Immigration News: April, 2004 - Volume #11

Border, Services

The US government continues to step up controls on the Arizona-Mexico border, the scene of increased migrant smuggling and violence. The Border Patrol is planning to use remote-controlled aircraft to spot migrants and to bring the number of agents in Tucson to 1,900. There have been about 40,000 apprehensions a month in FY04 along the Arizona-Mexico border.

The 42,000 employees of the US Customs and Border Protection agency inspect arriving passengers at ports of entry. CBP includes the Border Patrol, which apprehends and returns to Mexico about one million persons a year. According to BCP, about half of the Mexicans caught along the border are apprehended again in the same year.

Foreigners apprehended are photographed and fingerprinted with the same technology used for arriving tourists, so that repeat offenders can be detected and those with criminal records in the US identified. However, only 3,000 of the 400,000 persons apprehended in Arizona in 2003 were prosecuted. The US and Mexico agreed to a program under which Mexicans caught inside the US could volunteer to be returned to their home towns rather than being discharged at the Mexican side of the border; the goal is to reduce the number of revolving-door apprehensions.

Using the data base to apprehend criminals remains problematic, since the Border Patrol database is not completely linked to FBI and other databases. Missing links enabled several Mexicans who later went on crime sprees in the US to be returned to Mexico until they finally eluded the Border Patrol and successfully entered the US. Angel Maturino Resendez killed several US residents after being apprehended and returned to Mexico seven times in 1999, and Victor Manual Batres was caught twice within hours in early 2002 but returned to Mexico before eluding the Border Patrol and killing a nun in Oregon.

The Justice Department Inspector General in March 2004 said it may be four more years before Border Patrol databases are completely linked to the FBI's fingerprint database, which contains about 43 million 10-finger sets of known criminals' prints. The Border Patrol's separate fingerprint system contains about six million two-finger sets of prints.

About 9,000 of the 11,000 Border Patrol agents are represented by the National Border Control Council (NBPC), which says that the Border Patrol has one of the highest turnover rates in the federal government because of relatively low pay and often-required overtime. Apprehensions have fallen from 1,676,438 in FY00 to 931,557 in FY03, including about 40,000 "other than Mexicans."

The US began electronically fingerprinting and photographing arriving visitors with visas from more than 150 countries on January 5, 2004. The US-VISIT database, which will cost $328 million in FY04, matches visitors' fingerprints and photographs against those submitted when foreigners obtained their visas. As of March 1, 2004, the 1.5 million foreigners screened through US-VISIT generated 125 watch list alerts and resulted in 51 criminals apprehended. Brazil retaliated by requiring that visiting Americans be fingerprinted and photographed, and a poll found that 75 percent of Brazilians approved of the retaliatory measure.

In April 2004, DHS announced that visitors from the 27 visa-exempt countries would also have to be photographed and electronically fingerprinted when they arrive in the United States at 115 airports and 14 seaports. In 2002, almost 13 million of the 19 million overseas visitors to the United States came from the 27 visa-exempt countries. Beginning October 1, 2004, only diplomats, Canadians and Mexicans with laser visas that allow 72-hour visits will be exempt from US-VISIT.

The US removed 140,000 foreigners in FY03, including 76,000 criminal aliens. Many more, some 400,000, including 80,000 convicted of US crimes, have been ordered removed from the US, but are still in the country. Their number is estimated to grow by 40,000 a year.

In May 2003, 19 migrants died in a sealed truck taking them north from the Texas-Mexican border. The driver of the truck, Tyrone Williams of New York, pleaded not guilty to charges of transporting and harboring illegal migrants. In March 2004, the federal prosecutor announced that he would seek the death penalty against Williams because he "intentionally acted with reckless disregard for human life, creating a grave risk of death." Williams received $7,500 to drive the 70 migrants north.

More states and cities are having their police officers trained to enforce immigration laws, even as 30 jurisdictions continue to bar their police from cooperating with DHS. The states of Alabama and Florida have formal agreements with DHS to train selected officers to enforce immigration laws, so that 14 Alabama highway patrol officers and seven others assigned to DMV offices can do immigration checks on persons stopped for traffic violations or seeking licenses. As a result, between October 2003 and March 2004, some 106 foreigners were arrested in Alabama, including 84 for overstaying visas, entering the country illegally or evading a deportation order.

Benefits. The total number of pending applications for immigration benefits at DHS reached 6.2 million in 2004, including 750,000 applications for naturalization and 1.2 million applications for immigrant visas. US Citizenship and Immigration Services is one of the largest fee-funded government agencies, collecting about $1.6 billion a year and employing 15,500 employees (a third of them contractor employees) to handle six million applications for immigration benefits a year.

The USCIS goal is a six-month lag between application and decision, but 3.4 million applications for immigration benefits have been pending for more than six months. After September 11, 2001, some 1,000 agents who used to issue documents were reassigned to do security checks of applicants. USCIS is planning to raise the fees it charges, with the fee for naturalization (including fingerprinting) rising from $310 to $390. Immigration is expected to be a pay-its-own way process, and USCIS says that new security requirements led to higher fees.

In FY02, there were 28 million admissions of nonimmigrants (foreigners admitted twice in one year are counted twice). Most were tourists, but there were 656,000 admissions of temporary workers and trainees, including 370,500 H-1B admissions; 15,600 H-2A admissions; 87,000 H-2B admissions; 73,700 TN admissions; and 313,000 L-1 admissions.

US businesses that employ foreign workers are complaining about the delays in obtaining visas. The American Council on International Personnel reports that employers often have to file multiple petitions just to keep an employee and dependents in legal status, at a cost of $1,000 to $2,000 per petition. USCIS offices try to handle paperwork by mail, but when they fall behind, as they often do, applicants must show up in person, and must arrive to get in line well before offices open if they hope to be seen that day.

The State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs has an $800 million-a-year budget and 1,115 Foreign Service officers assigned to issue visas to foreigners abroad and provide services to the 3.2 million Americans living abroad, as well as the 60 million Americans who take international trips each year. The US rejects about 25 percent of requests for visas, about the same rejection rate as before September 11, 2001; requests for US visas are running about 35 percent below September 11 levels.

Asylum. The Department of Homeland Security has recommended to Attorney General John Ashcroft that women who were abused in their countries of origin receive asylum in the US. In 1996, asylum was granted to a woman who argued that she faced female circumcision if she returned to Togo. However, in 1999 a Guatemalan woman was denied asylum when she said that her husband abused her and the police would not protect her. In response to the outcry over the denial of asylum to Guatemalan Rodi Alvarado, the US Justice Department developed guidelines concerning asylum for victims of domestic violence; they will be clarified when Attorney General John Ashcroft issues a decision on the Alvarado case.

There are believed to be about 500 gender-asylum cases among the 250,000 cases awaiting decisions in the US. Under the Geneva Convention, asylum seekers must demonstrate a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. The Alvarado case turns on whether women in certain circumstances- as when abuse of women is supported by the legal system or social norms -- constitute a particular social group. Britain and Australia grant asylum to women who can show they were the victims of severe domestic abuse in their home countries.

Nafta. Nafta's Chapter 11 creates international tribunals to settle trade disputes, and the decisions of these tribunals are causing concern in the US. In one case, a tribunal overturned an award of $500 million won by a Mississippi family, the O'Keefes, against a Canadian concern, the Loewen Group. The Loewen Group asked for $725 million, for which the US government is ultimately responsible. Chapter 11 tribunals are above US courts, including the United States Supreme Court.

Some 20 cases have been filed under Chapter 11, resulting in Canada and Mexico having to pay damages to American investors, but the US has not yet paid to foreign investors.

Rachel Swarms, "Local Officers Join Search for Illegal Immigrants," New York Times, April 12, 2004. Nina Bernstein, "Wait for U.S. Residency Soars Over 18 Month Span," New York Times, April 6, 2004. Jerry Seper, "Groups support bid for asylum," Washington Times, March 12, 2004. Eric Lichtblau, "Report Details Issues That Let Rapist Into U.S," New York Times, March 3, 2004.

Australia needs you: