Articles Posted in Immigration News

After Marco Antonio Rua, chief engineer at the Wisconsin condominium in North Bethesda, was ordered by immigration authorities to leave the country along with his 17 year old daughter, residents of the condominium began working on his behalf.

His petition for permanent residency had been denied because it was not filed properly and therefore it was no longer legal for him to be in the US. The residents of the condominium, including Hawaii’s senator Daniel Inouye, petitioned Congress and the Department of Homeland Security to let Rua remain in the US. Their support for Rua was demonstrated through 333 signatures gathered for a petition in just 24 hours in addition to a total of $2,400 in donations to help with his legal fees. Since his arrival to the US in 1995, his efforts at the Wisconsin have saved the condominium thousands of dollars in maintenance and repairs.

Senator Inouye a co-sponsor of the DREAM Act which if passed would offer a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants advised Gail Shultie, the property manager of the Wisconsin, to contact Maryland lawmakers for support in Rua’s case.

Robin Ferschke of Tennessee pleaded with Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL), top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, to pass a bill that would allow her widowed Japanese daughter-in-law and grandson to enter into the U.S.

The bill is currently pending because some senators are concerned that the wording of the bill is too general and if passed would allow too many immigration safeguards to be removed that do not apply to the case. Ferschke’s daughter-in-law, Hota, married Marine Sgt. Michael Ferschke approximately one month before he was killed on duty in Iraq. The wedding was by proxy- Michael was in Iraq and Hota in Japan. Since their marriage is not recognized under a Cold War-era immigration law, she cannot move to Tennessee with Robin to raise her son like she had promised Michael.

The bill at hand would add a provision into immigration law that would allow, “exemption for couples who are unable to consummate their marriage because one of them was on active duty in the armed forces.” The bill cleared the House smoothly with support from both Democrats and Republicans but due to some senators concerns, the process has slowed. In order to approve the bill in the Senate and pass the bill quickly so the family can be reunited more detailed language that specifically applies to the issue is being added to the bill.

On November 5, the Department of Homeland Security released a Privacy Impact Assessment for the “Immigration Benefits Background Check Systems.” Every applicant seeking immigration benefits is required to undergo background checks administered by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Each applicant’s check includes cross-references against systems within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and the Department of Justice (DOJ). The information collected through the background checks is gathered by five main technology electric systems. The new Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) released by Homeland Security will replace any previous publications on planned background related systems and is part of an effort by USCIS to streamline the process, reducing the risk of an invasion into applicant’s privacy.

The background check is a way for USCIS to determine the applicant’s legitimacy for the benefit. The applicant must go through four background checks: a FBI fingerprint, the US-VISIT’s Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT) fingerprint, the FBI name check, and the TECS name check. An applicant can choose to decline to provide information under the Privacy Act Notice but doing so will result in the denial of the immigration benefit requested.

In investigating the current background check procedures, the Privacy Impact Assessment found that with all the technologies used, many outdated and overly complex, it’s likely one will fail. USCIS has also put into practice increasing measures to restrict access to the systems to authorized personnel only, preventing the misuse of any data. In addition, to reduce the unnecessary duplication of data, USCIS is developing a more centralized system as a part of their “Transformation Initiate.”