1. State Dept. reviews visa program
2. Director in ethics investigation
3. Fast and Furious probe expanded
4. AL Gov. reassures foreign industries
5. Debate over skilled visas
1.
US orders review of student work visa program
By Holbrook Mohr
The Associated Press, December 6, 2011
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has ordered an "extensive and thorough review" of a foreign exchange program that has been used by U.S. businesses as a source of cheap labor and exploited by criminals to import women to work in the sex industry.
In the latest debacle for the J-1 Summer Work Travel visa, a federal indictment unsealed last week accuses the mafia of using the cultural exchange program to bring Eastern European women to work in New York strip clubs.
The U.S. House Judiciary Committee's immigration subcommittee also has been gathering information on the J-1 visa, which was created in 1963 to allow college students from other countries to spend their summer breaks living, working and traveling in the U.S.
As the program has grown to bring more than 100,000 young people here annually, it has become as much about money as cultural understanding.
The State Department has made several changes since an Associated Press investigation last year uncovered widespread abuses, including living and working conditions that some participants compared to indentured servitude.
In one of the worst cases, a woman told the AP she was beaten, raped and forced to work as a stripper in Detroit after being promised a job as a waitress in Virginia.
More common than sex trade abuses is shabby housing, scarce work hours and paltry pay. In August, dozens of workers protested conditions at a candy factory that packs Hershey chocolates in Hershey, Pennsylvania, complaining of hard physical labor and pay deductions for rent that often left them with little money.
A State Department spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Clinton "has called for an extensive and thorough review of the program."
"We continue to be committed to working to strengthen the Summer Work Travel Program to safeguard the health and welfare of the participants," the official said in an email late Friday. "We have already instituted one set of reforms and are working toward additional ones that take additional measures to protect participants and prioritize the original cultural intent of the program."
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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hb-D0NloERmWaxPbDfAyL0...
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2.
Director of federal drone program targeted in ethics inquiry
Tom Faller, head of Homeland Security's unmanned aircraft operations, took an unpaid position on the board of an industry group. Internal affairs is reviewing whether he violated rules in doing so.
By Brian Bennett
Los Angeles Times, December 5, 2011
The chief of the Homeland Security Department's drone aircraft program is facing an ethics investigation for joining the board of directors of the largest industry group promoting the use of unmanned aircraft, officials said Monday.
The internal affairs office of U.S. Customs and Border Protection is reviewing whether Tom Faller, director of unmanned aircraft systems operations, violated internal rules when he took an unpaid position as a board member of the Assn. for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International on Aug. 16.
Faller oversees eight Predator B surveillance drones that are chiefly used to help search for illegal immigrants and drug smugglers on the northern and southwestern borders.
In some cases, the drones also have been used to assist the Drug Enforcement Administration and other law enforcement agencies in criminal investigations, and to survey damage after floods and other natural disasters.
After inquiries from the Los Angeles Times last month, Faller notified the group on Nov. 23 that he was resigning from the board, said Melanie Hinton, a spokeswoman for the drone group. She said Faller did not attend any board meetings.
"Internal affairs is reviewing issues related to an employee's outside associations," Joanne Ferreira, a Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman, said Monday in response to questions about Faller. "We are unable to comment on any ongoing investigation."
If found in violation, Faller could be issued a written reprimand, suspended or dismissed from government. He has held the post since April 2009. He did not respond to requests for comment.
Over the last six years, Customs and Border Protection has spent more than $240 million to buy and operate eight drones. It's scheduled to add two more drones next summer.
"To the extent that the agency purchases any of this technology, there might be a conflict" of interest, said Stanley Brand, who was general counsel to the House of Representatives from 1976 to 1983, and is an expert on government ethics.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-drone-conflict-2011...
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3.
Issa expands Fast and Furious probe to include alleged money laundering
By Jordy Yager
The Hill (DC), December 5, 2011
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) has requested a briefing with the Justice Department over a news report that U.S. law enforcement officials helped Mexican drug cartels launder millions of dollars into the country.
The chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee made the request in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, in which he questioned DOJ head’s ability to lead the agency.
Issa has been investigating the DOJ’s authorization of a botched gun-tracking operation for most of the year and has increasingly criticized Holder, who is set to appear before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday.
“The existence of such a program again calls your leadership into question,” said Issa in his letter. “The managerial structure you have implemented lacks appropriate operational safeguards to prevent the implementation of such dangerous schemes. The consequences have been disastrous.”
According to an article published in the New York Times on Sunday, undercover agents with the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) helped transport millions of dollars in cash across the U.S.-Mexico border in an effort to study and dismantle the trafficking routes of drug cartels.
The article said the DEA allowed the drug cartels to continue functioning as they tracked their money moving methods.
A spokesperson for the DEA said the agency was not planning to reveal the details of particular operations to the public, but declined to state whether it would do so for members of Congress.
"We have been working collaboratively with the Mexican government to fight money laundering for years," said Dawn Dearden, a spokesperson for the DEA, in a e-mail. "As a result of this cooperation, we have seized illicit transnational criminal organization money all around the world through our partnership with law enforcement. We do not discuss the operational aspects of law enforcement activities."
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http://thehill.com/homenews/house/197339-issa-expands-dea-probe-to-inclu...
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4.
Ala. governor reassures foreign industries
The Associated Press, December 5, 2011
Alabama's governor said Monday he is worried the state's tough crackdown on illegal immigration law could hurt the recruitment of foreign industries, so he's reaching out to foreign executives to let them know that the state welcomes them.
"We are not anti-foreign companies. We are very pro-foreign companies," Bentley told reporters at the Capitol.
The Republican governor and other supporters of the law have described it as the nation's toughest. Some parts of it were put on hold by the federal courts, but major provisions took effect in late September, including allowing police to detain motorists who can't produce a valid driver's license. Since then, two foreign workers with the Mercedes-Benz and Honda auto assembly plants in Alabama have run into problems.
On Nov. 16, a German manager with Mercedes-Benz was arrested under the law in Tuscaloosa for not having a driver's license with him while driving a rental car. The charge was dismissed after the man provided documents in municipal court. Bentley said he learned about the arrest in a call from someone with Mercedes, but he did not say whom.
Last week, a Honda employee from Japan was detained under the law in Leeds. Police at a roadblock found him carrying an international driver's license and passport, but not an Alabama license or Japanese license as required by the law. Leeds police said they released the man under the immigration law at a magistrate's recommendation, and a city judge dismissed a charge of driving without a license.
Before the auto workers' problems, in early November, Bentley told a Birmingham business audience that the law had not hurt Alabama's image with industrial prospects. But Bentley now says the two arrests involving foreign auto workers "theoretically" could hurt Alabama's ability to recruit foreign industries.
"Obviously people worry about that. I worry about that. I want our image to be very positive because we are open for business in Alabama," he said.
Bentley's job as governor includes leading industrial recruitment efforts, and he said he is calling foreign executives as reassurance about the law. Bentley said he has talked with officials at companies including Mercedes and Golden Dragon, a Chinese company that has announced — but not yet built — a copper tubing plant in Thomasville. The governor said he's assured them that Alabama will work through any problems with the immigration law.
"People need to just calm down. Everything is going to be OK," he said.
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http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505245_162-57337008/ala-governor-reassures-f...
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5.
From Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley, a debate over highly skilled immigrants
By Steven Overly
The Washington Post, December 4, 2011
Chia-Pin Chang tacked one title onto his name last January when he earned a doctoral degree in computer engineering from George Washington University. Seven months later he added yet another: chief technology officer.
Along with a faculty mentor, the Taiwan native co-founded OptoBioSense after four years of developing a medical device that can quickly and cheaply measure the concentration of uric acid in a person’s body.
The fledgling firm faces many of the challenges that early-stage companies endure. It has patents under review, trials to run, federal regulators to appease and a nagging need for capital.
But the company’s biggest hurdle isn’t business-related. Chang’s soon-to-expire student visa will force him to leave the country, and likely close the business, come February unless he can secure an employer-sponsored green card.
“The difficulty I am finding when I try to find any jobs here is it requires either U.S. citizenship or the permanent residence, which I’m not qualified [for] right now,” Chang said. “As you know, the U.S. economy is not quite good so most domestic companies, they try to help American people, so actually they are less willing to sponsor the foreigner.”
It’s a dilemma that Chang shares with thousands of other immigrants who graduate from American universities each year with advanced degrees, yet can’t obtain the legal documents necessary to work here.
A growing number of policymakers, and some Republican presidential contenders, have recently proposed changing the system, arguing that highly skilled immigrants capable of starting companies in the United States offer the potential to create more jobs for Americans than they might take away.
But while the policy has consensus, it’s not an easy sell at a time when the economy is down and many Americans struggle to find work. Furthermore, some politicians and immigrant organizations only want comprehensive reform for immigration, rather than policies that cherry-pick one class of immigrants over another.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/from-capitol-hill...
