Immigration to Encourage Illegal Aliens to Voluntarily Turn Themselves in for Deporation

ICE announced a program to "encourage" the undocumented to report for deportation. Offering no inducement to do so, the agency simply asks that people turn themselves in. It is unclear why this even warranted an announcement.

House to mark-up proposed immigration reform bill

Today the House Sub-Committee on Immigration will be marking up 3 bills regarding employment based immigration, which would allow among other things the recapture of thousands of unused visa numbers. The bottom line is that it is still possible that there may be some immigration reform this year.

Department of Justice report reveals political hiring of Immigration Judges

The Department of Justice - Officer of Inspector General issued a report that revealed among other things that the hiring process for Immigration Judges was highly politicized. Immigration Judges, a non-partisan career position, were required to be loyal supporters of President Bush.

Immigration changes vaccination requirements to obtain green card

Immigration has changed the vaccination requirements to adjust status to legal permanent residents. In addition to the current required vaccinations, they will now require the following additional ones after August 1st: Rotavirus, Hepatitis A, Meningococcal, Human papillomavirus, and Zoster. The new form I-693, Report of Medical Examinations and Vaccination Record, June 5, 2008 edition will be required for all medical exams completed on or after August 1, 2008

Executives of McDonald's Franchise Plead Guilty to Immigration Offenses

On July 16, 2008, executives of a McDonald's franchise in Nevada plead guilty to federal felony immigration offenses regarding their employment of illegal alien workers.

Immigration Raids Hawaii Apartment Complex

ICE executes federal search warrants at Waipahu apartment complex in ongoing worksite probe. 43 illegal aliens employed at local farm operation are arrested on immigration violations. The 43 aliens taken into custody were all males and citizens of Mexico. Immigration removal proceedings have been initiated in all 43 cases.

Immigration Raids Continue

Immigration continues to aggressively raid workplaces across the country. The most recent raids took place in Rhode Island courthouses, where ICE agents arrested numerous janitors, and in a cement factory in Colorado, where 18 undocumented workers were arrested.

Immigration Announces New Special Immigrant Visa for Certain Iraqi Nationals

Immigration announced guidelines for a new special immigrant visa for certain Iraqi nationals who worked for, or were contractors of the the US government for at least one year after March 20, 2003. They have authorized 5,000 special immigrant visas for Iraqi employees for each fiscal year through 2012 as well as for their spouses and children.

Arizona Immigration Law Mandating Employer Use of E-verify has gone into effect

Arizona has become the first state in the nation to legally mandate that all of its employers utilize the "E-verify" program to verify the work authorization of all new employees. Currently, E-verify is a pilot program instituted by Immigration on a voluntary basis only.

Department of Labor announces debarment of immigration software company

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced today that it has formally debarred LawLogix Group, Inc. from filing applications for permanent labor certifications for a period of 3 years. Ironically, LawLogix is a company that designs and sells software to process labor certification programs. LawLogix submitted more than 100 applications using the permanent program's online filing system in the last year, apparently for the sole purpose of testing the parameters of the department's electronic processing system.

Department of Labor initiates major PERM crackdown

The U.S. Department of Labor has initiated "supervised recruitment" of permanent labor certifications filed by the law firm of Cohen & Grigsby. This follows fast upon the heels of the announcement last month that the DOL was auditing all PERM applications filed by the Fragomen law firm, one of the biggest immigration law firms in the US.

South Carolina enacts Immigration Law

South Carolina has passed a new law which mandates among other things that all employers must participate in the "E-verify" program. This is a voluntary pilot program to electronically verify employees work authorization; however, more and more states are now requiring it to be mandatory.

Eli Kantor is selected to be AILA Media Liaison

AILA, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, has selected Eli Kantor to serve as its Media Liaison for the Southern California Chapter for a third consecutive year.

Immigration Arrests Two Supervisors in Agriprocessors Case

Immigration has arrested two supervisors in the Agriprocessors Case in Pottsville. They are alleged to have assisted workers at the plant in obtaining fraudulent work authorization documents.