News Update - February 16, 2010

By Alan Lee, Esq.

Undocumented Immigrants Population Down  /  U.S.C.I.S. Updating Forms

 

DHS has announced that the population of undocumented immigrants fell from 11.6 million in January 2008 to 10.8 million in January 2009.  Further that that population grew 2.7% from the years 2000 to 2009.  With economic conditions for jobs being difficult, many undocumented immigrants like U.S. workers are dropping out of the job market. Many are returning home.  This statistic should soothe those who believe that U.S. workers are being discriminated against by employers in favor of undocumented immigrants with cheaper wages. 

U.S.C.I.S. recently posted revisions of January 6, 2010, to forms I-140, I-129S, I-751, I-601, and N-470, and alarmed members of the legal community and public in saying that prior versions of the forms would no longer be accepted.  However, in subsequent clarifications with the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), U.S.C.I.S. stated that the prior edition of form I-140 (immigrant petition for alien worker) will be accepted if postmarked by March 2, 2010 and that prior versions of Form I-129S (non-immigrant petition based on blanket L petition) and Form I-751 (petition to remove conditions on residence) will continue to be accepted as the change in designation was in error.  On the acceptability of prior editions of Form I-601 (application for waiver of grounds of inadmissibility) and N-470  (application to preserve residence for naturalization purposes), AILA is awaiting further clarification from Service Center Operations (SCOPS) of U.S.C.I.S.  Until such word, the 1/6/10 versions of both forms should be used.


The author is a 26+ year practitioner of immigration law based in New York City. He was awarded the Sidney A. Levine prize for best legal writing at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in 1977 and has written extensively on immigration over the past years for the ethnic newspapers, World Journal, Sing Tao, Pakistan Calling, Muhasha and OCS. He has testified as an expert on immigration in civil court proceedings and was recognized by the Taiwan government in 1985 for his work protecting human rights. His article, "The Bush Temporary Worker Proposal and Comparative Pending Legislation: an Analysis" was Interpreter Releases' cover display article at the American Immigration Lawyers Association annual conference in 2004, and his victory in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in a case of first impression nationwide, Firstland International v. INS, successfully challenged INS' policy of over 40 years of revoking approved immigrant visa petitions under a nebulous standard of proof. Its value as precedent, however, was short-lived as it was specifically targeted by the Administration in the Intelligence Reform Act of 2004.

This article © 2010 Alan Lee, Esq.

 

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