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1. USCIS: H-1B quota reached
2. BP enlists new equine recruits
3. Latino leaders using churches
4. Amnesty activists to march
5. Widow granted residency

1.
Visa quota is finally reached
Demand for guest workers grew as recession eased
By Hiawatha Bray
The Boston Globe, December 23, 2009

In another sign that the economy might be turning around, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services has filled this year’s quota of 65,000 applications for H-1b guest worker visas, which allow companies to hire foreign workers for jobs they say they cannot fill with US-born applicants.

Unlike previous years, it took nine months for companies to use up the allowed visas under the program, because the sharp recession cut into demand for workers. In 2007 and 2008, the quota was exhausted in less than a week.

Companies apply for the visas, and then use them to hire foreign workers with special skills who work in the United States for three to six years. H-1b visas are popular with high-tech companies and are often used to hire scientists and engineers.

Most of the visas are obtained by American subsidiaries of Indian outsourcing firms, such as Infosys Technologies Ltd., Wipro Ltd., Satyam Computer Services Ltd., and Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. The Indian companies hire skilled workers abroad, then send them to US firms as contract workers.

The visas were popular when they first became available. The immigration service received 42,000 applications by April, but then very few new ones until September. Demand really began to grow in late October.

A similar revival occurred in a supplemental H-1b program, which is open only to workers with a master’s degree or better. The limit of 20,000 visas for the supplemental plan was filled on Oct. 25; last year, the same number of applications had arrived by mid-May.

The increase in visa applications coincides with a revival of activity in the economy. The nation’s gross domestic product grew during the third quarter of the year by 2.2 percent, after declining by 0.7 percent in the previous quarter.

But Ron Hira, associate professor of public policy at Rochester Institute of Technology in New York State, said it is unclear whether the increase in visa demand indicates an overall improvement in economic growth.
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http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2009/12/23/foreign_worker_visas_...

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2.
Border Patrol mustangs unveiled to the media
Pro 8 News (Laredo, TX), December 22, 2009

Mustangs are considered American legend and our Laredo Borer Patrol sector got four of them as they implement their horse patrol.

They are about three years old and are called Laredo One, Two, Three and Four.

" We are on training mode right now but we are going to be fully operational by January so they will be deployed on the border."

The horses come from the wild horse and burro program and they have been adopted by the Laredo sector.
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http://www.pro8news.com/news/local/79960062.html

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3.
Latino Leaders Use Churches in Census Bid
By Julia Preston
The New York Times, December 22, 2009

Miami -- Fearing that millions of illegal immigrants may not be counted in the 2010 census, Latino leaders are mobilizing a nationwide drive to urge Hispanics to participate in the survey, including an intense push this week in evangelical Christian churches.

Latino groups contend that there was an undercount of nearly one million Latinos in the 2000 census, affecting the drawing of Congressional districts and the distribution of federal money. Hispanic organizations are far better organized for next year’s census, but they say that if illegal immigrants — an estimated eight million of whom are Latino — are not included, the undercount could be much greater.

One study suggests that Congressional delegations in eight states with large Hispanic populations could grow if all Latinos — the nation’s largest minority at some 47 million — are counted.

But the obstacles to an accurate count are significant. Many illegal immigrants are likely to be reluctant to fill out a government form that asks for their names, birthdates and telephone numbers. And the count comes three years into an immigration crackdown that was initiated by President George W. Bush but has continued apace, though less visibly, under President Obama.

Several of the nation’s largest associations of Hispanic evangelical churches have agreed to join the census campaign. But it has caused dissension among others, with one evangelical pastor leading a call for a boycott of the census, saying it would put pressure on the Obama administration and on Congress to grant legal status to illegal immigrants.

Some Roman Catholic leaders, moreover, have said they are reluctant to urge Latino parishioners to participate without greater assurances from the administration that illegal immigrants will not be identified or detained through the census.

The Constitution calls for all residents to be counted, and last month the Senate rejected a measure by Senator David Vitter, Republican of Louisiana, that would have included only United States citizens in the official tally.

In October, census officials said they would not ask the Department of Homeland Security to suspend immigration raids during the census period, reversing a policy from 2000, when an immigration moratorium was observed. But census officials say there is no change in a longstanding policy that they do not share identity data with the Department of Homeland Security or any other agency.

Latino political leaders see full participation in the census as the culmination of heightened activism that began in the spring of 2006, when hundreds of thousands of Latinos marched in the streets to protest legislation then in Congress that would have toughened laws against illegal immigration. In 2007 they held a nationwide campaign to have Latino immigrants become United States citizens. That was followed last year with a huge voter registration drive.

“We want to tap into that same spirit,” said Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund, known as Naleo, a bipartisan group that is a main organizer of the census drive. “We have to go back to everybody and say, ‘Just as you marched, just as you naturalized, just as you voted, now you have to be counted.’ ”

One strategy is to encourage Latino immigrants to return the census forms by mail, rather than waiting for a census taker’s knock on the door, which could frighten illegal immigrants wary of immigration agents.

To that end, groups like Naleo, the National Council of La Razaand others are moving to tap the expanding social networks and the power of persuasion of evangelical churches, which have seen huge growth among Latinos in the last decade. At a recent meeting with religious leaders in Miami, Naleo unveiled a poster for churches to use during the Christmas season to talk up the census. It depicts Mary and Joseph, recalling that they went to Bethlehem to participate in a census.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/23/us/23latino.html

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4.
'Trail of Dreams' immigration march to D.C. starts in Miami Jan. 1
Jason Kane
The South Florida Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale), December 23, 2009

Manuel Guerra Casas may soon be deported.

The 26-year-old from Indiantown has been forced to withdraw from Kaplan University and was denied scholarships at a seminary. And if pending court proceedings don't go his way -- he'll also be heading back to Mexico.

So Guerra Casas plans to start walking to Washington D.C.

On Jan. 1, four young people will lace up their sneakers and head north from Miami toward the nation's capital along U.S. 1. The group hopes that each step will bring more attention to the fact that thousands of undocumented individuals, many who have lived in the U.S. since they were small children, are barred each year from continuing their education in the U.S.

Guerra Casas, also one of the organizers, plans to walk with them from Hobe Sound to Fort Pierce.

"The purpose of all this is to let the American people, Congress and the president know that we are no longer afraid of being undocumented -- that we are going to show who we are," he said. "We are coming out of the shadows."

They're calling it the Trail of Dreams, and the youth -- associated with Students Working for Equal Rights and supported by the Florida Immigrant Coalition and Reform Immigration for America -- plan to complete their trek to the National Mall by May 1.

At a rate of about 17 miles per day, they will pass through Hobe Sound Jan. 8, Stuart Jan. 9 and Fort Pierce Jan. 10. On Jan. 9, the walkers will gather at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Stuart to tell their stories to area residents. Guerra Casas said 200 people are expected.

The travelers would like to be joined in Washington by 100,000 supporters who will rally for the passage of the Development, Relief and Education Act for Alien Minors, or the DREAM Act.

The bill was introduced in both chambers of Congress in March with the intention of providing undocumented immigrant students who fit certain criteria a chance to earn conditional permanent residency.

Each year, tens of thousands of high school graduates can't pursue higher education because of their immigration status. The proposed legislation would put them on a conditional path to citizenship in exchange for the completion of a college degree or two years of military service.

But in an interview with USA Today, Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates less immigration, said the DREAM Act rewards "people who have broken the law with immigration benefits."
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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/sfl-trail-of-dreams-...

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5.
Immigrant Widowed in NY Ferry Crash Gets Residency
The Associated Press, December 22, 2009

New York (AP) -- A Jamaican woman whose American husband died in the 2003 Staten Island ferry crash has been granted permanent residency after years of fighting to stay in the country.

Lawyer Brent Renison says the government approved permanent residency for Osserritta Robinson on Tuesday and she is dropping her appeal pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.

President Barack Obama signed a law in October overturning a rule known as the ''widow's penalty'' that made foreigners subject to expulsion if their American spouses died within two years of marriage and before their applications for permanent residency had been approved.
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http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/12/22/us/AP-US-Widows-Penalty.html