26 April 2005
Well, there are new changes now going on in the field of U.S. Immigration Law. Among them is the news that Senators John McCain (Republican-Arizona), John Cornyn (Republican-Texas), and Edward Kennedy (Democrat-Massachusetts), are about to formally introduce the proposed new guest worker immigration law to the U.S. Congress for consideration next week, beginning in the U.S. Senate, of course. There will be huge changes within the country as a result of this law, which we now hear has the votes to pass the U.S. Senate, which is the harder place to get the proposed law passed into law. The truth is, in spite of the fact that more noise is made on the subject by the racist element in the U.S. House of Representatives, the sufficient number of votes is available to pass successfully there, and we now know that there are at least a majority in the Senate now.
The full story on the proposed law is on the Visalaw immigration newsletter, which also includes news on the major changes being made in what is called H-2B temporary visas. A law was passed through the U.S. Senate last week, which will make it easier for health care workers to obtain at least a temporary (non-immigrant) work visa to continue working here while their permanent legal resident (LPR--EB-3 immigrant visa) is waiting a decision from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service. This is really important in light of the fact that nurses are in critically short supply here in the U.S., and foreign nurses, and to a lesser extent, doctors, are badly needed. A new law, called PERM, was supposed to make review of the work eligibility of applicants for permanent work visas, and for most categories, it has. But for medical workers, it has had the opposite effect, pushing waiting lists from 3 months to over 3 years, devastating the interests of the immigrants and the health care organizations alike. There are two different articles that deal with both the PERM law and its effect on health care workers, especially nurses. To read them go here, in the Visalaw.com newsletter printed for this week, and especially here, to the article written by my friend, attorney Carl Shusterman.
There is more that is not so pleasant. In the haste to secure our borders, the Congress is likely to agree to the REAL ID Act, which, while it contains some common sense items to protect Americans from the use by potential terrorists and criminals of IDs like drivers licenses to gain access to airports and other potential targets, has some really bad, bad elements to it. At the top, is the ability by U.S. immigration enforcement agents to deport legitimate applicants for political asylum back to their countries, when their cases are on appeal after an initial denial by a lower immigration review. And that can be done without any judicial interference in that deportation, before a ruling on their appeal happens! In some cases, that is tantamount to a death sentence for the individual or family! That definitely has to go down among the dumbest things the U.S. Congress has done lately. You can go here to read that article, Carl Shusterman writes very eloquently about it. If you go here you can get the real story about the difficulties in the REAL ID Act.
Well, that's enough for now. I'll be working on some necessary administrative reports that I have to do that won't wait. So I'll be around in a couple of days, talking about intellectual property, and maybe some other things that are a little more personal. Adios for now, and God bless.
The full story on the proposed law is on the Visalaw immigration newsletter, which also includes news on the major changes being made in what is called H-2B temporary visas. A law was passed through the U.S. Senate last week, which will make it easier for health care workers to obtain at least a temporary (non-immigrant) work visa to continue working here while their permanent legal resident (LPR--EB-3 immigrant visa) is waiting a decision from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service. This is really important in light of the fact that nurses are in critically short supply here in the U.S., and foreign nurses, and to a lesser extent, doctors, are badly needed. A new law, called PERM, was supposed to make review of the work eligibility of applicants for permanent work visas, and for most categories, it has. But for medical workers, it has had the opposite effect, pushing waiting lists from 3 months to over 3 years, devastating the interests of the immigrants and the health care organizations alike. There are two different articles that deal with both the PERM law and its effect on health care workers, especially nurses. To read them go here, in the Visalaw.com newsletter printed for this week, and especially here, to the article written by my friend, attorney Carl Shusterman.
There is more that is not so pleasant. In the haste to secure our borders, the Congress is likely to agree to the REAL ID Act, which, while it contains some common sense items to protect Americans from the use by potential terrorists and criminals of IDs like drivers licenses to gain access to airports and other potential targets, has some really bad, bad elements to it. At the top, is the ability by U.S. immigration enforcement agents to deport legitimate applicants for political asylum back to their countries, when their cases are on appeal after an initial denial by a lower immigration review. And that can be done without any judicial interference in that deportation, before a ruling on their appeal happens! In some cases, that is tantamount to a death sentence for the individual or family! That definitely has to go down among the dumbest things the U.S. Congress has done lately. You can go here to read that article, Carl Shusterman writes very eloquently about it. If you go here you can get the real story about the difficulties in the REAL ID Act.
Well, that's enough for now. I'll be working on some necessary administrative reports that I have to do that won't wait. So I'll be around in a couple of days, talking about intellectual property, and maybe some other things that are a little more personal. Adios for now, and God bless.
