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A hitch in bureaucracy threatens a woman's green card application - and the couple's life plans. TAMPA - Lynda and Michael Arazie had a new car, a new house, and they were expecting an adopted baby to arrive in a few months. But in early December, Lynda Arazie, 33, got a call that threatened to upend the life they were building. Her work permit had been yanked, her attorney told her. Worse yet, immigration officials canceled her application for a green card, or permanent residence visa, because she and her husband missed an interview in November. She could be deported...

WASHINGTON - The nation's top immigration official says registering 8 million illegal residents for temporary permits, as proposed by President Bush last week, would be a "tall challenge" but doable. Eduardo Aguirre, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, conceded in an interview that his agency is still struggling with a huge backlog that has recently grown to nearly 6.2 million pending applications. Requests for a change of status, for example, are now backed up more than 2 1/2 years. "We are certainly not satisfied on where it is today," he said of the agency he inherited, which was recently...

Federal worker, accomplices indicted in immigration scam The Associated Press MIAMI -- A grand jury indicted a federal immigration worker and two community "recruiters" on charges they concocted a scheme to sell phony work permits - costing a minimum of $5,500 apiece - to more than 200 illegal immigrants. Isidro Guerrero Fernandez, 32, of Miami, used his position at the Citizenship and Immigration Service building to sell hundreds of work permit cards, according to the indictment released Monday, He and his alleged accomplices, Miguel Raggio, 50, and Vivian Ciarrochi, 38, both of Miami, were charged with conspiring to transfer identification...

In a widely watched immigration case, the Army yesterday said it will assist Pvt. Juan Escalante, of Seattle, an illegal immigrant and veteran of the Iraq conflict, in securing legal status to remain in the United States. Richard Olson, spokesman at Fort Stewart, Ga., called Escalante "a good soldier and a value to the Army." "The intent of the command is to resolve this to the benefit of all parties concerned," Olson said. An executive order signed by President Bush last year allows noncitizen soldiers who have served honorably during Operation Enduring Freedom to apply for U.S. citizenship. That order...

222 sailors sworn in as Americans under presidential order Sailors taking an oath of allegiance on the carrier Roosevelt on Friday included Carlisle Pennycooke from Jamaica, Nai Li from China, Christopher Ezomo from Nigeria, Henol Getachew from Ethiopia, and Johan Peguero from the Dominican Republic. Photos by Bill Tiernan / The Virginian-Pilot. By MATTHEW DOLAN, The Virginian-Pilot © August 9, 2003 NORFOLK -- The first American sailor stood for Albania, the second for Antigua. In the end, more than 200 enlisted Navy men and women followed their lead, rising from their seats to acknowledge the 51 countries they once called...

Homeland Security to compete immigration services jobs By Amelia Gruber agruber@govexec.com Homeland Security Department employees who handle benefits and other services for immigrants will have to compete for their jobs within the next 11 months, the head of the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services announced in an Aug. 1 internal e-mail to staff. In the message, which was obtained by GovExec.com, BCIS Director Eduardo Aguirre Jr. said he planned to hold competitions for immigration information officer and contact representative positions, and award a contract for the work by June 30, 2004. Aguirre said he reached the decision after...

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) - More than 200 U.S. Navy sailors, including many who served in the Iraq war, were sworn in Friday as citizens of the country they defend. The sailors had applied for U.S. citizenship under an executive order issued by President Bush last year, which made immigrants serving in the military since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks immediately eligible for naturalization. "When I look at you, I see myself," said Eduardo Aguirre, director of the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, recalling how he came to the United States as a 15-year-old Cuban refugee in search of a...

Homeland Security extends smart-card deal for 10 years By Vandana Sinha GCN Staff The Homeland Security Department has awarded a 10-year, $200 million follow-on contract to an existing five-year identification card deal. Datatrac Information Services Inc. will continue to provide services to the department under the Integrated Card Production System contract. The Richardson, Texas, company has produced several million permanent resident cards, border crossing cards and employment authorization documents for the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS), the former Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Database to Monitor International Students Students Must Register Personal Data by Friday Photo/Garrett Hubing International students must turn in registration paperwork at the SISS office, located in the International House. Send us a letter to comment on this article. By REGINA CHEN Contributing Writer Tuesday, July 29, 2003 UC Berkeley international students must register personal information into a new government database spawned by the USA PATRIOT Act by this Friday or leave the country within 15 days. Called the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), the database expands monitoring of foreign students, providing instantly accessible electronic data to...

Triennial Comprehensive Reports on Immigration: The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 required regular reporting on the size, growth, and impact of the Nation's foreign-born population, along with a description of the extent to which this population was served by federal programs during the reporting period. The Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS) is responsible for compiling the Triennial Report on Immigration on behalf of the Executive Branch. The third Triennial Report was submitted to Congress in April 2002 and the BCIS is making it available through this Website. Full Report (in PDF format, 4.02 MB) Please note:...

[Federal Register: July 3, 2003 (Volume 68, Number 128)] [Notices] [Page 39957] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr03jy03-83] [[Page 39957]] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services Agency Information Collection Activities: Comment Request Action: Request OMB emergency approval; Application for Waiver of Ground of Excludability, Form I-601. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS) has submitted an emergency information collection request (ICR) utilizing emergency review procedures, to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance in accordance with section 1320.13(a)(1)(ii) and...

<p>CORONADO, Calif. (AP) - One month after sailing home from war in Iraq, dozens of sailors from the USS Constellation celebrated a second homecoming Wednesday. They became U.S. citizens.</p> <p>In all, 216 Navy men and women from 42 countries took the oath of citizenship aboard the 41-year-old warship, which will be decommissioned next month. About 170 of them were assigned to the Constellation, which returned June 2 from a six-month assignment in the Persian Gulf.</p>

Current INS figures reveal an influx of Somali refugees to our nation over the last two years. While there have historically been similar safe harbor-seeking migration trends globally, the recent Somali trend is a "crash course" in American identity politics--the dual-pronged dilemma of an increasing emphasis on multi-culturalism and the negative impact of an overly generous nanny state. The Somalis have found their chosen home in northern states with general welfare benefits. Maine, with its carte-blanche welfare program available to all comers for a minimum of five years, became a natural fit. The burgeoning crisis caused the small Portland suburb...

<p>Attorney General John Ashcroft says the government can detain illegal immigrants indefinitely when federal authorities determine they pose a threat to national security.</p> <p>In a 19-page opinion requested by the Department of Homeland Security in a case involving a Haitian immigrant, Mr. Ashcroft said "such national security considerations clearly constitute a reasonable foundation for the exercise of my discretion to deny release on bond."</p>

There has been some fuss about the qualifications of Eduardo Aguirre, President Bush's newly appointed head of the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services. Much of the fuss, however, misses the mark. Mr. Bush hasn't appointed an unqualified man as much as he has, characteristically, used this appointment to make political hay. Other than being part of the administration's ongoing public relations battle for the Latino vote, Bush's choice of a Latino immigration success story as his immigration pointman is intended to shamelessly signal that speaking authoritatively about immigration is the prerogative of an immigrant of ethnic descent. To make...

FORT WORTH, Texas - (KRT) - Beginning Saturday, the INS will vanish, becoming a part of the Department of Homeland Security.Under the direction of Tom Ridge, the Directorate of Border and Transportation Security and the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services will now police borders and handle clients.It's a move that drives home the post-Sept. 11 mind-set: Keep terrorists out."Every employee needs to keep their eyes focused on the mission," said Dennis Murphy, a former employee of the U.S. Customs Service who now works as a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security in Washington, D.C.The Department of Justice, which...