US Immigration News

Recent changes to an application form for U.S. citizens to marry foreign nationals have delayed up to 10,000 visas. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) attempted to make some changes to regulations that would give stronger protection to foreign-born brides and grooms, but several thousand visa applications have been held up due to a missed deadline.

As the United States' federal government wrestles with the immigration issue, states are implementing their own plans. Here's a state-by-state look:

Alabama

Arizona

On the day that Congress began dueling hearings on competing versions of immigration reform, President Bush reasserted his desire for a comprehensive plan to give legal status to the more than 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. while tightening borders and cracking down on unlawful hiring.

Jim Goodnight, the outspoken chief executive officer of software giant SAS, has said the UK and US governments must open their borders to skilled overseas IT workers in order to remain competitive and foster a culture of innovation.

Goodnight said that the IT industry is crying out for changes to immigration laws and added that SAS has slowed its hiring in the US in favour of growing its teams in India and China where he believes there is a rich pool of talent.

The United States Census Bureau is running a computer simulation that calculates how many people live in the United States. Every 11 seconds, a new person enters the country, either by birth or by immigration. A lucky 50,000 each year get in by green card lottery.

President George Bush called for approximately 6,000 National Guard by the end of July to temporarily patrol the U.S.-Mexican border in a policy speech in May. The idea was to immediately increase the security of the border while new personnel were recruited for the Border Patrol. On the 30 June deadline to have 2,500 troops along the Mexican border, the National Guard said Friday that only 483 were in position and working with the U.S. Border Patrol.