Immigration in the News

President Bush Reiterates Commitment To Immigration Reform

During a joint press conference with Mexican President Fox and Canada Prime Minister Martin, President Bush said, " I will continue to push for reasonable, common-sense immigration policy with the United States Congress. It is an issue with which I have got a lot of familiarity -- after all, I was the governor of this great state for six years and I dealt with this issue a lot, not only with President Fox's predecessors, but with governors of border states -- Mexican border states, Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon. And I know what -- I know the issue well. And I will continue to call upon Congress to be commonsensical about this issue."

So does this mean that a essential worker legislation is still on the table? You bet it is. Indeed it is rumored that bi-partisan legislation to address the President’s immigration principles will be introduced as early as April 2005. There are many hurdles to overcome, but the fact of the matter is that for our own national and economic security, immigration reform must be addressed.

Grassroots lobbying and contact with your Senators and Representatives is as important as ever. The U.S. needs immigration reform that includes a temporary visa category for skilled, semi and unskilled workers. GT’s National Co-Chair of the Business Immigration practice, Laura Reiff, serves as co-chair of the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition (“EWIC”) which is a coalition of businesses, trade associations, and other organizations from across the industry spectrum concerned with the shortage of both skilled and lesser skilled ("essential worker") labor. EWIC stands ready to work with the Administration and Congress to push forward on important immigration reform issues.

The President has addressed the critical need to fix America's broken immigration system for national security, economic and humanitarian reasons. Specifically, President Bush has said that U.S. employers must have the ability to hire the workers they need to run their businesses. Additionally, he has addressed the need to recognize the millions of undocumented workers in our economy and to create a mechanism to convert them to a legal status.

continue to call upon Congress to be commonsensical about this issue."

WAL-MART Settlement

In March, a civil settlement was announced between Wal-Mart Stores and the Department of Justice resolving the investigation of alleged immigration violations. We note that this agreement concludes a four-year investigation into practices involving use of third party contractors and the alleged employment of undocumented employees by those third party contractors.

We are encouraged by this settlement and hope that with the Administration's leadership as well as Congressional initiatives, we can push forward on important immigration reform issues that facilitate the lawful employment of essential workers by U.S. companies and organizations.

GAO Reports on the SEVIS System

The US Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) presented testimony to Congress on the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (“SEVIS”). SEVIS was implemented after 9/11 to monitor students and exchange visitors through an automated tracking system. Many businesses and educational institutions have been under whelmed with the capabilities of the system and have been particularly critical of the customer service and reliability. The GAO, while complimentary of DHS efforts to correct flaws in the program, acknowledged that this system is still replete with errors and that the customer service aspect must be further improved. The SEVIS system was originally introduced with the view to making it a model for other immigrant tracking systems. We can only hope that the bugs will be worked out before this system is applied to other visa applicants.

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