Romney's Arizona law 'model' would hurt all immigrants

If Mitt Romney becomes the next president of the United States and honors his latest vow to turn the Arizona immigration law into a "model" for the entire country, life in America could become quite unpleasant for many of us who look like immigrants, or speak English with a foreign accent. 

In the Feb. 22 Republican debate in Arizona, where Romney and his main rival Rick Santorum were competing for the state's anti-illegal immigration vote, Romney praised Arizona's E-Verify system to check employees' immigration status and said, "I think we see a model here in Arizona." He added that, if elected, he would stop current federal lawsuits against Arizona-style laws "from day one." 

"Dios Mio!" I said to myself when I heard that. Judging from what we have seen in states that have passed Arizona-styled laws, that would lead to arbitrary arrests and interrogations not only of undocumented immigrants, but of legal residents and U.S. citizens as well. 

The 2010 Arizona law requires, among other things, that local police demand immigration papers when they have a reasonable suspicion that a person is in the country illegally. It was suspended after a federal lawsuit questioning its constitutionality and is before the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Supporters of the law deny it would lead to a wild goose chase of foreign-looking people, and to widespread harassment of immigrants. They say the law does not allow police officers to stop people at random, because it specifically requires that they demand immigration papers only when they carry out a "lawful stop, detention or arrest." 

But those are vague terms, critics say. A police officer wanting to make overtime could legally stop people to ask whether they saw something suspicious around the corner, then arrest them for not having proper immigration papers. 

In addition, the Arizona law requires that local police act as immigration inspectors not only when they legally stop somebody for a crime, but also when they do it for a violation of a city ordinance.

If somebody calls the police to complain that a neighbor is playing music too loud at a party next door, an officer could show up at the party and detain anybody there who can't prove their legal status, opponents of the law say. 

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US Changing Visa Rules to Attract the Highly-Skilled

To make America more attractive to highly-skilled foreign students and workers, the United States has announced a series of reforms, including changes in the F-1 and H-1B visa rules, that may benefit professionals from India.

The interim measures are aimed at improving the competitiveness of US companies in the world market and stimulating US job creation before comprehensive immigration reforms for "fixing our broken immigration system," the Department of Homeland Security announced.

The proposed changes include providing work authorization for spouses of certain H-1B holders and allowing outstanding professors and researchers to present a broader scope of evidence of academic achievement.

Also proposed is expanding eligibility for 17-month extension of optional practical training (OPT) for F-1 international students to include students with a prior degree in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

The changes would also allow for additional part-time study for spouses of F-1 students and expand the number of Designated School Officials (DSOs) at schools certified by DHS to enrol international students.

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Immigrant Entrepreneurs Boost U.S. Economy, Asserts Study

Immigrant entrepreneurs in the United States create jobs and strengthen the U.S. economy, and the U.S. should structure its immigration laws and policies to encourage them to remain here, according to a joint report issued Jan. 25 by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Washington, D.C.-based Immigration Policy Center.

The report, “Immigrant Entrepreneurs: Creating Jobs and Strengthening the U.S. Economy,” recommends the U.S create visas for entrepreneurs who create jobs, remove hurdles for foreign students with desirable skills so that they stay in the U.S., and cut red tape for entrepreneurs trying to immigrate to the country.

“Immigrant-owned growth businesses are hugely important to strengthening local economies, as well as providing jobs essential to economic recovery," said report author Marcia Drew Hohn, director of the Public Education Institute at The Immigrant Learning Center.

“The U.S. Small Business Association estimates that small businesses have generated 64 percent of the net new jobs over the past 15 years and credits immigrant businesses with a significant contribution to this job growth,” Hohn said.

The report profiles immigrant entrepreneurs and details the difficulties they face.

According to the 2002-2007 economic censuses, the number of Asian American-owned businesses increased more than 40 percent in that period, twice the national rate. These businesses employed about 2.8 million people.

The study also urged the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to create “more business-friendly policies” and comply with a Jan. 18, 2011 Executive Order requiring agencies to ensure that regulations promote “economic growth, innovation, competitiveness, and job creation and predictability.”

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Appeals Court Puts 5 Deportation Cases on Hold

A sharply divided federal appeals court put five deportation cases on hold Monday and asked the government how the immigrants, mostly longtime residents with U.S. citizen children, fit into the Obama administration's plan to focus on removing the most dangerous illegal entrants.

The unusual action came in a series of 2-1 rulings by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The dissenter, Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain, issued identical opinions in each case saying the court had seriously overstepped its authority.

The orders appear to be the court's attempt to mesh its everyday review of immigration cases with the administration's plans to review, under its newly announced priorities, the cases of all 300,000 illegal immigrants who have been ordered deported or are in deportation proceedings.

The director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, John Morton, issued a memo in June telling his agents that the priority list for deportations should start with convicted criminals, repeated illegal entrants and those with records of violence.

Morton said agents should consider such factors as an immigrant's U.S. family ties and hardships, length of residence, age on arrival, and prospects of winning legal residence in deciding whether to put their cases on hold.

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Immigration law compromises human rights, safety

Turmoil is growing between the California state legislature and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement over immigration laws.

ICE’s Secure Communities program requires local law enforcement to send detainees’ fingerprints to immigration authorities and to hold them on behalf of ICE if they are identified as candidates for deportation.

The state legislature objects; it is close to passing a law instructing local law enforcement to disregard some instructions to detain prisoners longer (the details are not yet finalized). Under this law, California counties would be able to rejoin the program on a voluntary basis.

The opposition has been met with an uproar from ICE authorities, which have called these measures violations of federal law.

An international campus like USC should address the topic of immigration. More important, however, is the need to respect peoples’ rights.

Though stances on immigration vary throughout the USC community, the validity of this program can’t be a part of that discussion until we address the violation of human rights, as well as the harm to law enforcement and the community.

The law puts people who have been convicted of nothing worse than low-level crimes in danger of being detained beyond the lawful time — or, even worse, of being deported on the suspicion of a more serious offense.

To subject all detainees, without exception, to an inter-departmental background check makes mistakes unavoidable.

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