• Immigrants' Rights Update Index

Immigrants' Rights Update

Volume 20, Issue 7  |  December 6, 2006

IN THIS ISSUE

Immigration Issues

• 110,000 A-files lost in 14 busiest USCIS district offices, GAO review finds

• 3,600 Liberians will lose TPS on Oct. 1, 2007; Employment authorization of Liberians with TPS extended through April 1, 2007

• USCIS to establish a new regional office and two new districts

• "Overview of States' Driver's License Requirements" chart updated

Public Benefits Issues

• U.S. citizen infants of immigrant mothers remain eligible for Medicaid, despite reports to the contrary

Advocacy Tools and Other Resources

• Tool kits for responding to local anti-immigrant ordinances available

• Articles, reports, and research on immigrants:  Some of what was published in 2006

• New advocacy resource available from NILC website

Immigration Issues

By Richard Irwin

     As of late July 2006, staff in 14 of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' (USCIS's) busiest district offices had lost track of 110,000 A-files, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that is dated Oct. 27, 2006, but that was not released until Nov. 28.  An A-file is the one central paper file created for each non–U.S. citizen who has dealings with USCIS or immigration enforcement personnel — for example, when the person applies for an immigration benefit or if the person is detained by the Border Patrol.   [Read more.]
 

Employment Authorization of Liberians with TPS Extended through April 1, 2007

By Richard Irwin

     On Oct. 1, 2007, approximately 3,600 nationals and former residents of Liberia will lose their temporary protected status (TPS) when, on that date, the designation of Liberia as a country whose nationals and former residents may be eligible for TPS is terminated, according to a Sept. 20, 2006, Federal Register notice. 

     The same notice automatically extends for six months the validity of employment authorization documents (EADs) issued as of Sept. 20, 2006, to Liberians under the Liberian TPS program.  The automatic extension is effective through Apr. 1, 2007.  [Read more.]
 

     U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will create a new (fourth) regional office in Orlando, Florida, and split two existing management districts ‑‑ those in San Francisco and Miami -- in two to create two new districts, to be headquartered, respectively, in Sacramento, California, and Tampa, Florida, USCIS Director Emilio Gonzalez announced on Nov. 3.  The new regional office in Orlando will manage all district and field offices in USCIS's Southeast Region, which currently encompasses North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana.  [Read more.]
 

     NILC's Tyler Moran recently updated her "Overview of States' Driver's License Requirements" chart, which lists the states that fall into the following categories:  [Read more.]
 

Public Benefits Issues

Prepared by
California Immigrant Welfare Collaborative
and
National Immigration Law Center

     Recent news reports implied that the federal government has a new policy that affects the newborn U.S. citizen babies of immigrant women who receive Emergency Medicaid.[1]  The articles on Medicaid coverage for these U.S. citizen infants were confusing and in some cases misleading.

     All citizen infants remain eligible for Medicaid, regardless of the immigration status of their mother.  The question raised is whether some newborns whose mothers are receiving Medicaid can get coverage automatically, or whether they need to file their own Medicaid application and proof of citizenship.  This issue brief clarifies the facts concerning coverage of newborns of immigrant mothers on Medicaid.  [Read more.]
 

Advocacy Tools and Other Resources

     The National Immigration Forum and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) each have compiled a tool kit for advocates to use in countering efforts by immigration restrictionists to get city and other local governments to enact ordinances intended to penalize business owners, landlords, and service workers who may have interactions with undocumented immigrants and, in this way, to drive undocumented people away.  [Read more.]
 

     The items listed below may provide crucial information, new or provocative perspectives, or simply interesting reading.  Their being listed here is not intended, necessarily, as an endorsement of the views and positions they present.   [Read more.]
 

        ¶  An advocate's handbook titled Rights Begin at Home: Defending Workers' Rights in California is available from NILC's Web home page and from the National Employment Law Project's website.