Immigration Raids French Restaurant in San Diego

On May 15, 2008, ICE agents raided the French Gourmet in Pacific Beach and arrested 18 of the company's workers. According to ICE, this raid is part of Immigration's ongoing nationwide effort to shut down the employment magnet fueling illegal immigration.

Congress proposes bill to exempt some foreign graduates of US universities from quota

Earlier this week, Represenative Zoe Lofgren (D. California), introduced a bill in Congress that would exempt foreign graduates of US universities from the EB quota, provided that they had advanced degrees in the so called "STEM" subjects: Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. If this bill passed it would greatly alleviate the backlog in the EB - employment based categories and also would allow the US to remain competitive in the 21st Century.

Congress to introduce new bill for Employment Based Green Cards

Representative Zoe Loefren is proposing a new bill in Congress to exempt certain advanced degree graduates from US universities in math and science from the quota for employment based visas. Microsoft and other High-tech companies are strongly lobbying for it so that the US can remain competitive in the 21st Century.

State Department Issues June Visa Bulletin

The State Department has just issued the June visa bulletin. While the EB-2 numbers for China and India moved forward, the EB-3 numbers did not move forward at all, and are still at 03-01-06 for worldwide.

Immigration Agents Are Apprehending Illegal Aliens Returning to Mexico

The LA Times reported today that Immigration has a new policy of setting up random checkpoints near the Mexican border on I-5 south in order to arrest illegal aliens returning to Mexico. When they are apprehended, they are turned over to the Border Patrol, which processes them, and sends them back to Mexico a few hours later, unless they have a criminal record or previous immigration violations.

Immigration announces a proposal to increase periods of stay for TN's

Immigration announced a proposal to increase periods of stay for TN professional workers from Canada or Mexico from 1 to 3 years.

Immigration Raid Stirs Protest

Immigrants' Rights advocates protested in front of the San Francisco Immigration office to protest the recent raids of a Mexican restaurant chain that netted 63 undocumented workers. The immigration raids took place on Friday at 11 locations of the Bay Area chain El Balazo. The raids were part of Immigration's stepped up workplace enforcement to fight the employment of undocumented workers.

Congress proposes two bills to recapture unused visas

On April 23, 2008, a bill was introduced by Representative Zoe Lofgren that would recapture 225,000 employment-based visas lost to bureaucratic delays and to prevent losses of family and employment-based visas in the future.

On April 29, 2008, she introduced another bill that would eliminate the per country level for employment-based visas and to end the spill over of unused immigrant visa numbers between the employment-based and family-sponsored categories.

The net effect of both of these bills, if passed, would be to greatly reduce the employment based visa backlog.

Congress proposes bill to provide emergency relief for Nurses

Congressman Robert Wexler introduced a bill, the Emergency Nursing Supply Relief Act, that would provide relief for the shortage of nurses in the U.S. The bill would provide for 20,000 green cards for registered nurses and physical therapists per year.