S. Sen. Susan Collins has sent letters to the heads of the U.S. Department of Labor and the Citizenship and Immigration Service, asking what their agencies have done to address problems in foreign- labor programs that were detailed in a recent Portland Press Herald/ Maine Sunday Telegram investigation. Collins wrote in her capacity as chairwoman of the Senate's Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. It's the first official call for answers from federal authorities since the newspaper's series ran in late September.
An estimated 75 percent of applicants for immigrant benefits - green cards, work visas, and a host of other documents - at a major federal processing center were not screened through the U.S. terrorism watch list over the past four years, the Daily Bulletin has learned. The error - on nearly 3 million applications dating to 2002 - was confirmed by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officers at the National Benefits Center in Lee's Summit, Mo., near Kansas City. The center is one of several facilities across the country that process foreign applications for immigrant benefits.
An estimated 75 percent of applicants for immigrant benefits - green cards, work visas and a host of other documents - at a major federal processing center were not screened through the U.S. terrorism watch list over the past four years, The Sun and Inland Valley Daily Bulletin have learned. The error on nearly 3 million applications dating to 2002 was confirmed by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS, officers at the National Benefits Center in Lee's Summit, Mo., near Kansas City. The center is one of several facilities across the country that process foreign applications for immigrant benefits.
A congressional panel is calling for an investigation and hearing into reports that applicants for green cards, work visas and other immigration documents were not properly screened against the U.S. terrorist watch list. Employees at the National Benefits Center in Lee's Summit, Mo., said they did not know that a simple key stroke would have allowed them to fully check the background of applicants against the terrorist database, according to the report published recently in the Daily Bulletin, a sister publication of this newspaper. That report was based on federal documents and interviews with employees at the Missouri center.
A long road remains ahead before Congress reaches an agreement on immigration reform, but it is almost certain that the final legislation will require employers to verify the identity and immigration status of each employee. If the bill goes beyond enforcement, companies may benefit from higher ceilings on employment-based visas and green cards. The House approved a bill in December that dealt exclusively with cracking down on illegal immigration, in part by making illegal status a felony and sanctioning a 700-mile fence along the US-Mexico border. The Senate has been working this month on a pair of more comprehensive bills. Immigration reform may make another proposition easier -- finding enough skilled workers for high-tech positions. The Senate was expected to pass a bill that would ...
An estimated 75 percent of applicants for immigrant benefits - green cards, work visas, and a host of other documents - at a major federal processing center were not screened through the U.S. terrorism watch list over the past four years, this newspaper has learned. The error - on nearly 3 million applications dating to 2002 - was confirmed by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officers at the National Benefits Center in Lee's Summit, Mo., near Kansas City. The center is one of several facilities across the country that process foreign applications for immigrant benefits.
A congressional panel is calling for an investigation and hearing into reports that applicants for green cards, work visas and other immigration documents were not properly screened against the U.S. terrorist watch list. Employees at the National Benefits Center in Lee's Summit, Mo., said they did not know that a simple key stroke would have allowed them to fully check the background of applicants against the terrorist database, according to the report first published by the Daily Bulletin this past week. That report was based on federal documents obtained by the newspaper and interviews with employees at the Missouri center.
It's usually thought of as the kinder, gentler arm of immigration, but U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services helps nab an average of five criminals a day, including the occasional murder suspect a point that agency Director Emilio Gonzalez underscores when he discusses the USCIS role in the Homeland Security Department. A little more than a year ago, Mr. Gonzalez took over the agency in charge of granting citizenship, green cards signifying a legal permanent immigrant and visas for work or study. In that year, he has started a pilot program to test a new naturalized citizenship exam, finished off a backlog of millions of benefit applications and created several offices that would put national security first at the agency.
An estimated 75 percent of applicants for immigrant benefits - green cards, work visas, and a host of other documents - at a major federal processing center were not screened through the U.S. terrorism watch list over the past four years, this newspaper has learned. The error - on nearly 3 million applications dating to 2002 - was confirmed by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officers at the National Benefits Center in Lee's Summit, Mo., near Kansas City. The center is one of several facilities across the country that process foreign applications for immigrant benefits.
Referring to the Elm City ID card as "a badge of a new social contract that embraces its most recent immigrants" misses the point. We already have various badges of our social contract with legal immigrants, such as work visas, green cards and citizenship papers. We don't need a new badge;we just need the existing ones to be used. In response to Alicia Schmidt Camacho's comment that "the new social contract belongs to those who exercise democracy from below, without asking permission," what about the previous social contract made with legal citizens who exercised our human rights from below by democratically electing government officials to set and enforce immigration laws?
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