GOOD NEWS: Nigeria To Be Included In US Visa Lottery Eligibility List?

Nigeria along with the UK and other countries may be returned to the eligibility list of the US Visa Lottery program.
Nigeria was removed the from list in 2015. However, the document is modified every year based on trends of the previous five years, The Nation reports.
Commenting on the possible development,  Ashley Garrigus, spokesperson for the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, explained:
“The Congressional-mandated Diversity Immigrant Visa Program (DV) makes available up to 55,000 diversity visas each year, drawn from random selection among all entries to persons who meet strict eligibility requirements from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. The section of the law establishing the Diversity Visa program limits the list of “eligible countries” to those countries from which fewer than 50,000 persons in various visa categories immigrated to the United States during the previous five years." Read more: http://www.naij.com/492693-nigeria-may-be-returned-to-us-visa-lottery-list.html

Contact Darren Heyman, immigration attorney Las Vegas, for more information. 

Immigration Reform News: Founding Fathers Cared About Immigrants Rights, Unlike Donald Trump, Ann Coulter and Ted Cruz, Argues Constitutional Scholar

In her book “¡Adios America!: The Left’s Plan To Turn Our Country Into A Third World Hellhole,” author Ann Coulter makes the case that that the 14th amendment doesn’t or at least shouldn’t give rights to immigrants because it was passed in the cntext of black slavery. Constitutional scholar and author Robert J. McWhirter disagrees and criticizes conservatives who advocate interpretations of the Constitution as "originally intened." He takes on Republican presidential candidates like Donald Trump and Ted Cruz for hopping on the tough-on-immigrants bandwagon. In this op-ed (we’re not endorsing the content), McWhirter argues that immigrants’ rights are enshrined not only in the nation's core laws but in the original visions of America’s founding fathers.
“We the People … ,” are the first words of our Constitution, not “We the citizens.”  “ We the People … ” means everyone has rights – that is the big idea of a big place called America. The Declaration of Independence, the first definition of America, started the idea that, all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. . .
Again, it’s not “all citizens are created equal.” Rights are as inalienable to aliens as anyone else.
Read more:  http://www.latintimes.com/immigration-reform-news-founding-fathers-cared-about-immigrants-rights-unlike-donald-330642
Contact Darren Heyman immigration attorney Las Vegas, for more information

Glitch In U.S. Visa System Leaves Hundreds Of People Stranded

A “technical glitch” that has affected the State Department’s ability to issue visas at consulate across the globe has prevented some U.S. citizens from returning home, in some cases putting them at risk of financial ruin or exacerbating medical issues.

In interviews with BuzzFeed News and comments left on the State Department’s Facebook page, some citizens stuck abroad relayed stories of dwindling financial resources, difficulties getting proper medication or medical care, and strains on family.
The State Department on Friday announced that it was having “technical problems” with its visa processing and issuing systms. And John Kirby, a spokesman for the department, told reporters that the problems are expected to continue for at least another week.
Read more: http://www.buzzfeed.com/emaoconnor/glitch-in-visa-system-leaves-people-stranded#.pn8lQ9ekQ
Contact Darren Heyman immigration attorney Las Vegas, for more information

Immigration Reform 2015: California Wants To Bypass Feds, Give Work Permits To Undocumented Immigrants

California lawmakers have proposed a program that would grant work permits to undocumented immigrant farmworkers and their families, the Los Angeles Times reported. The legislation passed through the Assembly in June and is currently pending in the Senate.
The bill, introduced by Assemblyman Luis Alejo and backed by California farmworkers, would create a group that would seek authority for the permits from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Justice. The program would give permits to farmworkers already living in the state without authorization.
The workers, their spouses and children under 18 or enrolled at an accredited institution would be spared from deportation. The workers would need to be at least 18 to qualify. They would be required to pay a fee toward administrative costs. Felons would not qualify.
Read more:  http://www.ibtimes.com/immigration-reform-2015-california-wants-bypass-feds-give-work-permits-undocumented-2005571
 Contact Darren Heyman immigration attorney Las Vegas, for more information

US visa meltdown: when will the system be working again?

What's going on?

The hardware failure, which began last week at the US Department of State's Bureau of Consular Affairs, is preventing officials from processing the mandatory security-related biometric data checks that accompany visa applications fromaround the world. The government said there was no evidence the problem was the result of a cyber attack, and said technicians were "working around the clock" to fix it.

Who has been affected?

The US embassy in London said the problem is not specific to any particular country or visa category. It has affected thousands of people, including business travellers, tourists and musicians wanting to go on tour. The meltdown has meant that passports have been held up in the system and people needing to travel have struggled to get their documents back, reports the Financial Times.
Read more: http://www.theweek.co.uk/64070/us-visa-meltdown-when-will-the-system-be-working-again
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Immigration Reform 2015: Obama Executive Action Lawsuit Heads Back To Court

The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear opposing oral arguments from representatives of the federal government and of 26 states in New Orleans Friday on the implementation of President Barack Obama’s execution action to shield millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation. The two sides have been locked in a legal battle since December 2014, when the Texas-led state coalition challenged Obama’s orders as unconstitutional.
The two sides will argue for and against Obama’s “Deferred Action for Parents of Americans” and “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals” programs – key aspects of his order last November to shield as many as five million undocumented immigrants who met certain criteria from deportation, the Los Angeles Times reported. A panel of three judges, two of whom are regarded as conservatives, will preside over the hearing, in a case that many suspect the U.S. Supreme Court will eventually decide.
The states’ representatives have argued Obama’s attempt to enact nationwide immigration reform without legislative approval violated states’ rights under the Constitution. The Justice Department asserted the states have no legal basis on which to contest Obama’s actions. Representatives from each side will have one hour and 20 minutes to make their arguments, not including interruptions from the panel of judges.
Read more: http://www.ibtimes.com/immigration-reform-2015-obama-executive-action-lawsuit-heads-back-court-2001884
Contact Darren Heyman immigration attorney Las Vegas, for more information

Immigration Reform News Today: John Boehner Says Reform is Top Priority, But GOP Remains Weary

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, plans to make immigration reform a top priority, the top Republican told business executives in Dublin, Ireland, over the weekend.
The U.S. News & World Report noted his remarks were surprising given congressional Republicans' resistance to the issue, as well as his own refusal to put the matter up for a vote in the House of Representatives.

While speaking at an Independence Day luncheon at the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland, Boehner recounted how Taoiseach Enda Kenny -- the Irish equivalent of a prime minister -- urged him to tackle the overhaul of the U.S. immigration system, the Irish Times detailed. Kenny told Boehner that "the lack of reform has left some Irish immigrants listening to a parent's funeral by phone."

"Oh John, John, you don't realize there are about (50,000) of my fellow Irishmen came to the U.S. and never quite made it back across the pond," the premier is said to have told Boehner.

Read more: http://www.latinpost.com/articles/64867/20150708/immigration-refrom-news-today-john-boehner-reform-top-priority-gop.htm
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Immigration Reform 2015: Undocumented Immigrants Should Get Citizenship, Say 83% Of Iowa Democrats In New Poll

Likely voters in the early presidential battleground state of Iowa are sharply divided along party lines when it comes to U.S. immigration reform. Just 34 percent of Republicans said the U.S. should give immigrants in the U.S. illegally a path to citizenship, while 83 percent of Democrats said undocumented immigrants should be allowed to apply for permanent residency, a Quinnipiac University poll released Monday indicated.
Peter A. Brown, the poll’s assistant director, described the partisan divide as “striking” in a statement. “Ideas that are part of Democratic orthodoxy are an anathema to Republicans, and vice versa,” Brown said. “Democrats think illegal immigrants should be able to stay in the United States and eventually become citizens. Republicans don’t.” The poll also found 46 percent of Republicans said undocumented immigrants should be forced to leave the U.S., compared to 8 percent of Democrats.
Brown added voters in Iowa, which will play host to the country’s first presidential caucuses in February, often regarded as an indicator of how voters might lean in national elections, are “a perfect example of just how differently Democrats and Republicans see completely different worlds.”
Read more:http://www.ibtimes.com/immigration-reform-2015-undocumented-immigrants-should-get-citizenship-say-83-iowa-1996950
Contact Darren Heyman immigration attorney Las Vegas

Immigration News Today: Unaccompanied Immigrant Minor Detention Falls By Half Compared to 2014

The rate of unaccompanied undocumented immigrant minors entering the U.S. has fallen by more than 50 percent.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), an agency within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, disclosed the apprehension rate of unaccompanied undocumented immigrant children at the southern border dropped by 51 percent during the 2015 fiscal year, so far, compared to the same time frame of the 2014 fiscal year.
Between Oct. 1, 2014, and June 1, 2015, CBP agents apprehended 22,869 unaccompanied minors, categorized as children ages 17 and younger. In comparison to the same time period during the 2014 fiscal year, CBP apprehended 46,858 unaccompanied minors.
Read more: http://www.latinpost.com/articles/64096/20150705/immigration-news-today-unaccompanied-immigrant-minor-detention-falls-half-compared.htm
Contact Darren Heyman immigration attorney Las Vegas, for more information

Immigration Reform 2015: DHS Decreases Deportations, Integrates Undocumented Immigrants

Under the direction of the Obama administration, the Department of Homeland Security has started changing the enforcement of United States immigration laws, focusing on integrating long-term undocumented immigrants instead of deporting them. The DHS has shifted its methods of enforcement to target only three groups of undocumented immigrants for deportation: convicted criminals, terrorism threats or those who recently crossed the border, according to the Washington Post.
The new policies push agents to ignore the majority of undocumented immigrants except for the three focus groups, and come amid legal challenges to the President Barack Obama's executive action from last year, Deferred Action for Parents of Americans, which protected roughly 5 million eligible undocumented immigrants from deportation who have children who are U.S. citizens or legal residents before a federal judge put a stay on its enforcement until the conclusion of the lawsuits.
The change in DHS policy, however, merely governs the actions of immigration officials, rather than offering undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship, which may have a wider effect, according to the Washington Post.
Read more: http://www.ibtimes.com/immigration-reform-2015-dhs-decreases-deportations-integrates-undocumented-immigrants-1994864
 Contact Darren Heyman immigration attorney Las Vegas, for more information

U.S. Visa System Back Online

WASHINGTON—All overseas embassies and consulates are able to issue visas again after a system failure earlier this month disrupted their ability to do so across the globe.
“It is too soon to get an exact estimate” of the financial losses caused nationally by the delay in the arrival of thousands of farm laborers, said Jason Resnick, general counsel for Western Growers, a large association. “In California, we know that crop losses were at over a million dollars a day for over two weeks of the delay.”
The losses were primarily in strawberries and other berries. Employers also had to pay for lodging and food for workers stranded at the border, he said.
Read more: http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-visa-system-back-online-1435607415
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Obama Immigration Reform 2015: Illegal Immigrants In US Won’t Get Free Healthcare Under Obamacare, Says President

U.S. President Barack Obama touched on immigration reform on Wednesday while discussing the progress of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, in Nashville, according to WDTN. When asked about a course to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, the president reiterated that the healthcare law does not make coverage available to people who are in the U.S. illegally, Obama said during a private event at Taylor Stratton Elementary School – his third visit in 18 months to a Nashville public school.
It was a point Obama has made before when faced with questions of whether the president’s healthcare law would mean millions of undocumented immigrants would suddenly get free healthcare through Obamacare. Under the law, undocumented immigrants are not eligible for federal coverage, including Medicare and nonemergency Medicaid, however they could access emergency care under federal law. They also cannot purchase private health insurance through state insurance exchanges, according to the National Immigration Law Center.
Read more:  http://www.ibtimes.com/obama-immigration-reform-2015-illegal-immigrants-us-wont-get-free-healthcare-under-1992982
Contact Darren Heyman, immigration attorney Las Vegas, for more information.