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On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee voted 19-11 to pass Rep. Bob Goodlatte’s (R-VA) SAFE Act to abolish the Diversity Visa Lottery. The bill will now go before the full House. Most Americans do not even know that we have a lottery to give out Visas, but the rest of the world knows. In 2009, more than 15 million applications for the Visa Lottery were filled online. The only requirement is a high school diploma or some equivalency. The immigrants are selected by simply put the applications in a lottery. 50,000 Diversity Immigrant Visas are then granted random chance. John...

[snip] The new arrivals are buying or building high-end homes in Westlake, Lakeway and the northern suburbs, according to real estate agents. They're also buying apartment complexes, opening restaurants and investing in high-tech businesses. In October, information technology firm Evox, based in Monterrey, Nuevo León, invested $2.4 million in an Austin office, hiring 11 employees. That money helps the company bypass the long waiting list that forces many of their countrymen to wait years to immigrate legally. Many receive visas that give them legal residency in return for investing large sums of money in the U.S. and creating jobs. Some...

WASHINGTON — US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday the United States is easing visa terms for Iranian students here as part of efforts to support their aspirations for political change back home. In what she called a "big step forward" in the Obama administration support's for Iran's people, Clinton said Iranian students and exchange visitors are now eligible for two-year, multiple entry visas. "This gives young Iranians the opportunity to return home for family events, to participate in internships, to travel outside the United States -- and they won't need to get a new visa every time," she...

Almost a decade after Middle Eastern terrorists with expired visas attacked the U.S., the government has failed to implement a security measure to adequately track foreigners like them who enter the country legally but never leave. As a result nearly half of the nation’s estimated 12 million illegal immigrants actually entered the U.S. legally but overstayed their visa, according to a new federal report. That’s because the agency responsible for keeping the nation safe—the Department of Homeland Security—can’t keep track of immigrants who remain in the U.S. after their visas expire. This clearly creates a huge national security issue...

The Obama administration is making it possible for more foreign students studying in the U.S. on visas to stay and get practical training in their career fields. The administration is expanding the list of science, technology, engineering and math degrees that allow foreign students who earn them to stay in the U.S. up to 17 months after graduating. Those months can be spent working. The time also could mean the student may not have to leave before getting an H-1B visa, a visa reserved for high-skilled workers that can last for up to six years.

SALT LAKE CITY — The immigration controversy has reached the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with one Latino member of the Utah community's request that Mexico suspend all LDS missionary visas to the nation. Raul Lopez-Vargas, former vice president of Centro Civico Mexicano, one of Utah's oldest Latino community centers, has sent a letter to Mexican Presdient Felipe Calderon seeking the temporary suspension of visas for LDS missionaries. He also delivered the letter in person Monday to the Mexican consulate in Utah. Lopez-Vargas says the request is a response to his view that the LDS Church won't take...

ATLANTA -- This September marks the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks. All the hijackers were in the U.S. legally with visas issued by the State Department. Channel 2 Action News decided to investigate how many visas the department still is issuing to people from nations that support radical Islam. Some local politicians find the numbers troubling, and more troubling, who’s among those coming to America. * Faisal Shahzad, born in Pakistan, is charged with attempting to set off a car bomb in Times Square. * Syed Haris Ahmed, born in Pakistan, a former Georgia Tech student, was...

...But Obama did nothing to move the debate forward beyond drawing greater public attention to it. Among the things he didn't say: Obama did not announce a public White House meeting that would include key Republicans, Democrats, and representatives of civic and business groups who would try to seek a compromise on immigration reform ...He did not use the occasion to formally announce a Justice Department challenge to the Arizona state law...Obama did not emphasize enough the economic case for fixing America's immigration system to help the United States be more competitive in the global economy. He did not mention...

The White House is disputing a report from one of Israel's leading newspapers that claims the Obama administration is denying visas to Israeli nuclear scientists. The Israeli newspaper, Maariv, reported this week that the Obama administration has stopped issuing visas to scientists working at a nuclear research center in Dimona, citing a professor who doesn't work at the center.

The Obama administration is now denying U.S. visas to Israeli scientists who work at that nation’s Dimona nuclear reactor. This startling reversal of traditional policy was reported April 7, 2010, in the Israeli website/newspaper NRG/Maariv (link to the original Hebrew here and to an exclusive Pajamas Media translation here). This could be yet another flashpoint in the increasingly sensitive relations between the administration, the American Jewish community, and Israel. The revelation in Maariv came only a day before the arrival in New York of Tariq Ramadan — controversial grandson of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al Banna — whose visa was...

SNIPPET: "Following the attacks of September 11th one of the immediate concerns was the millions of people who had entered the United States with legal temporary VISAS and had "somehow" become lost or misplaced. This was known as the VISA overstay problem. It is still estimated that as many as 30% of the people living illegally in this country have overstayed their temporary VISAS (nearly 200 million temporary visitors come to this country each year). Today, the problem of VISA Overstay remains unsolved . Last year, 39 million foreigners entered the United States, and using paper logs, DHS has confirmed...

International travel to the United States took a significant hit after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, research shows. Efforts to reverse this trend culminated in Senate approval last week of the Travel Promotion Act, which President Obama is expected to sign today. The measure provides close to $200 million annually to create a national agency - the Corporation for Travel Promotion - modeled after successful tourism-advancement organizations in this country and in other developed nations.

<p>LAS VEGAS (AP) - U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he hopes to pass a bill by next week to create a federal agency to promote tourism to the United States.</p> <p>Reid says Republican Sens. John Ensign of Nevada, Johnny Isakson of Georgia and George LeMieux of Florida have agreed to support the bill, but he acknowledged he needs more GOP support for the Travel Promotion Act.</p>

Note: Contact info deleted by me. # Note: The following text is a quote: Secretary Napolitano Designates 11 New Countries as Eligible for H-2a and H-2b Nonimmigrant Visa Programs Release Date: January 22, 2010 For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano this week designated 11 new countries as eligible to participate in the H-2A and H-2B nonimmigrant visa programs, which allow U.S. employers to bring foreign nationals to the United States to fill temporary or seasonal jobs for which U.S. workers are not available. The 11 newly designated countries—Croatia, Ecuador, Ethiopia,...

After a series of successful and unsuccessful jihad attacks across this great nation, on Christmas Day, the crotch-bomber attempted to explode a bomb hidden in his underwear while landing in Detroit on Northwest Flight 253. And so after months of ignoring the jihad against America and pretending that nothing was happening, Barack Obama sprang into action -- with useless, toothless reform. In the wake of the Christmas Day bomber's attempted attack, the U.S. Visas Viper terrorist reporting program criteria have been broadened. The Visas Viper program is used by the Department of State and other national agencies to place on...

- The Homeland Security Department rather than the State Department should handle U.S. visas overseas to meet security threats, the chairman of the Senate homeland security committee said on Sunday. Connecticut independent Joe Lieberman raised the idea during a discussion on ABCs "This Week" of the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound plane on Dec 25. "I believe, incidentally, that we ought to take a look at taking the visa application and admission responsibility from the State Department. It doesn't really fit with foreign policy anymore," he said. "And in an age of terrorism, I think the Department of Homeland Security...

In the wake of the botched Christmas Day terror attack, members of Congress are worried that extremists could use the State Department's diversity visa lottery as a means of getting to the U.S. The State Department is planning to welcome thousands of immigrants from terror-watch list countries into the United States this year through a "diversity visa" lottery -- a giant legal loophole some lawmakers say is a "serious national security threat" that has gone unchecked for years. Ostensibly designed to increase ethnic diversity among immigrants, the program invites in thousands of poorly educated laborers with few job skills --...

(CNSNews.com) –The State Department has awarded 1,011 special “diversity visas” allowing Yemeni nationals to immigrate to the United States since 2000, the year 17 U.S. sailors were killed when the U.S.S. Cole was attacked by terrorists in the Yemeni port of Aden. The "diversity visas" are designed to encourage immigration from countries that do not otherwise send significant numbers of immigrants to the United States. The State Department roster of all countries whose nationals have received "diversity visas" to immigrate to the United States in 2010, for example, shows that 2 of these immigrants will be from Luxembourg, 3 from...

On August 1, 2001, Hollywood actor James Woods witnessed four men of Middle Eastern appearance engaged in suspicious behavior on a transcontinental flight from Boston to Los Angeles. Mr. Woods’ first public recounting of his observations was five months after 9/11 on The O’Reilly Factor. During that February 15, 2002 broadcast, Mr. Woods stated that the suspicious behavior of the four men “would have been blatantly obvious to the most casual observer.” Investigation ultimately confirmed that the actor witnessed a “practice run” for the 9/11 hijackings. He ultimately learned that all four men he observed aboard his flight were terrorists...

US Plane Attack Suspect Quizzed After 'Terror Attempt' A Nigerian reported to have links to al-Qaeda is being questioned after an attempted act of terrorism on a plane arriving in the US, officials say. They say the 23-year-old man was trying to ignite an explosive device as the jet approached Detroit from Amsterdam in the Netherlands. He was overpowered by some of the 278 passengers and 11 crew. Reports say he burnt his leg. No-one else was hurt. Police in London are searching a house where the man is thought to have lived. The suspect is believed to have studied...