Thursday Immigration Blog Roundup 4/2/09

This week's blog roundup includes coverage on immigration-related news from a few states, including New Jersey, and some reports reviewing DHS.

The Blue Panel report on integrating immigrants in New Jersey, commissioned by Governor Corzine, is finally out.  Recommendations include:

• Outline a clear path to accreditation for immigrants who were professionals in their countries of origin;
• Establish appropriate language support for limited English proficient persons, so they can be civically engaged in local communities;
• Establish an Ombudsman within the Division of Civil Rights in the Department of Law and Public Safety, which would be the entity to which school discrimination cases are reported; and
• Support current proposed legislation that would provide for charging the full in-state tuition rate to persons who meet specified NJ residency requirements, regardless of their immigration status under federal law

Similarly, in Colorado, legislators passed a bill to help undocumented immigrant students attend State college and pay in-state tuition.  Standing FIRM has information on how you can thank legislators for their support of the bill.
 
Meanwhile in New York, the race to replace Senator Gillibrand's seat (who replaced Secretary of State Clinton) may be decided by immigrant voters. 

On March 28th in North Carolina, African Americans and Latinos came together for a Unity Summit to develop better cultural understanding and open up dialogue between the two groups. 

Yesterday in D.C., Latino entrepreneurs and economic experts met to discuss challenges that entrepreneurs face across the country.  The conference, which was sponsored by Wal-Mart, was attended by Gene Sperling, advisor to Timothy Geithner.  Forty-six in 10,000 immigrants started businesses in 2007, compared to the overall rate of 30 per 10,000 adults.  Immigrant-founded technology and engineering companies employed 450,000 workers in the U.S. and generated $52 billion in revenue in 2006. 

The Family Unity tour reached Florida, hitting Miami and Orlando.  And in Chicago, immigration advocates are organizing a May 1st march to push for federal immigration reform. 

The Office of Personnel Management has released a review of the federal workforce, and it lists DHS as third most dysfunctional agency.  A separate report by DHS finds its Citizenship and Immigration Services unit doesn't measure performance or document lessons learned.  And the federal government has been paying immigrant detainees $1 per day to work in the detention centers.  Immigration courts also face a huge backlog, according to a USA Today review.  Nearly 90,000 people waited at least two years for their cases to be decided, with some waiting more than five years and longer. 

This World Now has a series of personal stories by immigrants.  Here are excerpts:

• everyday since I have been here my life has been defined by my immigration status F-1, OPT (optional Practical Training), H-1B. Currently, I am still a H-1B. I have recently applied to adjust my status to legal permanent resident with help from my employer. It will be 4-5 years before I will have a green card.
• we talked to a lawyer and eventually retained him under the assumption that the University would cooperate in helping me get the “green card”...Time passed but there was no action. The 18 month window eventually closed...I could not believe this was happening to me.  After all, I was a professor, extremely well qualified and a good record at my place of employment.  I had just been rehired by the institution as a tenured-track faculty member, which implies that they had an official search and selected me over other candidates...

Actions

• You can sign a petition in support of the DREAM Act here. 
• Standing FIRM has a list of other actions to reach your representatives here. 
• Congress is in recess from April 6-17, so you can contact them at their local offices.
• You can contact People Migrate to participate in a Neighbor-to-Neighbor meeting in California here.

Lastly, The Daily Show assesses vigilante border patrolling along the U.S.-Mexico border.