sreenivas11
06-17 07:36 AM
^^^^
wallpaper UFC fighter Chuck Liddell
gconmymind
05-29 11:17 PM
ramus, really appreciate your dedication in taking ownership of geeting people to send webfax. For the record sent the webfax, got my wife to send the web fax as well. Since people are so lazy if you ask somebody to send webfax, also include the url alteast that way they might click on the url and send the web fax. the url for the web fax is
http://immigrationvoice.org/index.php?option=com_iv_webfax&task=getContactDetails&Itemid=46
People for your own sake please follow all action alerts, web fax, calling senators emails etc. This is now or never
Error while sending fax....
Immigration Voice Web Fax
Message was not sent
Mailer Error: Language string failed to load: recipients_failedivoice-config@interpage.net
http://immigrationvoice.org/index.php?option=com_iv_webfax&task=getContactDetails&Itemid=46
People for your own sake please follow all action alerts, web fax, calling senators emails etc. This is now or never
Error while sending fax....
Immigration Voice Web Fax
Message was not sent
Mailer Error: Language string failed to load: recipients_failedivoice-config@interpage.net
tikka
06-07 01:14 PM
Have you had a chance to contribute as yet? if NOT please do so soon.
IV needs funds for lobbying efforts
thank you
I am surprised with this thread. There is no Deadline for employemnt based GC (this was mentioned by Sen. Robert (Bob) Men�ndez,NJ when requesting to move the FB deadline which is clearly mentioned in the bill as May 01, 2005) . Please read the summary and text carefully.
Summary:
First five years
Total number of merit-based green cards includes sum of:
a.) First five fiscal years have same number of green cards as made available to EB category in 2005. This number is 246,878.
b.) Any visa number not used by family based category.
How the total number will be divided between Current system and new merit-based system and Y visa holders --
- 10,000 (or more) reserved for exceptional aliens under �Y� visa category.
- 90,000 (exactly 90,000 � not more not less) for backlogged (pending or approved I-140 applications). Currently, this number is 140,000.
- Remaining possibly goes to new merits system. Until the merits system is ready for accepting petitions, the Y visa holders probably get a shot at this since the clause says �No more than 10,000� � leaving room to let it go up from 10,000 to whatever is left.
and the TEXT of the Bill
�(A) for the first five fiscal years shall be equal to the
33 number of immigrant visas made available to aliens
34 seeking immigrant visas under section 203(b) of this
35 Act for fiscal year 2005, plus any immigrant visas
36 not required for the class specified in (c), of which:
37 (i) at least 10,000 will be for exceptional aliens
38 in nonimmigrant status under section
39 101(a)(15)(Y); and
40 (ii) 90,000 will be for aliens who were the
41 beneficiaries of an application that was pending
42 or approved at the time of the effective date of
43 this section, per Section 502(d) of the [Insert
44 title of Act] ( Act not the bill)
(c) EFFECTIVE DATE.�The amendments made by this section shall take
11 effect on the first day of the fiscal year subsequent to the fiscal year of
12 enactment.
So a bill becomes law only after signed by the president, and the effective date could be Oct 01, 2007 if not Oct 01, 2008.
So all the I-140 filed on of before Effective date are considered as pending!!
I don't know why even lawyers are getting confused here!:confused:
IV needs funds for lobbying efforts
thank you
I am surprised with this thread. There is no Deadline for employemnt based GC (this was mentioned by Sen. Robert (Bob) Men�ndez,NJ when requesting to move the FB deadline which is clearly mentioned in the bill as May 01, 2005) . Please read the summary and text carefully.
Summary:
First five years
Total number of merit-based green cards includes sum of:
a.) First five fiscal years have same number of green cards as made available to EB category in 2005. This number is 246,878.
b.) Any visa number not used by family based category.
How the total number will be divided between Current system and new merit-based system and Y visa holders --
- 10,000 (or more) reserved for exceptional aliens under �Y� visa category.
- 90,000 (exactly 90,000 � not more not less) for backlogged (pending or approved I-140 applications). Currently, this number is 140,000.
- Remaining possibly goes to new merits system. Until the merits system is ready for accepting petitions, the Y visa holders probably get a shot at this since the clause says �No more than 10,000� � leaving room to let it go up from 10,000 to whatever is left.
and the TEXT of the Bill
�(A) for the first five fiscal years shall be equal to the
33 number of immigrant visas made available to aliens
34 seeking immigrant visas under section 203(b) of this
35 Act for fiscal year 2005, plus any immigrant visas
36 not required for the class specified in (c), of which:
37 (i) at least 10,000 will be for exceptional aliens
38 in nonimmigrant status under section
39 101(a)(15)(Y); and
40 (ii) 90,000 will be for aliens who were the
41 beneficiaries of an application that was pending
42 or approved at the time of the effective date of
43 this section, per Section 502(d) of the [Insert
44 title of Act] ( Act not the bill)
(c) EFFECTIVE DATE.�The amendments made by this section shall take
11 effect on the first day of the fiscal year subsequent to the fiscal year of
12 enactment.
So a bill becomes law only after signed by the president, and the effective date could be Oct 01, 2007 if not Oct 01, 2008.
So all the I-140 filed on of before Effective date are considered as pending!!
I don't know why even lawyers are getting confused here!:confused:
2011 M-1 fighter Toni Valtonen has
hyderabad123
04-27 08:08 AM
Hi mhssatya,
Better to hire local attorney, you guys can go at one time for an interview. Please do keep me posted after the interview.
I had interview on Mar 30th on I-485 Interview,
Earlier we got an denial on I-485 bcz of withdrawn my approved I-140 from Previous Employer.
Before itself I moved new employer uncer AC 21 portability.
We applied MTR on I-485 and thet is approved.
After that we recieved interview letter. The interview was Good, end of the interview, the officer told us, that will review again, if any docs needed will let you know with in 2 weeks.
Still didnt recive any response. Can you guys please do advice on my case, can i call to customer care on my case or better to go take an info pass.
Thanks
Better to hire local attorney, you guys can go at one time for an interview. Please do keep me posted after the interview.
I had interview on Mar 30th on I-485 Interview,
Earlier we got an denial on I-485 bcz of withdrawn my approved I-140 from Previous Employer.
Before itself I moved new employer uncer AC 21 portability.
We applied MTR on I-485 and thet is approved.
After that we recieved interview letter. The interview was Good, end of the interview, the officer told us, that will review again, if any docs needed will let you know with in 2 weeks.
Still didnt recive any response. Can you guys please do advice on my case, can i call to customer care on my case or better to go take an info pass.
Thanks
more...
simplistik
03-06 06:54 PM
heh... the problem w/ this is... all the sites seem to be influenced by one another... and progressively got better... :( you all should've kept your stuff under wraps until the end
Suva
03-03 01:53 PM
Thanks...
adjusted Gross Income:)
adjusted Gross Income:)
more...
sobers
07-26 03:24 PM
Guess I've lot track of time now too
:)
anyway its going to be important to keep an eye on bills like these given that CIR is not going anywhere, and SKIL is not looking too good either. the 20,000advanced degree H1B exemption was introduced in the 2004-05 Omnibus Appropriations bill. maybe we can get a few simple administrative provisions like 485 filing in some bill.
I mean last year they got the real ID provisions in the iraq spending bill. this is not anywhere as controversial as that, but we we need the will to get this through. maybe we can have a fundraising effort for just this purpose...i'm sure lots of folks would join in..
I know you guys are doing your best under the present circumstances...
:)
anyway its going to be important to keep an eye on bills like these given that CIR is not going anywhere, and SKIL is not looking too good either. the 20,000advanced degree H1B exemption was introduced in the 2004-05 Omnibus Appropriations bill. maybe we can get a few simple administrative provisions like 485 filing in some bill.
I mean last year they got the real ID provisions in the iraq spending bill. this is not anywhere as controversial as that, but we we need the will to get this through. maybe we can have a fundraising effort for just this purpose...i'm sure lots of folks would join in..
I know you guys are doing your best under the present circumstances...
2010 A Nazi symbol tattoo has
saketkapur
10-09 07:56 AM
situation is quite different from CA. True, for first time driver's license, you have to show legal status proof. But, you are issued license for 4 years, irrespective of when your current status expires.
For DL renewal in CA, it happens by mail. You once again get 4 year license. No status proof required.
There is definitely no concept of different form of DL in CA where an officer will be able to receogize from the DL, whether is PR or not, as has become the law in Texas.
CA is quite cool with respect to DL renewals.
CA is now issuing lisences only until you can show the proof of residency...in my case it was the H1B stamp. Also it took them 3 months to renew my lisence...another reason to keep my H1B and not move onto EAD.
For DL renewal in CA, it happens by mail. You once again get 4 year license. No status proof required.
There is definitely no concept of different form of DL in CA where an officer will be able to receogize from the DL, whether is PR or not, as has become the law in Texas.
CA is quite cool with respect to DL renewals.
CA is now issuing lisences only until you can show the proof of residency...in my case it was the H1B stamp. Also it took them 3 months to renew my lisence...another reason to keep my H1B and not move onto EAD.
more...
lostinbeta
10-04 12:12 AM
Oh yeah "layer 1" just refers to the layer with the original shape and "layer 2" just refers to the layer with the fill. They assume you aren't giving names to your layers which is why they have it in quotes.
hair tattoo arm bands_28.
DDash
10-27 10:18 PM
Folks - everyday I go to sleep I wish that tomorrow the sun will rise in the west. When I wake up I see that nothing has changed.
Why do you wish that Sun should rise in the west??? :eek:
Why do you wish that Sun should rise in the west??? :eek:
more...
kumarc123
01-23 06:48 PM
Hi
Can someone please tell me how to post a new thread, lately I saw a post reflecting on us citizenship for international students who will serve in army intelligence, if someone could please post that thread here, I tried looking for it.
Please help me out here,
Thank you
Can someone please tell me how to post a new thread, lately I saw a post reflecting on us citizenship for international students who will serve in army intelligence, if someone could please post that thread here, I tried looking for it.
Please help me out here,
Thank you
hot hairstyles UFC Fighter Mac
looivy
02-22 02:37 PM
Hi,
Recently, I applied for H1 extension (change of employer) at Mumbai COnsulate. The Visa officer said all my documents are good but still issued me a yellow form that says that administrative process is required for my case. She gave me back my passport and the yellow form. The application is pending.
I have a valid EAD and AP. Is it possible for me to abandon the H1 process and enter US on EAD and AP.
I am looking for legal expertise here.
Thanks.
Recently, I applied for H1 extension (change of employer) at Mumbai COnsulate. The Visa officer said all my documents are good but still issued me a yellow form that says that administrative process is required for my case. She gave me back my passport and the yellow form. The application is pending.
I have a valid EAD and AP. Is it possible for me to abandon the H1 process and enter US on EAD and AP.
I am looking for legal expertise here.
Thanks.
more...
house ufc fighters tattoos
chanduv23
12-16 10:59 AM
A freind of mine had two years EAD and don't have H1 anymore. His drivers License was denied as EAD is not considered a valid document for drivers License extention.
This happened in Wayne , NJ.
I too will be going for the renewal soon. Did anyone else faced similar situtation. If yes, how did they resolve?
We must get this addressed. Write to the DMV to sort this out. Pending 485 is a valid status and that needs to be sorted out.
Lets make a list of DMVs not accepting pending 485 as valid form.
This happened in Wayne , NJ.
I too will be going for the renewal soon. Did anyone else faced similar situtation. If yes, how did they resolve?
We must get this addressed. Write to the DMV to sort this out. Pending 485 is a valid status and that needs to be sorted out.
Lets make a list of DMVs not accepting pending 485 as valid form.
tattoo Mma Fighter Tattoos Mike Tyson
dpp
06-28 02:52 PM
Use your PERM labor one - thats the safest, I have used that - Attorney signed off saying that is right
Its wrong. Please check with other senior attorney. It is going to be a problem if you used like that.
Its wrong. Please check with other senior attorney. It is going to be a problem if you used like that.
more...
pictures ufc tattoos, ufc fighter
deba
06-14 07:52 PM
What do you mean by AP and EAD delayed? Once you have applied for your 485 and all things considered OK, you should get your AP and EAD. If dates retrogress again, you will have to keep renewing your AP and EAD till you get your GC. How long it will take to get AP and EAD? Right now, I believe it will take a lot longer, maybe upto 6 months given the load of apps. they will receive.
dresses wallpaper ufc fighters
mrdelhiite
07-24 03:23 PM
One of my good friend asked me this questions yesterday? I did not have an answer for him and wanted to ask if someone could have any suggestions on this.
Thanks you for your time.
His company wants to start his EB2 green card process. He was wondering if this a good time to do this? Is it recommended that he delay this process for 6 months or so? He is currently in his 3rd year of H1B.
Thanks
-M
Thanks you for your time.
His company wants to start his EB2 green card process. He was wondering if this a good time to do this? Is it recommended that he delay this process for 6 months or so? He is currently in his 3rd year of H1B.
Thanks
-M
more...
makeup ufc fighter tattoos
johnnybhai
11-19 02:10 PM
You can print the forms and make the changes. I had done this June this year when I had to change the issuing office. No problems at all.
About the drafts, you have to make separate drafts - one set for each applicant.
The fees payable at HDFC Bank per passport are: -
1. Visa Application Fee (MRV Fee): $100 in Indian Rupee equivalent at consular rate of exchange. Rupee amount at current rate of exchange (Rs. 40/-) is Rs 4,000/-
This fee is payable in cash or by DD/HDFC Bank cheque favouring �US Embassy - Visa Fees�. DDs issued by cooperative banks are not accepted.
2. Service Charge: Rs.322/- which includes VFS� service charge Rs310/- & Bank service charge Rs12/- (inclusive of Service Tax @ 12% and Education Cess Tax @0.36%)
This fee is payable in cash or by DD/HDFC Bank cheque favouring �HDFC Bank a/c VFS�. DDs issued by cooperative banks are not accepted.
About the drafts, you have to make separate drafts - one set for each applicant.
The fees payable at HDFC Bank per passport are: -
1. Visa Application Fee (MRV Fee): $100 in Indian Rupee equivalent at consular rate of exchange. Rupee amount at current rate of exchange (Rs. 40/-) is Rs 4,000/-
This fee is payable in cash or by DD/HDFC Bank cheque favouring �US Embassy - Visa Fees�. DDs issued by cooperative banks are not accepted.
2. Service Charge: Rs.322/- which includes VFS� service charge Rs310/- & Bank service charge Rs12/- (inclusive of Service Tax @ 12% and Education Cess Tax @0.36%)
This fee is payable in cash or by DD/HDFC Bank cheque favouring �HDFC Bank a/c VFS�. DDs issued by cooperative banks are not accepted.
girlfriend UFC Fighter Rich Franklin
smiledentist
10-21 04:55 PM
I work as a dentist in a company which was held in partnership by 2 partners.I have a approved H1b and my I 140 is filed in May 2006.Now as of Oct 01 2006 the original company is finished as the partners have seperated.I am confused about my case, if I have to file a new H1b and 140 or an ammendment or just nothing.The tax id number for the company which will now give my paycheck has changed.As for me my work location has not changed and I still work in the same position.Can I take paychecks from the new company which now belongs to one of the partners or do I need to inform immigration to refile H1 or I140 or both.Any advice is appriciated.
Please help, in my case my I 140 is approved under EB2 but the old company is split.I have since then joined a new company and have a new H1b but yet to start thr PERM process.I am still in good terms with both partners of the old company.Can I file 485 from the old company and use ac21.
Please help, in my case my I 140 is approved under EB2 but the old company is split.I have since then joined a new company and have a new H1b but yet to start thr PERM process.I am still in good terms with both partners of the old company.Can I file 485 from the old company and use ac21.
hairstyles kimbo ufc fight fighter
GodHelpUs
03-21 10:48 AM
I am really shocked on looking at this article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/nyregion/21immigrant.html?hp
An Agent, a Green Card, and a Demand for Sex
Article Tools Sponsored By
By NINA BERNSTEIN
Published: March 21, 2008
No problems so far, the immigration agent told the American citizen and his 22-year-old Colombian wife at her green card interview in December. After he stapled one of their wedding photos to her application for legal permanent residency, he had just one more question: What was her cellphone number?
Skip to next paragraph
Enlarge This Image
Uli Seit for The New York Times
Isaac R. Baichu, 46, an adjudicator for the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, was arrested after he met with a green card applicant at the Flagship Restaurant, a diner in Queens. He is charged with coercing oral sex from her.
Audio A Secret Recording
Enlarge This Image
Uli Seit for The New York Times
The Flagship Restaurant, where Mr. Baichu met with a green card applicant.
The calls from the agent started three days later. He hinted, she said, at his power to derail her life and deport her relatives, alluding to a brush she had with the law before her marriage. He summoned her to a private meeting. And at noon on Dec. 21, in a parked car on Queens Boulevard, he named his price � not realizing that she was recording everything on the cellphone in her purse.
�I want sex,� he said on the recording. �One or two times. That�s all. You get your green card. You won�t have to see me anymore.�
She reluctantly agreed to a future meeting. But when she tried to leave his car, he demanded oral sex �now,� to �know that you�re serious.� And despite her protests, she said, he got his way.
The 16-minute recording, which the woman first took to The New York Times and then to the Queens district attorney, suggests the vast power of low-level immigration law enforcers, and a growing desperation on the part of immigrants seeking legal status. The aftermath, which included the arrest of an immigration agent last week, underscores the difficulty and danger of making a complaint, even in the rare case when abuse of power may have been caught on tape.
No one knows how widespread sexual blackmail is, but the case echoes other instances of sexual coercion that have surfaced in recent years, including agents criminally charged in Atlanta, Miami and Santa Ana, Calif. And it raises broader questions about the system�s vulnerability to corruption at a time when millions of noncitizens live in a kind of legal no-man�s land, increasingly fearful of seeking the law�s protection.
The agent arrested last week, Isaac R. Baichu, 46, himself an immigrant from Guyana, handled some 8,000 green card applications during his three years as an adjudicator in the Garden City, N.Y., office of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, part of the federal Department of Homeland Security. He pleaded not guilty to felony and misdemeanor charges of coercing the young woman to perform oral sex, and of promising to help her secure immigration papers in exchange for further sexual favors. If convicted, he will face up to seven years in prison.
His agency has suspended him with pay, and the inspector general of Homeland Security is reviewing his other cases, a spokesman said Wednesday. Prosecutors, who say they recorded a meeting between Mr. Baichu and the woman on March 11 at which he made similar demands for sex, urge any other victims to come forward.
Money, not sex, is the more common currency of corruption in immigration, but according to Congressional testimony in 2006 by Michael Maxwell, former director of the agency�s internal investigations, more than 3,000 backlogged complaints of employee misconduct had gone uninvestigated for lack of staff, including 528 involving criminal allegations.
The agency says it has tripled its investigative staff since then, and counts only 165 serious complaints pending. But it stopped posting an e-mail address and phone number for such complaints last year, said Jan Lane, chief of security and integrity, because it lacks the staff to cull the thousands of mostly irrelevant messages that resulted. Immigrants, she advised, should report wrongdoing to any law enforcement agency they trust.
The young woman in Queens, whose name is being withheld because the authorities consider her the victim of a sex crime, did not even tell her husband what had happened. Two weeks after the meeting in the car, finding no way to make a confidential complaint to the immigration agency and afraid to go to the police, she and two older female relatives took the recording to The Times.
Reasons to Worry
A slim, shy woman who looks like a teenager, she said she had spent recent months baby-sitting for relatives in Queens, crying over the deaths of her two brothers back in Cali, Colombia, and longing for the right stamp in her passport � one that would let her return to the United States if she visited her family.
She came to the United States on a tourist visa in 2004 and overstayed. When she married an American citizen a year ago, the law allowed her to apply to �adjust� her illegal status. But unless her green card application was approved, she could not visit her parents or her brothers� graves and then legally re-enter the United States. And if her application was denied, she would face deportation.
She had another reason to be fearful, and not only for herself. About 15 months ago, she said, an acquaintance hired her and two female relatives in New York to carry $12,000 in cash to the bank. The three women, all living in the country illegally, were arrested on the street by customs officers apparently acting on a tip in a money-laundering investigation. After determining that the women had no useful information, the officers released them.
But the closed investigation file had showed up in the computer when she applied for a green card, Mr. Baichu told her in December; until he obtained the file and dealt with it, her application would not be approved. If she defied him, she feared, he could summon immigration enforcement agents to take her relatives to detention.
So instead of calling the police, she turned on the video recorder in her cellphone, put the phone in her purse and walked to meet the agent. Two family members said they watched anxiously from their parked car as she disappeared behind the tinted windows of his red Lexus.
�We were worried that the guy would take off, take her away and do something to her,� the woman�s widowed sister-in-law said in Spanish.
As the recorder captured the agent�s words and a lilting Guyanese accent, he laid out his terms in an easy, almost paternal style. He would not ask too much, he said: sex �once or twice,� visits to his home in the Bronx, perhaps a link to other Colombians who needed his help with their immigration problems.
In shaky English, the woman expressed reluctance, and questioned how she could be sure he would keep his word.
�If I do it, it�s like very hard for me, because I have my husband, and I really fall in love with him,� she said.
The agent insisted that she had to trust him. �I wouldn�t ask you to do something for me if I can�t do something for you, right?� he said, and reasoned, �Nobody going to help you for nothing,� noting that she had no money.
He described himself as the single father of a 10-year-old daughter, telling her, �I need love, too,� and predicting, �You will get to like me because I�m a nice guy.�
Repeatedly, she responded �O.K.,� without conviction. At one point he thanked her for showing up, saying, �I know you feel very scared.�
Finally, she tried to leave. �Let me go because I tell my husband I come home,� she said.
His reply, the recording shows, was a blunt demand for oral sex.
�Right now? No!� she protested. �No, no, right now I can�t.�
He insisted, cajoled, even empathized. �I came from a different country, too,� he said. �I got my green card just like you.�
Then, she said, he grabbed her. During the speechless minute that follows on the recording, she said she yielded to his demand out of fear that he would use his authority against her.
How Much Corruption?
The charges against Mr. Baichu, who became a United States citizen in 1991 and earns roughly $50,000 a year, appear to be part of a larger pattern, according to government records and interviews.
Mr. Maxwell, the immigration agency�s former chief investigator, told Congress in 2006 that internal corruption was �rampant,� and that employees faced constant temptations to commit crime.
�It is only a small step from granting a discretionary waiver of an eligibility rule to asking for a favor or taking a bribe in exchange for granting that waiver,� he contended. �Once an employee learns he can get away with low-level corruption and still advance up the ranks, he or she becomes more brazen.�
�Despite our best efforts there are always people ready to use their position for personal gain or personal pleasure,� said Chris Bentley, a spokesman for Citizenship and Immigration Services. �Our responsibility is to ferret them out.�
When the Queens woman came to The Times with her recording on Jan. 3, she was afraid of retaliation from the agent, and uncertain about making a criminal complaint, though she had an appointment the next day at the Queens district attorney�s office.
Mr. Baichu was arrested as he emerged from the diner and headed to his car, wearing much gold and diamond jewelry, prosecutors said. Later released on $15,000 bail, Mr. Baichu referred calls for comment to his lawyer, Sally Attia, who said he did not have authority to grant or deny green card petitions without his supervisor�s approval.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/nyregion/21immigrant.html?hp
An Agent, a Green Card, and a Demand for Sex
Article Tools Sponsored By
By NINA BERNSTEIN
Published: March 21, 2008
No problems so far, the immigration agent told the American citizen and his 22-year-old Colombian wife at her green card interview in December. After he stapled one of their wedding photos to her application for legal permanent residency, he had just one more question: What was her cellphone number?
Skip to next paragraph
Enlarge This Image
Uli Seit for The New York Times
Isaac R. Baichu, 46, an adjudicator for the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, was arrested after he met with a green card applicant at the Flagship Restaurant, a diner in Queens. He is charged with coercing oral sex from her.
Audio A Secret Recording
Enlarge This Image
Uli Seit for The New York Times
The Flagship Restaurant, where Mr. Baichu met with a green card applicant.
The calls from the agent started three days later. He hinted, she said, at his power to derail her life and deport her relatives, alluding to a brush she had with the law before her marriage. He summoned her to a private meeting. And at noon on Dec. 21, in a parked car on Queens Boulevard, he named his price � not realizing that she was recording everything on the cellphone in her purse.
�I want sex,� he said on the recording. �One or two times. That�s all. You get your green card. You won�t have to see me anymore.�
She reluctantly agreed to a future meeting. But when she tried to leave his car, he demanded oral sex �now,� to �know that you�re serious.� And despite her protests, she said, he got his way.
The 16-minute recording, which the woman first took to The New York Times and then to the Queens district attorney, suggests the vast power of low-level immigration law enforcers, and a growing desperation on the part of immigrants seeking legal status. The aftermath, which included the arrest of an immigration agent last week, underscores the difficulty and danger of making a complaint, even in the rare case when abuse of power may have been caught on tape.
No one knows how widespread sexual blackmail is, but the case echoes other instances of sexual coercion that have surfaced in recent years, including agents criminally charged in Atlanta, Miami and Santa Ana, Calif. And it raises broader questions about the system�s vulnerability to corruption at a time when millions of noncitizens live in a kind of legal no-man�s land, increasingly fearful of seeking the law�s protection.
The agent arrested last week, Isaac R. Baichu, 46, himself an immigrant from Guyana, handled some 8,000 green card applications during his three years as an adjudicator in the Garden City, N.Y., office of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, part of the federal Department of Homeland Security. He pleaded not guilty to felony and misdemeanor charges of coercing the young woman to perform oral sex, and of promising to help her secure immigration papers in exchange for further sexual favors. If convicted, he will face up to seven years in prison.
His agency has suspended him with pay, and the inspector general of Homeland Security is reviewing his other cases, a spokesman said Wednesday. Prosecutors, who say they recorded a meeting between Mr. Baichu and the woman on March 11 at which he made similar demands for sex, urge any other victims to come forward.
Money, not sex, is the more common currency of corruption in immigration, but according to Congressional testimony in 2006 by Michael Maxwell, former director of the agency�s internal investigations, more than 3,000 backlogged complaints of employee misconduct had gone uninvestigated for lack of staff, including 528 involving criminal allegations.
The agency says it has tripled its investigative staff since then, and counts only 165 serious complaints pending. But it stopped posting an e-mail address and phone number for such complaints last year, said Jan Lane, chief of security and integrity, because it lacks the staff to cull the thousands of mostly irrelevant messages that resulted. Immigrants, she advised, should report wrongdoing to any law enforcement agency they trust.
The young woman in Queens, whose name is being withheld because the authorities consider her the victim of a sex crime, did not even tell her husband what had happened. Two weeks after the meeting in the car, finding no way to make a confidential complaint to the immigration agency and afraid to go to the police, she and two older female relatives took the recording to The Times.
Reasons to Worry
A slim, shy woman who looks like a teenager, she said she had spent recent months baby-sitting for relatives in Queens, crying over the deaths of her two brothers back in Cali, Colombia, and longing for the right stamp in her passport � one that would let her return to the United States if she visited her family.
She came to the United States on a tourist visa in 2004 and overstayed. When she married an American citizen a year ago, the law allowed her to apply to �adjust� her illegal status. But unless her green card application was approved, she could not visit her parents or her brothers� graves and then legally re-enter the United States. And if her application was denied, she would face deportation.
She had another reason to be fearful, and not only for herself. About 15 months ago, she said, an acquaintance hired her and two female relatives in New York to carry $12,000 in cash to the bank. The three women, all living in the country illegally, were arrested on the street by customs officers apparently acting on a tip in a money-laundering investigation. After determining that the women had no useful information, the officers released them.
But the closed investigation file had showed up in the computer when she applied for a green card, Mr. Baichu told her in December; until he obtained the file and dealt with it, her application would not be approved. If she defied him, she feared, he could summon immigration enforcement agents to take her relatives to detention.
So instead of calling the police, she turned on the video recorder in her cellphone, put the phone in her purse and walked to meet the agent. Two family members said they watched anxiously from their parked car as she disappeared behind the tinted windows of his red Lexus.
�We were worried that the guy would take off, take her away and do something to her,� the woman�s widowed sister-in-law said in Spanish.
As the recorder captured the agent�s words and a lilting Guyanese accent, he laid out his terms in an easy, almost paternal style. He would not ask too much, he said: sex �once or twice,� visits to his home in the Bronx, perhaps a link to other Colombians who needed his help with their immigration problems.
In shaky English, the woman expressed reluctance, and questioned how she could be sure he would keep his word.
�If I do it, it�s like very hard for me, because I have my husband, and I really fall in love with him,� she said.
The agent insisted that she had to trust him. �I wouldn�t ask you to do something for me if I can�t do something for you, right?� he said, and reasoned, �Nobody going to help you for nothing,� noting that she had no money.
He described himself as the single father of a 10-year-old daughter, telling her, �I need love, too,� and predicting, �You will get to like me because I�m a nice guy.�
Repeatedly, she responded �O.K.,� without conviction. At one point he thanked her for showing up, saying, �I know you feel very scared.�
Finally, she tried to leave. �Let me go because I tell my husband I come home,� she said.
His reply, the recording shows, was a blunt demand for oral sex.
�Right now? No!� she protested. �No, no, right now I can�t.�
He insisted, cajoled, even empathized. �I came from a different country, too,� he said. �I got my green card just like you.�
Then, she said, he grabbed her. During the speechless minute that follows on the recording, she said she yielded to his demand out of fear that he would use his authority against her.
How Much Corruption?
The charges against Mr. Baichu, who became a United States citizen in 1991 and earns roughly $50,000 a year, appear to be part of a larger pattern, according to government records and interviews.
Mr. Maxwell, the immigration agency�s former chief investigator, told Congress in 2006 that internal corruption was �rampant,� and that employees faced constant temptations to commit crime.
�It is only a small step from granting a discretionary waiver of an eligibility rule to asking for a favor or taking a bribe in exchange for granting that waiver,� he contended. �Once an employee learns he can get away with low-level corruption and still advance up the ranks, he or she becomes more brazen.�
�Despite our best efforts there are always people ready to use their position for personal gain or personal pleasure,� said Chris Bentley, a spokesman for Citizenship and Immigration Services. �Our responsibility is to ferret them out.�
When the Queens woman came to The Times with her recording on Jan. 3, she was afraid of retaliation from the agent, and uncertain about making a criminal complaint, though she had an appointment the next day at the Queens district attorney�s office.
Mr. Baichu was arrested as he emerged from the diner and headed to his car, wearing much gold and diamond jewelry, prosecutors said. Later released on $15,000 bail, Mr. Baichu referred calls for comment to his lawyer, Sally Attia, who said he did not have authority to grant or deny green card petitions without his supervisor�s approval.
gsc999
11-14 08:54 PM
This is the time to channelize all your frustration into positive energy. Yes, we can collective work towards ending retrogression.
Join your State Chapter today
Follow the link
http://immigrationvoice.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=72&Itemid=52
Come on folks, this is time for action.
Start working towards IVs goals and you will be glad that you are doing it.
----
Absolutely, join the state chapters and join hands to act. If not than be prepared to wait for a rreally long time for your GCs.
Join your State Chapter today
Follow the link
http://immigrationvoice.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=72&Itemid=52
Come on folks, this is time for action.
Start working towards IVs goals and you will be glad that you are doing it.
----
Absolutely, join the state chapters and join hands to act. If not than be prepared to wait for a rreally long time for your GCs.
indianindian2006
07-24 03:41 PM
Hi,
My situation is as follows:
1) approved RIR labor 2002
2) approved perm labor 2005
3) approved i-140 2006 (PD 2005)
4) ALL of above for company-A. 2006 company-B took over.
My lawyer said i cannot file and have to start again with new labor as merger/acquistion was 'asset only' type.
I want to self-file i-485 giving the company "name change" letter as the only proof along with the rest of regular documents. Company-B employer is in 100% support of my application.
SHOULD I just waste $$$$ money or take a chance ? PLEASE HELP...TIRED OF WAITING FOR LAST 5 years :(
Regards,
-Ravi
I was wondering if you file for perm with company B and then at the time of 140 try to get the 2002 date of the RIR which is approved,if that can happen then you may be fine.I can be wrong in this.
My situation is as follows:
1) approved RIR labor 2002
2) approved perm labor 2005
3) approved i-140 2006 (PD 2005)
4) ALL of above for company-A. 2006 company-B took over.
My lawyer said i cannot file and have to start again with new labor as merger/acquistion was 'asset only' type.
I want to self-file i-485 giving the company "name change" letter as the only proof along with the rest of regular documents. Company-B employer is in 100% support of my application.
SHOULD I just waste $$$$ money or take a chance ? PLEASE HELP...TIRED OF WAITING FOR LAST 5 years :(
Regards,
-Ravi
I was wondering if you file for perm with company B and then at the time of 140 try to get the 2002 date of the RIR which is approved,if that can happen then you may be fine.I can be wrong in this.
No comments:
Post a Comment