VISA AVAILABILITY - AUGUST 2010
(PHILIPPINES)
  
 

VISA AVAILABILITY - August 2010

 (PHILIPPINES)

Family First                                                  01 Sept 1996

 Family Second “A”                                    01 Mar  2008

 Family Second “B”                                    01 Aug 2001

 Family Third                                                 01 May 1994

 Family Fourth                                              01 April 1990

Employment Based 1st Preference           Current

Employment Based 2nd Preference          Current

Employment Based 3rd Preference         01 June 2004

 Third “Other Workers”                           15  May 2002

Fourth Certain Religious Workers                        Current

5th Employment Creation                                       Current

Target emp. areas/reg. centers                            Current
 
    


Some Honesty, as Opposed to Scare-Mongering Mythology, About Border Security

     We are constantly admonished that states like Arizona and Nebraska are constrained to pass strict immigration enforcement legislation because the Federal Government has abandoned or neglected its responsibilities to secure the (Southern) border and to enforce existing immigration laws.      


    In the face of these assertions, facts, figures, and statistics are being reported that directly challenge the stated basis for these restrictionist state laws.  
 
    There is high anxiety and fear that Mexico's explosive cartel violence may bleed over the international border line.  

    In fact, FBI and Arizona records show crime is dramatically down statewide and along the border.  Murders in Arizona decreased by one-fifth last year; aggravated assaults dropped nearly 9 percent. Much of the violence and death in the border region is the result of actions taken by or in the United States.   

    By walling off the easier border crossing points, those wishing to enter the U.S. without inspection must cross over much more dangerous terrain.  According to Border Patrol statistics, at least 1,954 people died trying to cross illegally into the U.S. from Mexico between 1998 and 2004, with the numbers increasing each year since the mid-90s.   

    The most frequent causes of death have been exposure (heat stroke, dehydration and hypothermia), but some are shot by Border Patrol or National Guard troops, or by the acts related to criminal activities of smugglers or vigilante groups.   

    In June of this year, a U.S. Border Patrol Officer chased a stone-throwing teenager back into Mexico and shot across the border into Mexico, killing the youth.     On June 22, 2010, President Obama sent a request to Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, for passage of emergency funding legislation in the amount of $600 Million for the purpose of enhancing security along the Southwest border.   

    Just what is President Obama seeking to purchase with this “emergency” infusion of funds?  For starters, the President wants to hire and train 1,000 new Border Patrol officers; a 5% increase over the current number of Border Patrol Officers (22,800).  The 5% increase would be significant, but the number of Border Patrol Officers has already doubled since 2004, and that doubling was after the increased hiring in response to the attacks on the U.S. on 9/11/2001.   

    The President’s emergency funding will also be used to hire 160 more ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) officers, additional Border Patrol canine teams, and to acquire two additional Predator B “UAVs” (unmanned aerial vehicles or “drones”) to deploy along the Southwestern border (already protected by 4 of the 5 current border watching drones, with the fifth drone currently patrolling the US/Canadian border).  

     Some of the new funding would be used to assist the Government of Mexico with DNA and forensic analysis in a combined effort to combat violence linked to money laundering, cross-border human trafficking and drug trafficking, and for border fence repairs and infrastructure.   

    This would all be in addition to the 1,200 additional National Guard troops already requested to assist the Border Patrol and the existing physical fences and barriers and the “SBInet” border security network of computer-linked cameras, sensors, and other high technology gizmos.   

    Fortunately, President Obama has declined the suggestion of Tom Mullins, GOP New Mexico Congressional candidate, who has suggested placing land mines along the US/Mexico border.   

    Some additional border security measures that have taken in recent years and are currently being implemented:  

- The Border Patrol's budget has grown from $1 billion in the 2000 fiscal year to a requested $3.58 billion for 2011, according to the Congressional Research Service.

  - The combined budgets of two agencies - Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement - total about $17 billion after steady increases in funding in recent years.  

- The U.S. has erected about 510 miles of fences and vehicle barriers on the nearly 2,000-mile southern border since 2006, adding to about 137 existing miles of fences and barriers built in previous years.  

- Americans returning from Mexico and Canada now must show passports to cross the border and enter the U.S., under rules that took effect last summer.  

- President Obama's administration has moved immigration investigators to the border and has begun inspecting southbound train cargo to help stem cash and weapons flowing to Mexican drug cartels.  

- DHS is working with the Department of Justice (DOJ) to create a new system that will fully link the information systems of all state, local and tribal law enforcement entities operating along the Southwest border with those of DHS and DOJ.  

    DHS is strengthening the analytic capability of fusion centers across the Southwest border to receive and share threat information, improving their ability to identify and mitigate emerging threats.

- DHS is establishing a suspicious activities reporting program for the Southwest border. This will help local officers recognize and track incidents related to criminal activity by drug traffickers and utilize this information for targeted law enforcement operations on both sides of the border.

- DHS and the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) are partnering to develop and implement Project Roadrunner, an integrated license plate reader recognition (LPR) system. Project Roadrunner was conceived to target both north- and southbound drug trafficking and associated illegal activity along the Southwest border. Under this partnership, ONDCP will provide DHS with previously-purchased fixed and mobile cameras—expanding DHS' existing capabilities.  This effort is ongoing and will expand as legal and logistical issues are resolved.

- Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is expanding the Joint Criminal Alien Removal Task Forces by nine officers forming two additional teams. These task forces are comprised of ICE officers and local law enforcement agents who work together to identify and arrest convicted criminal aliens in our communities.  ICE is deploying 40 officers to work with state and local jails that are within 100 miles of the Southwest border to ensure the identification of all removable convicted criminal aliens detained in those jails who, if released, would pose a danger to public safety.

- DHS has doubled the number of personnel assigned to Southwest Border Enforcement Security Task Forces; tripled the number of ICE intelligence analysts working along the U.S.-Mexico border; quadrupled deployments of Border Liaison Officers; and begun screening 100 percent of southbound rail shipments for illegal weapons, drugs and cash—for the first time ever.

- The federal government has worked closely with state and local law enforcement along the border—leveraging the resources and capabilities of over 50 law enforcement agencies to crack down on transnational criminal organizations. DHS has increased the funds state and local law enforcement can use to combat border-related crime through Operation Stonegarden—a Department of Homeland Security funded grant program designed to enhance border security by developing multilateral enforcement efforts between the U.S. Border Patrol and state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies.

     Based on risk, cross-border traffic and border-related threat intelligence, nearly 84 percent of 2009 Operation Stonegarden funds went to Southwest border states.  

Tangible Results of the Department of Homeland Security Efforts in the Past 18 Months:     With more than 10 border guards for every mile of Southwestern border (this does not include National Guard troops), overall Border Patrol apprehensions of undocumented immigrants decreased from over 723,800 in fiscal year 2008 to over 556,000 in fiscal year 2009, a 23 percent reduction, indicating that fewer people are attempting to illegally cross the border. From 2004-2009, the number of Border Patrol apprehensions along the Southwest border has decreased by 53 percent.   

    Seizures of contraband rose significantly across the board last year compared to the year before: illegal bulk cash seizures rose 14 percent; illegal weapons seizures rose 29 percent; and illegal drugs seizures rose 15 percent. So far this year, ICE has removed more than 117,000 aliens convicted of crimes—a 37 percent increase as compared to the same time last year.  The Obama administration is setting deportation/removal records.

     Almost 300,000 undocumented immigrants were deported in 2009, a record, and a 5 percent increase over 2008.  In fiscal year 2009, ICE conducted more than 1,400 I-9 audits of employers suspected of hiring illegal labor—triple the number of audits conducted in fiscal year 2008.

    One significant factor complicating the rational discussion of border security issues is that border security is in the eye of the beholder, and what would constitute border security has never really been defined or quantified.   

    Will we have border security when all 2,000 miles of the US/Mexican border has been double-fenced?  Do we measure border security by the money spent?  Do we measure success by catching a larger number of illegal border crossers or by catching fewer illegal border crossers (since we haven’t been able to accurately quantify the numbers of persons who successfully slip into the country)?   

    The concept and strategies of border security are dynamic and fluid, not static.  Posting 25,000 soldiers at the US/Mexican border may deter those crossing on foot or by car, but those troops may be less effective against tunnels, light aircraft, or boats along the Pacific/Gulf of Mexico coastlines.  

    People can be very motivated, risk accepting and creative when their families are starving.  Is a border secure only when no person and no prohibited contraband slips across the border illegally, or is there some level of tolerable permeability?  Should the target be border “management” rather than closure? How do we factor in those who have entered legally on a nonimmigrant or temporary visa and have overstayed?

    Border security might also be enhanced by expeditiously passing comprehensive immigration reform (“CIR”) legislation that would compel undocumented immigrants to come forward, submit to thorough background checks, comply with tax laws and other rules and requirements in exchange for admission into a program or process for legalizing their status.  Passing CIR that would include provisions for additional visas for permanent and temporary employment as well as additional enforcement of employment eligibility enforcement actions against employers who willfully violate the law would provide for a more stable and legal workforce, safer working conditions, reduced undocumented immigration, and would enable the U.S. to make more efficient use of federal, state and local law enforcement assets.  Some people are using fear tactics and unsupported assertions concerning the situation at the Southwest border as a phantom menace to shut down any forward movement on CIR.   

    After nearly ten years of significant and largely effective efforts to “secure the border first,” the hallelujah chorus continues its doleful reprise unabated.  These folks will never be satisfied, and many of them acknowledge that their stated goal of a completely impermeable border is all but impossible to achieve.   

    Susan Ginsburg, senior policy adviser for an international nonprofit known as Borderpol, which works to make international borders safer, said it is a mistake to require absolute “iron curtain” border control as a prerequisite for changing U.S. policies because the existing system created a broken border in the first place.  Those clamoring to “secure the border first” know that an iron curtain border is a goal that will never be reached, and are using this demand and fear mongering to stave off any rational discussion of CIR.  The border will never be secure enough to suit them.  This is not a case of the restrictionist crowd “moving the goal posts” because there are no goal posts.

  COPYRIGHT BY AUTHOR -- 2010

     This article is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is published and distributed with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting or other professional service.  It is submitted for publication by the author with the understanding that each individual case is different, and this article is not a formal legal opinion and should not be relied upon as advice by the author in a particular legal situation.

    This article is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is published and distributed with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting or other professional service.  It is submitted for publication by the author with the understanding that each individual case is different, and this article is not a formal legal opinion and should not be relied upon as advice by the author in a particular legal situation.

    Mr. Gard has been engaged in the practice of immigration law since 1977.  He is a frequent writer and lecturer in the American Immigration Lawyers Association and has served that professional organization as a Chapter Chair of the Greater Chicago Chapter, and as a Director.  Written questions may be submitted to Mr. Gard.  At his discretion, selected questions or issues may be addressed in subsequent articles.  Mr. Gard  is available for appointments for consultation in immigration law-related matters at the law offices of AzulaySeiden  Law  Group, 205 North Michigan Avenue, 40th Floor, Chicago, Illinois 60601, Contact Information (email is the preferred method of contact):   e-mail:  rgard@azulayseiden.com    Telephone: (312) 832-9200 (ext.# 102); FAX: (312) 832-9212; Direct FAX: (312) 363-6102; Our firm has 25 lawyers engaged in the practice of immigration law, and also has lawyers available for criminal and civil litigation and health care facility/medical practice and licensing issues.   The firm also has offices in Waukegan (IL), Rockford (IL), San Antonio (TX), Milwaukee (WI), Tampa (FL), Phoenix (AZ), Belgrade, and Manila. Also, please visit Mr. Gard’s firm’s website at   http://www.azulayseiden.com     

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