Posted on February 17, 2012 | Category: Videos

Chairman Gallegly, Ranking Member Lofgren, Members of the Subcommittee,

Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you about the efforts of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to protect the integrity of our nation’s immigration system and to help safeguard our nation’s security. I appreciate this Committee’s interest in learning about our continued prioritization of the agency’s efforts, which are unprecedented in their scope and effect.

I want to take the opportunity to thank the men and women of USCIS whose dedication to the agency’s mission is unwavering and whose hard work makes our vital mission a reality. Together as an agency we are committed to administering our nation’s immigration laws efficiently and with fairness, honesty, and integrity.

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Posted on February 17, 2012 | Category: Immigration News

Changes that make sense

It has been a while that I have seen changes from the Department of Homeland Security that made sense. I am not talking about changes in the law but changes in the implementation of the law that was assigned to the duty and task of the Department of Homeland Security. The first of these changes occurred in early 2011 when the Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) began to implement its elimination of the low priority cases from the immigration court dockets and instead to focus on its highest immigration enforcement priorities which include cases that involve national security, public safety, border security, and cases that compromise the integrity of the immigration system.  I want to be absolutely clear that there is no amnesty, no stoppage in removal of foreign nationals from the United States, and there are no changes in the enforcement side of the immigration law.  Rather, ICE devotes more attention and resources to the enforcement of the high priority cases.  After all, how many could you deport or remove when the budget and resources do not even amount to the enforcement of one tenth of the overall population of foreign nationals that are in the United States unlawfully.   Keep in mind that most of the low priority cases that were eliminated from the court dockets are cases in which the foreign nationals were eligible for relief from removal and should be granted residency status or cases in which it is not in the public interest to remove the foreign national, such as the victim of a criminal act.

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Posted on February 15, 2012 | Category: Newsletters

USCIS Announces Outreach to Chinese Immigrant Community
February 6, 2012
1:00 pm ET

Coordinator: Welcome and thank you for standing by. All participants will be in a listen-only mode until the question and answer session. To ask a question at that time please press star then 1.

Today’s conference is being recorded. If you have any objections you may disconnect at this time.

And now I’d like to turn the meeting over to Miss Edna Ruano, Chief of the Office of Communications for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Edna Ruano: Thank you (Becca). Welcome to today’s call with USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas. Before we begin the call wanted to set some guidelines.

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Posted on February 15, 2012 | Category: Immigration News

ORLANDO, Fla.—U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) today announced that Self Check, a free online service of E-Verify that allows workers to check their own employment eligibility status, is now available in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands. Launched in March 2011 by Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas, today’s announcement delivers on the goal of expanding Self Check nationally within one year.

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Posted on February 10, 2012 | Category: Immigration News