US Immigration News

As workpermit.com has already reported, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill on Dec. 16, 2005 that would affect many aspects of US immigration. The bill would criminalize the status of millions of non–U.S. citizens, mandate that lawful immigrants convicted of minor crimes be deported, require all employers in the U.S. to use a costly and unreliable electronic system to verify the employment eligibility of all workers, and fundamentally disrupt our society and economy.

The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service estimates that more than 7 million illegal immigrants are currently living in the country. A recent report by the Pew Hispanic Center calculated the number of undocumented immigrants at 10.3 million.

A shrinking labor force is the number one challenge facing the global hospitality industry, according to the International Society of Hospitality Consultants, which recently convened to brainstorm world issues and rank them according to importance.

The US' H-1B visas for Master's Degree graduates are disappearing fast, according to the latest update from US Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS), which says that just 1,364 visas are now available under this category.

Against the cap of 20,000 visas under the H-1B Master's Degree program for fiscal year 2006, as many as 16,478 visa petitions had been approved, and 2,158 additional petitions were pending in December-end 2005, according to latest data by USCIS.

Winter vegetable growers in California's Imperial Valley and the US state of Arizona offered bonuses to recruit workers for the current season, and some raisin producers in the southern San Joaquin Valley couldn't find help to handle their crop, according to reports.

The US House of Representatives adopted new immigration legislation, including a measure to set up vast border fences that has strained ties with Mexico, late on Dec. 16.The bill was adopted in a 239-182 vote, and deprived President George W. Bush of his proposed guest worker programme.