leave room for argument. Enforcement is way up under Pres. Obama. Is the huge uptick in enforcement designed to provide political cover for CIR? T-Partiers would certainly think so; but then so what? All those people are just as deported; their families are just as split up as they would have been if Obama's motivations were purely spiteful.

Monday, August 12, 2013

New Procedures at National Customer Service Center






From: "U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services" <uscis@public.govdelivery.com>
Date: August 9, 2013 7:16:23 AM MDT
Subject: USCIS Message: Change to NCSC Call Routing Procedures
Reply‐To: "uscis@public.govdelivery.com" <uscis@public.govdelivery.com>
Dear Stakeholder,
USCIS is changing call routing procedures at the National Customer Service Center (NCSC) to provide faster and
more efficient service.
Beginning August 16, attorneys and BIA-accredited representatives who need assistance with their client’s case can
quickly connect with an NCSC customer service representative, who will send the inquiry to the appropriate USCIS
office for resolution. Under this new process, the customer service representative will assess the nature of the call and
either accept a service request or transfer the call for more in-depth review.
This change will improve the management of calls and reduce wait times to provide timely, individualized customer
service to all USCIS customers and their representatives.
As always, USCIS offers its customers a number of online self-help tools. Applicants and their representatives
can check case status, find average processing times, submit a case status inquiry (e-Request), change their
address or find a USCIS office any time on the USCIS Web site at www.uscis.gov.
Kind Regards,
USCIS Public Engagement Division