The South Carolina Illegal Immigration and Reform Act went into effect on January 1, and the state has provided training sessions to employers who will be impacted by the new laws. A new Associate Press report says that employers say the new mandates will be painless.
On the first day of Congress, Senate Majority Leader Reid introduced the "Stronger Economy, Stronger Borders Act" (S. 9), suggesting his intention in the first months of the new Congress to push through some version of amnesty and immigration increases.
On Wednesday, January 7th, NumbersUSA mailed a letter to President-elect Barack Obama urging him to make Americans and already-resident legal immigrants his top priority. In the letter, we urged Obama to temporarily suspend the importation of most foreign workers, chain migration and the visa lottery. Also, we urged him to fully fund E-Verify and make it mandatory for all employers. If you haven't taken action to support American workers, now is the time! If you haven't done so already, please join more than 138,000 members and sign the petition to support American workers. Also, check your action buffet for faxes to send to your elected officials. Read the letter!
As of last week, only 54 percent of more than 300,000 immigrants from El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua had renewed their temporary protected status. The immigrants with the TPS designation need to postmark their applications by Tuesday to remain in the United States legally. The low number of renewals may be another impact the weakening economy is having on immigrants.
The California Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case that will determine the constitutionality of a state law that grants in-state tuition rates to undocumented students. Estimates say hundreds of undocumented students currently attending community colleges and state universities could be affected and forced to pay out-of-state tuition.
A judge in Rhode Island has thrown out a lawsuit filed by the ACLU that challenged the detention of 14 Guatemalan immigrants that were pulled over for a minor traffic stop. The 14 immigrants were pulled over in Richmond, R.I. on Interstate-95, but all turned out to be in the country illegally.
New immigration laws went into effect in Missouri at the start of the new year, requiring all public employers in the state to use E-Verify. Private businesses are still not required to use the Department of Homeland Security's workplace verification tool unless they hold a government contract worth more than $5,000, receive state loans or have been caught hiring illegal aliens.
A majority of Nebraska lawmakers say they favor tougher immigration laws according to a pre-session survey conducted by the Associated Press.
The United States will import another 140,000 foreign workers this month despite worsening jobless numbers. Initial jobless claims were at 586,000 last week, which is 30,000 more than the prior week's claims. The number was the highest since November 1982, and the four-week moving claims average is also at its highest level since 1982. The nation’s counterproductive immigration policies make the situation even harder to fix.
The souring economy is having an impact on the Brazilian population in Newark, N.J. according to a story in the Star-Ledger. The housing crisis combined with a stable economy in Brazil are causing many undocumented residents to head back to Brazil.